For those of you just joining the Give A Damn? journey this post, originally a press release, bringsthe central facts up to speed. Don't miss out on the "real stuff" - check out the posts by Dan, David and Rob for personal insights and first hand accounts.
Rob Lehr and Dan Parris to edit extreme poverty documentary as David and Tim Peterka film across East Africa, dedicating “Give A Damn?” to Frank Toews and Ryan Williams
St. Louis, MO USA & Nairobi, Kenya (August 14, 2009) Within minutes of narrowly surviving a plane crash, Rob Lehr and Dan Parris
tweet and
film from mobile phones keeping the
Give A Damn?
film alive. They tell followers that the ride to the Nairobi hospital
is like a scene out of The Bourne Identity, terrifying. While the
private car careens through crowds and heavy traffic on sidewalks and
the wrong side of the road, speeding to the hospital, Lehr and Parris
endure searing physical pain and mental agony that only comes from not
yet knowing the fates of pilot Frank Toews and flight mechanic Ryan
Williams. These events made earlier struggles to film under
self-enforced poverty seem minor. Choosing to keep cameras rolling may
have resulted in a crash tape, unexpectedly transforming an adventure
documentary on extreme poverty into an action adventure created by two
extreme documentary filmmakers. Fast forward to two weeks after the August 1, 2009 crash,
Give A Damn?’s
Lehr, Parris and David and Tim Peterka change plans, ramping up their
commitment to finish and dedicate the film to Toews and Williams. Each
man left a wife and four children, as well as four dedicated filmmakers
who plan to honor them on screen.
The
adventure began July 5, 2009, three 20-something St. Louis, Missouri
suburbanites hitching their way to East Africa to explore and
experience on camera extreme poverty. “The first marketable documentary
to take an honest, straightforward approach to extreme poverty
appealing to both the activist and the apathetic,” according to the
film’s visionary Dan Parris. Parris views youth as the untapped
resource for change. “The idea is to use a certain style of film to ask
young people, ‘should you give a damn about extreme poverty?’” With
the offbeat humor of Lehr, Parris and David Peterka set against the
struggle of living on a $1.25 a day for food and lodging, the
filmmakers hope to hook the YouTube,
Jackass generation
into activism. After a month-long combination of hitchhiking, planes,
trains, and buses from St. Louis through Europe to Nairobi, Keyna, the
trio rejoined cameraman Tim Peterka for filming in Africa on
July 30, 2009.
On their second full day in Nairobi, August 1, 2009, the film crew
charters a flight with pilot Frank Toews and flight mechanic Ryan
Williams of African Inland Mission Air to gain areal footage of
Africa’s largest slum, Kibera. The small Cessna 206 plane had room for
only two passengers, and for some unclear reason skilled areal
photographer Tim Peterka thought he should stay on the ground that day.
Brother David agreed; Lehr should get the areal experience. Lehr, the
film’s antagonist, vividly recounts the flight and its crash landing
via
blog and
audio.
On the return to Wilson Airport, the plane flew low with no engine hum,
struck an electrical pole or wire before spinning to smash into a four
story apartment building, flipping to crash upside down. Lehr walked
away from the wreckage toward the crowd, stopped and returned to the
mangled plane in flames. His actions literally set him afire freeing
Parris and returning to free Williams before a few brave Kenyans pulled
both to safety as the plane exploded. Police confiscated the rolling
camera in Lehr’s hands. Lehr and Parris were rushed to the
hospital in a different car from the one transporting Williams.
Neither Lehr nor Parris knew the fate of Toews or Williams. Toews died
on the plane’s impact. The cause of the crash remains unknown.
.
The three survivors were transported to the hospital by fast acting bystanders as Lehr posted an
update from his mobile phone to social media site Twitter. On arrival Lehr again used his phone to
film Parris, who provided additional
audio a few hours later. Within hours of the event Lehr’s
Nairobi TV
debut outside the hospital, containing footage of the crash captured by
a bystander’s cell phone and wreckage photos, posts to YouTube. By
Parris’s side, Lehr recuperated in the hospital for five days,
sustaining cuts, burns, and trauma as the only conscious member of the
crash. At first the extent of Parris’s injuries remained uncertain,
tests soon revealed fractures in his collar bone and third lumbar as
well as a highly bruised and pain filled GI system. Parris ventured out
of the hospital on August 13, 2009. Ryan Williams, flight mechanic,
fought for his life in a Nairobi hospital with broken bones and
extensive burns. Shortly after being medivacd to a burn center in South
Africa, Williams succumbed to his injuries on August 7, 2009.
Both Toews and Williams were missionary pilots living with their
families in Nairobi, Kenya. African Inland Mission Air (
AIM Air),
the organization both worked for, is a Christian missionary aviation
organization providing air transportation for missionaries, church
workers, and Christian relief and development agencies in East and
Central Africa based in Nairobi, Kenya. Mission Safety International
and the Kenyan Aviation Authorities are investigating the accident. To
aid in the investigation AIM AIR suspended flight operations.
The loss of 35-year-old Frank Toews from Toronto, Ontario, Canada,
and 33-year-old Ryan Williams from Florida, U.S. has been devastating
to family, close knit AIM Air, African missionaries and poverty
stricken areas of East Africa aided by their work. Frank Toews is
survived by wife Tiffany and four children ranging in age from 5 to 13.
Ryan Williams is survived by wife Dawn Williams, a medical missionary
in Africa since 1993, and four children ranging in age from 3 to 8. On
the day of William’s passing Charles Mungaithi, Acting Director AIM
International Services, post on the
AIM Air blog included:
“Ryan and Frank have been reunited. And so will we, one day. But today
we will mourn. Today we will support our family – especially Dawn and
Tiffany, and those eight precious children who, each one, bears the
mark of their father.”
For insight into the lives of two extraordinary and compassionate men:
Toews personal blog and
Williams personal blog about missionary aviation, East Africa, and life. Memorial services were held for Toews and Williams this week in Kenya.
Today, Lehr is home
blogging
about poverty and the plane crash while negotiating Post Traumatic
Stress (PTS). He is not ready for conversation yet, awaiting the
arrival of fellow survivor Parris. Parris is due to arrive home in the
next week, once he is cleared to fly. All four film crew members were
able to hold a production meeting before Lehr left, committing to
finish the
Give A Damn? film. It was decided Lehr and Parris
will begin editing while recovering at home, as the Peterka brothers
keep the film rolling for the East Africa leg of the planned journey.
Shortly after the crash news spread, invitations to film other
extreme poverty’s causes and cures started arriving from across
Africa. Over the next few months David and Tim Peterka will film well
digging with
George the Kenya Shoeman in Kisumu, Kenya; visit
Food for the Hungry in Kampala, Uganda; live with a Pygmy tribe in the Congo; visit micro finance project
Kiva and the
genocide memorial in
Kigali, Rwanda; tour the slave museum in Zanzibar, Tanzania; film the
HIV clinic just off the coast of Bukoba, Tanzania; “Kick it with the
Maasai” a nomadic tribe in Kenya and Northern Tanzania; and connect
with an orphanage in Mombasa, Kenya; before returning to Nairobi, Kenya
at the end of September.
The Give A Damn? web site
www.giveadamndoc.com
is being retooled over the next few days to reflect the heartfelt human
tragedy and plot changes. The team’s blog on Conversant Life, Twitter
page and other social media, accessible through the web site, continue
to tell the story in real time.
This
adventure has a current cliff hanger: Damaged tapes from both video
cameras used during the flight were recovered by
Give A Damn?.
The film crew believe the footage on the tapes is recoverable in a
specialized lab; how much footage, and what exactly was filmed is yet
to be discovered.
Although they are not quite ready to speak publicly, Lehr, Parris and all of the
Give A Damn?
team are accepting requests for interviews and speaking opportunities
while they rest and recover. Requests can be emailed to their public
relations advisor, Kellee Sikes of
P3 Strategies, Inc.,
giveadamndoc@pioneer-technologies.com. Please include full details of the request and contact information. The health of the team will determine their availability.
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