Eyes for Everest documentary

A young optometrist dreams of following in the footsteps of Sir Edmund Hillary as he treks into the Himalayas to bring basic eye care to earthquake-struck villages around the foot of Mt Everest.  A 45 minute documentary intended for broadcast.  This is the first major production headed by an all women artist collective based in Auckland (www.wakingdream.co.nz).

Synopsis

Shaun Chang is a young Kiwi optometrist from Sydney with a passion for trekking and a life-long hero in the form of Sir Edmund Hillary. Last year, Shaun took a small group of optometrists up into the Himalayas to treat the eye conditions of children and adults en route to Everest Base Camp. They had to turn away people who had walked 4 hours to see them for treatment. This began theEyes4Everest initiative.  This year Shaun is returning to Nepal with a bigger team, more sponsorship and equipment.   His ultimate aim; to open the first eye clinic in the Sagarmatha New Zealand Park.  It may be a drop in the ocean in terms of the aid work going on in Nepal, but to Shaun this is his way of continuing the legacy of his life-long hero - a legacy that has become redefined and arguably contentious since Sir Ed passed away in 2008. As the team of optometrists arrives in an earthquake-torn Kathmandu and head to Lukla to begin their trek, we follow their trials and triumphs and explore the phenomenon of foreign aid in Nepal - and what it takes to walk in the footsteps of Sir Edmund Hillary.

Funding

Your funding would go directly to the crew costs:

Return flights to Nepal (via Sydney), insurance (for equipment) and equipment hire (mainly sound and camera accessories) for the trip.   The filming will take place in Sydney, Auckland, Kathmandu, Lukla and Everest base camp.

The charity has already graciously provided some funds for the crew once they are in Kathmandu but we are still short.  Any funding left over will go directly to the charity Eyes for Everest. (www.eyes4everest.org.au)

We are an independent crew with emerging filmmakers and crew and would love to make this project one of our calling cards. We would love the support of the NZ community to help us make this project.  It may seem like a small one but the scope of it and the themes we would like to present are huge. 

Between us, our previous works have won awards and screened at New Zealand festivals but we are keen to make something more local for local screens.

Topic Summary

Historically, Nepal has always been at the cross-roads of cultures; a meeting point and battleground for different civilisations vying for control over this small but strategically significant piece of land and the gateway to the Himalayas. 

Today, Nepal is still subject to foreign presence, as New Zealand aid teams from around the world position themselves in the various regions of the country and provide various services to its people in education, healthcare and other areas. Sir Edmund Hillary had acted as a sort of uniting influence for aid work across Nepal, however, after his death in 2008, the aid agencies that had never really collaborated grew further and further apart, and there was concern that New Zealand and Australia's legacy of aid to Nepal had begun to diminish. 

This documentary provides a unique perspective on this mixing-pot of foreign aid, following an organisation in the earliest stages as it tries to become established in its own niche in Nepal. 

Work on this documentary began before the earthquakes hit Nepal in April and May 2015.  Suddenly the sleepy Sherpa villages we were planning on visiting had become disaster zones; the children Shaun and the team met last year had all experienced the earthquakes, and will still be suffering the consequences when we visit in October.  The feel-good story we thought we would be telling suddenly took on a different dynamic. 

Would a story about bringing eye-care to Sherpa children seem slightly trivial while the buildings around them were crumbling and rebuilding teams were resurrecting their villages?  If we can take a lesson from Christchurch, it's the importance of restoring a sense of normality in disaster struck areas.  It's often the small gestures that bring hope to people who need something to cling to when the world around them has been shaken apart.  Shaun's trip to the Himalayas this year will be doing that, in a small way, for these communities.  With so much going wrong around them, Shaun and the team will be bringing a different kind of relief to the communities they visit, and I believe it will be even more emotional as a result.  It will also provide a different and fresh perspective on the people living with the aftermath of the earthquakes.  

At a time when Nepal is arguably in more need of foreign aid than ever, this documentary is coming at a crucial time of re-assessment and change in terms of how the world provides aid to this region.  

Director/Writer/Editor

Nicole van Heerden

Originally from South Africa, but now based in Auckland, Nicole has an MA(Hons) in Screen Production, specialising in Drama Directing, and a BSc (conjoint) specialising in Environmental Science from the University of Auckland.  Her thesis film, The Huia, has screened at film festivals in New Zealand and around the world, receiving 2nd runner up in the Audience Award at the Going Green Environmental Film Festival (LA) in 2013, and an Honourable Mention in the Best Emerging NZ Filmmaker Award at the Reel Earth Environmental Film Festival, 2012.   She is one of the co-founders of Waking Dream - a collective supporting women filmmakers. www.huiafilms.com

Producer

Ghazaleh Golbakhsh

Ghazaleh is an Iranian-New Zealand filmmaker and Fulbright scholar who undertook post-graduate studies in screenwriting at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles.  She also has an MA in Documentary from the University of Auckland where her thesis film on Iran won New Zealand awards.  She is currently working for the documentary department for the Sundance Institute and undertaking her PhD.  www.ghazalehworks.com

Thank you for your interest and help.