The Revealed Truth Part 8: The Resurrection

The ascension scene returns The Revealed Truth back to the AIDS ravaged fishing village from Part 1. After wading out of Lake Victoria, I remarked to the play's producer that the footage from the play's performance of the resurrection scene didn't come out too well. We decided to reshoot the scene in the bush down the beach from the village. The actor who plays Jesus, Pr. Josham Ssewanja, kept climbing up this hill. The cast and crew had no idea what he was doing. It was all done out of improvisation. In fact you can see one of the disciples trying to persuade him to get back down. However, we got the shot and I think it turned out well.

As Ssewanja gets to the top of the mountain he raises his arms out and looks down, creating the same iconic pose as the O Cristo Redentor statue of Rio De Janeiro. Christ the Redeemer is considered to be the largest art deco statue on earth. It is 130 feet tall, weighs 700 tons, and has been voted one of the New Seven Wonders of the World.

I don't think that the Ugandan cast and crew were aware of the giant statue in Brazil, but there is a correlation with The Revealed Truth. Christ the Redeemer sits atop Corcavodo hill looking down into the favelas below. These slums are riddled with drugs and gangs and considered to be some of the most dangerous neighborhoods in the world. Both the Christ in Rio and the Messiah in The Revealed Truth are redeemers, not of sin, but of poverty.

From my experience in making this film, I've learned that Uganda has more than its fair share of destitution. Domestic violence, corruption, disease, vigilante law, and malnutrition make day to day life difficult. In an environment like that, one can only have hope that things will one day change.  Christ's transcendent qualities are often the only thing that keeps people going.  Organized religion is the backbone of the community.

Closely linked to the church are the faith based charities that sponsor children.
It's one way of creating redemption in rural villages, but is it beneficial for the community? Selected kids attend boarding schools in towns outside the village.  When they go to University it's hours away in the capital.  Those fortunate enough to pursue higher education become professionals in their careers. Yet, they are often reluctant to return to their homes after finding a better life elsewhere.  That's redemption for the individual, but creates brain drain on the country. The best and brightest Ugandans don't even live in Uganda.

 Foreign intervention by itself is not a viable solution. It fosters a culture of dependency that keeps things at status quo and often creates an environment vulnerable to corruption.  Today Africa must struggle with an ill-fitting Western paradigm of development. It's structured in a way that the region will be forever playing catch up to the rest of the world.  The continent's redemption must come from within. Africa is a wealth of natural resources and culture.  Those who were fortunate enough to get out of Africa in search of better education and jobs must make the Christ-like sacrifice to return to their former life of poverty so that they can lead their people out.   Africa needs to develop itself in a uniquely African way. 

I'd like to conclude The Revealed Truth blog series with a shot from the end credits.  I woke up the morning of the play to find the two donkeys grazing in front of the school.  As the day wore on it became clear that the the livestock needed to be transported to the performance area.  The crew pulled up along side a tall hill.  The donkeys were pulled on ropes up to the top.  Someone took a few 2' x 4' planks from out of the truck bed and positioned them over the space between the hilltop and the pickup.

The donkeys were led single file over the gap.  Led is not the best description.  A few guys pulled at ropes tied at the beasts' necks.  Another group pushed from behind.  Some poked with sticks.  I can't stress how risky it is to guide two large animals over a narrow, flimsy board over a ten foot abyss.  Luckily, the donkeys made it onto the truck.

Yet, that's the way life works out in Kiwangala, Uganda.  The people who live there are faced with seemingly impossible challenges.  Often the only solutions are unpredictable and precarious, but everyday Ugandans take the chance anyway.

While working and living in the country I encountered a spirit of perseverance over adversity like no other.  I mentioned in the introduction that making this film was difficult.  It took a year just to sync the audio and figure out the subtitles.  My inspiration to finish the movie came from watching the cast and crew.  Seeing them balance the burden of the world on their shoulders put my work in perspective.

Sometimes, I'd question what I was achieving by making a movie about an African passion play.  It seemed petty in light of the suffering these people are facing.  What good is art if people are starving?  Then one of the actors would see me working on my computer.  I didn't have electricity at my house, but I would bring my laptop down the road and sit in a dusty garage that had an intermittently working outlet.  The actors would come in, stand behind me, and watch me work.  When they saw themselves or a friend or neighbor on the screen, even if it was just for a moment, they would erupt with excitement.  They may have never seen themselves on video before, but they were eager to share their talents with an audience.  It gave them a feeling of importance, a feeling that they weren't forgotten by the rest of the world, that they were more than just a third world statistic.  The challenges that Sub-Saharan Africa faces doesn't boil down to economics, education, or management, but of esteem.  When someone feels they are of worth they are capable of doing anything.

I certainly can't formulate a solution for all of Africa's problems in this closing paragraph, but I believe that media has a part to play.  Awareness and advocacy comes from good communication.  Giving the voiceless a voice is the first step in creating equality on the planet.  These are ideas that I've explored in past posts and that I will continue to develop in future blog entries.

The Revealed Truth Blog Series

This is the final post of a nine part series that takes an in-depth look at the The Revealed Truth and how rural Ugandan culture influenced the making of the film. The movie is about an hour long but I've broken it down into 5 to 10 minute blog-size episodes.  If you are reading about The Revealed Truth for the first time, the best place start is the introductory post.

The previous post was The Crucifixion.   

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The Revealed Truth Part 3: Good Samaritans

Even though it's not a speaking role, my friend Godfrey does a great job getting into character as the leper.  Godfrey was one of my students at the local secondary school.  He is also one of the most extraordinary individuals I know.  After both of his parents and two of his siblings died of AIDS when he was 13, Godfrey took over the family farm.  Child-headed households are common in Kiwangala, but Godfrey is different because has always taken on the hardship with an entrepreneurial spirit.  Even though he's in the field every morning and evening doing the work of four people, he's still one of the top students of his class, and sells the bananas and the sugarcane that he grows at the school canteen.  He's active in athletics, the church, and drama as you can see here.  Last year he was featured in a movie I made about World AIDS Day.  Godfrey is an inspiration to never give up.  He even convinced me to buy 100 kgs of popcorn kernels that he popped up and passed out at The Reveal Truth premier.
 

One of the pivotal scenes in Part 3 is when Jesus counsels Nicodemus and convinces him to be born again.  If you want to go to heaven you must first be saved, He says.  Working in community development I partnered with many faith-based organizations and attended their services on Sunday.  Often the lessons of the Bible would be eclipsed by calls from the pastor in his sermon to recruit new members of the church.  When the Ugandans found out that I was not Born Again they aggressively tried to save me.  On one of the numerous occasions, I was in a parked car with a church member waiting for a thunderstorm to die down outside.  We were making conversation to pass the time. One thing led to another and all of a sudden he was trying to save me.  The more I resisted the worse it got.  I felt like I was on a bad date at the drive-in.  The rain couldn't stop quick enough.

Christianity is relatively new to Uganda.  One young woman, who was working on The Revealed Truth, became Born Again when she was a teenager.  When her animist practicing parents found out, they chased her out of the house and disowned her.  Nowadays, almost all Ugandans identify themselves as being Christian or Muslim and publicly denounce the traditional tribal religions.  However animism is still practiced beneath the surface.  Someone who is sick may go to the health clinic during the day, pray for a miracle in church in the evening, and secretly visit the witchdoctor in the middle of the night.  There are regular reports of child sacrifice.

Obviously missionaries have a lot to do with with Uganda's religious fervor.  They are responsible for a large portion of the country's humanitarian development work and nobly live out in the bush with the most impovrished.  However, their gifts come with a trade off.  Their mission is to recruit more Christians.  Many are eager to sign up, but for what?  A new religion or to receive foreign aid?

Despite my criticism of the Born Agains, I think that the religion does help to purify the souls of Uganda.  The Masaka district has been hit hard by spells of bad luck, most recently with AIDS, but also with war.  During the civil war in the 1980s both sides fought with child soldiers.  I've met a few that have grown into adults.  It has been suggested to me that by being Born Again they can finally step away from their old lives of violence and the circumstances they were forced into, and start again fresh.  Being Born again gives them the psychological release to control their destiny.

Finally, I'd like to have a look at the woman pumping water from the well.  This is a little b-roll that I shot to introduce the Good Samaritan scene.  This is actually where I collected my drinking water during the dry season when the rainwater tank down the street was empty.  I'd carry two 40 liter jerrycan one and a half miles from this borehole to my house. It was easier to carry two rather than one because two gives you balance, plus it's a good workout.  Eventually I found a man who delivered water to me for 13 cents a jerrycan.  He told me that he makes more money that way than he did as a teacher.  The majority of the population doesn't have indoor plumbing and so the village waterhole becomes the center of social life.  Water's fetched mostly by women and children who carry it back home on their heads.  The lady you see here wearing a traditional gomezi dress comes for water at least once day.  Nothing has changed in the 2000 years between her and the Samaritan woman except that the hollowed out gourd has become a plastic jerrycan.

The Revealed Truth Blog Series

This post is the fourth of a nine part series that takes an in-depth look at the The Revealed Truth and how rural Ugandan culture influenced the making of the film.  The  movie is about an hour  long  but I've broken it down into 5 to 10 minute blog-size episodes.  The next post will feature Judas.



The previous post was The Revealed Truth Part 2: Cross Culture Shock.

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