In 10 days with a total project budget of under ten thousand dollars, Adam Costanza and Matt Costanza went to the most brutal slum in Africa to make a documentary. The relentless hope within a community contrasts with the brutality of a city built on garbage. With no sanitation, and only a handful of public water spigots for nearly a million people, this film shows how the people of Mathare live, and how they bleed.
This short movie is an atypical documentary. Emphasis is placed on a first person’s experience of the slum, while graphics and sound design are purposely avoided. It is meant to be an ethnographic style film.
Production was challenged and shaped by the emotional events of the 2007 Kenyan Presidential election riots and tragedies. Our hearts bleed for all those that suffered during this time – both during the riots, and every other day in this dangerous and ruthless place.
(Digital Video, 40:15, January 2009)
