CAICC Exhibition of a short-film made by the CAICC kids in an art workshop of story-boards, puppets and stop-motion animation. 19th December in the morning at the San Pablo Prison. 20th December in the morning at the CAICC nursery.
Our 6th and final week working with the brilliant group of kids at CAICC - the next time I will see them is at the 2 screenings of their film in a couple of weeks, in the meantime I will be frantically editing all their work!!
So to finish up, our focus was on recording voices and trying up loose ends in both the Tuesday and Thursday sessions (our Friday session was moved because the kids were all going swimming! :-). Our Tuesday session has to have been one the most hectic we've had at the centre - trying to record clear voice tracks within the chaos of playtime for a huge group of kids of all ages is definitely a challenge! Reflecting on the session with Florrie on the bus home we reminded ourselves that in working in the context of CAICC we are doing something that is not a part of their regular working schedule - we've asked to come and work there, and have been privileged to have been so warmly and enthusiastically welcomed by both staff and kids, but it is also important for us to remember that for the kids their priority in the space is fun and play, and so we need to look for or create the spaces we need to achieve our aims with kids who are engaging with our workshop. What that meant in recording voices was noticing that it would be impossible (and unfair) to stop the little kids from playing on the squeaky swings and running around shouting and screaming, so instead we took the workshop kids outside into the relative quiet of the street to record their voices. The moment we did that we were much more successful, and over the course of the two sessions got all the recordings we needed! :-)
This was also Florrie's last week as a volunteer at SB, so she said goodbye to the kids on Thursday with lollies and hugs (she headed off to Brazil this weekend!), and we also took another couple of interviews which turned out to be very moving.
Anan, a 20 year old artisan who grew up supported by CAICC and has been a huge part of our workshop, getting involved animating scenes and helping with the little ones, spoke of how CAICC is a family, and how he feels at home there among brothers and sisters. What he shared with us was really moving (I have goose-pimples again as I write - I also had them as Florrie and I interviewed him) and just goes to show what a huge impact the organisation is having on the lives of the kids it works with.
Veronica the director spoke about CAICC and its objectives, and why they asking for help in buying terrain to build their own house:
Our motto is 'for the freedom to smile' and our mission is to offer complete support through an education based on principles of love, respect, and solidarity to children and young people who at risk due to abandonment as a result of their parents living in jails or having migrated for economic reasons.
[from the CAICC website]
"Help us to find our own house"
Florrie and I used the extra time on our unexpectedly free Friday to animate a couple of missing scenes with the help of a special little someone (thanks Amaya!), and also to photograph all the credits and go over the final version of a booklet that Florrie has been fastidiously putting together over the last couple of the weeks to give as a present to all the kids involved in the project, documenting the whole process of the workshops.
... a big thanks to all the folks involved, all the kids and staff at CAICC, to Jonathan for lending us his camera and microphone so often, and for coming along to CAICC with us and new SB staff Teresa this Tuesday to help with recording voices. Thanks also to Kory for originally introducing me to the organisation and of course to Florrie for her invaluable collaboration, what a brilliant work partner! :-)
It has been an absolute joy working with this group of kids, and I'll look forward to sharing the final results with them in a couple of weeks time....
...keep an eye out for the film in an upcoming post!
:-)
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