Behind the Scenes: Producer Stories

Charles Stuart, Stuart Television Productions

Zambia: Children's Town

This was my favorite place to visit. As soon as I saw Moses Zulu's photo on a Web site, I could tell this man was special. Moses runs Children's Town, a school for African orphans. Imagine a place where kids walk with a skip in their step here in the heart of the AIDS epidemic. Moses has instilled joy and hope in hundreds of children.

Moses introduced me to Boston Mwebela, a Baptist minister who rented us a small house to live in during our shoot 70 kilometers north of Lusaka in the small village of Malambamyama. I was there for a week with my Egyptian crew, Hossam Aboul Magd and Magdi Moussa. The food we cooked for ourselves wasn't great (as good as Magdi's cooking was, it doesn't compare to home) but the atmosphere and the people were wonderful. I went to a Sunday service at Boston's small church. The kids were fascinated with us being in their village for a week, and they laughed at everything we did.

At Children's Town, the kids and teachers are extraordinary. The steel band and chorus performed for our cameras and provided the perfect ending to our film. Rose and Agnes were two of the girls I got to know — both orphans, smart and vocal.

The African sunsets are so extraordinary. I asked Moses if he ever tired of seeing them and he said he really didn't have time to notice them every day until a visitor like me would mention to him how beautiful they are.

This is the one place I hope to return to. In this truly special place, there is little money to survive and often teachers will go without pay in order to provide food and books for the kids.

To help them become self-sustaining, I purchased a water pump from Nick Moon at ApproTEC in Kenya and had it shipped to Children's Town to help them irrigate their crops during the dry season. My editor Sid Levin and his wife Nancy also contributed money to buy another pump. They certainly have the manpower at Children's Town to run those pumps all day long.

Kenya: ApproTEC

Years ago I read a book called "Small is Beautiful" about the relationship between technology and poverty. Nick Moon, Martin Fisher and their staff are living examples of how "small is beautiful." ApproTEC is a small company helping poor Kenyans work themselves out of poverty by providing them with low-cost, durable pumps to irrigate their crops during the dry season.

When my college-age son Ted heard I was going to Africa, he asked if he could go along. He had just finished a course on colonialism in Africa and wanted to visit first-hand. Ted and I had a wonderful introductory dinner with Nick and Martin: a crash course in why it is not helpful to give poor people handouts, but it is possible to provide them with opportunity. We were warned not to go out at night because the city is so dangerous. Nick Moon, who lives full time in Nairobi, told us that if he got a flat tire at night, he wouldn't stop to fix it for fear of being mugged. He'd rather drive home on the rim of the tire. Such stories stick with you.

We couldn't resist going out anyway — what's the point of traveling if you don't meet people? Our local producer William introduced my son to some musicians who took us to hear some incredible African music at a bar outside of Nairobi.

My most vivid memory is of Fred Ahenda who lives with his family in Kisumu, in western Kenya on Lake Victoria. He is a lovely man, trying to make ends meet for his family of nine. At first I wanted to ask why he had so many kids, but I decided against imposing my Western morals on him. Instead, I talked to him about his desire to make a better life, feed his family and hopefully turn a profit using ApproTEC's pump to grow more crops.

Egypt: Baby Academy

I love Egypt and Egyptian people. Anyone who has been there will probably tell you the same thing. This was my third trip to Egypt; my first was as a tourist in 2000, then as a documentary filmmaker in 2003 just before the US invasion of Iraq. Egyptians have always been accepting of Americans, even after the war in Iraq began. Tourism is a major source of revenue, and they do like our dollars, but Egyptians have a wonderful sense of humor. One woman told that was because "things are so messed up here, you have to be able to laugh."

When The New Heroes series was first being discussed, I realized that out of the 50-plus stories we were initially considering, none of them were from the Middle East. I called my friend and colleague Hossam in Cairo, who told me about Dina Abdel Wahab and the Baby Academy. I love to show people breaking stereotypes when making a film, and Dina breaks them all. She just doesn't meet your typical expectations of an Arab woman.

The most joyful part of the shoot was her young son Ali, who has Down's syndrome. He was so accepting of me and my crew, Hossam and Magdi. We went everywhere: swimming, to school, to Friday prayers. He is an Arab kid with Down's syndrome, and yet he could be a part of any mainstream US school.

Bangladesh: Grameen Bank

After my thirty years in the business of journalism and filmmaking, Muhammad Yunus is simply the most interesting man I have ever interviewed. He is a smart, engaging activist (although he won't admit it). We took a still photo of him giving a loan to a Muslim woman. What happened after that photo was taken was truly amazing. I rushed outside with the crew to get a shot of the woman returning to her village with her Grameen bank book. As she passed, her husband followed her, carrying their infant child. This role reversal is unheard of in a conservative Muslim society. And it's all because of Muhammad Yunus.

A colleague who had been to Bangladesh for the UN on several occasions told me "I don't care where you have been and what you have seen; nothing will prepare you for the poverty you will see in Bangladesh." I found this not to be quite true. Sure, I found incredible poverty, but some of the villages I visited were so clean and were taken care of with such pride; I had to remind myself where I was. Poor sections of Cairo are disgusting with trash thrown into the streets, but not here. Pride can often supercede poverty.

I shot this film with an entire crew from Bangladesh. I had carefully checked out the resume of my cameraman Minas Moslem, and he was impressive. My fixer loaded me up with a 10-man crew, and when I balked and told him I don't normally work with crews that size, he told me not to worry, that it wouldn't cost much here. Sure enough, a 10-person crew from Bangladesh cost less than a standard two- to three-person crew anywhere else in the world.