 A 6 x 30’ travelogue on this unique country, Global Nomad has been hailed as “…a series of travel films that reach beyond the ordinary”, with critical acclaim and ratings success to back them up. In this edition of the Global newsletter we speak to one of the brothers, Ruán Magan.
Q. Critics have said that your programs are special because you “take the more thoughtful and enquiring path”. Is this the reason the series is different from other programs on China?
For the past seven years my brother, Manchán Magan and I have taken five months out every year to travel to the far corners and film documentaries about the people and cultures of the world. Our aim has been to explore and celebrate the diversity of the human race, to create documentaries that challenge the western centric notion that the West is Best and to create a tangible link between our viewers and the people that we meet on our travels. We examine how people and cultures are coping with the ever-changing world, and explore the question “what if, despite all the obvious differences between societies and cultures, we are all basically the same?”
Q. How does your experience as a producer and director of feature films help you achieve such a unique product?
Actually I had to forget all my experience as a producer/director of feature films and tv commercials and jettison standard production techniques in favour of an ad hoc approach. As a team we had to accept that we would never be certain of achieving that which we had been commissioned to make about a particular region of the world. Instead we have had to take a road that is seldom travelled by contemporary television crews.
Q. What was your approach to the country of China?
Of course, we researched the region, and even tried to map out a route. But ultimately we had to put our faith in the unknown: buy a plane ticket and take to the road. My brother would act as guide, interpreter (he speaks seven languages), co-writer, producer and presenter. Our friend, Ronan Coleman, came to support us and keep us from fighting as only two brothers can; as well as soaking up the atmosphere which would then inform the music he wrote for the series on our return. The rest was left to me – to shoot, to write, to direct and then to edit.
Q. What struck you about the people you met while filming this series?
Strange as it may seem everywhere we go we find that people welcome us into their lives with open hearts. They let us tell their stories, help us when we run into trouble, take us in when we collapse exhausted after too many days on the road.
Q. What do you find most exciting about your process of travelogue making?
Travelling into the unknown can bring dangers to health, to security, to life. But we have always returned home more or less intact and always with documentaries that are celebrated by viewers and critics alike. There are obvious pitfalls to this process of documentary making. We have been arrested 14 times to date – something we have discovered goes with the territory. Rarely is there any real danger and we are always released within a few hours once our purpose has been explained.
Q. Any plans for further series?
When each production has been completed I pack up the equipment, put away the edit suite, dust down the hiking boots and go back to the mainstream of television production to support my family. But always, at the back of my mind, is the sense of the extraordinary freedom we feel when we take to the road and I know that it is only a matter of time before I will point a finger at the map of the world, buy the tickets and head off again.
published: Wednesday, August 27, 2003
|
