Training - Day One

Our short film training began yesterday. All I can say is…wow. So much better than I ever expected.

There are ten American students and around eighteen or so Ethiopians, most of them from Addis or nearby Hawassa. And our teacher – holy Toledo. He’s from a big Christian film school in Los Angeles, he’s won two Emmy’s, his first job on a film was running the dailies on Titanic, and he’s currently making a documentary on slavery in Sudan. Our other teacher is from Michigan and will be heading up the technical side of our class; we haven’t heard much from him yet but he is a very smart man with some impressive credentials himself.

We spent all day yesterday in class, from 9:30 to 5:30, but it was the most wonderful time. We went through character development and story arc, and though I already knew a lot of the material, it was good to hear it again. One of our assignments was to get into groups and develop a character; my roommate, Rachel, and I were in a group with three of the Ethiopian guys and Mehret, the wife of the Addis campus director, who is twenty-four. She is one of two Ethiopian women in the class, and I feel lucky to be sitting next to her and to have the chance to get to know her. Incidentally, her favorite movie is Titanic. Anyway, developing a character and storyline with them was an interesting experience – they gave all our characters names like “Joe” and “Mary” – but I had so much fun hearing their ideas and working with them, and I think ours was the best plot in the class. Our teacher seemed quite impressed, anyway.

Learning the stories of the Ethiopian students has been amazing; we went around the room introducing ourselves and telling why we’re here, and most of them talked about how God has given them a desire to use film to help their people come to know Him. Their faith is so inspiring, and I love hearing the way they can relate everything back to God and what He has done for them. Another thing they love – telling you what their names mean. It’s often the first thing they do; introduce themselves, and tell you their name’s meaning. “Mehret” means “mercy,” and another student told us that he was given the name “saviour” long before he knew who Jesus was.

I am probably running late for breakfast, so I’ll leave off here. We have another day of class ahead of us, and tonight we’re going to experience an Ethiopian dinner and dance ceremony. I hope everyone is well – let me know if you have any questions, or just if you’ve been keeping up with me, I want to know who’s reading!