Brewing Tea in a Kettle of War, Introductory overview to a film, capacity building and eduation project
Produced by Community Supported Film, Boston, United States; Michael Sheridan, Director
Co-Produced by Development & Humanitarian Services for Afghanistan/The Killid Group, Kabul, Afghanistan
Sample Reel: Project Introduction
Subject
Lessons in Development: The impact of economic development on peacemaking from the perspective of villagers in Afghanistan
Introduction
Brewing Tea in a Kettle of War (BTKW) is a documentary film, capacity building project, and education campaign. The capacity building will mentor Afghan journalists and filmmakers in observational documentary. The story will look from the Afghan villager’s perspective at what it is like having different people enter their communities to implement a variety of economic development programs. The film will explore the short and long term pros and cons of external versus internal programs and top-down versus bottom up strategies. The education campaign will contribute to both the Afghan and international community’s awareness of how economic development strategies are being implemented and their potential to impact stability.
Story
Through Afghan villager’s personal stories captured over a one-year period, the film’s engaging tension will arise from the viewer’s ‘lived’ experience of the complexities of the development process in Afghanistan, including the struggles with conservative forces, gender bias, high illiteracy, corruption, extreme poverty, and villager’s uncertainty about their future and the stability of the country. Through their experiences the viewer will witness the impact of locally generated programs, such as the Afghan government’s National Solidarity Program and external initiatives such as the military’s Provincial Reconstruction Teams and private contractors.
These stories, told from multiple villages in diverse parts of Afghanistan, will allow the international and Afghan viewer a unique insight into the economic development process as both external and internal forces struggle for peace in war-weary and self-determined Afghanistan.
Building Local Capacity – Giving Voice to Afghans through Filmmaking
In the interest of amplifying the voice and expertise of Afghans, BTKW will train and employ Afghans as the film’s video-journalists. Community Supported Film (CSF) is partnering with The Killid Group (TKG), a leading Afghan community media organization in this training and production work. The training will be in observational documentary filmmaking that will merge character-driven storytelling with aesthetically rich visual and aural film production. Involving Afghans in the making of BTKW is key to capturing intimate and candid stories of Afghan villages. Local investment in the production process is also the best way to address security issues and assure the completion of this project. This project is positioned for successful execution because of the relationships built with Afghans, international organizations, The Killid Group and the Afghan government’s Ministry of Rural Rehabilitation and Development and the US military’s Central Command.
Distribution and public engagement
Throughout production the collected narratives will be edited into 10-minute shorts and distributed to the international media, and shown on Afghan television. These shorts will allow international audiences to experience a unique Afghan point of view and will stimulate discussion about the approaches being used to develop and stabilize Afghanistan. At the end of production the three stories will be edited into one feature length film for broadcast. These films will be one component of an education campaign geared toward international audiences eager to learn about effective peace-building strategies. Additional features of the BTKW campaign will include public screenings, forums, publications of educational toolkits and an interactive web site. The campaign’s extended goals aim to use the lessons learned to contribute to the public’s awareness about development practices that can best impact stability in other fragile states.
Conclusion
The film Brewing Tea in a Kettle of War will provide an urgently needed Afghan perspective on “nation-building” and the impact of these efforts on peacemaking. There are no documentaries that tell a story about the role of economic development in peacemaking from the point-of-view of Afghan villagers.
Community Supported Film and The Killid Group are currently seeking donors to match a $20,000 USD pledge. This, along with the 50,000 already contributed, will allow us to move ahead in August, 2010 with the training of Afghan video-journalists and the initial production phase of Brewing Tea in a Kettle of War. A full proposal is available upon request.
Production Team
Community Supported Film; Michael Sheridan, Project Director and Educator
Michael Sheridan has twenty years experience in filmmaking, education and producing stories on sustainable development in Africa, Asia and the Americas. Mr. Sheridan has produced, shot and edited stories for PBS, ABC, TLC, Discovery Networks and National Geographic. His story on gender and microenterprise in Bangladesh was the center of a PBS special, Beyond Beijing, Women and Economic Justice. The ABC special Hunger No More featured his story that followed an American working family from home to homelessness. For 15 years Mr. Sheridan has taught documentary filmmaking and developed video-production curriculum. He currently teaches at Northeastern University and the Massachusetts College of Art in Boston Massachusetts. From 2007-08 he served as a Senior Fulbright Scholar in Indonesia teaching television production, journalism and media studies at two prominent universities.
Development & Humanitarian Services for Afghanistan/The Killid Group, Afghan Co-Producer, Facilitating Partner
Development & Humanitarian Services for Afghanistan (DHSA) is an Afghan NGO operating throughout the country since 1992. It’s public media and information project, The Killid Group (TKG) is the largest non-commercial independent media organization in Afghanistan. Most notably, TKG is home to Killid Magazine, Mursal Women’s Magazine, the Radio Killid Network and Kabul Rock Radio. The TKG project was established by DHSA in 2002 with a public service mandate to promote civic media, free speech and open discourse in an effort to give the public the intellectual tools they need to recover after three decades of war and turmoil. TKG’s team of 160 radio, print and TV production professionals provides a consistent platform for voices of reason in Afghanistan to express themselves in all 34 provinces of Afghanistan. In an environment where the media was formerly controlled by the government, suppressed or nonexistent beyond city centers, the growth of TKG during Afghanistan’s critical transition from war to peace has served as a valuable asset for all those dedicated to building a peaceful and open society.
Community Supported Film, Advisors
Rory O’Connor, Executive Producer: Journalist and filmmaker Rory O’Connor is co-founder and president of the international media firm Globalvision, Inc. that produced television series such as South Africa Now and Rights & Wrongs: Human Rights Television. He served as executive producer on the Afghan film Frontrunner.
Susan Gray, Writer: Ms. Gray is an award-winning television producer with credits on PBS, the National Geographic Channel, Animal Planet, Channel 4 England, Discovery Channel, The Learning Channel, Arte, NHK and more. She has an MA in International Relations and Economics from Johns Hopkins University.
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