Here are two versions of the first 39 seconds. The first version is what I did today. The second version is from last week.
In addition, I've made a number of other changes, including some inspired by very recent feedback from friends/family who agreed to watch the first 7 1/2 minutes and give me some comments. Thanks to these friends (in alphabetical order): Lucy Armentrout, Rossana Craig, Ross Franseen, Lisa Greenstein, Janet Jacobson, and Hershell West. Thanks also to Vince Townsend who, along with Hershell, watched the whole thing right before I left town.
In the meantime, what have been the changes? Well, I've added tiny glimpses of things shot on my Peru trip last December, including the various people who provided me with some fascinating information (especially but not exclusively Lalo Izquierdo), brief shots of some great percussionists performing, short clips of kids learning Afro-Peruvian rhythms and dances, and a very brief shot from a rehearsal of the "hatajos de negritos" in el Carmen.
In the meantime, what have been the changes? Well, I've added tiny glimpses of things shot on my Peru trip last December, including the various people who provided me with some fascinating information (especially but not exclusively Lalo Izquierdo), brief shots of some great percussionists performing, short clips of kids learning Afro-Peruvian rhythms and dances, and a very brief shot from a rehearsal of the "hatajos de negritos" in el Carmen.
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| rough draft of the new DVD cover |
Changes I made specifically in response to the comments of the people listed above are 1) the opening 39 sec., 2) a new photo added plus an existing photo modified, c) a small modification to the titling, and d) a new order for the sequence where I tell who I met in Peru. I'm including the first 7 1/2 minutes here, so you can see:
The rest of the documentary contains a little more of the material we shot in Peru this past December, but I'm reserving most of that material for a short I plan to create in the near future about Afro-Peruvian percussionists (specifically, Juan Medrano Cotito, Huevito Lobatón and Lalo Izquierdo) PLUS, if I can get funding, material I'll use in yet another, longer documentary about the evolution of tradition.
The revised "A Zest for Life" will see its world release in a film festival in Cannes, France, in late April. This isn't THE Cannes film festival, but is still a good festival. It's called the Festival Internacional du Film Pan-Africain.
BUT we won't release it to the general public until late summer. This will give NETA (National Educational Television Assn. - which feeds programming to national PBS) time to look it over before the general release. I also want to send it around to distributors, to see if I can get a good distribution contract.
SO in the meantime, you'll have to be satisfied with whatever I post on YouTube or Vimeo...but summer isn't that far away, so you'll be able to get the documentary pretty soon.
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Eve A. Ma, after passing a month in Peru and then some time with her family in California, is in Spain until the end of April. Having completed the revised Afro-Peruvian documentary, she is now getting back to work on a documentary about flamenco. Subscribe HERE to our monthly newsletter to keep up with her work.
