In Transit

Bent Jorgen Perlmutt
Nelson Walker III
Louis Abelman

Bent Jorgen Perlmutt
Nelson Walker III
Louis Abelman

Lynn True

Documentary
Short Film

The Goma Film Project came about when Doctors on Call for Service (DOCS—now called HEAL Africa), a teaching hospital and nonprofit organization located in Goma, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), enlisted filmmakers Louis Abelman, Bent-Jorgen Perlmutt, and Nelson Walker III to produce assorted informational videos. The first of our assignments was to create a small series of surgical training videos documenting vesico-vaginal fistula (VVF) repair, the most common procedure performed at DOCS on any given day.

A vesico-vaginal fistula is a tear in the vaginal wall that opens into the urethra. In the first world, fistulas are rare; in most parts of the third world, they are caused by complications during childbirth. In the eastern Congo, they are primarily caused by an epidemic of violent rape and torture taking place in the war-ravaged countryside. Marauding armies and militias, some responsible for the Rwandan genocide of 1994, continue to stalk the forests and villages of the region. Women and girls of multiple tribal and ethnic backgrounds have increasingly become victims of plunder, rape, and slavery by the many armed groups involved in the ongoing conflict. At least 40,000 rape cases have been documented in the past several years, with some estimates of up to a million additional undocumented cases. DOCS/HEAL Africa is the only hospital in the region that offers a comprehensive rehabilitation program for women who have acquired fistula from rape.

Overwhelmed by the magnitude of the (for us, previously unheard of) situation, we decided to make a feature film about these women and their rehabilitation program, In Transit. After two months of filming in the Congo in late 2004, we spent much of the following year editing. We decided to return to Congo again in fall of 2005, and enlisted Lynn True, an editor who had worked previously with Nelson, to come along. It was a true experiment in on-site editing made possible by advances in technology. After another amazing few months in the Congo, we returned and have since continued editing. We expect to finish a full-length (80 min.) version of the film in April 2006.

Conflict continues in eastern Congo, and we hope to use our completed film to raise awareness of this massive, yet unheralded, humanitarian catastrophe. With the guidance of counselors (many of whom were former VVF patients themselves), the women we filmed go through an intensive rehabilitation program through which they receive physical therapy, counseling and training in micro-finance projects that aim to help them become self-sufficient after their treatment. As a result, many of these women leave the program not only physically healed, but with a new sense of dignity and awareness that they will be able to resume their lives. Unfortunately, the homes they have to return to are all too often sites of continuing armed conflict and danger — putting their recoveries at risk.

FILMMAKER BIOS

Louis Abelman, Director and Producer

Louis Abelman is a freelance writer living in New York. This is his first film. After attending Brown University where he majored in African History, he worked for the International Herald Tribune as an editorial assistant, where he later wrote an editorial about the situation in Goma, DRC. He currently works as a news assistant at the New York Times.

Bent-Jorgen Perlmutt, Director and Producer

Bent-Jorgen Perlmutt holds a BA in English Literature from Brown University and will receive his MFA in Film from Columbia University next fall. He served as the co-producer of Control Room (Magnolia Pictures, 2004). Bent-Jorgen has served as an editor for various campaign videos and commercials, including The Campaign for Global Leadership and Mitsubishi. He currently works with WITNESS, an NGO which partners with human rights defenders, training them to use video to document abuse and create change. Recently he trained a human rights group in Uganda to make a film about refugee camps there. Bent-Jorgen will teach a course on documentary filmmaking at Columbia University next spring.

Nelson Walker III, Director and Producer

Nelson Walker III holds a BA in American Civilization from Brown University. He began his career as a writer, penning documentaries for Discovery Channel, History Channel, and PBS’ NOVA. Nelson’s directorial debut, iThemba|Hope, aired on Sundance Channel in February of 2005. Nelson works regularly as a cinematographer for renowned documentary film company, Maysles Films. Notable projects he has contributed to include The Gates and Aristide in Africa, a portrait of Haiti’s president in exile. He was the 2005 recipient of the Albert Maysles Award for Excellence in Documentary Filmmaking at the Dallas Video Festival. Nelson is currently a visiting instructor at Tibet University in Lhasa, Tibet as part of the Tibetan & Himalayan Digital Library Project. He is also pursuing his MFA in Directing at Columbia University’s School of the Arts.

Lynn True, Editor

Lynn True is a New York based editor and producer. After graduating from Brown University with a joint degree in Urban Studies and Architecture, Lynn began working as an assistant editor of documentary programming for PBS, AMC and NBC News Productions as well as on various documentary and experimental films. For two years, Lynn was the Creative Director and Senior Editor at an award-winning educational video production company, a position she left in order to work on independent film and video projects. As an editor, Lynn’s work has spanned narrative and documentary film to music videos and museum installations. Lynn’s last film, iThemba|Hope, a documentary about a South African AIDS counselor, premiered on The Sundance Channel. Past projects have also been shown at The Museum of Modern Art, BAM, Anthology Film Archives, New York Historical Society and IFP New York, in addition to festivals and conferences around the world. Lynn is currently editing and co-producing a feature length documentary about Michigan asparagus farmers and their struggle with globalization, Asparagus! (A Stalk-umentary).