Burundi Monday 4: T.I.A.

According to Acart Videographer Christopher Redmond, this TLA* means "This Is Africa". It's an expression the foreigners at the Burundi Film Center use when confronted by extreme culture shock.

And that's what they're getting, now that the new crop of Burundian home-grown films is in production.

The BFC was established to develop media and filmmaking skills in post-conflict Burundi, so that the people of this nation few in the west have heard of can show their stories to the world.

Those stories can get a little brutal.

For example, in a film about a man who is down on his luck and ends up working at a slaughterhouse, the most practical thing to do was use a real set and bloody ex-cow props, even though it attracted scavengers:

Then, while filming in a marketplace, a vodka company representative decided to give out free samples, an action that in a place like Kigali can end up in bloodshed. Christopher tried to distract the crowds from the shoot by telling them they were extras in some fake second unit work. This gave them time to finish the shot and GTFO.

TIA indeed!

You can follow Christopher's international development work at BFC in his blog on Citizenshift.


(*old tech. industry joke: "TLA" is a three letter acronym for "Three Letter Acronym")