This was an interesting project. With the Indian film union restrictions it was almost impossible to film except in hired facilities. A 120 man crew was hired and for example, when we rented the RED Camera, two people came with it. Extra lenses for the camera required extra caretakers and the requisite “bata” or extra fees mounted up.
2010 Chennai, India January 7-18 – Dan and Chris were honored for the production of THE PEARL in 1986 in Tamil Nadu, India. The production team rented an entire Indian seaside fishing village for $250 for the week with the residents acting as extras. It was directed by Edward Raj and filmed by Ilford Joseph, the same two that led us to the production of the 1984 film CROWNED AND CRUCIFIED. THE PEARL is about a pearl diver who is always diving deeper to get the largest and most perfect pearl. On day he dives so deep he dies on the way to the surface. In his mouth he has a perfect pearl and it remains in the the house of his father. A retired army officer (Dr C.D. Jebasingh of Galilean International) is helping the villagers with their lot in life and hears about this priceless pearl. He sells everything he has and offers it to the father but the father refuses payment and gives it to the the officer for free as it was priceless as his only son died so that the office could have this priceless gift. This is, of course, taken from the Bible where Jesus died to give us the priceless gift of salvation.
2010 Haridwar, India February 10th– Documentary photography of the Kumbh Mela where Hindu pilgrims travel to take a ritual bath in the Ganges River in an attempt to be cleansed of sin. Images Here. Stories Here.
2010 Shanghai, China March 16-29th – NGO Stakeholder meeting
2010 Taiwan July 30-Aug 3rd – Meetings with media outlets and training
2010 Chennai, India Sept 1-10th – Met with Indian team for the drawing and production of the “Little Fish in a Big Pond” Graphic Novel.
2011 Nanchang, China Jan 18-22 – Set up texting followup system for followup.
2011 India Jan 26-Feb 18 – Final edit and premiere of Anbirkku Alavalia (Unlimited Love)
2011 Vietnam May 20-June 1st – Meeting with stakeholders in Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi.
2011 Indonesia June 3-13 – Conference and training assignment.
2011 Mumbai and New Delhi, India June – Dan and Gerald Davis traveled to Mumbai where they visited the dubbing studio during the Urdu language adaptation of the Ancient Journey series, then on to New Delhi for NGO meetings and a side trip for documentary projects in Mumbai, Juha Beach, Taj Mahal.
2011 September – A Change. Marked a change as we moved back to the USA to be with Chris’ Mom. But our work continued in SE Asia. We dubbed and released a series called Ancient Journeys in Indonesian. At that time DVDs were still popular and several of our production were in over 100 DISCTARA stores across the huge country of Indonesia. We also dubbed the series into Urdu for India and Pakistan. A website called Ancient Journeys was launched and it was also aired on seven regional TV stations. It was this year that we discover a change in taste for our graphic novel series, Little Fish in a Big Pond. The interest was in more of a Manga style. Eventually, the donor was unwilling to continue – especially with the changes.
During 2011 and beyond we started to hear responses from our film SABINA’S ENCOUNTER. It had been on major African TV stations in Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda. Zambia, Zimbabwe, Nigeria, Ghana, Benin, Ivory Coast, Burkina Faso and so many others immediately after we released it in 1992 as well as mobile cinema vans in Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Nigeria and Ghana. In 2011, production partner, International Media Ministries reported a renewed interest in getting masters to show it again!
Because of the improvement of communication between the USA and Africa and South Asia, Handclasp started to work remotely with NGOs and national groups to help review scripts and provide mediastrategy consulting input.
2012 January – Evangelism in the Digital Age: Media Case Studies was published as the first ever book that contained actual case studies of media effectiveness. It is still used as a text.
2013 Chennai, India April 15-30th – Two week workshop in South India with Jim Sanjay of Shepard Media. This was a nice workshop with a combination Christians and Hindus and was at the Shepard Media facility.
Jim Sanjay and I traveled on an overnight video bus from Chennai to Bangalore. When we got there the 3 foot wide “beds” were supposed to accommodate both of us! We made some informal “changes” to our tickets and got more space. We were there to attend a conference on reaching Tibetans – there are over 70,000 Tibetans in Bylakuppe – most of which fled Tibet in 1959 when China invaded Lhasa. Jim and I were there to show a short film, DOLMA, shot in the Bylakuppe area. In addition, Dan spoke to 130 pastors on the topic of Mediastrategy and Christian Witness and was introduced a a huge church whose TV station aired some of our programming.
2014 Chandigarth, India June 26-July 6 – Jim Sanjay of Shepard Media 35 students (Link to Student Videos) Board Members, Paul & MarySue Verhagan joined us in Delhi and then on to Chandigarh for the workshop. Paul was fascinated by the train system in Delhi and he and I had to take long rides to satisfy his interests.
During that day Paul & I stopped at TGI Fridays and had a salad and regretted the result – called “Delhi Belly.” We were staying at the Delhi YMCA which is an interesting place in the center of Delhi. Lots of Indian food and thin mattresses. We went up to Chandigarh and stayed in an apartment owned by Mid-India Christian Mission. It was a nice place and MarySue and Chris cooked our meals. Our venue was at a Christian school which had good facilities and was during the summer so we had it to ourselves. It was a large camera workshop and Jim Sanjay had brought all the cameras, mics, etc the students used. All the editing was done on my MacBook Pro.
Family updates 2014-5: In July 2014 we had a family retreat in Gatlinburg, TN and in October we learned that Dan's brother Tim died of a stroke when he was in California to attend his 50th High School Reunion. We traveled to San Antonio for the memorial service and it was nice to see the impact Tim had had on his university over the last 21 years. In November, Dan's retina detached and he had surgery to repair it. In December we purchased a home in Florida. In December 2015 Andrew returned from deployment to Iraq and we spent Christmas with him. Little did we know about his special friend Marissa! He moved to Texas to attend college.
2014 Dehradun, India June 7-11th – Visit to discuss planned 2015 workshop
We took a taxi from Chandigargh to Dehradun We stayed at the home of John and Ruma Gideon and their daughter Joanna was there. Because we could not get a flight to to New Delhi we decided to take a SLOOOOOOW train.
2015 January – Board Member, Wayne Walton resigned from the Handclasp board after serving for 31 years. Over the years he helped us with deposits and receipts, logistically with equipment and supplies, packing and shipping so many packages to us in Kenya.
2015 China Jan 10-14th – Trip to follow-up on the Chinese distribution of NEVER TOO LATE.
2015 Taiwan Jan 15-18th – Meetings with NGO stakeholders
2015 Chennai, India May 15-20th– Dan left for India to start filming a production with Jim Sanjay of Shepard India Media on the 18th. He left for New Delhi to connect with Chris on the 27th and spend a few days getting over jet lag before flying up to Dehradun for the workshop. After staying in the YMCA in 2014, Dan decided to get a room in a Raddison Blu hotel which was actually cheaper that the YMCA (and better)!
2015 Dehra Dun, India June 1-20 – 15 students with John Gideon and Jim Sanjay of Shepard Media
2015 Jakarta, Indonesia July 12-29th – Dan traveled to work with Cayaya TV on a film and to conduct some training using the Blackmagic Cinema Camera.
2016 – Due to Handclasp continued to work remotely with NGOs and national groups to help review scripts and provide mediastrategy consulting input.
2017 Addis Ababa, Ethiopia May 8-26th- 11 students Lighting techniques and Smartphone Filmmaking Link to Student Videos
This was a nice two weeks in both Addis Ababa with the El-Shaddai TV personnel but we were also able to visit Awassa where ELPIS International has their original child feeding center. They have another in the North of Ethopia.
