California Lutheran University's Student Newspaper Since 1961

The Echo

California Lutheran University's Student Newspaper Since 1961

The Echo

California Lutheran University's Student Newspaper Since 1961

The Echo

SEEds for Haiti to make documentary on Haiti trip

The SEEdS for Haiti club and members of California Lutheran Universityโ€™s communication department have been working on putting a film documenting the clubโ€™s activities in Haiti over winter break. Activities on their trip included providing Haitians with clean water and repairing buildings that were destroyed in the major earthquake of 2010.

Footage in the film will include scenes from their trip as well as interviews of the members who embarked on the journey.

โ€œThe fact that we get to document experiences that acted as milestones in our individual lives, and use those to be able to tell a story with an important lesson is priceless. For myself, being able to see what I experienced in a different light is both emotional and enlightening. It is almost as if the tripโ€™s benefits become richer and richer,โ€ SEEdS for Haiti president Ryan Glatt said in an email interview.

The documentary has no budget, which has caused difficulties in the making of the film.

โ€œBecause we donโ€™t have a budget for this documentary, I think thatโ€™s been the biggest challenge because there is no monetary incentive to work on this and get it done. Weโ€™re all basically volunteering our time to make it happen,โ€ said Megan Stone, a web media producer at CLU who has been working on the documentary with the SEEdS for Haiti club.

The documentary will be submitted to film festivals around the country, such as Sundance, with hopes that it will be accepted and shown.

โ€œThe ultimate goal and it would be fabulous to get [the film] submitted and accepted into film festivals. Like if we can get it into the Sundance student portion of the film festival, that would be the ultimate goalโ€ฆI think it would be kind of a centerpiece for the communication department to show that we have talented students who are capable of putting together a pretty powerful story,โ€ Stone said.

Other goals include making an impact on not only the CLU community but the world.

โ€œI would like the CLU community to learn the real struggles, benefits and processes of volunteering. Volunteering can take so many forms and can sometimes be foreign in different mediums, so it is vital that we familiarize people with what it takes and what it gives,โ€ Glat said. โ€œAs for the world, we, as humans, need to learn what it means to be altruistic and we all must work together to find what is the process of being effective with committing our passions to causes worth fighting for.โ€

โ€œ[I look forward to] sharing it so people can see what these kids did and hopefully we can be able to inspire people to go and do something similar in the future,โ€ said Bianca Ray, a communications major who is in charge of editing the film.

Along with Glatt, Stone and Ray, those working on the film include junior Berlin Galvin, who is in charge of camera work, and producer Taylor Johnson, who graduated from CLU last semester.

The film is still in the beginning stages and while a release date has not been confirmed, a trailer for it is set to be released at the end of April.

 

Ramsey Abushahla
Staff Writer
Published April 4, 2014

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