I just arrived back at the lovely Ambassador hotel after completing the second day of our six day training on video editing and production. I am impressed with the trainees, and my first impressions about the friendliness of the Somali people continues to hold water. In total there are three women and three young men I am working with. Each represents a different area of the country and I am helping them put together two documentary shorts on "Peaceful Approaches to Conflict."
It has been fascinating to see the raw footage they collected. Before I arrived I asked them to interview peace activists, government officials, clan leaders, and of course militia leaders. The footage from Mogadishu is particularly gruesome. Abdinaser, the young man from Mogadishu had some incredible tape of house to house combat, with bullets literally flying by the camera making the unmistakable whistle of a round passing far too close for comfort. The next shot cuts to the remnants of an Al Shabab fighter who laid his last land mine. Other footage from the countryside as you would expect shows famished cattle, with even more famished children. It can be hard to watch at times, but this is their life through their lens.
It has been fascinating to see the raw footage they collected. Before I arrived I asked them to interview peace activists, government officials, clan leaders, and of course militia leaders. The footage from Mogadishu is particularly gruesome. Abdinaser, the young man from Mogadishu had some incredible tape of house to house combat, with bullets literally flying by the camera making the unmistakable whistle of a round passing far too close for comfort. The next shot cuts to the remnants of an Al Shabab fighter who laid his last land mine. Other footage from the countryside as you would expect shows famished cattle, with even more famished children. It can be hard to watch at times, but this is their life through their lens.
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