Thank You Cine Institute
I wanted to take a moment to tell you about some very lovely friends of ours. Over the summer I was approached by a group of young student film makers from The Cine Institute of Jacmel. They had asked me to help them with a short film they were trying to shoot during their summer break and they needed a "white chick" to play the part of a mysterious assassin from abroad. I have no idea why they thought I would be good choice but after pleading with me for 2 weeks i gave in. Why shouldn't we support local young students and it would be fun to add mysterious assassin to my resume right next to mom of 13.....
For 2 weeks I would wake up at 4 am to go help the students and try to finish shooting by 10am so i could start work with the kids. I became very close to the students as we shot their little film and after some time they offered us a beautiful proposition. Since students are broke, lol, they offered to make a little short film about our kids to make up for torturing me for a few weeks.
The students came to the kids house and followed us around for 2 days. In between shots the students would laugh, play and joke around with kids. On one of the days one of the young men on the film crew (names Eddie) got stuck with us because he couldn't drive his motorcycle. He sat at our table with us and watched as the kids got out their books and started to study. He knocked on my office door and asked me if I would be ok with him helping the kids study. Well DUH!!!! I love study helpers!!!.
With in a few mins I heard a huge ruckus coming from the study area. I peeked my head out the window and found Eddie under a pile of kids screaming math solutions. Actually I didn't see Eddie at all, all that could be seen of Eddie under the pile of kids was his hand straight up in the air desperately gripping a math flashcard. It was a really beautiful moment to see a young student playing with our kids. Well after the rain had passed he stayed with the kids and continued to play math flashcards. The kids had a great time.
Since the Cine students finished our film Eddie still comes and visits us. The kids adore him and we appreciate having a positive roll model hanging out us. It was also very touching to see these young students take the skills they are learning to help out our kids and our project.
Cine Institute is one of the branches of the Artists Institute de Jacmel. They are an amazing college of the arts located here in Jacmel that offers free training for young Haitian students. We want to thank the students who put together this little community project for us as well as the teachers who helped coach and guided them through the project. If you would like more information on the school and the many programs they offer please visit their site at
Please enjoy the film!!!!!
