I was talking with Libby the other day about all of her famous friends and Brett Wiese came up in conversation. She was like “Last week I was paragliding through the Hamptons with Tijuana La Quinta (heiress to the La Quinta Inn chain of motels) and we ran into Brett Wiese Saunders who later got us an 8:30 res at Dorsia.” I was like damn girl you know everyone and luckily she pulled some strings and next thing I knew I was on a Quadski to New Hampshire!
Hey Brett! Tell us a bit about yourself…
Uff…this has to be the lead off, eh? Well, I’m a small town introvert who grew up in northern New Hampshire. I’ve always been outdoorsy as being from such a place dictates… or I guess another option would be to gain 500lbs and start referring to day time television shows as ‘my stories.’
But seriously, I do love the area. Winters would be spent snowboarding, summers – skating/biking/hiking – all of which are still a huge part of my life and source of sanity.
It took me about six years to get an undergrad degree because I kept taking sabbaticals to travel and snowboard as much as I could, while I could. But finally, after my third knee surgery from too much tom-foolery on the ol’ snow-girl, I stuck it out at Plymouth State, in NH for a BS in BS or business admin… whatever.
Photography and cinematography have always been hobbies, just as they are for most serious snowboarders/skateboarders. You have to know how to work a camera to make you and your bros look like superstars, you know. But while I was finishing school, I really started to get into bettering myself as a photog and videog, all while having fun with it. That, married with the fact that there was no way in hell I was spending a 9 to 5-er at a desk, plus having an affinity for travel, made me want to see if I couldn’t do this for a living (the jury’s still out).
But now that I’ve been getting steady work and financial support for my own personal projects, things are starting to get exciting. What it comes down to is that I’m in love with the thought of traveling and listening to people tell me stories (which I would never hear from behind a desk) and interpreting them in a creative way, to share with the world, with hopes to educate, inform and inspire. I believe there are far too many occupations in the world today that don’t create any value, or worse, ferociously contribute to our growing detrimental problems that we as a world face. This is a job I can do enthusiastically and still sleep at night.
That’s solid. Well, the reason we are talking is because I heard you are making a documentary about Egypt’s skate culture. Can you tell us a bit about it?
The doc’s an hour-long bio piece on Egypt’s first and still only skateshop, SkateImpact, and resulting skate-scene. The shop was started by two young brothers who wanted nothing more that to bring skateboarding to Egypt.
The project includes these two brothers talking about how/why they started this shop, interviews with their skate team (some of whom are real rippers with sponsors like Blind, Enjoi, Tensor, etc).
Other outside interviews include an Arab movie star and an independent director who recently did a drama film on Alexandria’s underground art scene (graffiti, music and skateboarding), titled, Microphone… cool film, actually. One of the brothers took me to a premiere of the film where I met all these cats.
And finally, a last minute addition to the film was Cairo Foster. Enjoi flew me out to San Fran a few weeks back to interview Cairo, which was huge for me, as I grew up watching him skate and idolizing. He turned out to be a super cool guy. He was a great contribution since Egypt is where he learned to skate. And of course, along with an interview, I have some great footage of him skating!
Isn’t Egypt kind of a random place for a guy from New England to end up? What’s your connection?
I was super lucky when I finished school, as I had no debt (the bennies of in-state, non-ivy leagues – and my mom). I was also still recovering form a knee surgery, so I wanted to keep away from snowboarding for a while (out of spite, of course). I also wanted an interesting place where I could start building a portfolio for my work.
I had a childhood friend who majored in Arabic studies at Georgetown and is now living in Cairo. She suggested coming out there as this type of freelance work is abundant, Cairo being a developing city and all. And that was all it took.
Can you give the average American some sense of what is going on over there? We see news clips of people throwing rocks and protesting and I feel like that’s about all we know…
Yeah, domestic American news coverage can miss the mark every now and then, huh? When I was over there in the fall, it was particularly nasty.
Their very first “democratic” elections were just around the corner, a year after the massive protests to get Mubarak out, and yet, the military was still very much in control of everything. Most of the Egyptian weren’t having it (I feel I should say most, because I did meet one or two cats over there that didn’t think they were ready to be a democratic country (though I’ll catch hell for saying this).
Catalyzed mainly by one incident, as I remember, some army gents burned down a few tents belonging to protesters spending their nights in the center of Tahrir Square to express their distain for the military, and from there it grew into tens of thousands of people risking their lives going toe to toe with this militia.
I chose to stay in town and hang out one night when things first started to get nasty. Here were guys my age, and many years younger, literally risking their lives for the miscellaneous shit you and I do on our dailies and don’t think twice about.
I actually have kind of a cool story for the start of these protests lining up with the start of my project. This is what I default back to when people ask me about my time in Egypt… I decided I’d go visit a friend of mine, out of town, when things started to get a little rougher (you couldn’t squeeze in a sentence without hearing the snap of gunshots or explosion of teargas guns). So when I got settled at my friend’s, I got a call from Omar, one of the brothers from the Skate shop, saying, ‘Brett, if you can get to Alexandria tomorrow, we can start this project.” I was eager to start as I was only there for another month and a half or so. The problem was, before I go to the train station, I had to get all my camera equipment… all back at my apartment in the epicenter of the mayhem that’s overtaking every TV channel. I figured what the hell… I’m white.
I had my friend put me in a cab and describe where he was taking me (once again, if I wasn’t white, I don’t think he would consider driving in that direction). We made it over a bridge that dictated we were back in downtown, however, I still wasn’t that familiar with the area and had no idea where we were. The cab started to slow down as the streets were filled to the brim with people. Finally the cab couldn’t go any further as the only thing thicker than the crowds of people was the smoke billowing up behind them. The driver pointed right towards that smoke indicating that’s where I needed to go. ‘Shit,’ I thought, okay, here we go. I covered my face and started jogging…still not knowing exactly where I was. Before I hit the smoke, my eyes started to well up and burn like nothing I’ve ever felt before. Breathing became more and more of a chore. A few more steps and I realized where I was; my apartment was about a quarter mile through more of this malevolent smoke. I put my head down and just ran, watching crowds of protesters running the other way, screaming and carrying their injured.
I made it back to my apartment, taped off the windows (so no rogue gas would filter in) and hunkered down for the night to the soundtrack of lofting tear gas canisters, gunshots and screams. The next morning, when things were at their lull, I was able to find a cab and somehow explain where I was going; he got me to the train station and I managed to get myself all the way to the northern coast of Alexandria where I met up with Omar and the rest of the crew and started my first feature-length documentary.
Wow, sounds like you were filming a documentary in Nashua! (inside New Hampshire joke) How does one skate when their country is constantly battling?
These skaters are awesome. The shit they skate on in the first place shows such dedication. But, when the protests are going on, they’re way more limited as they need to avoid military presence. Some of them told me that they would go months without skating when things are real bad. Luckily, this battling isn’t a constant though, months without skating seems to be the absolute worst-case scenario.
I see that Skate Impact sells a ton of American brands…does this mean skating is mad expensive in Egypt?
Omar and Cherif are awesome. They’re not in the business to make money. They take a huge hit with importing these brands form the States and Europe but don’t pass it on to their customer. Their main goal is to bring skateboarding to Egypt and share it with as many people as they can. Respect!
What are your plans with this documentary? What do you want to get out of making it?
This doc started out as just a project with which to start my post grad portfolio. When I started to get real prominent interviews and watched the project grow and grow and grow (thanks to the tireless efforts of Omar), I thought I could turn this into something people would be interested in seeing.
I guess what I really want out of this is to share this story with as many people as I can. I think it’s awesome what these brothers are doing…the growing skate-scene, etc. I hope others feel the same way. I’m also submitting to some film fests around, about which I’m super nervous. I have no idea how it will be received.
And, of course, it would be nice to make a couple bucks back in DVD sales, down the road. ☺
What kind of equipment did you use for this film?
I shot this mainly on a Canon 7D with a variety of L lenses. Man Frote tripod and some sliders. For audio I only used a Zoom H1 for ambient and hooked it to a lav mic for interviews. I was really at rock bottom equipment-wise, but that was also a benefit, as walking around some of these areas with thousands of dollars worth of equipment probably wasn’t the greatest of ideas.
Were there any cultural limitations that you encountered while filming?
The protests were the biggest, but that ended up making my story all the more special to me. My Arabic was also not that great (terrible, actually) so getting places on my own during the first month I was there was extremely difficult. While I was filming, though, I had Omar with me, and he was the most amazing host anyone can ever hope for. I didn’t have to worry about much with him at my side.
Did you find it weird that skateboarding is apparently hated the world over? What I mean is, it’s funny how when skateboarding first started here everyone talked shit about it, and even though it’s been 30 years, people still talk shit in other countries? Is there something in our DNA that hates boards and wheels?
Ha.. must be coded on older-generations’ DNA. No, this was an interesting part of the film, hearing what these skaters had to say about the public’s perception towards them.
In Egypt, if you’re middle class, you’re expected to go to University and become a doctor, or an engineer. If you’re not doing this, you may be seen as a disappointment. So, needless to say, when these dudes are not only not into college, but are playing around on a strange toy with wheels strapped to a piece of wood, there is some disapproval floating around.
That said, everyone with whom I met with are super good dudes and dudettes. Most still take school very seriously, but just have this passionate side-hobby called skateboarding (though you and I know skating isn’t just a hobby… and it’s no different over there).
What is something you liked about Egypt that would be nice to have in the USA?
Something in Egypt I wish we had in the States… good question. I wish we had their total absence of political apathy. I think we’ve just gotten so lethargic and set in our ways that we don’t give a shit about anything political, as long as we can drive our SUVs and play comfortably with all our toys, we’re happy. We’re a very introverted country and can’t be bothered with anything outside our boarders.
I wish we had their passion.
Does anyone longboard in Egypt and if so do the skaters who are being dissed by everyone else, take out that aggression on the longboarders?
No longboarding. The skate spots these skaters have are just patches of skateable areas. Definitely not enough smoothness to cruise on a longboard. Even if there were, they would get mowed down by some of the gnarliest traffic in the world!
What else do you have to do to get this documentary made?
Jump through eight flaming hoops with codfish between my teeth while wearing a leotard. This is what it’s felt like, actually. I’m down the homestretch now, though. What they call the ‘glass master’ is just getting wrapped up and off to LA to make 1,000 DVDs. After that, I’ll have my first completed documentary.
Well congratulations on that! I can imagine that is a huge relief as well as excitement and personally I am excited to see the film. I know you didn’t do this alone so why don’t you take a minute to thank some people!
All my Egypt homies, Omar, Cherif, Ziad, Krax, Yassin, Amin, Hannah, the rest of the team. Khaled and Ahmad for taking the time to talk to me on camera, even though they’re huge movie stars. Mohammad EL-Aasar for getting up at 4 a.m. to take me to go shoot sunrise shots over the city (best to his wife, Sara). Matt at Enjoi, Cairo Foster for being a damn good sport and being willing to do the interview twice over. Cheever and Ramberger for helping me promote the hell out of this thing, and liking my work enough to get me started on my next project (sbxthemovie.com). Scott and Joe at Egan Media in VT (eganmedia.com). And everyone who donated on Kickstarter to bring this thing to fruition… I couldn’t have done it without you all!
Slipping: Skate’s Impact on Egypt (Official Trailer) from Brett Wiese Saunders on Vimeo.
