Filmmakers Academy

Filmmakers Academy: Travel Diaries

In these intimate self portraits, four young filmmakers, whose lives have traversed faraway countries and cultures, reflect on experiences that forged their singular visions. To reflect the cosmopolitan flavor of the texts and ensure their global reach, we share them here in English.

By Hamza Bangash

Cinema is language.

This being in-between, something I hated as a teenager, has proved useful as a filmmaker. It’s allowed me to navigate different worlds. We have bigots in both the East and West. Much rarer are good people.

By Philbert Aimé Mbabazi Sharangabo’s

Slow Beginning

It was a slow beginning in Geneva. Very slow. I didn’t hit the ground running. I observed. With my silence I could almost feel that I wasn’t there as my mind wandered towards the familiar.

By Rina Tsou

Different Lenses

The culture shock I experienced upon returning to my hometown of Taipei from Manila, where I lived from the age of one till ten, has never stopped being part of my life.

By Shirley Bruno

Equilibrium

So there is an equilibrium that comes over me when I’m in Haiti. Normally, I’m living in the quiet countryside of Jacmel, the vital seaside city in the southeast.