MANAGUA, Nicaragua, 12 December 2015 — This is the newest generation of Nicaragua’s Backpack Video Journalists. They’ve completed my four-day workshop, titled, “Training the Trainers.” They are ready, not only to practice our craft, but also to pass it on the the next generation.
Good luck and stay safe.
— Bill Gentile
Remember to sign up for our free Essential Tips and Tools pdf booklet over on the right, and give us a like on Facebook.
MANAGUA, Nicaragua, 11 December 2015 — U.S. Ambassador to Nicaragua Laura F. Dogu (in blue jacket) visits my Backpack Video Journalism Workshop in the Nicaraguan capital. Titled, “Training the Trainers,” the four-day event was sponsored and funded by the U.S. Embassy.
Remember to sign up for our free Essential Tips and Tools pdf booklet over on the right, and give us a like on Facebook.
MANAGUA, Nicaragua, 8 December 2015 — Participants in my Backpack Video Journalism Workshop interview a peasant reportedly fallen ill after prolonged exposure to pesticides used on sugar cane plantations on Nicaragua’s Pacific coast. The peasant is one of hundreds protesting the lack of medical attention and recompense by the Pellas family, one of Nicaragua’s most wealthy families which owns the largest sugar plantation in the country.
According to a February 2015 report in The Guardian, “At least 20,000 people are estimated to have died of chronic kidney disease (CKD) in Central America in the past two decades – most of them sugar cane workers along the Pacific coast.”
(Photo by Bill Gentile)
Remember to sign up for our free Essential Tips and Tools pdf booklet over on the right, and give us a like on Facebook.
MANAGUA, Nicaragua, 8 December 2015 — Participants of my Backpack Video Journalism Workshop watch one of the films I presented on this, the first day of a four-day event in the Nicaraguan capital. I titled this workshop, “Training the Trainers,” and designed it to instruct the current generation of journalists to practice the visual storytelling language — and to pass the craft down to the next generation of visual storytellers. The event was hosted by the U.S. Embassy in Managua.
(Photo by Bill Gentile)
Remember to sign up for our free Essential Tips and Tools pdf booklet over on the right, and give us a like on Facebook.
ACCRA, Ghana, 28 November 20105 — At lunch at SAA’s house (she’s on the far left) celebrating the end of our Backpack Video Journalism Workshop. Great curry, SAA! SAA is one of 13 journalists who participated in the event. The five-day workshop was hosted by the African Centre for Development Reporting (ACEDEV) and funded by the U.S. Embassy in Accra. It was a terrific opportunity to bring the methodology of “backpack video journalism” to working journalists eager to use video to address the development needs of their country. I am so grateful. In the white dress is Ama Boateng, one of the ACEDEV staffers who helped organize the workshop. She’s also the Al Jazeera correspondent in Ghana. Next to her is Mohammed Shardow, one of the workshop participants. Then there is Manuela, the daughter of workshop participant Kwamee Kwame. And next to me is my very good friend Kumah Drah, who first invited me to his country to conduct the workshop. We are holding one of the gifts so graciously given to me by my African friends and colleagues. Thank you all.
Remember to sign up for our free Essential Tips and Tools pdf booklet over on the right, and give us a like on Facebook.
ACCRA, Ghana, 25 November 2015 — I spent part of the day at a market in Accra, with participants in my Backpack Video Journalism Workshop. In the red and green dress, Della Russel ClassPee shoots video on one of the busy pathways that crisscross this hot and bustling market. Another participant, Senyuiedzorm Awusi Adadevoh, shoots a fabric shop whose business is threatened by cheap, Chinese copies. These “informal” markets are much the same around the world. Many people struggling for economic survival in the countryside come to the cities and sell whatever they can. It’s a tough place to work, and outsiders making pictures of the laborers here are sometimes not completely welcomed, as you can see from the stares that Kwamee Kwame gets as he shoots some still photos.
(Photos by Bill Gentile)
Remember to sign up for our free Essential Tips and Tools pdf booklet over on the right, and give us a like on Facebook.
ACCRA, Ghana, 23 November 2015 — Sara Stealy, Press Attache at the U.S. Embassy in Ghana, addresses participants, hosts and special guests at the opening session of my Backpack Video Journalism Workshop in the Ghanaian capital. Nicholas Derry, Director at the Ministry of Communications, delivers the opening address. Participants begin the first session.
The five-day workshop is sponsored by the African Centre for Development Reporting (ACEDEV), a small non-profit based in Ghana. It is funded by the U.S. Embassy here.
(Photos by Bill Gentile)
Remember to sign up for our free Essential Tips and Tools pdf booklet over on the right, and give us a like on Facebook.
CANELOS, Ecuador, 29 June 2015 — This is how my journey to the epicenter of indigenous resistance to oil drilling in the Ecuadorian Amazon began — a five-hour canoe ride down the Bobonaza River in Ecuador’s “Oriente” region, rich in oil and other natural resources. I traveled to Sarayaku, an autonomous region of this South American country. There, Kichwa Indians for decades have resisted the advances of the Ecuadorian government and foreign corporations to allow oil drilling and “development” in their homeland. This is why both the inhabitants of the region as well as the Ecuadorian government consider it the “epicenter” of resistance.
The trip to Sarayaku is especially timely because of the Vatican’s recent encyclical defending the environment and the poor. Pope Francis on Sunday 5 July landed in Ecuador on the first stage of a three-country visit to South America, bringing with him the Vatican’s message of concern for society’s most defenseless and the world they live in.
The journey to Sarayaku came at the tail end of a three-week trip to the region. I was on assignment for American University’s (AU) Center for Latin American and Latino Studies (CLALS), and charged with producing a short film on religion and the environment. I’ll keep you up-to-date on the post-production as it unfolds.
Because I anticipated some difficult conditions in the jungle, I trimmed down the gear and shot the film with an iPhone 6+, equipped with the FiLMiC Pro app, and directional as well as wireless microphones, which I used interchangeably. I had to buy some other gadgets, as well, and I’ll discuss that in later posts, so stick with me as I review the material.
In addition to the technical issues, the Amazon presents challenges unique to itself. These include heavy rains, muddy pathways, questionable food and water supplies, plus spiders, scorpions, serpents and poisonous, stinging ants.
(Photo by Bill Gentile)
Remember to sign up for our free Essential Tips and Tools pdf booklet over on the right, and give us a like on Facebook.
WASHINGTON, DC, 31 January 2015 — Join us this Wednesday 4 February for a screening and panel discussion with UK filmmaker Callum Macrae of his documentary “No Fire Zone,” about human rights abuses during the 2009 offensive by the armed forces of Sri Lanka against the Tamil population.
Learn how Callum acquired hard-to-gather footage of the atrocities that left thousands dead and wounded. And discuss with him his years-long effort to bring attention to injustice, and to force those responsible for that injustice to face consequences for their actions.
This event is free and open to the public. Please arrive on time for food and light refreshment.
Bill Gentile
Remember to sign up for our free Essential Tips and Tools pdf booklet over on the right, and give us a like on Facebook.
KABUL, Afghanistan, 7 January 2014 — This is a brief clip I shot in a refugee camp in Kabul. According to a camp spokeswoman, the camp houses about 1,500 people from across Afghanistan who have fled the war. She said some of the refugees have been here for as long as 12 years. No running water. Open sewers. No electricity. Some of the kids don’t have shoes.
In a May 2012 report, the Washington, DC-based Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) estimated that if government figures on Afghanistan “for FY2001-FY2013…are totaled for all direct spending on the war, they reach $641.7 billion.”
That’s right, $641.7 billion, with a “B.”
The CSIS report goes on: “This is an incredible amount of money to have spent with so few controls, so few plans, so little auditing, and almost no credible measures of effectiveness.”
Indeed, the spokeswoman at the refugee camp asked what happens to all the money donated by foreign countries, especially the United States. Why are thousands of people living in conditions like the ones in this video?
I didn’t have any answers. Click HERE to see the clip.
#documentaries
Remember to sign up for our free Essential Tips and Tools pdf booklet over on the right, and give us a like on Facebook.
List price: $395.00
Now for a limited time only $295.00