Pencils of Promise
From January through June of 2012, I was the Digital Storyteller Fellow for Pencils of Promise. I lived for 6-week periods in Laos, Nicaragua, and Guatemala, creating multimedia documentary video for development and fundraising.
Amassing hundreds of raw videos from each country–coupled with thousands of photographs and having written several blogs–I experienced richness and humility and simplicity while living in guesthouses and offices and hotels, and among construction crews, office teams, and tourists.
Camera kit laid out on my bed in Luand Prabang, Laos, in my first week of work. Photo: Chris Battaglia
My survival kit as producer-shooter-editor (now oft-referred to as ‘Predators,’ affably) afforded me a semblance of low-visibility (as much as a non-native white ex-pat with tech gear on his back and in-hand could maintain) and ability to be nimble. I could go anywhere with this streamlined backpack setup, consisting of two dSLR cameras, a couple lenses, a basic video fluid-head tripod and monopod.
It was this unique-to-me array of gear that set the standard for all my future video projects as “one man band.”
January through February placed me in Luang Prabang, Laos. March through April had me in the mountain town of Matagalpa, Nicarauga. And from May through June, I returned to Panajachel, Guatemala to finish my international work and living experience. I returned to finish my time with Pencils of Promise from their headquarters in New York City in June.
A typical day pictured working in communities far-flung and new to me, I made sure to immerse and be as close to the members we served as possible.
Laos
Below are works produced while living and working on the ground in Laos. I lived and spent many days alongside the Mekong River, motorcycling through countryside, and documenting two weddings of two different coworkers. [A map of locations visited would be nice, right?]
🎥 Laos Office Profile
🎥 International Women’s Day
🎥 Justin Beiber 18th Birthday
📹 Leslie and Ryan Wedding Video
Children in Pha Theung walking home after school.
Writings
📝 Laos: Thoughts on Cuisine, Community, and Cleanliness
📝 About the Laos House Boat
📝 Laos Build: From Scouting and Inception To…
📝 Laos Donor Trip
Nicaragua
Below are works produced while living and working on the ground in Nicaragua. [A map of locations visited would be nice, right?]
🎥 Why Nicaragua?
📝 First Impressions of Nicaragua
Guatemala
Below are works produced while living and working on the ground in Guatemala. [A map of locations visited would be nice, right?]
🎥 Why Guatemala?
🎥 Community Profile: Cerro de Oro, Guatemala
🎥 Sophia Bush $30k for 30th Birthday
New York
These were the final deliverables for Pencils of Promise. “The Next 50” ran on primetime television(!) which was fun to experience.
🎥 Pencils of Promise White Party 2012
🎥 Pencils of Promise Next 50
…throughout my journey
I learned how to ride a motorcycle (automatic in Laos, manual in Guatemala), rode boats to villages around and across Lake Atitlán, ended up (somehow) on horses exploring coffee fincas, and countless chicken buses and backs of pickup trucks in order to get whatever story needed telling.
The goal was not be felt as an interloper or tourist…my desire to be as integrated in the lives and responsibilities of my new communities meant full participation, whether it was carrying 50lb bags of cement, sharing the same cuisine (except Larb Leud Ped ລາບເລືອດເປັດ, ເລືອດແປງເປັດ), and getting the same parasites, in solidarity of course.
I learned bits and pieces of Lao (mostly food and small talk) and polished my middle-school level Spanish language to get to know my peers and new places more wholly.
New York, continued
Moving to New York was about a nostalgia for family heritage, for the exhilarating feeling of independence first experienced in college, and then again cemented while abroad. I wanted (and found) this through cultivating a rich social network and nascent career pursuit.
I house-sat in Locust Valley and commuted into Manhattan in order to get my foot in the door; I was as a production assistant/assistant camera operator for Hearst Digital Media, and then I found my way into the food world.
First came food service, working my way up at Harlem’s Red Rooster, then at SoHo food startup Tasting Table. After the physical and mental upheaval from Hurricane Sandy, I had a ⚡️lightning bolt moment⚡️, and decided to take a risk on my freelance career.
I photographed and filmed anything I could, and I was fairly undiscerning about the work, as projects ranged from a middle aged birthday party, to a kindergarten graduation, to fashion week preview at the Empire Hotel–all while picking up odd jobs like setting up office furniture, temporary chauffeur for mid-size financial firm employees, and surely more I cannot recall.
It was when I was asked to film a marriage proposal for a Swiss couple in Central Park on a grey winter afternoon that I was propelled into the wedding videography circuit.
Filming, photographing (digital and on 35mm) Leslie and Ryan’s Laos wedding at the Shinta Mani Hotel in Luang Prabang, in exchange for a seat at the reception. Photo by Bryce Eriksen
When Leslie asked that I film her wedding in Laos, doing just what I had been doing for Pencils of Promise–”but for a wedding”–I was delighted to exercise my skills and a “love for love” in this new venue for capturing story and event.
It was the short wedding video feature that precipitated from this experience that led me to two new friends in the summer of 2012, for the launch of their fashion line küning:
This, in turn, led to shooting their new fashion line’s look-book in Newport, Rhode Island; which, in turn, led me to their preview event at the Empire Hotel in New York, where I met event planners Fabrizio and Jasper; which, in turn, I was led me to Fabrizio’s cousin Tiziano, who would require a videographer document an elaborate marriage proposal scheme in Central Park in February of 2013.