As you may know I am a huge supporter of the Edeyo Foundation, whose modus operandi is to to rebuild Haiti through education. They have built a school in Bel Air, Port Au Prince which is the focal point of my upcoming documentary and of course was featured in my 2008 film – Haiti: Hunger & Hope

They are an amazing grass roots organization headed up by my old friend and co-producer on the new film Unik Earnest.

If you are able to make it wonderful and if not please at the very least become aware of their mission and if possible donate as every penny goes to not just filling the bellies of the children of Bel Air but feeding the minds of the next generation of Haitians and equipping them with the most powerful gift of all – an education. visit www.edeyo.org for more info

Last week I traveled to Port Au Prince (PAP) with my regular film crew plus several other new members to the team. This trip was a week long, unlike the last time we visited Haiti and created the documentary Haiti: Hunger & Hope in 3 days. That doc focused on the larger picture of the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, this trip was completely different. First of all Haiti is now on most people’s radar due to the tragic earthquake a year ago. The landscape although in an extremely rundown condition in 2008 when we last visited was completely smashed post quake. The idea for this film was to look at the situation through a few select subjects’ eyes and follow their everyday lives as they courageously go about life. We picked an older 65 year old man, a 12 year old orphaned girl and a 22 year young man all living in the notoriously dangerous slum ironically called Bel Air. The idea will be to tell their individual stories and look at the world from their perspectives so we can all get a better feeling for how the people of Haiti are coping. What we found was truly inspiring (but you’ll have to wait for the movie for more about the story!)
Upon our arrival in  PAP we purchased eight 2′x8′ pieces of wood… then in Tom’s (The Grip’s ) hotel room, he built a track to dolly the cameras for that cinematic quality but without the usual metal tracks. Another trick we employed while shooting ‘walking’ shots was to ride in an SUV in front of the cast with the camera positioned in the trunk of the vehicle and the hatch up.  We also shot a series of portraits of the many people who appear in the film by dropping a black duvetyne wherever we were and grabbing a studio looking photo. The whole shoot was shot in 1080P and upres-ed using a device called an AJA so we can produce a piece that we can broadcast at the highest level. My first assistant Walter was in charge of shooting the behind the scenes shots and although I did shoot several photos ( I can never resist ) on my Sony A900 I concentrated on directing the film and production. Even though we had a much larger crew, for a film it was still small. Yet when going deep into slums and people’s homes (tents consisting of one room) you really can’t have too many folk without ruining the moment.

On Tuesday our Executive Producer Dan DeVos, arrived from Grand Rapids, Michigan. Dan is married to my great friend Pamella, the designer behind the brand Pamella Roland. The couple have been big supporters of the Edeyo Foundation in Haiti for many years now. He arrived with boxes of food,water and supplies for both the crew and the locals of Bel Air, putting big smiles on all our faces!
Every day the temperatures soared into the 90s with humidity close to 100 percent. Dengue Fever, Malaria and Cholera are still a serious concern and we were all taking various precautions to stay safe. Making films in these conditions is never easy but every member of my crew was beyond thankful for this inspiring, grounding and enlightening experience. Stay tuned for updates as we start the editing process and put together the musical score for this labor of love.

I want to give a big shout out to my crew, starting with the Director of Photography – Marcus Brooks, 2nd cinematographer – Frank Stanley (his brother Theo was the DP on the 1st Haiti Doc), Ali Azios my studio Manager who was an indispensable Senior Producer, Tom Vanderwall who worked as our handy Grip, Dane Thomsen our sound technician and mixer capturing the orchestra of sound that is all around you in Haiti. And last but not least Walter Sassard my first photo assistant who shot many of the behind the scenes shots and also captured the essence of the film on still camera. A big thanks too to Unik Earnest from the Edeyo Foundation who secured access for us where cameras have never been before.

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So we are deep in planning mode for our trip to Port Au Prince Haiti this Friday. We are shooting a short story for 7 days in Bel Aire ( Ironic I know) which is the name of the area that the Edeyo Foundation has their school. Well today our T-shirts arrived for my team to wear and funnily enough they were made in Haiti! We ordered them in NYC and the actual T-shirts were made in Haiti. I am happy to be supporting the economy even before we depart but even happier that industry such as the textile business is still happening in Haiti. Stay tuned for updates
Nigel