Friday, July 23, 2010

Some video from Africa!

If you are queesy: stop the film at 3minutes30seconds.

EyeCampRoughRun from travispitcher on Vimeo.



This is some footage from Uganda, it is (of course) beautifully shot and beautifully edited and I can take very little credit for either thing.
Although most days in Africa I helped film or work on sound, the hospital was very crowded I was more in the way than helpful inside. I babysat Travis's equipment though, since he could hardly have his giant backpack on inside. (You turn suddenly while wearing it and people get hit in the face, and if those people are blind they have no chance of avoiding your bag.)

For my Komaza friends, I'm sorry we don't have any Kenya footage to show you, but if you can manage to load this video on your very slow internet then this will at least give you an idea of what our footage will look like.

When you're watching it remember that this is a rough cut, and there will be narration explaining the Eye Camp. Here is what the narrator may say (beginning after the lady in pink says "I'm not looking proper"): In rural Uganda people have gone their entire lives without ever having their eyes checked. They gather together for a free exam, first having basic checkups by professional doctors and nurses. The doctors write prescriptions for free medications and give away free eye glasses, all fund-raised by the Tipping Bucket.
*The screen goes black*
But the real miracle is when sight is restored completely.
Many people, living blind with cataracts for years begin being preped for surgery to have the cataracts removed. The clouded lens is carefully cut from the eye and replaced with a new clear lens.
Then the film ends, but in reality the film will not end yet. The next morning when the bandages were removed people cried out, excited that they could see. A man saw his wife and daughter come in and could not stop looking at their faces, so grateful was he to finally see them. It was a really neat day and Travis (of course) captured it all so well.

2 comments:

Polly said...

OK I didn't listen and I watched the whole thing. Yikes! It made me cry. I am so glad you guys were able to go over there and hopefully your work will help to make a difference in the lives of the people there. Your video so far is amazing!

Mary said...

Wow you should have said if you don't like seeing people eyeballs get cut up look away.