[Ed. 7/21: The last names of Afghan filmmakers and images of those still in the country have been removed due to the increasing insecurity in Afghanistan.]

It is an intense and invigorating week of editing the students’ stories – 10-15 hours a day.  We have four Afghans working as editors – Jawed Taiman, Hamed Alizada, Rahmat Jafari and Hamid Arshia.  Employing local editors is part of our capacity building effort.  Editing is one of the weaker skills in the local filmmaking community.

Throughout this week some students have continued to shoot and pickup needed material.  All have logged and transcribed their footage. We’ve worked the structure of the stories and disciplined ourselves to first build the visual scenes and then weave in the interviews –  making sure it adds to the visual experience and does not simply describe it.

Students are facing their successes and ‘challenges.’  We have helped one another by reviewing each other’s footage and providing fresh perspective.  As is often the case, we come back from our shoots exhausted and quite sure that we have nothing with which to construct our intended story.   An independent eye and ear can usually see beyond our foggy view. The films are coming together fantastically – especially considering the five-week timeline within which these students have learned and produced.

We are very excited to present our hard work at a screening this coming Wednesday at the Foundation for Culture and Civil Society from 3-5pm.  Please join us if you are in Kabul.