To Serve A Nation update

To Serve a Nation photofilm is on a bit of a tour in Laos at the moment thanks to Tessa Bunney. She went back to Phonsavan to share the film with the women we worked with and other members of the Mines Advisory Group (MAG) and will be giving a talk in Vientiane on 17th September. 

It's such a brilliant feeling to show photofilms to the people who have given so much to make these stories possible and I'm really happy Tessa was able to go to do this - I wish I could have been there too!

The women of UCT6

After leaving Lao last November I faced a new set of challenges when putting together the material Tessa and I had recorded. It was the first time I had worked in a language other than my own and this was a steep learning curve. But after many weeks of wrestling with story lines, final cut pro, translations and different time zones the film was finally finished. 
To Serve A Nation explores the lives of UCT6, an all female UXO clearance team working for The Mines Advisory Group (MAG) in Lao PDR, the most bombed country, per capita, in the world. The full article with Tessa Bunney's images and text, including extracts from my interviews was published in the Financial Times Weekend magazine. You can see a copy of the article here and the film online on the Financial Times website here.
It was a pleasure to work with someone as established as Tessa and to be play a small part in wider work in Lao. It was also a proud moment for me to see our work and the stories of the women published in a context where so many people could access it. 

 
To Serva A Nation from rebecca harley on Vimeo.