Jahawi
Bertolli might never have made his exquisite documentary film of the ‘Lamu
Archipelago’ which was screened last Thursday night at the Nairobi Serena Hotel.
The multi-talented
Jahawi had been making films for a while before he met the young Danish beauty Elke
Korschen who, like him, had been born and brought up in Kenya.
Before they
met, Jahawi had been splitting his time between DJ-ing, music production,
making music videos, and composing music for film. He had only got into
underwater photography a couple of years before they met.
“I had been
making a music video in Nairobi that required my filming at the edge of a
swimming pool. But then I wanted to film from inside the pool so I borrowed my
cousin’s [water proof] GoPro action camera and jumped in,” says Jahawi. His
whole life course changed from that point on.
Having spent
a good chunk of early years living with his family at the Coast, he recalled
how much he loved the ocean. He’d never thought of a career working in, leave
alone under water. But by the time that music video was done, he was already looking
for an underwater camera course, which he found in Koh Tao, Thailand.
“The course
was just three months, but I stayed two years,” says Jahawi who had gone on
after the course to intern and teach scuba diving and camera work with an
international film production school.
By the time
he got home to Kenya, he stayed a week in Nairobi and then went straight back
to the Coast. It wasn’t long after that Lamu called, and there he met the granddaughter
of the Danish founder of Peponi Hotel, Elke.
“After that,
I wanted to find a project that would require my working in Lamu,” says Jahawi
who had already fallen for this gentle blond. “We made the ‘Lamu Archipelago’
together,” he adds, noting that she was just as quick a learner as he had been.
Jahawi
admits that prior to making the film, he had felt quite hopeless about the
planet’s future and the way humans were destroying it fast. “But after we went
deep inside the archipelago and met so many beautiful people in villages along
the water, my hope has been restored.”
What was
even more life-affirming for this underwater camera man was the discovery of so
many massive schools of beautiful fish which are doing well in the depths of
the Sea.
Jahawi’s
showing his ‘Lamu Archipelago’ film on three different screens at once in the
grand ballroom of The Serena was actually part of a larger program for the
night. It was to both promote his underwater photographs and to fund raise for
his next underwater film project.
The 13 photographic
prints on canvas covered all the walls of the ballroom, even as the film was
running and guests were seated to hear from Jahawi and the Kenyan marine mammal
expert who he plans to do his next film project with.
Mike
Mwangombe began studying marine wildlife as an IT expert. He started working
with the Watamu Turtle Watch doing data collection. Then with the Watamu Marine
Association he shifted to collecting data on dolphins. It was during that work
with dolphins that he encountered the humpback whale which he discovered has an
incredible history.
“In the
1970s, the humpback population had dwindled to between 300 and 600 whales. But
then there was an international moratorium on hunting them,” says Mike who
notes that now, the most recent study has shown there are more than 24,000 humpback
whales.
“If we just give
Nature a chance, it will restore itself,” he says following a glowing
introduction from Jahawi.
“We now want
to make a film on the humpback from the local Kenyan’s point of view,” says
Jahawi who aims to sell his prints as a means of raising funds for their film
project.
“After that
we want to create a mobile cinema that will promote conservation consciousness
among local Kenyans,” says Jahawi who looks forward to doing more underwater
camera work with the whales.
Meanwhile,
the exhibition of his underwater photo prints, entitled ‘Submerge’ will be up
at the Nairobi Serena for the next two weeks.
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