Super 8 Adventures Continue

Bulbs for the film projector arrived earlier this week--just one piece of a stream of delightful news. Finally, finally, I would be able to view the mystery Super 8 footage from Vietnam.

So yesterday, my fella sat down with me to test out the new bulbs. I was excited, nervous and anxious all in one breath. He tested out one bulb, but nothing happened. So we put in the second bulb, and still nothing happened. Alas, there was no way to view it film.

What a disappointment! I had so hoped that we could start viewing the footage! I can't tell you how sad I was that the bulbs were not the source of the problem. When I turned it on the first time, the bulb worked and then made a sound like it had blown out. To find out that it was something else, means it is not a simple solution and not likely we can do the conversion ourselves. This means we'll have to find someone to help with it.

For about an hour, I called around to find out about repairing the projector, renting another one, and having a company do the digitizing for us. As it turns out, repairs to projectors of such an age are highly unlikely unless you do it yourself. (You'd have to buy another one for parts, take it apart, and tinker until it starts working. A time-consuming, expensive option.) Renting another projector to view the film is not a likely success story, either. The rentals are hard to find to say the least. Conversion companies are starting to look like the solution, as much as I have been avoiding that route to save on production costs.

Companies like Flicko's take your old media and convert it to new media formats. They scan 35mm slides, make VHS tapes into DVDs, and so on. I spoke with Gary, the owner of Flicko's in Cary, by phone last night and told him about the project. He took the time to explain his process, help me think through working with him, and guess at how much it would cost (without seeing the film to know for certain.) So I stopped by today to talk more with him, perhaps peek in on a conversion in progress, and get a more accurate estimate for our specific project. He was most gracious in talking with me about the specifics, our documentary film, and even my background and why I was working on the film. He took a look at the footage I brought in and provided an estimate, all the while hustling to keep up with holiday demands.

Since we're on a zero-dollar budget, I decided to wait on conversion. He was pretty busy with demands relating to the holidays, too, and since we're not in an immediate rush to have it in our hands next week, I'll reconnect with him in January. In the meantime, I will continue working on a route by which we can convert (or at the very least view) the footage we have available.

If anyone reading this has access to digitized film from the Vietnam War (specifically the central highlands, or of Montagnard/Special Forces activities), a means by which we can convert our footage at no cost, or connections to anyone who can help, please let me know. We would be most appreciative of the support!

Eastern NC and Vietnam

Centennial is one of my favorite books. The book has always stuck with me, although I confess that I last read it in high school (about 10 years ago for anyone counting). What has stuck with me the most is the story of the land, and the people living on it and from it. The story is both beautiful and ugly simultaneously. I would like to read it again when I have a week at the beach sometime. It’s a good book.

While sitting in the sun Down East this weekend, I found myself thinking about Centennial and how the author uses the land to shape his characters. I have always felt connected to the land in eastern North Carolina, the water that surrounds it, and the wide open skies that embrace it all. Years ago, I was so connected to it that I could predict a storm before the sky darkened and the first drop of rain fell. (Well, perhaps it was the change in barometric pressure more than a prediction.) The land in eastern North Carolina has helped shape who I am and the way in which I live my life. When anyone asks where I am from my answer is always a prideful, “Eastern North Carolina.”

This weekend I thought about Centennial a few times, as it so beautifully describes the connection between the land and human life. While in Eastern North Carolina, the area in which I was born and raised, I thought of the Montagnards and how their homeland has shaped their lives. They are from the central highlands of Vietnam, although you would not call them Vietnamese.

Oh, how they must miss that land after they leave. So many of them now live in North Carolina, and I can only imagine how much they miss the way things once were in the central highlands of Vietnam. In our interviews, the longing for home is almost palpable.

The history of the Montagnards is directly related to the lands they once inhabited in relative isolation. They knew the land, how to farm it and care for it. It was their livelihood. And knowing that, I now understand how land reform has been used to hurt the Montagnards. By limiting the amount of land available to farm, it limits other things like the amount of food available for the Montagnards.

This is not something that happened once, during the war many years ago. The persecution of the Montagnards continues today. My visit to my own homeland this weekend kept me thinking about the Montagnards, and how connected they are to the central highlands of Vietnam. I get asked frequently if this filmmaking adventure has taken me there. Perhaps one day.

Hawaii = Vietnam?

I went to see the latest Batman movie when it opened. And one of the trailers before the movie started with scenes from Vietnam, with guys in uniform running and helicopters exploding and such. It felt very real.

So real, in fact, that I immediately burst into tears. I was so overwhelmed with emotion from the interviews I had recently conducted that these few seconds of trailer brought me to tears. It was as if these emotions rushed over me when the helicopter exploded. I felt every emotion I've been feeling during the interviews, and finally came face to face with them: empathy, sadness, fear, and confusion. In a matter of seconds, I was transformed. And all of these reactions were to a trailer in a theater, no where close to living through it in real life. All that I had felt during interviews in June, July and August came rushing to the surface I could no longer hold back the tears.

At least, until they cut to the scene where Ben Stiller lay on the ground and Robert Downey Jr. cries and the actor/director yells, "Cut!" Immediately I was transformed again, but this time I could not stop laughing. I had forgotten that Tropic Thunder was about to be released, despite making note of it prior to starting this film project.

The trailer for Tropic Thunder made me want to go see it. Not because it's a Ben Stiller movie or because it's a comedy, but because it is a movie within a movie pretending to be about the Vietnam War. I wanted to be immersed in the Vietnam War experience. I wanted to feel like I was in country, walking through the mud, sweating in the miserable heat, and unsure if I would live to see tomorrow. I wanted to know what it felt like, and what better way to visit a Communist country than via a theater in Raleigh watching a movie shot in Hawaii pretending to be Vietnam. (Sense the sarcasm about Hollywood's ways? If not, don't go see the movie, because it's full of painful, beautiful punches at Hollywood.)

The movie was good, for comedy's sake anyway. It has little to do with the Vietnam War, though. I had trouble with the plot, knowing what I now know about the real Vietnam and how they are mistreating people. But if you can control your thoughts enough to fall into that 'willing suspension of disbelief' and take it at face value, it's not a bad movie, and will certainly make most American audiences laugh a lot. I know I was laughing loudly, even as I walked out of the theater and got into my little foreign car.

What I find most interesting, is the buzz surrounding the movie. There were many activists boycotting the movie because of the use of the word 'retard' and others talking about the political incorrectness of Robert Downey Jr.'s depiction of a white Australian actor who undergoes skin tinting to play the role of a black man in the movie within the movie. What I like about the backlash is that it is a reaction to the movie. The film is powerful enough to ellicit a boycott, for crying out loud. Just imagine what other films could do.

My comments on the film are belated since I saw it mid-month, but it is relative to the project we are working on, and so I wanted to capture these thoughts. And as a filmmaker, I want to take note of how important it is to fully research and understand something (a people, a country, a war, a time period) in order to portray it for others.

It is easy to blindly accept the 'truth' portrayed, and I hope that we can inspire people to seek their own truths. Yes, we have points we want to proove, but don't take these opinions as gospel. Do research, and keep seeking the truth. One film cannot give summize everything about the Montagnard people. Ce n'est pas possible.