Free Andrew Berends
When I met Andrew Berends a few years ago at the Silverdocs documentary film festival, he had just finished two films about Iraq. He was the tall crazy guy who had worked his way into the country and braved gunfire to follow the personal stories of Iraqis. I immediately gravitated towards him and we hit it off and had lunch together in a field that, for some reason, became the center of a football game. We decided not to move and sat eating and talking as footballs and angry flying teenagers flew over our heads. I made fun of him for the likelihood that it made him feel right at home. Later, when we were going around a circle of filmmakers talking about what we were going to do next he said simply, “Nigeria. You know. Oil. Rebels.” He was just arrested and detained as a spy by the Nigerian military.
The documentary and journalist communities are doing what they can to get the word out and get him freed. For the moment, things are looking positive and while he has at times been denied food and water, the hope is that he will be released soon and this was simply a tactic to apply pressure on foreign journalists. I hope the same can be said for his translator and the local who was traveling with them.
Curiously enough, I was in the process of researching a pet project of mine about a man who’s freed hundreds of Chinese dissidents when I got this message. I had just about reached the point that I was going to give up on the project, as the situation had changed quite a bit and I wasn’t sure I could see the documentary angle that would work. I was also in the process of writing a blog entry about my experience playing guitar this weekend. Now all I can think about is what am I doing sitting here in the US wasting time?!
It’s not that I’m excited about being tortured. (I also listened to some of the grueling torture details touted at the Republican Convention earlier.) But what am I doing with myself here? This weekend I spent a day or two working out PHP’s new object based database system. Today I tweaked security on a system that allows students to check out microphones. These jobs are for someone else, someone who can’t swing a camera and sleep under the stars in a foreign land. There is something bigger I need to be doing.
I hope Andrew is OK. I do know that he’s doing what he loves and that he knew the risks going in, but that doesn’t make it any easier. Good luck. You’re doing it right.
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ah, the price we pay for interesting stories…
Have you read “Three Cups of Tea”? I got just that feeling when I read it - that there are things I should be doing. Of course, right now, I cannot be doing them as I have a family dependent on me. Before you go submitting yourself to the Chinese or Nigerians, however, go on NPR.org and look around for the story I heard on Friday about the Canadian that was detained in America and sent to Syria to be tortured for suspicion of terrorist activities. He was innocent, but is now changed forever in a not so good way. Do something big but stay safe.
I’ll be thinking about your friend.