WORLD PUZZLE: Stromspannung

Ein stiller Moment, ein lustiger Augenblick, eine kuriose Situation ... die Welt und das Bild, das wir von ihr haben, setzen sich aus unendlich vielen kleinen Teilen zusammen, einige von ihnen gibt es hier bei WORLD PUZZLE.

Stromleitungen, Hoh-Chi-Minh-City, Vietnam 2010

SIERRA LEONE: Un Hollandais à Lakka Beach ODER ein Strand, ein Film und überraschender Erfolg

Was macht ein junger Niederländer in Sierra Leone??? Er dreht einen Film!!!

Genau das hat Daan Veldhuizen, 30, aus Amsterdam getan. Une Berlinoise on Tour hat mit dem jungen Filmemacher über erste Eindrücke, finanzielle Engpässe und den überraschenden Erfolg gesprochen.

Veldhuizens ursprünglicher Auftrag als er 2006 nach seinem Film-Studium in Holland das erste Mal nach Afrika kam: NGO-Mitarbeitern das Erstellen von kleinen Videofilmen beibringen. Doch aus den geplanten zwei Wochen, die er in Sierra Leone verbringen wollte, wurden fünf und nur drei Jahre später bechloß er, seinen eigenen Film über das westafrikanische Land zu drehen.
Vor einigen Wochen wurde Stories from Lakka Beach beim Salem Film Fest in Amerika als "Best Cinematography" ausgezeichnet. Auch das erste Sierra Leone International Film Festival, das  vom 29. März bis zum 2. April diesen Jahres stattfand wurde mit seinem Film eröffnet.

 

Lakka Beach

Daan, in 2006, what were your first impressions of the country?

My first impression was the high contrast present everywhere in the country. For example the dirt of Freetown compared to the lush beauty of the surrounding beaches or the cruelty of the war stories compared to the humor embedded in the people. It was my first time in Africa, so I guess that made the impact twice as big. Freetown was a lot worse back then, no light, barely any water, garbage burning everywhere. I remember being in the city was a very intense experience. One thing that struck me as well, was that so many simple basic necessities and knowledge was missing. Just the fact that some people really didn’t even know that it was important to sterilize a wound! I always presumed that was common knowledge.

So when and why did you decide to make that movie?

I decided in 2009, after my fourth visit, to make the documentary. My interest of making a film had grown over the years out of the contrast that I saw all around me and that I also felt present in myself; I loved and hated the country at the same time. Loved it for the people, the beauty and the roughness. Hated it for the lack of logic, selfishness and corruption. I realized that the foreign image of Sierra Leone was very biased by war and poverty. Nobody in my area knew about the positive sides, the very things that made me love this place! Also Sierra Leoneans themselves had told me how they wanted to overcome this bad reputation. Some blamed the international media for only reporting on Sierra Leone when it was at war and not caring anymore once it was peaceful. I somehow felt it was my duty as a filmmaker to help balance this image.

In diesem Auftrag hat Veldhuizen fünf Bewohner des kleinen Ortes Lakka, rund 20 Kilometer südlich der Hauptstadt Freetown, einige Zeit begleitet und erzählt von Geschichten über den Ozean, das Land, die Liebe und vor allem aber über die Hoffnung. Drei Monate wurde in Sierra Leone gedreht, mit Vor-und Nachbereitung dauerte die gesamte Produktion jedoch knapp 1.5 Jahre.  

 

When you think back, how did the filming go? What kind of difficulties did you have to deal with?

This documentary is my first feature length film in which I ended up doing many things, like the directing, camera, production and editing. As an unestablished filmmaker I had trouble finding funds to make this film.., or any film really. That’s why I set it out to do it on my own. I worked until I had enough money to buy the necessary equipment and a ticket to Sierra Leone. I asked my best friend to come along and gave him a quick course in sound recording. He even paid for his own ticket!

Did you expect at any point that the film would become so successful?

Of cours, I didn’t expect it to be that successful, although I also never questioned about the possibility. I think I made the right choices along the way; first I edited the film into a rough cut (a first draft edit) and used that to find a well established co-producer, together we applied for post-production funding from the Netherlands Film Fund and got granted what we asked for. Getting this funding and co-producer put the film on the radar and increased my changes on selection for the International Documentary film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA). However, being selected and nominated at IDFA, winning an important cinematography award in the US and having international premieres on respected festivals had only been scenes from my wildest dreams :-)

Concerning Sierra Leone in general, where do you see lie the biggest problems? What needs to be improved first to further develop the country?

Oh what a difficult question. If only we knew the solution! I will try though; in a practical sense I think the current government is doing an important job by facilitating the country with basic infrastructure like electricity, water and roads. Especially roads will enable the country to grow economically, since many products are grown upcountry that could be easily exported through Sierra Leones natural harbor in Freetown. On a more psychological level I think the people need to get serious and stop being so self-centered and incredibly jealous towards each other. I would be good to see more people work together and that more people start to believe that they are only victims of their own mind.

Wer jetzt neugierig geworden ist und/oder auch Daan, der ja - wie gesagt - einen Großteil des Film selbst finanziert hat, einfach etwas unterstützen möchte ... der kann die DVD oder Blu-Ray, die ab Ende April zu erhalten ist, schon jetzt unter http://preorder.storiesfromlakkabeach.com/ vorbestellen.



Die Sonne geht unter in Lakka Beach ...