Our first day of shooting. Patrick and I arrive at Fibion's church
around 7am. Andrew hitches a ride with Warren to Denis' office to pick
up a Combi bus that we will be using in our scene. The plan is to meet
with Fibion so that we can judge how he is feeling, make him feel
comfortable, and not to rush straight into the business of shooting.
He is more then ready to go, and everything seems to be moving along
smoothly. As we sit with tea, he asks us if we could stop during our
day to attend a local funeral and film the funeral. Patrick and I look
at one another perplexed. "Film the funeral?" I ask.
"Yes."
Patrick says, "I feel a little uncomfortable about that."
"Yeah," I agree, "that is really not common in our country. In fact,
that would be borderline inappropriate."
Fibion responds, "No, here it is not a problem," and he continues on
to assure us.
Naturally we would like to help him and anyone out, so we reluctantly
agree. We shoot our scene in the morning, and then at one in the
afternoon we pile into the Combi and our rented Prado and drive to the
funeral. We arrive late. Patrick and I look at Fibion, what should we
do? Fibion indicates that we can commence. So we start filming. It was
really awkward. I felt right in the middle of a place that I was not
supposed to be.
The funeral is for a young man who only two months earlier traveled to
Swaziland to be a teacher. He was killed in a car accident. The mother
of the man crosses the casket and just falls to the floor, her body
flaccid. It was a horrible sight. Family members pick her up off the
ground and drag her away, her cries screaming out. Patrick, Andrew,
and I standing close with our cameras.
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