A documentary of a concert tour usually includes bright lights, dramatic wardrobes and extensive travel to major cities all over the world. Rarely does one imagine the lead singer to have a limp or concerts being held in the previously war-torn villages of one of the poorest nations in the world.

Plane tickets for a 30-hour trip purchased and professional recording equipment in tow, junior television, radio and film majors Mike Armour and Joshua Eisenfeld are focusing on the latter.

They said they are both eager to begin their first feature-length documentary this summer as they follow humanitarian and musical artist Feliciano dos Santos on his tour through his native African country of Mozambique.

‘It’s not going to be like a big nationwide, well-paid-for tour where people are lining up for tickets,’ Armour said. ‘It’s going to be more going from village to village performing songs that help people understand his message.’

Armour and Eisenfeld will follow Santos and his band, Massukos, from June 17 to July 19 as they perform in impoverished villages suffering from problems like hygiene, sanitation, lack of water and diseases such as HIV and AIDS.

Since the early ’90s the band has been performing traditional music of the Niassa province that speaks out on and educates people about these issues. Santos also established a nongovernmental organization called Estamos that directly and actively works to improve the conditions in Mozambique.

The two students, old friends from their hometown of Pittsburgh, have been engaged with their own personal lives at SU up until this project.

‘We had a pretty good way about us freshman year. We joined our own fraternities, had pretty separate lives; but ever since he came to me with this project over the summer, we’ve been doing something for it every single day,’ Armour said. ‘We’re both really involved but this project, it’s our No. 1 priority.’

Eisenfeld discovered Santos’ story in the National Geographic’s Emerging Explorers Program this past August. Upon returning home from an inspiring trip to the Cannes Film Festival, Eisenfeld was determined to film a documentary — the band’s musical tour was the perfect subject.

Though the main focus of the film will be the music and concert tour of Santos and his band, both students are aware that aspects of Santos’ life and the social message of his work will naturally appear throughout the documentary.

‘We want to create some art that also tells a story and let’s people hear some great music which they would never hear of otherwise,’ Armour said. ‘When we go to the shows, we want to talk to Feliciano’s countrymen and get a sense of what his music means to them.’

The documentary was a natural choice for Armour and Eisenfeld after taking a course titled TRF 459: ‘Documentary Production.’ Both Armour and Eisenfeld believe in the power of nonfiction to portray gripping stories that reflect reality.

‘What attracts me the most to documentaries is that it’s a puzzle in that if you’re not a writer or if you’re not really someone who’s very good at coming up with the creation of the story, you have the stuff all in front of you,’ Eisenfeld said.

This project, however, is completely separate from anything related to either of the two students’ assigned coursework. Armour and Eisenfeld didn’t want the documentary to count as their capstone or thesis projects. They see this project as their first step into the professional filmmaking world.

‘For the most part, this is a steppingstone. It’s going to be a learning process for us,’ Eisenfeld said. ‘We learn so much here, but most of the learning you get in documentary film, in anything, is actually experiencing it and learning from your mistakes.’

The two have been vigorously committed all year to making their project plans a reality. The money raised will fund costs of travel, equipment, post production and the two sets of Rosetta Stone purchased to learn the national language of Portuguese. The two students have raised $18,000 and hope to raise more.

They began by creating their own production company, Exodus Productions, to help stay organized and professional. Through their website,they promote their project and accept donations from people willing to support their initiative. They also hope to receive more funding by setting up a page on IndieGoGo, a website that enables users to raise money for personal causes and campaigns.

With June fast approaching, Armour and Eisenfeld constantly seek opportunities to generate awareness for their project. Their project plans have been accepted to next month’s round of the Pepsi Refresh Project and will be eligible to vote on come May 1. If they win,they will receive $10,000 to help finance their project.

The two have also received financial support from the university. Chancellor Nancy Cantor has supplied Exodus Productions with a grant of $5,000; and Lorraine Branham, dean of the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications, has donated $2,500 to each student. The two presented both with their proposal, their budget and their plans for the finished film after they return. In the proposal, they said any profit made would go toward Estamos, Santos’ NGO.

Though both students intend to distribute the film to networks like PBS and CNN, they see great potential for other students to become a part of the project through finance, marketing, public relations and more.

The experience in Mozambique sets the two apart from the more customary summers of their friends and peers, most of whom will hold internships or part-time jobs. However, Armour and Eisenfeld feel this project will teach them more than a normal internship would.

‘It’s a little intimidating that next spring I’ll be looking for jobs and people will be saying, ‘Who do you know? Who have you interned with?’ and I’m not going to have a name,’ Armour said. ‘But I’m teaching myself, and I think that any production company that I would want to work for would find that more substantial.’

Nodding in agreement, Eisenfeld added, ‘I don’t see how this is much different from a normal internship other than that we’re making our own internship and taking the initiative to learn on our own.

‘This is the kind of stuff I see myself doing for the rest of my life.’

dmodiama@syr.edu

Published on April 26, 2011 at 12:00 pm

Contact Danielle: dmodiama@syr.edu | @daniemarieodie