IndieGoGo.com: CAMP UNITY

CAMP UNITY

Band camp in Iraq...

Erbil/Suleimanya, Iraq

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Tags: iraq performingarts students culturalexchange americanvoices documentary

Synopsis: CAMP UNITY is the story of music, dance, and theater students from different areas and ethno-religious backgrounds of Iraq attending an American performing arts academy in Erbil and Suleimanya, overcoming personal and cultural conflicts and improving their artistic skills and talents along the way.

This July, 400 talented Iraqi youth will travel across their war-torn nation to study with eight American music, dance and drama teachers at the American Voices Unity Performing Arts Academy 2008. Arabs and Kurds, Sunni and Shia, Christian and Muslim, neither cultural conflicts, sweltering heat nor harsh dust storms can deter the dancing feet and harmonious voices of these vibrant youth. Despite a number of obstacles, the students will unite with each other and the American staff to learn Hip Hop, Jazz, Orchestra and Broadway and prepare for the big show…

American Voices is one of the United States' leading arts organizations bringing cultural diplomacy to nations emerging from conflict or isolation, and have designed unique cultural exchange programs in over 90 countries with the mission of uniting disparate cultures through music, dance and theater. After the outstanding success of the first Unity Academy in Summer 2007, there was unanimous agreement that more opportunities for study and teacher-training were needed in Iraq, and American Voices is embarking on a second Unity Project, with the Performing Arts Academy to be held July 6-27, 2008.

Revolving around the events of the Unity Academy 2008, CAMP UNITY will follow a number of Iraqi students and American staff members who share their personal stories and experiences during this life-changing event. Interweaving interviews and footage of the major players, the film will explore the powerful impacts this innovative cultural exchange program has upon its participants as the Academy unfolds, challenges are faced, successes are acheived, and the final performance draws near.

CAMP UNITY will be in English, Arabic, and Kurdish with English subtitles and run approximately one hour. It will be shot on High Definition (HD) video, combining popular documentary styles from handheld verite cinematography and interactive interview techniques to more traditional talking head segments and high quality performance photography/audio recordings.

IndieGoGo URL: http://www.indiegogo.com/CAMPUNITY

RyanWhite (Tue Aug 05)

After 5 weeks in the Middle East shooting the CAMP UNITY documentary, I have returned to Bangkok.

First off, for anyone who was checking in on the Soulbird blog, I must apologize for my complete inadequacy at blogging while I was in Northern Iraq! After a few days of being there, we discovered that the internet connection was too slow to upload the video blogs that we were editing together. Then, as the shoot and the Unity Academies progressed, and my days seemed to get longer and longer and longer, I generally opted to catch at least 5 or 6 hours of sleep before my next 16 hour day began instead of sitting down at the computer to write an eloquent blog-report about filming in Kurdistan. So, only one measly blog was posted during my entire time over there...

But the good news is that on all those long days when I was too tired to blog, I was successfully getting great footage of the American Voices Unity Academies in Suleimaniya and Erbil. The academies, which were conducted by 8 American artist-teachers and attended by over 600 students, were a huge success and there was a diverse array of folks who were filmed and interviewed for CAMP UNITY. Along the way, heartwarming, dramatic, touching, and tense moments were captured to be incorporated into the documentary. Times got tough, resources were very limited, students and teachers struggled and succeeded, tears were shed, and gala performances were held. Because there were two academies to cover, and thus to tie together in the final film, I decided to stick close to many of the people that would be at both events - primarily the teachers, the translators, and a handful of students. Personally, my favorite days of work were when we visited the homes of some of the students, which yielded amazing footage of them with their families and also meant that Kurdish mom's had the opportunity to force their incredible cuisine, fruits, and deserts on this food-loving filmmaker.

Now the big challenge will be the editing! After 4.5 weeks of shooting in Iraq, I have somewhere near 150 hours of footage which needs to be transferred/converted, then reviewed, then translated, then comprehensively edited together into a 90 minute film. Although its a bit daunting to think about, I am actually quite excited to dig in and start putting all the pieces together. I think I have a really strong documentary somewhere in all those hours and hours of raw footage and I can't wait to see it all start coming together...

RyanWhite (Thu Jun 26)

On June 21, CAMP UNITY completed its second fundraising goal on IndieGoGo with only about 62 hours before the fundraising period closed. This is excellent news, because we will be departing for Kurdistan in about 3 days! There is still a ton to do to prepare for the trip and these last minute funds arrived just in time to make sure that we will have everything we need for the 5 week shoot in Iraq. This money is being channelled into the equipment costs for filming the documentary (microphones, lighting gear, camera lenses, filters, etc.)

This was only possible due to the support from friends, family, colleagues, and fans! I cannot thank everyone enough for the generous contributions and help spreading the word about this incredible documentary opportunity! This IndieGoGo fundraising adventure has been an awesome experience, one that has greatly benefitted the CAMP UNITY project from its beginning stages.

I am both excited and nervous about the upcoming shoot in Iraq, but at the moment all emotions are being over-ridden by the last minute stress of pre-production. I can’t wait to just get there and start filming!

It will certainly be an interesting production! Aside form the general challenges posed by filming a feature-length documentary, I have recently been informed of some of the environmental factors that we will be faced with: the average temperature in Kurdistan is about 50 degrees Celsius (about 125 Fahrenheit) this time of year, sand and dust storms are not uncommon, the region is in the midst of a huge water shortage and aquatic resources continue to dwindle, and there is only electricity for about 5-6 hours of each day in the cities of Erbil and Suleimanya where the team will be based.

We arrive in Erbil, Northern Iraq on June 30th. To see how the CAMP UNITY production is progressing and to watch the behind-the-scenes footage/video blogs we will be uploading from the field please check in at: LINK

Many thanks to those who contributed to the second round of fundraising:

Mike Barthel and Jan White
Scott Schumacher
Kent White
Pat and Rick Barrett
Jacob Walker
Heather Proulx
Lauren Proulx
Amy Jones
Audra Aki
Sam and Jake Hiller
Robert O Klein
cschell
Hoang Thi Minh Hong
Laura Brannon
Erik Lazayres and Julia Deitz
Anonymous
Mark Randall
Alexis Glassman
sb3329
Rachel Rosen
Victoria Casaray
Adam Scott Neal

RyanWhite (Tue May 13)

On May 8, after only 12 days of fundraising on IndieGoGo, the CAMP UNITY project reached its first fundraising goal of $1000! This only happened because of support from my friends, family, and colleagues who received an email about the project a few weeks ago - and I cannot thank them enough. I also can't believe how quickly everyone mobilized to help out the documentary project and make this happen. That initial $1000 will be channeled into funds for a 2nd unit camera to be used during the final musical/dance/theater performances at the Unity Academy 2008, as well as other miscellaneous camera gear.

This was only the first fundraising goal for the CAMP UNITY project. Even when its for a good cause filmmaking is expensive, so we decided to supplement the film's budget by raising relatively small amounts of money to help cover critical production costs on IndieGoGo. July is fast approaching and another fundraising goal has been posted. Its slightly higher this time around at $1500 which will be put primarily towards sound equipment/microphones, lighting gear, camera lenses, and tapes.

Besides contributing funds to the film, you can help out by donating equipment or frequent flyer miles on the Soulbird Music Project website, spreading the word about the project to your own network of friends and family, using the CAMP UNITY widget in emails and blogs, and/or endorsing the film on IndieGoGo. Everything helps!

Many thanks to those who contributed to the first round of fundraising for the CAMP Unity project:

Michelle Pallister and Chris Dennis
Kent White
Louise and Brian White
Peter and Celeste Hiller
V. Zeitlin
Cathie Spindler
Paul Bruno
Gabrielle Zeitlin
Amy Gryziec
Erin Hart
Matt Naderi
Anonymous