Monica Lam Reports

Production Diary: June 29, 2008 Beijing
The Bonesetter’s Daughter documentary

Wu Tong practices the suona

Today was our first full day on the ground, and it went well. We filmed with Wu Tong in his home in the morning, getting ready for his day. Wu Tong is a singer – and a bit of a rock star – who integrates traditional Chinese instruments into his music. He plays with Yo-Yo Ma on the Silk Road Project and leads a rock’n’roll band called the China Magpies. We followed him as he cooked himself a simple breakfast of eggs, burned some incense to the Guanyin, and practiced suona in his living room. He also sat down to practice his calligraphy in a meditative den that’s built in a Japanese style – elevated floors, tatami mats, low tables and cushions, and sliding wooden doors.

Wu Tong practices calligraphy

Later, as we drove together to rehearsals, Wu Tong sang the entire time in his car, flexing a wild and unusual range of vocal chords. In the Bonesetter’s Daughter Opera, Wu Tong will not only play the suona, but he also has a role as a Taoist priest who chants during key passages of the opera. His voice is deep and raspy, but vibrant like the suona. What he’s chanting is a distinctive mix of Chinese tones and Western melodies.

Wu Tong drives a Range Rover, which I must admit is quite a comfortable ride. Gas prices are also rising here in China, (now at 6.60 RMB/liter or about $3.67/gallon at today’s exchange rates), but from what I can tell, many Chinese also prize the same large motor vehicles that sell so well in the U.S.

Our destination was rehearsals with Stewart Wallace, the composer of the opera, with whom we had traveled to China. Together with another suona player, Wu Tong and Stewart worked through the part of the opera called “Between Worlds,” a raucous musical bridge that takes the audience from the world of the living into the world of the dead. Stewart’s score is rhythmic and stirs the feet to dance, while Zuo Jicheng put a distinctly jazzy sound on his suona.

Stewart Wallace, Wu Tong, and Zuo Jicheng rehearsing the Bonesetter’s Daughter Opera.

The weather has been very kind so far — pretty cool, only occasional drizzles. But the air is so clogged with haze and pollution that visibility is no farther than one city block! It’s also really dark, but I can’t tell if that’s the brooding rain clouds or the smog. I’m not sure how we’ll get any decent visuals of this city — it’s a similar problem to what we had in Shanghai. It’s hard to imagine how this place will look when thousands of people swarm in for the Olympics. I’m holding out for nice visuals once we hit the countryside.

At The Crossroads: the documentary
Premiere: May 13, 2008 6:30-9 pm
Great American Music Hall
859 O’Farrell Street, San Francisco, CA

Watch the video: Large (35MB) || Small (17MB)
(Quicktime, TRT 15:30)

This documentary journeys into the world and work of At The Crossroads, a San Francisco organization that works with homeless youth and young adults. Counselors go on outreach four nights a week in the Mission and Downtown neighborhoods and hand out supplies to the youth they meet. Through that, they form relationships with youth and work with them to build healthy and fulfilling lives

Producer/Director/Camera: Monica Lam
Editor/Additional Camera: Thomas Benton
Original Music by: Daoud
Interviewer: Molly Rhodes

For more information about the event: http://www.atthecrossroads.org/event/

Bolinao 52 on California PBS Stations
April 30, 2008 @ 9pm on KTEH San Jose (CH 54, Comcast 10)
May 4, 2008 @ 2pm on KQED San Francisco (CH 9)
www.bolinao52.com

The “Bolinao 52” was a fishing boat that left Vietnam on a rainy night in May 1988 with 110 passengers onboard, seeking asylum from political oppression and a better life. Their journey lasted a harrowing 37 days, during which they drifted lost without an engine on the high seas, ran out of food and water, encountered a U.S. Navy ship but were not rescued, and eventually had to break the “last taboo” to survive. Only 52 passengers made it to the Phillipines, where they were rescued by a couple of poor fishermen.

20 years later, one of the survivors, Tung Trinh, begins a new journey to seek answers and ultimately closure about what happened on the “Bolinao 52.” Told through her voice, the film tackles questions of risk and responsibility, truth and forgiveness. Film director Duc Nguyen writes, “Bolinao 52 is one boat person’s attempt to speak out about an unmentioned chapter in history. Her voice represents millions of silent ones.”

I contributed to this project as a line producer. For more information about the film and other screenings, go to: www.bolinao52.com

San Francisco Opera brings six operas to the silver screen
March - Summer, 2008
Castro Theatre, San Francisco, CA
(for a full schedule, see sfopera.com/cinecast.asp)

The San Francisco Opera has captured six operas in high definition digital format for cinema. La Rondine, Samson and Delilah, Don Giovanni, and Madama Butterfly are at the head of the lineup, and will be playing at the historic Castro Theatre in San Francisco, from March through April.

I contributed to this project as a consulting producer. For a full schedule of the operas, screening dates and times, go to: sfopera.com/cinecast.asp

A February 21, 2008 article in the New York Times, “Mercury Taint Divides a Japanese Whaling Town,” told the story of the remote Japanese port of Taiji, where a centuries-old whaling tradition is being threatened by mercury pollution. I was struck by the similarities between Taiji, Japan, and what I saw happening in the Faroe Islands, where I spent a summer covering whale hunting and mercury. Both the Faroe Islands and the port of Taiji are home to small, self-reliant cultures that have practiced whaling for generations. Both places were able to resist international attention when environmental protestors came to vilify whaling, asserting that their methods were sustainable. But now both Taiji in the Pacific Ocean and the Faroe Islands in the North Atlantic are finding that there’s a new, unexpected threat to their culture: the detrimental effects of methyl mercury that accumulates in the bodies of whales and other large sea mammals.

To read the article:

Mercury Taint Divides a Japanese Whaling Town February 21, 2008, by MARTIN FACKLER The New York Times

I’ve just embarked on a new fund-raising and film-making project: to make a documentary film for a non-profit organization that works with homeless youth in San Francisco, called At The Crossroads. THANK YOU to all the people who have supported this campaign so far!

At The Crossroads works with some of the hardest to reach kids, the ones who have been turned away by every other organization or shelter. Yet ATC defines success as not simply “getting clean and getting off the streets” but as realizing dreams: finding love, happiness, and a fulfilling career. It’s a great reminder to me, too, of what’s important in life.

But ATC’s work can be hard to explain because they work on the streets at night and the process is nuanced. So a documentary video is an essential tool for them to spread the word about their work and to continue raising funds to support it. They’re also celebrating their 10th Anniversary this year, so the time is right.

To check on my progress with the film, learn about the amazing work of At The Crossroads or to make a tax-deductible credit card or check donation, visit: http://campaign.atthecrossroads.org/campaign.php?id=Monicazlam

Or check out some of the other campaign pledges — including ones to quit smoking, lose weight, and learn to drive.

Today’s front-page article in the New York Times, “High Mercury Levels Are Found in Tuna Sushi Sold in Manhattan” (1/23/08) reported that tuna sushi from a number of Manhattan restaurants and stores were found to have elevated levels of mercury. The study concluded that eating a meal of six pieces of sushi once a week from most of 20 Manhattan restaurants and stores surveyed would exceed the EPA’s recommended limit on mercury intake.

This study, initiated by the New York Times and conducted with the help of area scientists, is a reminder that methylmercury pollution of the ocean affects everyone, from urban foodies to people who rely on seafood for subsistence. I first became interested in methylmercury in the food chain when I went to the remote Faroe Islands to report on how mercury was affecting this North Atlantic fishing culture. There I saw firsthand how global pollution affects small communities and traditional diets, and how the Faroese were already spearheading research into mercury’s effects on the body.

I don’t rely on a seafood diet for survival, but I feel a distinct pang of regret when I think about cutting back on the delicious, delicate delight of sushi — in my case, a luxury. But for many people around the world, the choice may not be so simple.

To read the article:

High Mercury Levels Are Found In Tuna Sushi Sold in Manhattan By MARIAN BURROS, New York Times, Jan. 23, 2008

Follow-up article:

Warnings Don’t Deter Lovers of Sushi New York Times, Jan. 24, 2008

Florence, KY, March 2001 — A small crowd was gathered to watch the ground-breaking ceremony of the Creation Museum, a project that wanted passionately to combine the best of a natural history museum with the strictest of interpretations of the Bible. The vision of Answers in Genesis, the group behind the Creation Museum, was in fact a vivid one: to bring to three-dimensional, colorful tangibility a story that many have long regarded as mythology. The Creation Museum, so the people gathered here hoped, would tell the tale of how the world was made, and it would be narrated by the Bible’s book of Genesis.

This was all before 9/11, when the country was still innocent, in many ways, of the power of religion in politics. At least the kind of power that religion now holds in politics, both here in the United States and abroad. Snowflakes were falling and we were all shivering, but that didn’t stop many from joining in a ceremonial digging at the frozen ground. Families posed for photographs, holding shovels spray-painted in gold in their mittened hands.

I didn’t know at the time what this ground-breaking ceremony would lead to. It was hard to imagine that the half-dead field of weeds we stood in would ever be much more than that. But as I would follow the progress of Answers in Genesis and the building of the Creation Museum over the next several years, I would learn many things. About dinosaurs, about religion, and about the questions that are close to the heart of America.

Dinosaurs in Eden is an on-going documentary project. Keep checking back for more essays and video in the coming weeks. Photo: Robert Huber

“Sex Slaves in America”
on MSNBC Undercover
Monday, December 3, 2007 @ 11pm
(re-broadcast Dec. 26 & 30, 2007)

To read the transcript or view excerpts: http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/22056066/

MSNBC goes undercover to examine human trafficking and prostitution in three major American cities, San Francisco, Houston, and Detroit. The stories of the young women caught in international trafficking rings are horrifying and haunting, and the worst part is that it is happening in our own backyard.

I joined a team of shooters and editors in crafting this piece, produced by Grace Kahng and San Toki Productions.

To read a summary: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22083762/

“Faroe Islands: A Message from the Sea”
on FRONTLINE/World
Tuesday, June 26, 2007 on PBS
9pm nationwide, but check local listings
http://www.pbs.org/frontlineworld/stories/faroe605

Tune in this Tuesday, June 26, 2007 for the latest broadcast of FRONTLINE/World on PBS (9pm nationwide, but check local listings). In this hour is a piece that I shot and co-produced about the Faroe Islands, a remote and beautiful place in the north Atlantic Ocean, where the people are descended from Vikings and live a life that’s close to the land and sea. In “Faroe Islands: A Message from the Sea” we explore how a Faroese doctor’s research into the effects of methyl mercury is affecting the centuries-old tradition of whaling that is practiced there.

In working on this story, I spent a month in the Faroe Islands with my husband Greg and our younger daughter Medina. Greg’s landscape photography is featured on the FRONTLINE/World website, where you can also listen to Faroese music, watch the entire broadcast, or leave a comment.

Also in this broadcast are reports on Indonesia, Kuwait, and Tanzania.