German filmmaker Uli Schueppel and programmer Gertjan Zuilhof
are old friends. Together they walked through the nights of Dar-es-Salaam.
Uli Schueppel came well prepared and slightly scared to Tanzania. All the stories from street muggings to malaria had made him a bit anxious. But it did not prevent him from coming to Dar-es-Salaam and to see with his own eyes the country he had been dreaming of since he was a kid.
At first he did not trusted himself to go out at night, but he was soon over that. The call of this fascinating, chaotic, Arabo-African city could not be resisted.
Uli Schueppel photographs roots at Dar-es-Salaam waterfront.
Before arriving, via Berlin friends with ties to Dar-es-Salaam, he had arranged a local guide to help him out and to look after him. Link Reuben turned out to be a great and quiet warrior. He knew where and where not to go and at what time. Soon he understood that Europeans don't mind to walk as long as the road leads along interesting or exotic places. The old city center of Dar-es-Salaam has more than enough of that, it is one dusty and exotic chaos, and the walks at night (every guidebooks says you should go by taxi) became a favorite pastime.
First things they tell you. Don't go out at night and don't show things like camera's.
In the picture are the men who in the middle of the night were busy to get a big tree from the cabin of a truck. The tree had fallen dawn without any storm or so and the sight was a bit surreal. Dar-es-Salaam on many places has no street lights. Only passing cars made the scene for moments visible. As can been seen in the picture the men were very interested in the images of them and the camera that took them.
We did not only go out at night. On an early Sunday morning we even went to church. Christian church services in Africa, I say nothing new, are a different thing than everywhere else in the world. We went to the local church of Meg Muigai, Uli Schueppel's other local assistant, who worked temporarily for the German Goethe Institute in Da-es-Salaam. Services last over two hours (I shocked Meg by going for a coffee half way). Singing, dancing, healing and money collecting are done with the greatest passion. There is hardly a moment you sit on your chair.
Uli Schueppel in a Born Again Christian Church in Dar-es-Salaam.
In the picture our filmmaker, at one of the rare moments he is not wearing his Cowboy hat, is called to the front and asked to introduce himself. He was also asked if he was born again. Schueppel was diplomatically vague, but assistant Link said: not yet.
A meeting of another kind we held with the help of the Goethe Institute. They were more than helpful by the way. The generous Ulrike Schwerdtfeger, director of the institute, supported Schueppels film with needed funding. In the garden of the institute we met the local filmmakers. Some older ones and quite a few young ones and students. The difficulty to make movies in Tanzania became quickly clear. Very few of the filmmakers had a dvd of new work to present to me. When I organize this kind of gatherings in Asian countries, even de less developed ones, I always go home with a stack of dvd's, but here even the making of a single copy can be a problem.
Young Tanzanian filmmakers Herieth Emmanuel and Nkumi Hamis Mingwa.
Nevertheless I should say we had a nice meeting and if it was not directly fruitful, some young filmmakers might find their way to the Hubert Bals Fund in the future. Hamis, on the picture on the right, would later become the assistant of Sherman Ong who arrived later in Dar-es-Salaam as participant in this project to make his own movie.
We invited the filmmakers of Dar-es-Salaam and the Goethe Institute provided the catering and the garden.
Schueppel's film is based on childhood memories of a fantasy Tanzania. A friend of his parents often told stories about this magical land and the young Uli listened amazed to these tales of lions and other legendary creatures. Asked to participate in this project he thought the time was right to confronts his dreams with the reality.
One of the locations therefore had to be the overwhelming nature of Tanzania and there should be enough wild animal in there. Organizing a safari (very expensive holiday things) within a low budget was not easy, but we went. I promised myself not to announce sequels anymore, but there will be something on this safari anytime soon.
Link Reuben and Uli Schueppel planning low budget Safari.