Honduras

Honduras Delegation
August 5-13, 2010

Filmmaker: Sascha Weiss, Which Way Home
Expert: Greg Durbin

“I was impressed by the degree to which the students engaged in the topic discussions. They were fulsome and highly articulate in their commentaries and responses, and appeared to be very serious about the workshop.” – Greg Durbin

Delegate Report

by Greg Durbin

San Pedro Sula

Wednesday, August 4

I met Sascha Weiss at the Houston airport. We flew directly to Honduras and arrived in San Pedro Sula, where we were met by Carmen Urcuyo from the US Embassy. She introduced us to some of the key people with whom we would be working: Honduran filmmaker and Fulbright alumnus, Darwin Mendoz, Embassy intern, facilitator and translator Ivanna M. Nazar, our fulltime driver Mario Valladares and our designated photographer Javier Ramirez.

We checked into the Hotel Real Intercontinental where the Embassy personnel spent a half hour briefing us on the program and showing us publicity materials they had prepared. It was clear not only that Cultural Attaché Eric Aldrich and his staff were well organized, but also very enthusiastic about the program. In the evening, Carmen took Darwin, Sascha and me to dinner and we discussed our plans.

Thursday, August 5

The next morning we met Eric, who had just flown in from his post in Tegucigalpa. I was immediately struck by his optimistic energy, intelligence and deep engagement with social, cultural and artistic issues. He reviewed three key embassy mandates with us: 1) To support Honduran filmmakers, 2) To expose Honduran filmmakers and audiences to American culture through documentary films, and 3) To promote State Department cultural exchange programs such as the Fulbright Program (of which Darwin, Sascha and I are alumni).

Eric had already generated a good deal of publicity before our arrival, and continued working his connections throughout the tour. That morning, I did a 30-minute radio/newspaper interview, and Sascha did a TV interview, later joining me and Darwin to extend the radio/press interview. We talked about the Showcase, the workshops and the three-prong aim of our visit, focusing especially on the State Department-sponsored cultural exchange programs, and on Which Way Home, our lead documentary.

In the afternoon, we screened Which Way Home to an audience of about 44 highly enthusiastic and responsive high school students from the Access Program. Betty Casasolas and Scarlet (the mother and sister of Kevin, the film's protagonist), traveled quite a distance to participate in the screening. Each spoke emotionally about the film, Kevin, and his plight. Kevin is a canny, streetwise 14-year-old Honduran, whose mother hopes that he will reach New York City and send money back to his family. Teachers from the Access School also delivered inspirational speeches after the film, basically tying their message of education and building a future for Honduras to themes in the film.

Sascha Weiss addresses a large audience for Which Way Home at the Universidad Tecnológica de Honduras (UTH) in San Pedro Sula

I went that evening with Ivanna to the Universidad Tecnológica de Honduras, where we screened Autism: The Musical. The audience consisted mostly of students from the university, along with some adults who had a personal connection to autism. It was a small audience of about 20. I introduced the film and led a discussion afterwards. The film seems to appeal chiefly to people who have some personal or familial connection to the subject. Fortunately, such a person attended and contributed passionately to our after-screening discussion. I was able to relate the film to my own personal experience with a favorite nephew who is autistic.

While I was screening Autism: The Musical, Sascha and Darwin were screening Which Way Home again. I understand there was a decent audience of around 45 adults. Sascha and Darwin reported that it was a more subdued audience than the high school students (not surprisingly), but that there was a good follow-up discussion.

Friday, August 6

Darwin and I began our intensive workshop. Each workshop was to span two days, four and a half hours each day. There were 23 students competitively selected from a pool of some 50-plus applicants. Eric and his embassy staff had vetted the applicants, so we had a diverse group of serious students. There were more or less equal numbers of men and women, and many were professionals from adjacent fields such as journalism.

La Prensa interview in San Pedro Sula

The workshop centered specifically on documentary scripting and treatment development. Darwin and I had assembled a fairly solid written outline that we distributed to the students. We bounced back and forth in our presentation, expanding on our outline and screening film clips that buttressed our concepts. Sascha joined us, offering relevant insights from her work on Which Way Home. We found the students serious, mature, quite sophisticated and completely engaged.

Friday evening, we screened FLOW: For Love of Water at the Centro Cultural Sampedrano. I introduced the film and we had a good audience of over 50. The themes of equitable water distribution and water conservation clearly resonated with the Honduran audience. Freddy Garmendia, a Honduran academic and environmental specialist, gave a compelling follow-up presentation that related themes in the film to specific environmental situations in Honduras. The audience was very responsive, engaging him with questions and discussion for a good half hour.

The same evening, Sascha and Darwin screened The Betrayal to a student audience of about 25 at La Universidad Tecnológica de Honduras. The presentation was compromised by poor screening conditions and the audience was a bit restless. Sascha facilitated a discussion after the film and felt that it went fairly well under the circumstances.

Saturday, August 7

Sascha joined Darwin and me for the completion of our first intensive documentary screenwriting workshop. We had given the students an assignment to present a clear documentary premise that each might want to develop. Our aim was to clarify the unique nature of documentary screenwriting (as opposed to fiction narrative), and to put that in the context of a documentary synopsis, development proposal and treatment. We focused a great deal on story structure as well as on the ethics of documentary production, a subject that uniformly interested the students.

Sascha and environmental expert, Freddy Garmendia, interact with audience members at Flow, For Love of Water at the Centro Cultural Sampedrano.

I was impressed by the degree to which the students engaged in the topic discussions. They were fulsome and highly articulate in their commentaries and responses, and appeared to be very serious about the workshop. We concluded by breaking into groups and critiquing each student’s documentary concept. Before we adjourned, the students were awarded a completion certificate, signed by Darwin, Sascha and me.

In the afternoon, Sascha and other members of our delegation presented Which Way Home at La Universidad Tecnológica de Honduras. It was, for the most part, a student audience. Meanwhile, I participated with Carmen, Eric and other members of our delegation in the presentation of Autism: The Musical. Eric had arranged for Anita Melisa Cruz, Director of Language at UTH who is also an educational specialist, to lead a discussion after the film. Many of the audience had personal experience with autism. An exceedingly lively and emotional discussion ensued as one person after another offered personal family testimony and vented frustrations about the lack of institutional and governmental support. It was obvious that that there is virtually no infrastructure in Honduras to support families with autistic children. One could easily imagine that our screening prompting incipient community action as strangers who shared a common problem listened to each other.

Tegucigalpa

Monday, August 9

Cultural Attaché Eric Aldrich, right, and Specialist Greg Durbin at a screening of Autism: The Musical at Centro Cultural in San Pedro Sula

Darwin, Sascha and I opened our second two-day documentary workshop, which was held at the Biblioteca Nacional de Honduras. The fact that this modest building, redolent of a branch library in small town America, was the country’s national library reflects the lack of money and infrastructure in Honduras. Once again, we were richly compensated by serious, passionate and intelligent workshop participants, again competitively selected, and again a mix of students and professionals. Darwin and I began to work out a nice back and forth rhythm, buttressed by Sascha, whose personal accounts of the work she had done on Which Way Home again struck a chord with the students and reiterated many of the concepts we were presenting.

In the evening, we gathered at the Museo Para la Identidad Nacional for a US government alumni reception and screening of Which Way Home. Many dignitaries attended, including former Fulbright recipients, and cultural contacts from the Embassy. The museum, a restored historical building, was beautiful, and the recently built auditorium was state-of-the-art by any standard. It was terrific to screen this film under these conditions. There was a large, enthusiastic audience of around 70, and the screening was followed by a discussion led by Sascha.

Tuesday, August 10

In the morning, Darwin, Sascha and I continued our workshop, concluding, as always, with the distribution of workshop completion certificates. As in San Pedro Sula, we were struck by the eagerness of the students to learn more about the documentary process, and by the preponderance of interesting and viable project presentations. Clearly, the participants were very appreciative.

Eric Aldrich introduces delegation at a screening of Flow. The audience is a large group of Alianza students 

That evening, we screened FLOW: For Love of Water at the Biblioteca Nacional for a large audience of about 60 at-risk adolescents from Casa Alianza. Flow is one of my personal favorites in the program, but its length and complexly intertwining thematic structure were not ideal for this audience. While some grew restless, some clearly connected with it, and the after-screening discussion was more successful than I would have expected. I was struck once again by the intelligence and level of engagement some of these young people demonstrated. I was also struck by the students’ polite eagerness to meet and talk to the US delegates. Recognizing that we would have essentially the same audience, Eric announced a surprise for the next evening.

Wednesday, August 11

Darwin, Sascha and I launched our third and final documentary workshop in the Biblioteca Nacional with 14 new students. It was a particularly diverse group that included a history professor, a lawyer and some journalists. We had established a rhythm and routine, and were becoming more adept at pacing our presentation and anticipating certain questions and discussions. Again, thanks to Eric and his staff, we had a highly receptive and interesting group.

Large audience of Alianza students at screening of Which Way Home

At the Biblioteca Nacional that evening, Eric unleashed his previously announced surprise on a standing-room-only audience of Casa Alianza students: an unscheduled screening of Which Way Home, a sure-fire bet for this audience of over 100. The age range of the Alianza students was between 13 and 17. I was struck by how many of these young people were eager to meet us simply because we were from the US. Clearly, they had visions of migrating –– legally or illegally –– to the supposed greener pastures of the US! The adolescents in our audience were the same ages as those featured in the film, and they related easily to their aspiration to migrate to the US, literally at any cost.

During the screening, a film crew from local TV Canal 45 interviewed Sascha, Darwin and me. Sascha spoke chiefly about Which Way Home, and we all covered the by now familiar talking points that described the purpose of our tour.

After the screening, Sascha fielded questions. The students, in fact, had an abundance of them, as well as commentaries on what they had seen. A conspicuously precocious 17-year-old girl named Carolina Zthefhanoy Medina Laitano made some remarkably incisive and detailed observations. She would be precisely the sort of student, we thought, who could profit from a Fulbright exchange, and we encouraged her in this pursuit later. Carolina was not the only student to impress us. There were several who offered fulsome and sophisticated commentary after the film.

Thursday, August 12

We concluded our third and last documentary workshop. The participants expressed enormous gratitude and appeared to be excited to move forward with their projects. Our experience had shown us that one of the most valuable components in the workshops had been the one-on-one breakout sessions at the conclusion of each workshop, in which students presented their ideas for discussion and critique. Darwin would take half the class and I would take the other half. If she was available, Sascha would also participate. The last workshop session was, for me, particularly satisfying, as the students presented several extraordinary, yet quite feasible, documentary proposals that many seemed intent upon producing.

Documentary Workshop: Greg Durbin and Sascha Weiss in breakout group session at Biblioteca Nacional in Tegucigalpa 

In the evening, we screened The Betrayal to an audience of 64 Alianza students. The film, a dramatic family saga, is the personal chronicle of the filmmaker’s life in the United States after being transplanted there from Laos after the Vietnam war. Eric felt that the migration theme would resonate with the Honduran audience; but the film, while quite beautiful, unfolds at a slow, deliberate pace that pushed the patience of some of the younger students. Nevertheless, the after-screening discussion proved that a good percentage appreciated the film. Again, Carolina and some of the older students offered some surprisingly sophisticated commentary.

Friday, August 13

Sascha left in the morning for New York. In the evening, we screened Marshall Curry’s dramatic Street Fight to an Alianza audience of 68. Because it is one of my favorite recent American documentaries, I was happy to introduce the film. The film depicts the violence and corruption of an American mayoral race in Newark, New Jersey, and since politics is so much a part of the lives of the Hondurans, this film was indeed a good choice. My conversations with both young people and adults suggested a political awareness that goes far beyond the shibboleths and sound bites that so often characterize American political conversations. I suppose this is not surprising, given the country’s political history.

After the screening, Marsisella Bustillo, a Honduran Fulbright alumnus from Boston University and an active member of the Partido de Inovacción y Unidad led a discussion. Again, several of the more mature students contributed thoughtful observations and commentary. Carolina Medina concluded the evening by reciting a poem she had written. She was met with enthusiastic applause.

Saturday, August 14

Mario drove me to the airport, ensuring I would not miss my flight. Carmen accompanied me, making sure I made it to the gate without complications. She was a superb hostess.

Conclusion

Breakout group, First workshop San Pedro Sula

While there were occasional setbacks and disappointments, I would judge our delegation a real success, especially given the fact that it was the first American Documentary Showcase in Honduras.

I could not have asked for a better group with which to work. Eric did an impressive job organizing and coordinating all events, and showed abundant resourcefulness in confronting the unexpected, and identifying and taking advantage of opportunities “on the fly.” He is driven by a wonderful optimistic energy that we all found infectious. In short, he is an ideal leader and diplomat.

Darwin was an extremely effective and inspirational teacher. His Fulbright especially qualified him for his work with us, as did his experience as an artist and documentary filmmaker. I believe the students in our workshops were inspired by his example, as there are not many filmmakers in Honduras. He apparently volunteered for much of the work he contributed, and I personally found him an inspiration.

Sascha was a major asset. Her Fulbright experience in Mexico made her particularly valuable, as did her involvement as a producer on Which Way Home. Her Spanish was quite polished, and she was an engaging and articulate spokesperson for our feature film. Because she could offer first-hand information about the making of the film, audiences were very excited to meet and talk to her.

As stated, the embassy contributed exceedingly strong and competent support: Mario Valladares, our driver, seemed to possess an uncanny mastery of the complicated routes and traffic patterns in both cities, and was able to shuttle us to and from the venues, restaurants and hotels with far more efficiency and comfort than a taxi driver ever could have. Photographer Javier Ramirez covered all events and provided me with a photo compendium of the entire trip. Carmen was like the line producer on a film set –– she was in the trenches with us every single day as a host, problem solver, inside informant and on-sight coordinator. Ivanna was also very helpful, in much the same way as Carmen, and did excellent written translations of all our programming notes and materials. Public Affairs Officer Michael Stevens and Administrative Assistant Gabriela Galvez provided solid and efficient administrative support, including the processing of our grants to cover in-country expenses.

All of this made the events successful and the experience very gratifying personally for me. I am hoping to build on this experience in the future. On a final note, I want to say that I am enormously grateful to have participated in this delegation. It was a terrific opportunity and I hope to be able to do it again!