Cynematik • Cyndi Greening

Well, today was a relatively unpleasant day. First, I discovered that Edmond Kabwe of the Post of Zambia did a story entitled It’s Bad Timing Again about the MCC hearing and copyright dispute over the film. Overall, a pretty good article (although no follow-up on the Positive Results of the Hearing).

Then, Jeniece pointed out that there was a new comment on the original Tribune article and it wasn’t too dang good. You know, they say no good deed goes unpunished and I’ve been spanked silly by this one. The newest comment from “Zambian Girl,” said, “I hate to tell you guys how this woman stole this film from Jabbes Mvula. How she trying to make money off this film without involving him. This is his film and she needs to stop what she is doing. God doesn’t like ugly. Good things don’t happen to bad people. Ms Cyndi God will deal with you. People stop using people. I hope Zambia knows that you are not a good woman and they don’t work with you any more.”

Here’s the real irony. I met with an investor this weekend who was willing to help fund the finishing of the films (score, some b-roll shots, sound sweetening) AND pay the actors with interest so we could, maybe, finally get these films out. Of course, they copyright agreements would have to be handled first. The frustration for me is that even though the director and his Zambian connections had agreed to pay the actors, it never came through. We were told several times that the actors had been paid but our most recent email with the National Arts Council says that the actors hadn’t been compensated.

I had another conversation with a friend this weekend who told me to shelve both of the projects and forget about them forever. She said it had already cost me too much. “Stop the bleeding,” she said. “Move on to something new. Forget about this.”

She might be right.