Wokai Blog: Adventures documentary filming in China's Southwest: Wokai China Microfinance Blog

Janek, video journalist, filming a Wokai documentary in Sichuan

Wokai wanted to do a movie about "a borrower's life in the rural China" for a long time. It was really hard to find the right person that willing to do this and have time to do this and also qualified to do this. Me and the photographer Janek Żdżarski spent a lot of time on how we can make it successfully and when shall we go down to ARDY for a filming trip. We could have it done 3 months ago, but unfortunately Janek was trapped at Poland because of the volcanic ash issue by that time.

So, we finally made the trip happen by the end of July. It was raining everyday when I was there. But I felt lucky by comparing the wheather like in Beijing. And it was so cold at night, We had to put all of our cloths on to stay in warm. I woke up at 6am and got off work at 10pm everyday just for a good footage and try to get as much as we could to put into the movie. Now I can understand how hard work the movie industry it is and maybe one day I can become a movie producer!

There was one day, we woke up at 4am in the morning for a very early filming purpose. It was lighting and storming outside and pouring rains that never seemed to be stopped at any moment. We were standing outside of the garage and waiting for the driver. Suddenly, all road lights were out and only the darkness and slience around us. I can only hear my breath and the sound of raining. If you ever played "Silent Hill" or "Biohazard" before, you will understand what am I talking about. The driver arrived 15 minutes later. He put us in his truck, a strong chemical gas smell cleared my drowsiness right away. We drove on a wet and slippery muddy road. It usually takes me 30-40 minutes to get to the borrower's house and it's gonna take longer if it rains. But this time, it only took us 25 minutes to that place. I bet the driver can win all the champions of rally racing around the world and he can even try to become a F1 driver.

We arrived at 0550. We woke up the rooster, the Rooster woke up the borrower's neighbor, the neighbor woke up the borrower...

He was angery about we took his job. We saw him rush into a house and a few second later we hear the baby cried. Then we saw the housewife was chasing the rooster with a broom. The borrower's husband told me that, a rooster will start attacking people once he eats a centipede. It will cost mentally crazy. I don't know if it's true or just a rumor.

We finished the trip a while ago. Now the movie is in the editing mode. We hope that we can publish the video before the 25th December. Looking forward to it!