It’s been a while since the last update. Alfy is now settling into his new job in Hong Kong and I’m gearing up to relocate to Madagascar in August 2017! Here’s a quick update on our plans for the next few months:
Translating Film into Portuguese
Some people over at the Voz da América – Português new service got in touch back in October 2016 with a suggestion: why not translate our Kayak The Kwanza documentary into Portuguese? This sounded like a great way to bring the film to a wider audience. I was especially enthusiastic as it would mean being able to share our adventure with many of our Angolan friends back in Luanda. Perhaps it might even start a discussion on wildlife conservation and the untapped tourism potential of Angola’s River Kwanza? Or perhaps generate interest in the environmental impacts of diamond mining? Hopefully we will get it all translated, re-recorded and uploaded in the next few months. Stay tuned!
What's next for #Kayak The #Kwanza? Translating #expedition film to #Portuguese with @VOAPortuguese! #Angola #Luanda https://t.co/QA2dxeRYIx
— Kayak The Kwanza (@kayakthekwanza) January 4, 2017
Film Festivals
Late last year I watched Into The Empty Quarter for the first time. It is a 52 minute documentary film by adventurers Alastair Humphreys and Leon McCarron. On a journey inspired by their hero, Wilfred Thesiger, they walked around 1000 miles into the Empty Quarter desert, dragging a 300kg cart of supplies behind them. You can watch the shorter festival cut of the film below:
Although Into The Empty Quarter is shot and produced a lot more professionally than ours, I noted some similarities. It’s all self-filmed. There’s only two people. It’s a long overland journey in an isolated place. Oh,, and they’re dragging a bloody heavy cart! I also noticed that it did quite well at a few adventure travel film festivals, so I decided to enter Kayak The Kwanza into some and see what happened. Below you can see our dashboard from Film Freeway, which is a great tool to submit to hundreds of film festivals and screenplay contests in one simple place.
Expect Tweet updates on the notification dates below to let you know whether we have made it through to the next selection round of each festival! We’ve also been shortlisted for The Adventure Travel Film Festival in London, 11-13 August 2017.
Speaking at the Royal Geographical Society
On 22 March 2017 at 7:00pm I will be delivering a short presentation on our Kwanza expedition as part of The Royal Geographical Society’s Geographical journeys: microlectures event. The night is billed as “A night of inspirational tales of adventure and discovery from the next generation of travellers” and I believe there will be five other short presentations. Tickets range from £9 to £15 and can be purchased here.
Thanks to my friend James Willcox for recommending that I apply to speak this year. James runs the adventure travel company Untamed Borders, which specialises in trips to Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, former Soviet Central Asia and the Caucasus. He gave a talk at the 2016 Microlectures event on a trip to Puntland, Somalia. You can view the 10 minute talk below: