Documentarian travels to impoverished Chad

Stu Ehr, Media Director at Sisters Community Church, has a passion for both ministry and film. Over the past ten years he's combined both passions through overseas filming trips to Nicaragua, India, Russia (twice), Uganda, Yucatan, and most recently the Republic of Chad, located in Central Africa.

Ehr's career in film began many years ago in the Portland area. A native Oregonian, his career started with local Portland TV stations. Moving to Sisters in the mid-nineties, Ehr joined Multnomah Publishers and filmed vignettes on almost all of the publisher's authors as a key member of the marketing department.

A "documentarian," Stu is an accomplished storyteller who uses film and video as his medium. Frequently called on by ministry groups around the world, Ehr believes the end result of his work is worth the complications that come with filming in remote locations.

While most of us were enjoying the Thanksgiving holiday last year, Ehr spent three and a half weeks in the dusty desert of Chad, a landlocked country in Central Africa. In one of the most corrupt countries in the world, most Chadians live in poverty as subsistence herders and farmers. Average household income is about $400 per year.

Ehr was invited to Africa by a Christian Chadian missionary with Oregon roots. Mary Stone lives and works with tribes throughout the country.

Chad's religious mix is Animist, Christian, and Muslim.

Animism is widely practiced in Chad among tribes. It's is a philosophical and spiritual belief that spirits exist in humans, animals, plants and other entities.

About two years ago, Chadian Christian leaders approached Stone about how to expose the tribal practice of "initiation," widely practiced and accepted in tribes throughout Central Africa.

Initiation is considered to be "a rite of passage" within local tribes, Ehr reported. Generally forced on both men and women between the ages of 12 and 18, it involves physical, mental and sexual abuse administered by an "Initiation Chief" and tribal elders.

According to reports relayed by Ehr, women are raped. Female genital mutilation, kidnapping, ransom payments, graft and even murder are common.

Resisting initiation or refusing to pay a ransom (up to six months' wages) for a relative who's been kidnapped results in being kicked out of the tribe - or worse, Ehr reported.

Mary Stone, Oregon-born and living in the Chadian village of Mondou, believes the best way to begin eliminating the practice of initiation was to create a documentary exposing it. Her Christian Chadian colleagues agreed and set about writing a script and assembling volunteer actors for a film recreation. Stone raised the funds for the project (about $32,000) from donations received from Christians throughout the U.S.

Knowing she had to find a well-traveled and experienced "documentarian," Stone contacted Ehr who immediately jumped at the opportunity to help.

"Like many people I had no idea what 'initiation' was. Once I heard the horror stories I knew that, for it to be eliminated, a documentary film was the way to go," said Ehr.

Through his many film and missionary contacts, Ehr assembled a seasoned crew for the project. The team consisted of sound man Rob Barrett from Minnesota and director Richard Hunt from Houston. Ehr served as Director of Photography.

"I knew I had to have a team of people who wouldn't mind a cockroach as big as a VW crawling over their leg, or an occasional rat wandering into the bathroom," said Ehr.

Despite a few days of diarrhea and the ever-present fear of snakes, the crew held up well under the hot, dry and dusty conditions.

Weather, health and animal concerns were actually the least of the crew's worries. The entire project had to be kept secret for fear of retaliation. The crew knew that, at any moment, they could be physically threatened and had a security person on-set at all times.

The film consists of recreations of actions played out in initiation rituals.

"Exposing, filming, or even talking about initiation is a life-threatening situation. Most of the 45 actors (who ranged in age from eight to 55) had experienced initiation; they were putting their lives on the line by appearing in the film. But they felt deeply that exposing the practice will eventually diminish its power within the tribes," said Ehr.

Neither the script writers nor actors had any training in writing or acting prior to this project.

"I was really blown away by the quality of the script. These people have no televisions or experience with script writing or acting. But throughout their history these people have been storytellers and they simply wrote a script based on the initiation stories they knew," said Ehr.

The actors, who received no compensation for their work, traveled up to 50 miles by bicycle or on foot to reach the filming site. Familiar with working with first-time actors, Ehr was amazed with their acting abilities.

"The actors were amazing, completely at ease in front of a camera. But again, these people are storytellers by nature, they simply told the stories they had personally experienced."

Shot entirely in French, the national language, the working title of the film is "The Deliverance." Still in post-production, the film is expected to be a little over an hour when complete this spring.

The distribution of the film is expected this summer throughout Chad. DVDs and VCDs will be made for local Chadian Christians to show to small groups of people throughout the country using portable players. The fear of retaliation by "Initiation Chiefs" and tribal leaders drives this "underground" distribution method.

Future plans for the film include subtitling in many of the 130 other tribal languages spoken throughout Central Africa, as well as potential U.S. distribution.

A short clip of the film, with English subtitles, is available on YouTube.

"This is definitely the most difficult filming project I've ever done. I had to shoot from a script in a language I don't speak, in an environment that's not a typical set. But my reward will be in the results of the showings around the country," said Ehr.