In October and November, the Frontier Filmmaking Seminar traveled to Sierra Leone to make a gospel film for the Temne people. The classroom portion of our seminar took place in Freetown and then we traveled to a village a few hours away to shoot the evangelistic drama. With the help of local workers and a Temne project partner, we cast our movie and began shooting. We had just two weeks to film the story, “Adama’s Dream” about a young woman who learns to trust in Jesus. On Friday, one week into shooting, we spent the day in the village filming a big contextualized worship scene. The scene was complex and required over 40 extras, but by the end of the day we had captured all we needed. We returned to our accommodations and prepared to offload the footage onto our computer to back it up and keep it safe. That was when we discovered the missing SD card. Somehow, in the packing up process, it had fallen out of a pocket. We had walked all around the village, through tall grass and in the dark. The tiny card could be anywhere.
We immediately gathered the team to pray. We knew that God knew where the card was even if we did not. As we shared our impressions from the Lord, we felt that the card would be found, but not by us. I felt like the card was in the grass, but not where we would expect it to be. Another felt that it would involve the children. We went to bed that night positive that the Lord knew the answer but we still didn’t.
The next day we returned to the same area to continue filming. We asked around, describing the card, but no one had seen it. About thirty minutes later, as we set up for that day’s scene, we heard a commotion. The card was found! It was quite a distance away, in the tall grass, under some clothes spread out to dry in the sun. God was so faithful and we celebrated our thanks with a spontaneous dance party.
That same evening, six days before we had to leave, we were forced to abandon our night scenes because of torrential rain. This was a crucial scene, the one where our main character has dreams of Jesus that lead to her eventual acceptance of Him. We were able to shoot the scene once before the rain came, but even that was fraught with challenges. We packed up for the night, and as we drove toward our sleeping quarters I noticed that our location, a covered porch attached to a small home, was sandwiched snuggly between the local mosque and the village “Devil House,” a shrine to the dead, filled with idols.
The next evening we returned under clear skies. We shared a meal with our actors and local helpers and set up to shoot the dream scenes. As our actor settled down on her mat, the skies opened up and pounding rain started again. It was earlier then the previous night, so, thinking that the rain might pass, we decided to stick around. We ran through the rain, by the mosque and Devil House, to where we could more comfortably take shelter in the church. As we sat waiting someone began to sing. Before we knew it, we embarked on a evening of worship with our Temne brothers and sisters last lasted into the night. The rain never stopped, but when we piled into the van to go home to bed, we knew our mission had been accomplished that evening.
Time was becoming scarce. It was now Monday. We had three days to finish shooting and edit together a rough-cut of the film to show it at a cast party. During the day we worked hard to finish the daylight scenes. All that remained were the dream scenes with Jesus. We carried our gear to the location for the third time, everyone watching the sky warily. Way out on the horizon was the dark smudge of a rain cloud that was moving our way. Pastor Abdul, our cultural advisor, watched it carefully.
“No,” he finally declared, “the rain will not stop us tonight. We will get this scene done!” Believing that he spoke the truth, we set up our scene.
As we shot we could hear thunder in the distance, threatening, but not loud enough to interfere. As the storm clouds drew closer, we got more nervous. Soon the storm arrived and the rain began, but it was a gentle, quiet rain, completely unlike the previous two nights. The thunder stopped entirely.
Rejoicing, we continued shooting take after take until it was just right. On the last take, the main character cries, “Save me!” to Jesus as her animistic charm drops to the ground. I yelled, “Cut!” and in just that moment the rains came like a flood.
Two days later, we gathered with 200 people down the street from the mosque and Devil House and showed a rough cut of the film. When the dream scene played the entire audience began cheering and applauding when the young woman cried out for Jesus to save her. Even the Tribal Chief applauded the power of Jesus and gave his blessing to the film.
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