Nomads Land Films' Guerrilla Documentary The Art Of Flight To Reach Global Audience via Google Video

This press release indicates that a service called "Google Video" is now being used to make independent documentary films available online, at no cost to the viewer. Google describes its service as "the world's first open online video marketplace, where you can search for, watch and even buy an ever-growing collection of TV shows, movies, music videos, documentaries, personal productions and more."

"The Art of Flight", a guerrilla documentary about Sudanese refugees in Cairo, is - according to this press release - "one of the first new independent documentary films made available on Google Video." In the words of the film's director Davin Anders Hutchins, "This film is essentially a 'vlog' that...takes a hard look at how 25 years and billions of dollars of financial support for Egypt by the U.S. has created an
unsafe environment for Sudanese refugees and Egyptian citizens alike." The film features an original score composed by Hutchins and Al Khafiyeen, a band of Sudanese refugees living in Cairo; this soundtrack is available on many music download websites.

The director secretly used camcorders and a laptop to direct and edit the film. Hutchins points to what may be a new trend in the way that films are made (using new technologies to enable increased documentation of controversial issues): "If the Egyptian government knew what I was filming, I would have easily been arrested," says Hutchins "I'm quite sure this film will be banned in Egypt, but it doesn't matter. With Internet distribution, it can be beamed right into Egypt via the Internet." Comparing the use of film festivals to reach viewers, on the one hand, with this new medium (Google Video), on the other, Hutchins comments, "The frustrating part is to go through festival screeners and channel executives, you almost never reach the audience who cares most and can help change things on the ground. Google Video changes that. What matters most is that the refugees who risked much to tell me their stories to me can have those stories heard by others."

The film is being made available free to a worldwide audience for a limited time in its entirety on Google Video. To view it, click here and search for "The Art of Flight." A copy of the film is also available
on the Nomads Land Films website.