Świeta Mariam od Jezusa Ukrzyżowanego

Upcoming Film On Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati - Patron Saint of Kiabakari Parish

Polish Legends. The Cracow's Dragon.

Memory Is Our Homeland Project - Important News

This post is a follow up on the project "Memory is our homeland" of which I wrote two years ago in this blog (click here). I am very happy that things are moving forward in the project. Below is the full letter I have received this morning from Jonathan. I will be very happy if you could spare a few minutes of your kind attention to read it carefully and act on it. Jonathan needs our support. The story he so passionately wants to narrate in his movie is very important part of our Polish history and must be preserved for next generations. I would be very grateful if we could support this project in any way we can - either by prayer and well wishes or through donations. Let us come together to help this young, caring and dedicated filmmaker to fulfill his dream and the need of his heart.

Jonathan's letter:

To the friends, family, and supporters of Memory Is Our Homeland,

I hope this email finds you all well. I figured it was a good time to send out a bit of an update on my film project. Almost four years after my first trip to Poland and Belarus in 2010, there have been many ups and downs to get here, but the project has now been picked up by a producer, here in Montreal, who is going to help me try and find the funding to complete it. There's still work to do, but I wanted to let you all know where I'm at, and thank you for helping me get this far.

If you're receiving this email, you should know that it's because I count you among those who’ve made an important contribution towards helping me work on something that feels both like a long-standing dream and a family obligation. Whether it's through a financial contribution that's helped me travel or work on the film, helping with translation, shooting, or photographing, or support in the form of a meal or an encouraging conversation, you've each had a role in helping me work on something that's bigger than me. If I'd known at the beginning how much work it would be to get to this place I would have found it daunting, but it's your support that's helped me stay with it.

People don't make documentaries to get rich quickly, they do it because they have something that needs to be said, even if it takes time. Over the last four years, I've travelled to England, France, Tanzania, Kenya, Amsterdam, Germany, and Poland in search of a story that belongs not only to me and my family, but to countless others. I've interviewed more than 20 people, been in touch with hundreds of others, and share these stories with many, many more. And after being able to travel to Belarus, and stumbling upon the village where my grandmother was born, I was even able to find people who fondly remembered my great-grandparents and their family.

Whatever reception this film may have when it’s done, it already feels like an accomplishment to have gotten this far. It feels significant to have been able to reassure my grandmother, before she passed away, that not everything had been lost when she was deported as a child: the memories had endured. I am grateful to have been able to give those who shared their stories with me a sense that they were being heard and documented. To see the trailer, that shows some of their stories and how the film is coming together, please visit this link: https://vimeo.com/99573982

As for the good news, a few weeks ago I signed a contract with a Montreal-based producer named Frederic Bohbot to find the funds to complete the film. Frederic runs Bunbury Films (http://www.bunburyfilms.com), a production company that won an Oscar a few months ago for a documentary called "The Lady In Number 6". He's the perfect producer for this project: smart, savvy, respectful of the story and my approach, and even a graduate of Eastern European and Soviet Studies. In Poland, we will also be working with producer who has worked with the Andrzej Wajda Film School and The Polish Film Institute. 

Having these people onboard with the project is a huge step, and we hope to have funding sorted out by this autumn. Frederic has applied to the Canadian Media Fund (a TV broadcaster-supported fund), and met with several Canadian and American broadcasters, and we should hear back by September. In the mean time, he is willing to put his equipment and his expertise at my disposal, towards continuing the work, until we secure financing. 

In the immediate future, my goal is to spend the next couple of months working on it, and getting to Europe this summer to work on the film, since there are important interviews to shoot in the winter. To that end, I am looking to find the means to travel to Europe, and to cover the expenses of a small shoot in Poland and Belarus. With equipment in place, and translators and a cameraman in Poland willing to work for free, I just need to find a way to make my way over there. I’m asking for help to figure out how to do that, so if you know people who can help (or have travel agents in the family, or air miles you won’t use!), please let me know. If you know of people who might be able to figure out how to get me there, please let them (or me) know. There are only two months to cover until we hear back about funding, but they are important ones. Any ideas are appreciated!

In the end though, what I am contacting you for is to say thank you again. Please take the time to check out the short trailer. It's just over 2 minutes out of 50 hours that I've shot in North America, Europe, and Africa in the last several years, but it's a good representation of what it is I've been trying to do, and of the people whose stories I've been trying to tell: https://vimeo.com/99573982 

And it's partly thanks to all of you that I've been able to do it. 

Warm wishes,

Jonathan 

The movie trailer:

Memory Is Our Homeland (Short teaser trailer) from Memory Is Our Homeland on Vimeo.

The Short Documentary On Kiabakari Mission History 1991-2014

I am proud to present to all my friends and readers our newest effort to record the history of Kiabakari mission. This is a short documentary, 17 minutes long, highlighting the main events and milestones on our way as we journey along in quest of fulfilling the Lord's Will in Kiabakari, in particular - completing the Divine Mercy vision in Kiabakari, embracing the whole person - spiritually, physically and intellectually. The video presents the current state of affairs in Kiabakari as of April 2014. It pinpoints also the main challenges we are facing and the priorities which need immediate attention and solutions.

Gratitude to Mr. Aldimilablis Novatus Mchele, my friend and filmmaker, who put together all pieces in one video presentation. Thanks to Mr Mitchell also for voice narration.

Hope you enjoy the documentary. I do hope it will help you to understand better Lord's Ways in Kiabakari. And I really do hope this will make you say a prayer for us and even give us a hand by contributing towards the completion of our goal. God bless us all!

2 Out Of 3

After two days of celebrations of Mapinduzi Zanzibar and Maulid, today is finally a day of work. Having celebrated the Holy Mass in the morning, I will be soon heading to the Ministry of Education to receive the official letter from the Hon. Minister - the recognition of the Diocese of Musoma as the lawful owner of pre-school and primary school in Kiabakari and myself as an executive director / manager of the same. This process of registration has there major steps and we have done two out of three. After today, what will be left is to finally register the schools and get the government number. This will enable us to be recognized as educational institution in Tanzania and as a recognized examination center for the upcoming national exams for which our standard four students will sit for the first time in the short history of our primary school.

Apart from this visit at the Ministry, what is on the agenda today is the visit to Crown Healthcare Ltd. - our main supplier and maintenance provider for our health center in Kiabakari. Since we have got a brand new water bath machine and microscope funded by the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the 'Upendo Unaojali' project, purchased at the end of the last year, I am able to bring for the emergency repair our old water bath and microscope - which - after some six years of continuous work in our lab - gave up and broke down.

In the afternoon, time permitting, I may feel tempted to go to the movie theater. Some new movies playing (same blockbusters as elsewhere in the world). We will see!

Late Christmas Gift

I am very happy that together with my friend, film professional and producer, Aldimilablis Novatus, we were able to complete the DVD project of the short movie on implementation of the First Aid Project in Kiabakari. Today I sent copies of the movie on DVDs via DHL to the headquarters of Foundation Kiabakari for further forwarding to people I want to get this late Christmas gift, in particular those involved directly in the project.

Memory Is Our Homeland

The story of my acquaintance with Jonathan Durand, the filmmaker and producer of "Memory is our Homeland" movie is simply amazing. When Jonathan was googling the internet at the end of September 2010 in search for documents, photos and news on Polish Second World War refugees in Africa (among whom his own Grandmother was), he came across my post on Tengeru in this blog and later he found out that on the same day he was reading the post, I was landing in Montreal where he lived. He told me later on when we met for the first time there in Montreal and made preliminary plans how to help him in achieving his goal of producing the movie, he almost spilt his coffee on his macbook when he discovered I was there, a few clicks away from him...

Some Things

A very close friend of mine sent me a message in the wee hours of the day, asking if he was correct by meditating on Christ's Passion while reciting Divine Mercy chaplet (he explained what he meant by this). His message prompted me to look deeper into the Passion of Christ and to offer a broader perspective, writing to him that Christ's Passion is much more about spiritual and psychological torture and suffering, than the physical one only. So, I continued with the meditation on the Passion and pinpointing the crucial elements of the spiritual and psychological dimensions of Christ's Passion. While doing so, I found this page, which drew my attention, though a bit off the topic but the last paragraph of the text in that link speaks volumes about my point. By the way, what I read in that link somehow correlates with my feelings when I denied at first watching the movie, only later only reluctantly doing so, as I never was and never will be a fan of biblical movies. They force, in my opinion, a certain angle of the director of the movie into my imagination, denying me my freedom to visualize the Bible content in my own way and my own sensitivity, based on what I read and reflect upon in the spiritual reading.

Passion Fish

Reading one of the reviews of a book 'Zapach Malin' which, by the way, I intend to buy and read at the earliest opportunity, it struck me that the book reminded me very much of a movie that I considered as my Top Ten movies of my life... movies that greatly influenced me and impacted on my way of seeing things, understanding the world, reality, suffering, relationships, people, our limitations and the power of human spirit and will... The movie will soon celebrate the twentieth anniversary of its release in movie theaters in USA and elsewhere in 1992. This is 'Passion Fish'. Watched it several times but always with the same tension and passion. I simply love it. And Mary McDonnell (who I am a huge fan of) with Alfre Woodard are simply outstanding... This is a trailer of the movie. If you have a chance to watch it, please do so!

Weekly Top 40

I guess since last Friday this is a Number One on Weekly Top 40 of my filmmaker who is so dumb and suffers a brain fade that he cannot remember what the f..k he did with the master tapes of graduation day footage aaaargghhh &%^$@!*&% It's a massive unimaginable disappointment for all of us. This was the very first ever graduation in our pre-school and now he lost those tapes and can't remember what has happened! Or maybe some bad will involved too? Who knows? Anyway, understandably all of us are genuinely p...d off with this situation!

Pleasant Surprise

Browsing internet, looking for some info on Kiabakari to broaden my own perspective, I just came across a hort movie on the construction of the health center in my mission, done by Polish TV back in 2005, in which I actually took part, giving an interview, but never had a chance to watch it. Today it was the first time I was able to see it through. What a pleasant surprise! It's in Polish, but pictures do speak volumes, so I hope you will enjoy it as much as I do now. Here is the link to the movie...

Black Friday

From Wikipedia: Black Friday is the day following Thanksgiving Day in the United States, traditionally the beginning of the Christmas shopping season. On this day many U.S. retailers open very early, often at 5 a.m., and offer promotional sales to kick off the shopping season. Because Thanksgiving always falls on the fourth Thursday in November in the United States, the day after occurs between the 23rd and the 29th of November...

Inception

It's a beautiful sunny summer day here in Kraków, temps are in the range I am used to over there in Tanzania, so feeling happy and 'at home'. After a morning Mass with Little Servant Sisters (my neighbors), I went to the hospital to see my leading doctor. I had to wait a bit as she was busy in wards with patients. Anyway, it did not take long. What is most important that all results are great, perfect so to speak, only that liver is still in bad shape, so more diet and medication and taking it easy.

So, as the news were great, I felt relieved and decided to reward myself by going to Galeria Kazimierz in the vicinity for 'Inception' movie, I have heard of already so much. I was wondering if it would be any good and if I didn't make a mistake to waste time for this.

My favorite movie quote

From John Woo's 'Hard Target' 1993 movie with Jean Claude van Damme and Arnold Vosloo (one of my favorite actors). Watch the first ten seconds. This memorable quote is so cool... :) I adopted it as my favorite personal quote and philosophy. Enjoy!