FILMING STRANGERS

Although I love being a camerawoman, part of me has always been a bit uncomfortable with the inevitable part of filmmaking that requires aiming the camera at ordinary people going about their business in public in order to visually establish the life of a place. If people know that I’m filming, then I have no compunction about just diving in and getting the best images that I can - but if someone is just relaxing on a bench and enjoying a cigar or waiting for the bus or having an animated discussion in a café… well, aren’t we are all entitled to a little bit of privacy, even in public? Unless someone is a public figure or is making a public spectacle of himself or I am in an unbelievably crowded public place like Times Square then I really have to psyche myself up and overcome a certain amount of discomfort in order to get those images.

Because of this, I generally ask people if they mind me filming them before I do so, and I always do this when I travel outside the U.S. The downside of this is that sometimes people will cheerily agree and then – no matter how much you request that they shouldn’t - happily stare right at the camera as you are filming, which is not usually the desired effect. The upside of this is that it gives you an opportunity to make contact with people you wouldn’t otherwise meet and sometimes have even an interesting conversation. As a result of random conversations with strangers whom I have asked to film, I have found out such things as: the best place in Pristina to get a wide shot of the city; how to say “all the best” in Albanian; that the water in Peja/ Pec is rumored to give kidney stones because it has so much calcium; and how to get to Ferizaj/ Urosevac via the nice new road that isn’t yet on the map. People in Kosovo are generally very friendly and when they find out that we are from the United States and Germany they are curious to learn more about what we are doing.

The most curious of all, of course, are the kids. Several times I have looked up from setting my shot to find a group of them hanging back and looking on shyly. Inevitably, my former days as a teaching artist and video instructor kick in and I feel that it would just be wrong not to take a few moments to invite them to take a look at what I am doing. Today, I got swarmed by this very nice group of young people, who – after enthusiastically practicing their English on me - asked me if I would take their photo near the old socialist statue that I was filming in Peja/ Pec.