Official photographic portrait of US President Barack Obama (born 4 August 1961; assumed office 20 January 2009) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Dear readers, first things first, I would like to use this opportunity to wish you all the happiest most fulfilling and healthy year that could be.
The (great) reason I haven’t been around for a month now, is because one of my past life caught up on me, mid-December of last year.
Here’s the story: In 2008, before Obama’s first election, I was living in Paris and getting more and more involved in video work. My spirit was uplifted when thinking about what America could be accomplishing by electing its first black president. I desperately wanted to bring my contribution to this historical moment, but had no angle to do so, being in Paris…
That’s when one of my friend’s sister contacted me, having seen some of my previous work on the net, to help her produce a 26 min documentary about the American expats living in Paris, and the electoral process from abroad.
As she studied sociology, and wanted to become journalist, she had already done all the field work, but didn’t have anyone to direct, edit, and put together her film…
To shorten the story, we filmed people from the American community in Paris, got great insight on their hopes and dreams, and their personal journey with that election, and went-on editing to bring our film to life.
Our original goal, was to get to sell it and get it broadcasted, so we had several meetings with TV producers and it turned out that our work seemed to trigger great reactions, mostly because no-one in the business had done anything original for that historical moment…
My hidden purpose for doing all this, was to find-out if I had “The right stuff” when directing and producing a documentary, so having great reviews from professionals was already a bonus however, since our program would have to meet television schedules, we already knew that because of french bureaucracy, we’d never make it on time to get broadcasted…
To me, that was the end of the story, I had got a professional view on my work, and another great experience in film-making…
Boy was I wrong !
Four years later, three days before Obama’s re-election… I received a phone call from Fanta (my friend’s sister), telling me she had been contacted by the boss of a french national television, who had seen our work four years back, and that wanted to co-produce a sequel for that program, and turn it into a full 52 minutes program that he would broadcast !
Instead of showing the historical moment, and the symbolics behind the election of a black man as president, for the most powerful country in the world, we would try to go further this time, and show that in the end, Barack Obama is a president elected on his results, his humanity, not his color of skin, and that he’s led the way to seeing one day in America a first woman, a first mexican-american…
…In the White House.
That meant getting back all of our old footage, as well as re-writing, and re-filming within three days !For those of you in the business, you know how impossible it is to react on such short notice !
But we did anyway… Managed to find a crew, reactivate the contacts and went-on filming key people and places before, during, and after Obama’s re-election…
Then came the editing, the music, the post-production, coloring etc. 17 hours a day,
non-stop from Thanksgiving to last friday night !
Having to bring this project all the way, involving television professionals and a very strict deadline, was a very enriching experience that I’m sure will help me refine my production skills for my future audio-visual products.
Today, after a well deserved weekend rest, I am proudly, officially ready to announce that tonight, for the occasion of Barack Obama’s inauguration, will be broadcasted on French national television channel France Ô: “J’ai fait un autre rêve”, a 52 minutes documentary by Fanta Traore, directed by William Lesueur, music by Willy Wizz…
I know, many of you won’t get to see it, but knowing that you know about it, is already a great satisfaction for me, and for those that will see it, I hope you’ll enjoy it, for it was made with heart…
Related articles
- Obama The European: What France Awaits From The U.S. President (huffingtonpost.com)
- Inauguration to be a convergence of a ‘hope’ and a ‘dream’ (stltoday.com)
"...Starting my new Media Company" 