Virgin of the Snows

Just back from the tropics Caranavi, where I wasn't working, but rather celebrating the day of the virgin of the snows, patrona of Caranavi. My friend Pancho, one of the drivers from my days at ACDI/VOCA was the preste, otherwise known as the guy who is in charge of the fiesta. When I was first working for ACDI/VOCA, pancho and I and a couple of other gringos toured the whole Yungas region interviewing beneficiaries of ACDI/VOCA's projects. Pancho, even more than most of the drivers, was the guy who served as the bridge between us and the local community. Throughout my time at ACDI/VOCA, I was continually impressed, more than anything else, by the drivers and their hard work, ingenuity and grace under pressure.

On sunday morning, after a night of drinking and dancing, all of the dancers crammed into the church for the mass, all fanning themselves and sweating. Lots of hymns and Ave Marias and the usual blahblah about the virgin of the snows, the patrona of Caranavi and Mary a that sort of stuff. And then the padre went on with the sermon, which consisted basically of four messages. Thanks, by name, to the various people who donated the cross, and the light fixtures, and the benches, and the flowers, and etc. Also if anyone feels inspired to donate flower vases, that would be welcome of course. And if anyone is an architect, we would welcome their support designing a larger church in Caranavi. And lastly, please don't offer the priests beer... they'll drink one or two, and the next thing you know, they are up dancing and everyone is making fun of them, so it's better if you offer them soft drinks.

Then they took the statue of the virgin of the snows, patrona of Caranavi, out to the plaza and paraded her around in the sun, stopping at every corner to bless the virgin and sprinkle holy water on the crowd and light off fireworks and sing a hymn. The major purpose of this seemed to be to get the rest of the people, who were still drinking at one o'clock in the afternoon, to stop for at least as long as the procession went around the plaza. Everyone stopped and stopped playing music and let the procession pass. Then the virgin went back into the church and they started the party again.

And after all of that, I'm still not sure where the snows are that the virgin is virgin of, but I did eat a tasty coconut icecream.

Back in Siglo XX

Just taking a quick turn through Siglo XX to show my face again after three months and deliver the shorts that I made of a bunch of these guys. It's been too long since I've been here and I'm not sure when I will make it back here, though I hope I can come back again before the end of August. Meantime, this is really just a quick turn through town and say hello to my friends befor its back to la paz. maybe even tomorrow.

Getting ready to travel again. I've got some visits to make with my friends in Siglo XX and some visits in the Yungas, and I still need to head down south to check out what kinds of possibilities there are down there. Not sure whether I will be able to head out by the end of this week, but if not, then first thing next week.

Meantime, it's winter in La Paz, which means chilly at night and bright sunshine all day.

Welcome Back to Bolivia

On the cab ride from the airport, four taxis (including mine) arrived at an intersection at exactly the same time. All four sped into the intersection until each had to stop, inches from the drivers side door of the taxi that had entered from its right. None could move forward. In Bolivia, you only need four cars to make a traffic jam. And if only one car had had the patience to wait until another car passed, everyone would have gotten by faster.

For anyone who wants to understand Bolivia, the lesson is there, five minutes from the airport gate.

Trailer!!!

The Trailer is up. Thanks to Taylor for the footage of Nevada and the help editing.

It sure is some pretty pictures.

www.fileden.com/files/2007/4/12/977104/a%20miners%20luck13mb.mov

You may need the latest version of QuickTime Player to see it, which you can download free from apple:

here for windows:

www.apple.com/support/downloads/quicktime716forwindows.html

or here for apple:

www.apple.com/quicktime/download/

DC rat race

I'm in DC doing the ugly, ugly business of making documentaries. Which is to say, asking friends and family to make donations to the project and trying to get some larger institution involved, as a philanthropic venture. It's ugly, and it makes me really just want to climb back into a dark hole in the ground and look at miners.

But we got a trailer that is pretty good and shows some nice pictures of kids digging in the dirt and pretending to be miners for a day, and drilling with a four pound single jack hammer, and talking about how nobody does that any more. Which is a good thing to show next to some of the footage I already had of Bolivian miners working in the mines.

In other news, I pitched the story to a film production company, which I knew wasn't going to be interested, but it was a really useful practice pitch. Good feedback about the trailer, from the kinds of people I need to be able to pitch to.

heading up to the mountains tomorrow, and looking forward to being out of this game for at least a day.

'Neath the Sagebrush and the Cactus

I am in Hawthorne, Nevada. Hawthorne is out in the middle of the desert, and the main business for Hawthorne is the reservation where they store ammunition. From where I am sitting, I count at least nine flags, not to mention the bunting and streamers and other red white and blue themed items.

Hawthorne is also about twenty miles from Hugh's mine, where we did another shoot this morning. It was another really good shoot, along with the stuff we did yesterday at his home and the shoot we did in Tonopah on Saturday.

It's real wild west country and wild west people. I had to chuckle when Hugh said of a valley where he had worked a talc mine had "some real colorful characters." As if Hugh weren't colorful.

It's beautiful stuff to take pictures of though, and I think we have about what we need to cut together a trailer. So look for an update from Boston, next week.