Land in Kampala. Then you have a 10-12 hour Landrover ride to the Kellermann Clinic at Bwindi. The Clinic is located right at the northern edge of the Bwindi forest and is almost right on the equator. Days are warm and humid. Nights are perfect. The clinic has a small diesel generator and a solar system, but the pygmy villages are generally without power. So, I used my trusty fold out solar panel to charge cameras, laptops, cell phone, and the numerous miscellaneous batteries needed to keep us going. On our arrival in Kampala we first visited, and interviewed for the film, his excellency Steven Browning, US Ambassador to Uganda, and a Nevada County, CA resident at the residence in Kampala. Many thanks to Steven and Susan Browning for thier assistance, help and encouragement.
Video from the film at www.youtube.com. If the link does not play
you may need to "allow ActiveX content." Alternately you
can go directly to YouTube by clicking this link. http://www.youtube.com/v/FbgwO-6gzHc
The introduction of modern medicine and the Kellermann hospital has done wonders to the Batwa survival rate. Even when asked if they would rather go back to their old way of life in the forest many a Pygmy will reply that they would like to keep Western medicine. Since Dr. Kellermann arrived, the birth survival rate has increased dramatically.
Little is really known about the Pygmies but rumors have flourished for over 2,000 years. Consider these references from Kevin Duffy's Children of the Forest, published in 1984.
Aristotle, History of Animals. --- Speaking about storks and cranes and their migration to the lakes at the end of the Nile, "There dwell the Pygmies, and this is no fable."
Abed bin Juma, caravan leader. --- After six days march along the Nile he reached the forest and "…was fiercely received by the malicious little demons who sprang from the soil around like mushrooms, and showered their poison arrows on the travelers, causing them endless losses."
Sir Henry Morten Stanley, In Darkest Africa, 1887 "At this settlement I saw the first specimen of the tribe of dwarfs who were said to be thickly scattered north of the Ituri, from the Ngaiyu eastward. She measured thirty-three inches in height, and was a perfectly formed young woman of about seventeen, of a glistening and smooth sleekness of body. Her figure was that of a miniature coloured lady, not wanting in a certain grace, and her face was very prepossessing. Her complexion was the colour of yellow ivory. Her eyes were magnificent, but absurdly large for such a small creature - almost as large as that of a young gazelle; full, protruding, and extremely lustrous. Absolutely nude, the little demoiselle was quite possessed, as though she was accustomed to being admired, and really enjoyed inspection."
Edward Tyson, M.D., Anatomy of a Pygmy Compared with That of a Monkey, an Ape and a Man, 1699
"Pygmies are either apes or monkeys, and not men…"
Homer, The Iliad ---
"So when inclement winters vex the plain
With piercing frosts, or thick descending rain,
To warmer seas the cranes embodied fly,
With noise and order, through the midway sky;
To Pygmy nations wounds and death they bring,
And all the war descends upon the wing."
 
Many volunteers from Nevada County California and elsewhere in the US have made the trip to assist Scott and Carol
 Alex Wolfe graduated from San Francisco State University in June 2006 with a degree in Cinema. He has known Scott and Carol almost his whole life and when Scott invited him to create this project he enthusiatically accepted. This will be his first feature length documentary.
Alex is working on this and other projects under the lead and tutelage of seasoned professional and Executive Producer Dick Arlett of TrailWood Productions, LTD. Alex will be working with a team of experienced cinematographers, still photographers, and production managers while on site organzied through TraiWood Productions.
Alex will assist with post production work at a well known editing house in Miami, FL.
.: Thank you again to everyone who has helped make this project possible!
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