The Docks

Yesterday I spent my first full day on set. We'd arranged access with the government to shoot on their docks along the Congolese river, just on the other side of Congo-Brazzaville's border. Bribes had to be paid at every level along the way, but we were scheduled to do 35 shots before it got dark and all arrived there early, at about 8:30 am, with crew and supplies in tow. Unfortunately the "Waterfront Ambassador" (tack Ambassador onto any title and you're instantly important) was late, so we sat in the sun and smoked cigarettes and chatted and waited. And waited. And waited. And while waiting I got bored and Owen suggested I photograph our "henchmen", ie the bad guy extras we'd hired for the day.
The minute they saw me with a camera they were jostling to get in the way. This experience is something I'm trying to get used to--the macho almost narcissistic desire men here have to throw themselves in front of my camera. I LOVE IT. Even walking down the docks I kept hearing "mundele! mundele!" (white person!) and men would strike a pose. Here are the henchmen:











I made the mistake of letting one of them (Master Poison, 2nd photo, his real name) see the tiny digital image on the back of my camera, and after that any time I took a photo of anyone there would be a huge crowd around me and serious nods of approval before they walked away.

It was hot that day, SO HOT, hot like I'd never felt before. I squinted through my dark sunglasses and burned through my 45spf sunscreen and sweat through all my clothes. At 4pm, coated in warehouse dust, we were kicked out even though we'd been promised the location until 6. In order to get it back for another day one of our staff had to go drink beers at the Waterfront Ambassador's house and fuel his power-ego. We're going back on Friday. And today? I'm staying in the compound re-hydrating.