Artwork for the documentary!

Drawing materials bought for Comfort thanks to the funds raised through the crowdfunding for the artwork has reached Uganda and Comfort is at work! Thanks to all supporters again and to Laban for taking the picture!

New crowdfunding - The Artwork

We have just launched a new crowdfunding, with the aim of completing the artwork young Ugandan artist Comfort Abemigisha is preparing for the documentary. By buying printed postcards of his drawings you will help us promoting African art and finishing this stage of production. All funds raised will be used for buying drawing materials, paying the prints & platform fees, but mainly for paying Comfort for his work. Comfort Abemigisha lives in Kampala, Uganda, recently graduated in Industrial and Fine Arts and sells his paintings internationally. He has been involved in the production of "Punishment Island" documentary since its early stage, translating all interviews and researching the stories. With its unique style that mixes African contemporaneity and tradition, his drawings will illustrate the stories as told by the survivors. Video of Comfort introducing himself, information, documentary teaser and contributions at http://www.ulule.com/artwork-island/

Be the first to support us!

You can also follow us on our Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/PunishmentIsland

Who is Laban?

Laban Ahimbisibwe is a great local guy living at Lake Bunyonyi. Young, outgoing, full of energy, he is very trusty, knows how to get respect from people and... pay the right price for things. He has excellent working experience as translator Rukiga/English for the International doctors in Bufuka. At weekend he also works at Edirisa crafts making shop at Rutinda. He is gonna be our general location organizer and translator, together with Comfort.  

To find out more and support us:
http://www.ulule.com/punishmentisland/

Gospel in Rome!

As I mentioned in earlier posts, in December we were invited at a series of Gospel concerts. On the stage during the concerts we made a short presentation of "Punishment Island" and at the end we collected contributions and gave out more info to those interested. It was a great experience, as the Gospel stage really felt like the right place to share the story. I was really moved myself by the music and I could feel better the weight that that kind of music had in the women's life. At all the three concerts we made (two in Rome, one on the hills around Florence), we had a very warm reception, people got interested in the story and supported it generously. So thank you to both choir, and this is a short video of the first concert we did, 16th December at Teatro Vascello in Rome. Taschler Voices Gospel Choir starring Charlie Cunning!

To support us:
http://www.ulule.com/punishmentisland/

Who is Philine?

Philine Von Duszeln is a German young woman, documentarist and director of photography. We met earlier this year in Nairobi, Kenya at the EsoDoc International Workshop where I was developing Punishment Island and she was working on Aysén Profundo. In an exciting multicultural context with five documentarists from Europe, five from Africa and five from Asia, we lived together for over a week supporting each other while our projects got discussed, criticized, torn apart, rewritten, re-edited until the final pitch. Luckily our projects survived. I thought that Philine's work was great and shot really well. And she must have thought the same about Punishment Island as when I asked her to come and be the D.o.P she accepted enthusiastically. 

Philine studied Audiovisual Communication, Lighting and Stage Design in Spain, Switzerland, Germany and Argentina. Since graduating in 2008 she has been working in the photography- and production departments of different international documentary film productions. Carnaval en los Cerros (2009) was her first feature length documentary as a camera woman. Currently she has been working on Aysén Profundo www.aysenprofundo.cl (DoP, Production), an interactive web documentary about trades and traditions in Chilean Patagonia. Trailer can be viewed on https://vimeo.com/53146865

I am really, really happy to share Punishment Island with Philine and to find her again in Africa where I left her.

To find out more and/or support us: http://www.ulule.com/punishmentisland/

Who is Cristina?

Cristina Lo Presti is a young woman, "just made of heart" as her mom says, although she says it in Sicilian and it sounds a bit different. Cristina got involved in the project in October when me (Laura) and the other Cristina (yeah, popular name on the team) were about to launch our crowdfunding campaign on Ulule. Cristina got in touch with me as she wanted some experience filming and editing and when she learnt that I was actually fundraising, she wasn't much interested. However she helped us with camera and sound on the pitch video we did for Ulule and my pitch must have been very convincing, as after that she totally committed to the project "willing to be doing anything it takes to get it made". Her mum is probably right!

Officially Cristina is our press agent, but she does all sorts of things, like taking care of screenings during presentations, getting original ideas, contacting people, keeping the enthusiasm high. She made a video for us trying to explain how crowdfunding should work in a real community, a video that makes me and Cristina sob each time. Now she is taking care of a Punishment Island support Xmas Special - looking forward myself to see what she creates.

Although we didn't speak to each other then, me and Cristina graduated together in Human Geography on the same day, me with a thesis on Malawi, her on India. She  then she went on to the Master Degree in Geographic and Anthropological Studies.  Cristina has cooperated as trainee with the Italian Journal of Geography and she recently attended a Direction class at a cinema school in Florence.  She directed the documentaries "As social reading of the Florentine squares" and "Central Market of Plural Vision". She seeks the best way to combine scientific and visual research methods and she  is now writing her thesis about street art and public space. 

Next time, she will be involved in filming and editing, that's my promise to her and it will work magic (literally).

To support us and/or find out more:
http://www.ulule.com/punishmentisland/

Who is Comfort?

Comfort Abemigisha was our translator on the development shoot, but personally for me (Laura, director) was a bit more than that. We were together on an adventure with an extremely difficult task set: finding survivors of Akampene when nobody knew if they were alive nor where they lived. At times, most times, it felt like something really crazy to do, basically no budget, bargaining boats really hard to go up and down the lake as soon as we heard there was a small possibility. Despite storms, false witness and all kind of misadventures, we never lost hope and we generated such a huge amount of energy that at the end it really happened.

Apart from speaking Rukiga and English and generating good positive energy, Comfort is an artist who majored in photography, illustration and painting. He is 23 years old, originating from Kabale (South-Western Uganda) and living in Kampala, capital city. He will be graduating in January 2013 with a BA in Industrial and Fine Art.

Comfort mainly uses pencil for sketch and extreme mood and detail, pen and ink for motion and moment capture and oil and acrylic paints for dream, observation and individualistic recomposition in visual arts. He also loves film and he is involved in video production and post with his baby production company K Concept. He is also involved in the art project "Otariho Tagwegwa Muti Country" (When a tree falls, if you are not around, you won't be hit).

If we manage to complete the film - we have to - Comfort's involvement will carry on in his favorite and real role: he will make the series of drawings that will accompany the women's tales. 

You can see some of his work on https://picasaweb.google.com/Comfort.Uganda/MyPaintings

To support us and/or to find out more about Punishment Island check us out on

http://www.ulule.com/punishmentisland/

Put some faces behind this project and blog!

Laura Cini is the writer/director. Graduated at film school in London as director, she made the transition from fiction to documentary after a recent degree in Human Geography. Her work is animated by a great passion for world cultures and traveling.

Cristina Mencato is the crowdfunding coordinator and main blogger. She is librarian at the Innocenti Library in Florence. Mission of the library is to increase awareness about children rights in Italy and throughout the world.

More crew members to come...