Since filming in Mpika, Zambia, and returning to the United States, I find myself frequently referring to Gift Namuchimba, a Camfed alumni, when I talk to people about the power and inspiration that comes from a good, basic education.
Gift’s life did not start out easy. Importantly, she has not let the traumas of [...]
BBC: Alvin's Guide to Good Business Blog
The Gift of Gift
Posted on Thursday, March 25th, 2010
Language is not a barrier
Posted on Thursday, February 25th, 2010
I speak no Marathi. The farmers speak little English. Nonetheless, from our very first meeting on the outskirts of Aurangabad, India, there was some kind of connection between them and me that was surprising and sincere, which also grew stronger over the days of filming. I had been to India before and understand the cultural [...]
The Next Generation
Posted on Friday, February 12th, 2010
The faces of children I encountered while filming with social entrepreneurs in Africa and Asia continue to pop up strongly in my memory.
There are the faces of unencumbered happiness and curiosity that surrounded me and members of the production team each time we drove onto the grounds of the Musakanya School in Mpika, Zambia. The [...]
Our thoughts are with Haiti
Posted on Wednesday, January 20th, 2010
Keith Joseph and Jonas Rigodon with Alvin outside Neno Hospital, Malawi
In this time of anguish for the people of Haiti, my thoughts keep returning to the people from “Partners in Health” whom we met during our filming in Neno, Malawi, especially Dr. Jonas Rigodon and Dr. Keith Joseph.
Partners in Health started in Haiti 25 years [...]
A Miracle on Two Wheels
Posted on Friday, January 15th, 2010
“You’re a natural.”
That’s what Andrea and Barry Coleman said to me after I was filmed completing my first motorcycle lesson on an unused portion of the tarmac of the tiny airport in Chipata, Zambia. The idea was not that I would be somehow enticed into motorcycling (a passion of Andrea and Barry), but that I [...]
Of all the bars, in all the world…
Posted on Tuesday, December 15th, 2009
Dancing and drinking beer in the evening with former and current commercial sex workers at a truck stop in Malawi wasn’t something I would ever have imagined doing. But there I was, shaking it, albeit a bit nervously and reluctantly.
When I first heard that we would be filming at a remote truck stop, one word [...]
A journey into my past
Posted on Monday, November 23rd, 2009
Memories from 1968 kept coming back to me spontaneously, uncontrollably, as the pilot Edmond landed the tiny Cessna at an airstrip in Mpika, Zambia. Back then, I had been accepted to Project Upward Bound, a federally sponsored education program at Florida A&M University in Tallahassee, Florida. A smart, kind, and stylish woman named, Miss Freddie [...]
The Inconvenient Truth
Posted on Friday, November 20th, 2009
Although landmines are intended to kill soldiers, in reality, it’s civilians like 26 year old Rambo that are too often their victims. In his teens, Rambo was travelling home in a full bus. The bus drove over an anti tank mine killing everyone on board accept him. A passing vehicle rescued Rambo and took him [...]
Who – or what – do you trust?
Posted on Thursday, November 12th, 2009
I can honestly say that I had no preconceived idea about what it would be like to film in a mine field. We were in Mozambique, interviewing Apopo’s field workers about their jobs and watching its Hero Rats sniff the earth for TNT—an indication of the presence of a landmine. This picture gives no indication [...]
Mines – the terrifying reality
Posted on Monday, November 9th, 2009
When I was offered the opportunity to come to Mozambique to film with the ‘Hero Rats’ of Apopo, highly trained landmine sniffing rats, I jumped at the chance to make an exciting, dramatic and unusual film. Naively, the danger of filming in mine fields didn’t really dawn on me until Richard Wilson, the executive producer, [...]
