Watoto Shamba - outline & treatment

Outline
Watoto Shamba = The children's garden
In the film Watoto Shamba I will show how creative energy, the very spirit of music and art brings growth to a small shack school, and hope to the children who make it so lively. On a day very much like today in a place called Nairobi there is a small wooden structure on a dry and dirty hill. One side of the rickety schoolhouse is a painted banner, white with a red heart stating WE LOVE MUSIC. Across the valley you can hear singing voices, songs of folklore and god. The choir is practicing in the garden, a dry valley with a plant for every child. This is where I will shoot the film and organize the event of the school’s first ever public play. Complete with props and costumes the children themselves get to write the stories they will perform and these plays will make up the bulk of the film. There are approximately 130 children from the surrounding slums of Kiberra and Dagoretti who attend the school for math, music, reading, food and hope. They are energetic, full of life and especially excited by visitors. That usually means treats like soda, biscuits and getting out of class for a concert.
Many of these children don’t have enough food to eat so they are sent to school for the free meal. They wear tattered uniforms that always look dirty and shoes that barely cover their feet. Despite their conditions they are always smiling and in high spirits. The slums surrounding the school seem invisible to the fancy cars which cruise past on their way to the mega mall at Nakumat junction. Women carry large jerry cans of water on their head, while also toting a child on her back or front. I once saw a pregnant women bend to pick a crying child without dropping a drop of water. These women are the mothers of the children at watoto shamba. Other children are left out of school, being needed at home to help the family survive. The children’s garden school has been a source of joy as well as place to receive knowledge accompanied by food, music, support and love. Quite a task considering the exterior of the school is merely a series of small aluminum shacks on a dusty red hill. There is a public garden built for all the community by the children and teachers, its spirit is astronomical. Now this urban sanctuary of education and nature is threatened by eviction, to make place for a luxury development. The community has no money to pay rent elsewhere or for building material for a new school. They are treading on prayers, and continuing to learn despite construction crews surrounding, chopping down trees.

This film is meant to combine arts and creative energies to the basic awareness of global circumstances. I want to remind people to be compassionate and to act positively on behalf of family, friends, communities and especially children. My hope is to inspire my audience to engage in their immediate environments and draw a connection between the entire world and its diverse people.

Treatment- Watoto Shamba
The film starts with 16mm hand animation of planet earth spinning. A high contrast of colours including black and white will be the tone of this mixed medium collage of hand drawn, classical and scratch animation. The turning globe at first made with foliage and water then becoming more modern in material context will have an accompanying soundscape of children playing, wind and the occasional bird (hornbill and rooster) then be moving towards traffic sounds. The attention will be on the physical geography, diverse yet interconnected with an overall mood of a joyful spirit. The turning will stop on the African continent, camera tracking in towards East Africa, Kenya, Nairobi (classical animation using different maps.) For the title sequence I want to have 6 children with face painted letters spelling "watoto shamba" on their cheeks and to have a poster explaining the translation of the children’s garden. This will require a pan camera movement of close up cheeks each written with one letter in the words Watoto. Then the children will turn to the other cheek and Shamba will be spelled, this time panning from left to right.
Filming of the school plays: Each grade level, will produce a 2 minute skit with subject matter of there choice. With 6 classes plus a primary level this accounts for 15 minutes of footage. The plays will be written and acted out by the children and can be about any subject whether it is telling the story of the school’s situation (likely the older classes) personal life experiences or folktales. The main guideline is the language of Kiswahili, that all plays must have an accompanying contistoria (canvas storyboard) and the time limitations of one roll of film. The plays will appear in the film in age group order, starting with the youngest to oldest and all of the 130 children will be involved. Ample time will be devoted to each group working on story development, physical blocking, and acquiring the required costumes or makeup plus rehearsals. Each play will have a corresponding canvass storyboard to act as an English pictorial translation which will be filmed is segments to be used as possible silent film frame cards. The tone is joyfulness in the face of misrepresentation, generally happy children living it what may be deemed uncomfortable circumstances. The general theme of the film is embracing a state of mind or being in contrast to a state of physicality or condition. Due to the transitory situation of the school & garden and the presence of the student’s smiles a divide will be illustrated. Considering the life situations of the people involved; the dramatic and precarious events of the future the question is posed -What happens after the film ends? What are they going to do?? Where will they go?? Will the school close? Or move? Before the credits roll a model of the school will be shown with a bulldozer trampling the garden, the title card will read… “Eviction? Extinction?” What is the future of the Children’s garden?" I have experience with Claymation model and would love to have the children build a clay model of their school however I may need to bring the classical hand animation used at the start of the film back for this dramatic ending scene. It will be followed by the contact information for the school's hero of a headmaster Moses, who personally lives with 30 of the orphaned children who attend the school and could use some support.
Credits of all involved, including the Kenyan children and school administrators, film crew and those providing funding, will roll at the end of the film. I intend for each child to sign their own name and age; either on a whole sheet of paper held close to there face or a collective credit list depending on film supplies. Contact information for potential supporters of the school will also be shown at this the end.