Chris & Oliver Cinema

This past Wednesday marked the 1-year anniversary of the devastating earthquake in Port Au Prince, Haiti.

Though it hasn’t received as much media attention recently, the work in Haiti continues–much of the infrastructure remains battered and broken, and the nation of Haiti still has a long way to go before it reaches stability.

We were given the amazing opportunity of partnering with Churches Helping Churches, an organization which provides support and development aid to churches and pastors who are often the de facto leaders in the heart of affected communities, as a complement to the initial waves of humanitarian aid that pour into a country in the wake of a disaster. CHC worked with local church leaders to organize a memorial service in the heart of Port Au Prince, just across from the collapsed Presidential Palace.

We were invited as part of a media team which included our friends and photographers Kenny Kim and Kenny Nakai, to cover the service. With an estimated 40,000+ people in attendance, what we were able to witness was nothing short of amazing. It was a time of remembering and mourning–but even more potent was the overwhelming sense of joy, celebration, and hope.

chris | outside the surrounding tent cities

youth | these two live in tents a few steps away from where the memorial service was held

making their way | people slowly trickled in starting at 6 in the morning

worship | people sang songs in celebration and prayed in hope

a symbol of hope | this young boy was an orphan who lives in the tent cities. his voice was incredible and brought the crowd to the most raucous applause of the day

the crowd | an estimated 40,000+ in attendance [photo creds on this shot go to Kenny Kim]

Here’s the video we made of the memorial service which was shown at the church services of CHC founders, Mark Driscoll, from Mars Hill Church in Seattle, and James McDonald, from Harvest Bible Chapel in Rolling Meadows.

We are so thankful to have played a small part in capturing the day and blessed to have been among those present at the memorial service. God is doing amazing things in Haiti and within the hearts of the Haitian people. We are especially grateful to CHC for having us come on board for this amazing celebration.

Cheers,

Chris

For a write-up of the event check out CBS News, this article from The Christian Post | for more photos check out Kenny Nakai and Kenny Kim’s blog pages

The soundtrack is ‘February’ by Daniel Dixon. Licensed through with etiquette.

What might have been is an abstraction
Remaining a perpetual possibility
Only in a world of speculation.

{Burnt Norton, T.S. Eliot

Something I often  find myself thinking about is the concept of time–not in the Back to the Future // LOST // Inception sense of the word–all worthy candidates of thought–but rather this idea that time is both perpetual and brief. What are we to make of our time in light of the limited amount we are given?

Oliver and I wanted to put something together to provoke thought about that very question, and this past weekend, we were given an opportunity to do so.

We showcased our new piece at Entrusted Talents: The  Show–the organizers behind the event invited various artists to perform @ Foellinger Auditorium on the University of Illinois Campus, and we were graciously invited to create something to start off the evening.

This piece afforded us the opportunity and freedom to create something very personal–an opportunity to express our beliefs, to create something broader in scope, to push the boundaries of what we’ve done thus far–and yet, like all of our films, something that would carry much of its weight in its subtleties.  *A lot of this piece is beautifully [and painstakingly]  shot, but I believe there is much more to be said about all the little things found in the layers of subtext.

It would be great if people enjoyed this film on an aesthetic level–after all, we put in some serious hours on this one. However, our hope is that the visuals we produced ultimately lead to and inspire thought.

I’m quite curious to hear yours :]

Cheers,

Chris

*For the record: none of the footage is CGI or animated–everything is completely real and was shot by us. Seriously.

Kudos to Oliver Peng for acting as DP {among many other roles}, Peter Catanus for being our music man and assisting on shoots, and special thanks to Aurum Laguna for hashing out the narrative :]