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The documentary wrap-up…

Roger Greenlee — Sat, 30 Apr 2011 08:14:26 +0000

My last post was on October 22, 2010… wow, talk about dropping the ball! The documentary is finally in what I would consider a wrap-up stage. I am currently working with a group of Bring Me Hope volunteers to translate from Mandarin into English for the subtitles…

THE DELAY

As some of you might remember the original ‘deadline’ for the documentary was the end of 2010. Now here we are in May, 2011 with nothing ‘finished’ and it turns out that making a movie in a language that you don’t understand is stinkin’ hard. Due to budget constrictions and the time it was taking us to edit I had to let my assistant, Julia, go in January. She was extremely gracious and continued to stay on for another month with no pay and then did some more ‘paper editing’ via email. I would take her paper edits and select the timecodes she had given me and do my best (in Chinese) to edit it all together.

THE VIEWING

One thing I am really excited about is a group of students that have volunteered to do some ‘watchings’ of the movie as it progresses. At one screening during the first part one of the students (who was from a village) said that she didn’t realize there were poor kids like some of the ones she was seeing in the movie. This was really encouraging to me because the main purpose of the movie is to open up these students’ eyes to the reality around them and encourage them to be apart of the change.

THE EXECUTION

Originally we were thinking about production and a premiere in or around March. Now that March has come and gone we have a rework of the plan. I will most likely get a hard copy to the people that donated via Kickstarter in the summer and then near the end of the summer there will be a Premiere in Kunming where hopefully we can show it to a large group of students.

THANKS!

Thanks again for all the encouragement and thoughts we have recieved during this experience. I really believe that at least a few Chinese University students that view this will be inspired to get involved with helping some kids. This is all because of you guys so a continuing heartfelt thanks!

15-year old orphaned girl

Roger Greenlee — Thu, 05 Aug 2010 02:06:55 +0000

Yesterday the policemen took us to another village up the mountain called “Second Village”. We met a family with a beautiful old deaf grandma and her granddaughter who has lost both her parents. How cool would it be if there were college students inspired enough to go out and seek these kids out to help them with whatever needs they might have. Really, this is our hope. — http://kck.st/9aS1y8

Thank You Policemen of China.

Roger Greenlee — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 15:10:59 +0000

I would just like to say a huge thank you to a few policemen who have given us some amazing help the last two days. We had two kids that we wanted for the documentary and through some grace from up above and a little perseverance we met an amazing policeman who guided us to the first village to get permission for one girl yesterday. He also made a phone call to one of his policeman friends and that guy took us to the other village in the mountains and received permission there today. So basically we have had police escorts the last two days vouching for us so that we have permission to film and help these kids.

I will reveal the two kids and their stories soon. The documentary has been amazing so far and full of all kinds of adventure. Please consider helping our kickstarter project by going here and pledging some money:

http://kck.st/9aS1y8

While David and I were waiting for the police and our team to come back today in the village, David made a friend:

Synergy and the documentary.

Roger Greenlee — Mon, 02 Aug 2010 14:32:32 +0000

I went and picked up David last night from the airport, his plane arrived around 1 am, and then we immediately headed to my house where he’s crashing for a few nights and launched our kickstarter. Went to bed around 3am and got up at 8am this morning to get Abby some breakfast.

Today we made some huge steps in documentary planning. We have decided to attempt to take two of the kids (instead of only one) we have found and develop their stories.

I really enjoy working with David, the word that comes to mind is synergy. He is a great leader and really allows people to take a part in his vision of seeing orphans and poor kids have a better life in China.

Tomorrow is a “befriend the government” day. We need official letters from a few government departments to show to the villages where these kids live so they can come to camp. It’s all about grace in these situations.

You guys, we have the coolest kickstarter thing going on right now, please join it if you like what we are doing!

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/rogergreenlee/roger-makes-a-documentary-in-china-bring-me-hope

One Day, Six Villages

Roger Greenlee — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 15:14:49 +0000

Wow, I’m exhausted and wet, we all are. We hit the road going south today and got far enough out of Kunming to find villages that are not being torn down. We went to six different villages and went to the local government building with cameras and all and asked the question, “Do you know of any poor kids in your area?” Two of the village government workers led us to two tragic stories that I’m sure will both make their way into the documentary. The map below shows where we were. Anywhere you see the word “Cun” indicates there is a village there, and we were probably there too. Tomorrow we head into the mountains for some more adventure. I’ll put up a video of one of the kids we found tomorrow. Good night or good morning wherever you are reading this from…

Roger

Hope-Mobile Has A Flat

Roger Greenlee — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 16:43:04 +0000

Today was a really rainy day. We went to a village on the edge of town that was like a ghost town. Every building had been marked to be demolished and most of the residents had already moved out. We found a family with a few kids that lived inside one of the houses but they wouldn’t let us come in to talk with them. A huge rat came running out of their house and scared Irene half to death. That made for a good laugh.

Then we had a meeting and great interview with the principal of a school for kids that are not allowed to go to regular school because they have no Kunming ID Card (most 0f them are migrant workers’ kids). During his interview it started raining and basically rained us out for the rest of the day.

Oh yeah, and this morning we had a flat… (sabotage)

View on ExposureRoom

better days ahead…

Bring Hope, Get Dirty

Roger Greenlee — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 07:12:52 +0000

Well guys, the first week of filming is done and it was great. Very hard but very good. I have tought everyone the famous English slang phrase ‘no pain, no gain’ and it seems to fit our project just fine.

We’ve seen kids whose parents reject help for them and that’s hard to watch. But we found a little girl who is 9 and she cried when she told us her story and she will come to camp and hopefully experience some fun and love that she is in great need of.

The Hope-Mobile is in need of a car wash and we are all in need of a Saturday. Thanks for reading, the adventure continues Monday.

Dolphins vs. Children

Roger Greenlee — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 03:38:22 +0000

I’m sitting here in a van outside a village on a rainy day in Kunming writing to you. Our documentary subjects are currently in the village looking for a kid they can help this summer. Had a couple of thoughts I wanted to share…

The documentary that won the academy award last year was called ‘The Cove’. It was an amazing story about the dolphin massacre that happens in Japan. I absolutely loved it and I wanted to join the cause right away. Most people respond to injustice and sometimes it is easier to respond to the injustice brought upon animals than to the injustices brought on people. It’s too close to home and we simply don’t know what to do. If we save a dolphin they can go swim their own way and we generally don’t need to deal with them anymore. A person who needs rescuing, on the other hand, might have mental issues or handicaps or parents that have left them socially inept. It’s messy, painful, and there are probably going to be more tears than smiles. There will be no swimming off into the sunset at the end of the day. Also, we can see in other people our own faults and that is no fun.

They spent 2.5 million US dollars to make ‘The Cove’ and save dolphins from injustice. We are spending less than $20,000 to make a comparable documentary and spread the word about our own injustice to the children of the world. (in this case China)

Here’s the problem, most of us have never hurt a dolphin but all of us have probably hurt a person and that makes it all too close to home to process. These are just some thoughts I’m having as we continue our journey here. Would love to hear your comments on this…