OneMinutesJr video workshop in Papua New Guinea - Day 3

Half-time at the OneMinutesJr workshop in PNG and today is the big filming day. We have planned to get as much as possible done today and would like to finish six films on this sunny Wednesday in Port Moresby.

The first location of the day is a very special one. It is the place where Paul spent the better part of the last two years. The 17-year-old boy was sentenced to two years in prison and served his time in the correctional centre outside Port Moresby.

Today he is back behind bars, but only for the duration of the filming. He wants to create a powerful movie that warns other young people by telling them what the loss of freedom means to a teenager. Paul is still recovering from the time in prison, but he also has a lot of hope and now puts education and a life without violence above everything else. We also found out this week that Paul has a lot of talent behind the camera and that becoming a cameraman might be an option for him in the future.

After the prison, we go to a school. Alythea (13), who has spent some time in the educational system in Australia and who is now back here in PNG, wants to show how crowded the classrooms are in her home country. The final sentence is: "Can you imagine learning in this environment?"

In the afternoon, the whole workshop group drives out to Hanuabada, the biggest village in the country. Hanuabada is partly built on the water and there are fantastic filming locations here, so we immediately set off to film in different places and with different participants. Kaia (14), who actually lives here, wants to show the life in her village in the film. In the meantime, Faith (14) uses Kaia's home for her film, in which an adopted child is exploited by the other family members. And Charlie (16) goes out to the nearby market to film teenagers who smoke.

On the way back to the workshop venue, the YWCA office in Port Moresby, we stop at a grocery store. But not to do the groceries! We are here to shoot the sixth film of the day. Stephen's film is about the fact that he cannot go to school because his family cannot avoid the 40 Kina (about 15 USD) that the bus to school would cost him every month. So he shows us what he could buy for 40 Kina in the supermarket. And tomorrow in the morning we will film him standing at the bus stop, while the bus, of course, will leave without him, because rice and flour and sugar are more important that school. Or maybe not...?

Port Moresby, PNG - November 18, 2009 - Chris Schuepp