Behind the scenes with Nadine Pequeneza

By Nico — March 1, 2010 | 0 comments

Today I saw Nadine Pequeneza, the director of the three-part Inside Disaster documentary series, working in the editing suite. Her editing team has started logging the dozens of hours of footage they brought back from Haiti three weeks ago.

Nadine seems very happy with the zillion hours of amazing footage she and the crew managed to shoot in almost impossible conditions, and the next phase will be to turn these hundreds of sequences into stories, which will become the film.

While we were in Haiti I met up with the crew during the last days of their shoot. I found them at a Red Cross building materials distribution point near a camp.

A young guy was asking Nadine what kind of music she seemed so focused on listening to while pressing her earphone in her ear. “I’m not listening to music” she laughed, she was listening to the audio Paul was recording.

Nadine was directing the film crew while following the Red Cross workers starting a distribution line. She was tracking the development of the fast moving situations her characters solve all day long, being careful not to miss crucial decision-making or dialogue.

It is one thing to get good footage, but it all has to make sense and become a film in the end. For weeks, Nadine has been following the characters, stories and sub-stories that developed in the chaos of the aftermath of this huge disaster.

Making the film was nothing like what she expected – Nadine knew every disaster was different, but this was the biggest operation the Red Cross ever had in one country. This was the most challenging shoot in her career so far, as everything from logistics down to lodging (camping) and food had to be organized on the fly.

After 25 days of relentless shooting, the crew was still going strong trying to film the last needed bits of stories. This was a perfect time to catch Nadine for an interview during a quick break in the heat of the day.