A Small Act which premiered in U.S. Documentary Competition at Sundance 2010 tells the inspirational story of an impoverished boy in Kenya Chris Mburu whose life was dramatically changed when an anonymous Swedish woman sponsored his primary education. Shot in the town of Västerås Sweden; in Geneva Switzerland; and in the lush landscape of Kenya's central highlands A Small Act tells the story of the adult Chris Mburu now a Harvard-educated human-rights lawyer who hopes to replicate the generosity he once received by founding his own scholarship fund to aid a new generation of Kenyans. The on-location production team for A Small Act consisted of director/producer Jennifer Arnold and director of photography/producer Patti Lee. The movie was shot with Panasonic’s AG-HVX200 P2 HD handheld camcorder and prior to Sundance was picked up by HBO Documentary Films to air next summer. The challenges Mburu faces instituting his new program seem at times insurmountable but lead him down the path to discovery. Who is Hilde Back the person who signed the checks that gave him a chance to succeed? With clarity and grace the documentary bears cinematic witness to the lasting ramifications of a small gesture of human kindness. DP Lee explains that when she evaluated cameras for the three-month multi-country 2007 shoot she sized up the HVX200 as the best choice in terms of quality portability and cost-effectiveness and purchased the P2 HD handheld for the single-camera shoot. “At the time tapeless production was not that common and believe me we had no easy access to electricity in Kenya but to achieve the quality the HVX200 afforded we would have needed a much bigger camera ” Lee says. “The camcorder fit within our budget and critically was lightweight and unobtrusive. We spent considerable time shooting in a poor simple setting in Kenya often involving children and the last thing we needed was a big camera as a distraction.” Lee says that in their travels from Sweden to Switzerland to Kenya she and Arnold traveled with two rolling backpacks one for the camera and the second for sound gear and hard drives carried onto planes. “The airlines lost our checked luggage on every leg of our trip but that never stopped us from shooting ” she says. The filmmakers shot 720/24pN and set up workstations on location to offload interviews onto a PowerBook G4 and backed them up on buss-powered FireWire field drives. They finished with more than 200 hours of footage that was edited into the 85-minute final piece on Final Cut Pro. The editors were Carl Pfirman and Tyler Hubby. Colorist Andy Lichstein performed the color correct on a Baselight system at Chainsaw Edit in Hollywood California. A Small Act www.asmallact.com Panasonic www.panasonic.com/P2HD
