Stand Together as One: The Famine, The Music, The Impact with Chip Duncan and Salim Amin

How did a famine in the 1980s spark a global movement, and what role did music and media play in this humanitarian effort? Join us as Merry and Cathy dive deep with filmmakers Chip Duncan and Salim Amin into their documentary, Stand Together as One: The Famine, The Music, The Impact.
 
 Discover the untold stories behind iconic initiatives like the song "We Are the World", Band Aid and Live Aid, and explore the powerful legacy of Mohammed Amin, whose groundbreaking photojournalism changed the world. Chip and Salim reveal the behind-the-scenes challenges of their film, the ethical nuances of visual storytelling, and the enduring influence of compassion-driven journalism.
 
 Get ready for an inspiring journey through history, art, and activism that underscores the importance of unity in tackling global issues. Tune in to reflect on your own potential to make a difference.

Salim Amin's bio:

From humble roots in a small shop in Dar es Salaam, Salim’s father Mohamed Amin began Camerapix in 1963. With the instincts of a warrior and the heart of a leader, Mohamed Amin built Camerapix into a sustainable, world class organization covering news, features and producing documentaries with a variety of global networks including the BBC, NBC and Reuters. Today, Salim has continued that tradition by helping educate Africa’s youth through the Mohamed Amin Foundation and as a founder of Africa 24 Media, a media platform that was dedicated to positive stories about the culture and history of Africa.

Recognized in 2007 as a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum in Davos, Salim’s leadership has been rewarded. Today, Camerapix works in collaboration with production partners throughout Africa, Britain, Europe, Asia and the United States. New African Magazine has recognized Salim as one of the top “100 Most Influential Africans” and has named Salim among their “Top 50 Under 50.” Salim was one of only 150 global leaders invited to President Obama’s 2010 summit on Presidential Entrepreneurship in Washington DC.

Salim’s work as a producer includes the internationally acclaimed feature documentary Mo & Me, the One.org production of Revisiting Korem, and executive producing the award-winning documentary The Sound Man. As an on-camera host and producer, Salim achieved acclaim across the Continent for his production of more than 150 episodes of The Scoop, a weekly half hour series featuring Africa’s foremost voices in art, culture and finance. At it’s peak, The Scoop reached more than 300 million viewers weekly in broadcast and online viewership.

Salim published his first book in 2019 titled KENYA: Through My Father’s Eyes, a coffee-table book showcasing his father’s unique images of Kenya. It is also the first historical book on Africa incorporating Augmented Reality with 12 videos embedded in the pages of the book.

Since 2020 Salim has been documenting and preserving Kenya’s history through interviews and features, and working on the construction of Kenya’s largest history Museum. He refers to his work as a “conservation of history”.

In 2024, together with production partner Chip Duncan, Salim co-produced the multi-award-winning documentary Stand Together As One: The Famine. The Music. The Impact to commemorate the 40th Anniversary of the great Ethiopian Famine and We Are The World, Band Aid and Live Aid.

Connect with Salim and Chip:

Salim's Instagram: @salimcamerapixtv

Website: https://artsandculture.google.com/pocketgallery/

Thank you for lis

Episode Transcript

Merry (00:01):
This is the EWN Podcast Network.

Cathy (00:14):
Welcome to late boomers, our podcast guide to creating
your third act with style,power, and impact. Hi. I'm Cathy
Worthington.

Merry (00:24):
And I'm Merry Elkins. Join us as we bring you
conversations withentrepreneurs, entertainers, and
people with vision who aremaking a difference in the
world.

Cathy (00:34):
Everyone has a story, and we'll take you along for the
ride on each interview,recounting the journey our
guests have taken to get wherethey are, inspiring you to
create your own path to success.Let's get started.
Hi. I'm Cathy Worthington welcoming you to a new episode

(00:55):
of late boomers. I'm here withmy cohost, Mary Elkins, and we
are so pleased to bring you twoguests today, Salim Amin and
Chip Duncan, the filmmakers whoare bringing us a new phenomenal
documentary called standtogether as one, the famine, the
music, the impact. I wasprivileged to attend the Los

(01:18):
Angeles premiere, and the impactwas palpable.

Merry (01:22):
And I'm Merry Elkins. Salim Amin is the son of
Mohammed Amin, thephotojournalist who shot all the
footage of the famine inEthiopia in the nineteen
eighties that introduced thecrisis there to the rest of the
world and started the activismof the British effort Band Aid
and The USA For Africa recordingof We Are the World and Live

(01:46):
Aid. Salim is the founder andchairman of Camera Picks and has
delved into the archives andcome up with amazing footage of
the suffering of the arrival ofgoods in Ethiopia and the effort
to try to help. Chip Duncan hasbeen making documentaries for
thirty five years in 40different countries and is the

(02:08):
founder of Duncan Entertainment.He's also the author of a book,
a different war.
Welcome.

Cathy (02:16):
And Saleem is coming to us today from his home in
Nairobi, and Chip is in The USin Wisconsin. Welcome to both of
you.

Chip Duncan (02:25):
Thank you.

Salim Amin (02:25):
Good to be here.

Merry (02:27):
Great to have How

Cathy (02:29):
did you guys decide to do this film now, and how did you
team up, And why this film rightnow?

Chip Duncan (02:38):
Well, I had the pleasure of meeting Salim about
twenty years ago when we beganworking on a biopic about his
father, Mohammed Amin. And I wasbrought in by some well known
people to help write thescreenplay, but also because I
have a background that'ssomewhat similar to Muhammad
Amin's as a photojournalist. Whynow is a question Salim can

(03:01):
answer. He knows it as well asanybody.

Salim Amin (03:04):
I mean, we started this film many years ago with
the aim of having it ready forthe fortieth anniversary to
commemorate the fortiethanniversary because it was such
a huge Of We Are World. Of WeAre the World and of the famine
itself as well because it wassuch a huge story at the time.

(03:24):
We didn't realize that thetiming would be so appropriate
as it is now where the world isin a very precarious place. The
US is in a mess. Many places inthe world are in a mess.
And the message of We Are TheWorld and what it brought is

(03:48):
more needed now, I think, thaneven forty years ago. And so,
you know, we are you know, it'sunfortunate that that is that
timing has happened, but it'svery good for the film to come
out at this time to show peoplewhat is possible when humanity
comes together for a commoncause. That though those events

(04:09):
in nineteen eighty four, eightyfive changed the course of
history and and led to manywonderful things and and many
people doing amazing things forall sorts of causes over the
years. But we seem to haveforgotten that part of our
humanity, I think, and and thisis a reminder about that.

Merry (04:31):
Oh, Salim, you're you're giving me chills because I I so
agree with you. Humanity reallyneeds to come together. I have
to ask you, though, what was itlike growing up as the son of
Mohammed Amin who was one ofAfrica's most iconic
photojournalists? And at whatpoint in your life did you

(04:51):
realize you wanted to follow inhis footsteps?

Salim Amin (04:56):
I started taking pictures when I was about eight
years or nine years old, and soI think I got bitten by the bug
then. But he was never wanted meto do this, wanted me to get a a
real job, in quotes, you know,to to to said this is not a this

(05:17):
is not a career that you wannado. And but it's all I ever had
the passion for. But it it was ayou know, I didn't have enough
time with him. Unfortunately,you know, he died when he was
very young.
He was only 52 years old. And,you know, I didn't get enough
time to spend with him, and Ididn't really appreciate the
work that he did and thecontribution that he made to the

(05:40):
world until after he was notaround. And Chip and I began
exploring his life and hisarchive and the work that he did
and doing our own films, lookingat some of those events that he
covered over forty years inAfrica. And he made an important
contribution, but it was I feelprivileged that I've had the

(06:02):
opportunity to continue hislegacy and remind people of the
work that he did and showcasethe work that he did because
it's so important to historythat we don't forget some of
these events that he covered.Not him in particular, but the

(06:24):
events that he covered are veryimportant, especially for
Africans to remember theirhistory.
And young people on thiscontinent really don't have a
clue about what our continent'shistory is. And I think his
content will help remind them ofthat.

Cathy (06:41):
That's good. True. And Salim, your father is so known
for capturing powerful andsometimes devastating images. So
how do you navigate the ethicsof visual storytelling today,
and how did your father's workshape your view of Africa and
your role in telling itsstories?

Salim Amin (07:03):
So I unfortunately, I never got a chance to see this
content until, you know, in theonly the last sort of ten years.
I mean, I know you know, I wasnever taught this content. We
never used we were never taughtAfrican history in school, you
know, being whether it was in inprimary school or high school, I

(07:25):
never learned Kenyan history,African history. Our history was
British history because it waswe were a colony. And so what
they taught us in in in in thethe schools that I went to was,
you know, the the Tudor kingsand Henry the eighth and, you
know, the the the you know, thatthat was the history that we

(07:46):
learned, you know, the battle ofHastings and things like that.
We never we never did Africanhistory, and I really wish I had
known what I know now back thenbecause I think it would have
really changed and shaped theway that that I looked at this
continent and engaged with thiscontinent. And but, yeah, so I I

(08:07):
didn't get a chance to really beinfluenced by his work when I
was young. And he you know, nowI'm I'm far more aware of it.
Then when Chip and I go throughthe archives, you know, we're
always discovering new things.And it's it's always for me,
it's mind blowing the number ofplaces that he went and the

(08:28):
number of events that he coveredin a time when it wasn't easy to
get around the continent.
There was no mobile phones.There was no Internet. There was
no very little communication.But somehow, you know, he
managed to get a lot of content.And and while we while he was

(08:50):
best known for his news coverageand and some of the very graphic
images of genocide and famineand war in Africa, he also
published over 75 coffee tablebooks on the beauty of the
continent, you know, on thepeople and the culture and the
tribes and the flora and thefauna because this was his way

(09:13):
of balancing the picture.
He didn't have the Internet, andinternational media
organizations were notinterested in positive stories
out of Africa. All they everwanted was was the negative
stories. So he had no way oftelling a balanced picture other
than to do these beautifulcoffee table books that

(09:37):
showcased the beauty of thecontinent as well as the
horrors. The horrors existed.Nobody can deny that they were
all there.
But there was a whole other sideto Africa that nobody ever told
or talked about internationally.And so he wanted to balance the
picture as best as he couldgiven the tools that he had at
the time. And books were sellyou know, he sold books in their

(10:00):
tens of thousands, you know,coffee table books at a time
when people did read.Unfortunately, they've stopped
reading as well now. So thebooks don't get printed anymore.
But yeah, that was so for me, itwas that balance that was really
what motivated me to do the workthat we're doing now is to make

(10:23):
sure we tell balanced storiesabout the continent and we go
and expose the beauty as well asthe tragedies.

Cathy (10:31):
And was his home base always in Kenya?

Salim Amin (10:34):
Yes. He was born in Kenya and grew up in Tanzania,
but then lived in Kenya most ofhis life.

Chip Duncan (10:41):
Can I just throw in too, Yes? As a student of Mo's
life and work, he was more thana photographer, much more than a
photojournalist. When you lookat him through today's
microscope and understand thehats that he was wearing, I

(11:02):
would say he was anextraordinary producer, not just
a photographer, not just avideographer. He was able to
build the relationships, thenetworks, the contacts, to go in
and accumulate content all overthe continent in a way that a
producer would do today. He wasalso an exceptional editor.

(11:24):
He knew what was good, whatwasn't good, what was true, what
wasn't true. And then the lastthing that I think I would
celebrate the most aboutMohammed Amin, and it's theme
that permeates the documentaryStand Together as one is he was
courageous. He was courageous inthe same way that Harry

(11:47):
Belafonte and Ken Craigen werecourageous when they went into
the hot spots that we feature inthis particular film in Northern
Ethiopia. At a time, Mo inparticular, when he went in on
the first shoot in October ofnineteen eighty three, eighty
four, he was in 1984, October of'80 '4, he was going into the

(12:13):
middle of a war zone. And notonly was food being used as a
weapon, but every other tool ofwar was being used as well.
It was a very dangerous journey.And he and Mike Burke and Mike
Waldridge and Claire Birchenya,they were all courageous in a
way that we rarely see todayexcept from frontline
journalists. So it's a majorpart of his personality.

Merry (12:35):
Yeah. Well Thank you. Yeah. Thank you. Chip, about
film, filming, which becausefilming in a way is becoming the
the book to show everybody whatis going on.
And people aren't as you said,Salim, people aren't reading as
much anymore. But so your filmis a way to show them it's in a

(13:00):
way, it's a huge, big, beautifulbook to show what was going on
and what could be. And on thatnote, tell us a bit, Chip, about
Stand Together as One, and whatinspired you to make this
documentary? And before you tellus anything, talk about the
title, and please explain it.

Chip Duncan (13:23):
Well, the title Stand Together One is one of the
lyrical lines in the song We AreThe World. Obviously, We Are The
World was taken by the song. SoBut conceptually, Stand Together
as One is not just referring tothe artists who came together in
Los Angeles to record the song.Of course, that's the obvious

(13:46):
link. But it also refers to thewhole notion of how are we as
artists, as filmmakers,humanitarians, nurses, doctors,
how are we going to help in thisparticular situation in Northern
Ethiopia in 1984, 'eighty five?
And the only way to do it was tostand together as one. So if you

(14:07):
look at the power ofpersonality, I would say in
particular with Harry Belafonteleading this effort, he was
able, and to some extent BobGeldof was able to circumvent
government and bringhumanitarian relief at a time
when these factions were at war.So you can only do that if you

(14:30):
have the kind of reputation thatBelafonte had at that time. The
film itself, one of thehallmarks of this film, and I
should preface this by saying alot of your listeners and
viewers have probably seenLionel Richie's film, The
Greatest Night in Pop, thatcovers, does a wonderful job
covering the recording of thesong. It does not cover the

(14:52):
famine, and it does not coverwhat happened after the song was
recorded.
That's what we're calling ourprequel and sequel in this film.
But we divide the film intothree parts, the famine, the
music, and the impact. And soit's a very different telling of
the story. So you're able toreally see what it means, the

(15:15):
horror behind using food as aweapon, and how the government
in Ethiopia at the time did thatin the middle of that civil war.
The rebel forces were alsoaccused of it.
I don't think anybody comes outclean here. But when you see
this compelling footage thatMohammed Amin shot, the video
and the stills, and you see thesuffering, It's you know, is it

(15:39):
going on today? Yes. We can talkabout that. But at the time,
these images were unprecedented.
Nobody had ever seen anythinglike it. And the BBC, to their
credit, ran a seven minutenightly news story that changed
the history of what journalismdoes. And so that's the famine.

(16:00):
Then the music obviously is notit's not just We Are the World.
It's also Band Aid and Live Aid.
And then act three of the filmreally covers what happened to
the money. And you see theextraordinary efforts of USA for
Africa and how they were able tochange the course of history at
the time, but also continue todo extraordinary work on the

(16:20):
continent today.

Merry (16:21):
Yes. Today, which is so impressive. So many people don't
understand that getting all thesupplies and the money and food
there is very difficult to do.And as you mentioned, Belafonte
could go in because he was aworld leader in his in his fame

(16:42):
and was able to make it happenalong with Ken Craig and Bob
Gildoff and the others.

Cathy (16:48):
Yeah. I wanna ask your father and I Yeah. I wanna ask
Chip and Salim to answer whatwhat was your main goal with
this project? Were there anyspecific issues you hope to
raise awareness about? You couldjust take turns on that one.

Chip Duncan (17:06):
I'll just say that there's there were really two
things driving it. One is thepower of the story itself. This
is a narrative that we reallyhaven't seen before. It's not
only in the three act structure,but we just rarely see and
rarely have the visual supportto show what heroism is and what

(17:30):
these people were all able toachieve. When you look at Claire
Birchinger, the nurse who wasworking with the International
Red Cross at the time, this isthe greatest humanitarian I've
ever met.
It's pure service. I mean, it'sthe kind of thing, and it's not
tied to any kind of religiousperspective. It's a human being

(17:50):
making a choice to help othersin a time of need. I think
that's a really compelling part.And the part I'll throw back to
Salim is you also see thetransition, I would say, in
character of our main character,Mohammed Amin.
You see what the impact of thefamine on him, how he changed as

(18:14):
an individual and was able toelevate his own kind of empathy
and compassion and need toserve. Salim, maybe you can talk
more about that.

Salim Amin (18:24):
Yeah. Mean, it's not so much on him. I think in
general, just highlighting theimportance of good journalism,
which is severely lacking in theworld at the moment, where media
is really not doing its job.It's not performing the service
that it's meant to perform tokeep people informed in an

(18:48):
objective, unbiased way. It'sall been compromised in the last
decade or so.
So I think, you know, trying togo back to good journalism and
the impact it can have in insociety and in the world. And
then artists, the the power thatartists have to actually make a

(19:09):
difference and and understandingtheir own capacity to make a
difference and a a hugedifference in the world. And I
think artists today are notdoing enough to change I think,
again, they have becomecompromised. I think, again,
they have become they're chasingthe money. That's all they're

(19:31):
doing.
Whereas the the heart and theand the passion of the artists
in 1984 that recorded thosesongs, both do they know it's
Christmas and we are the world,I think that that compassion and
that heart was was they didn'teven understand how how powerful

(19:51):
their voice was going to be, butthey all showed up. They all
turned up because they had hugerespect for Ken, for Harry, for
Quincy, for Lionel, for Michael.They had huge respect when the
phone rang, and and and theypicked up the the call. They
didn't even ask why are we doingthis. They were just said,

(20:12):
listen, guys.
We're putting somethingtogether. Come. Just be there.
And they came because of the thethe the the feelings of that. I
don't know if that would everhappen again today.
And, also, the importance of,you know, USA for Africa was
never supposed to be around formore than four or five years. It
was supposed to be for faminerelief, you know, to to to do

(20:35):
things. But forty years later,it's still going, and it's still
doing things on the continent.It's simply because the song is
still generating revenue, whichis, to me, is still incredible
Mhmm. That forty years later,the $3.04, $500,000 a year is
still generated by We Are TheWorld from downloads.

(20:56):
It's mind blowing that a songhas that much impact. And and
and all credit to to the USA forAfrica board and Marcia Thomas
that they have kept findingprojects in Africa and other
parts of the world, even inwithin The US, you know, doing
things, following up with theHands Across America project and

(21:19):
and and and and withhomelessness and and poverty in
The US and other places, they'vekept going. And that to me is
it's it's a real lesson for whatwhat we need now. So those were
the reasons for making. Wedidn't realize the world, like I
said earlier, the world would bein such a bad place by the time
the film came out.

(21:40):
But those were some of themotivating factors was to to
tell these stories, to to togive people hope. And and I
remember COVID came in betweenour production on this. So,
again, COVID changed the mindsetof a lot of people, and a lot of
people lost hope. And I I youknow, I I we would hope that
this film would would give thatback to people to to know that

(22:02):
each individual can make adifference. You don't have to go
and save a million lives, butyou can be a better person to
your family, to your community,to the people around you, and
you can make a difference thatway.
And I think we've lost a littlebit of that compassion.

Chip Duncan (22:18):
And I'll throw out one thing. We haven't
necessarily explained this, butthe proceeds from the song We
Are the World, everybody workednonprofit. The proceeds from
that song helped create thenonprofit called USA for Africa,
which is who we're talking abouthere. And and when Salim says,
you know, they thought they'd bearound four or five years,

(22:38):
they're still going strong. Partof what they did, and I think
this is extraordinary, is theway they chose to give away
money on the continent was toempower nonprofits on the
continent.
It's not like the typical NGOwhere, you know, they're coming
in after an earthquake or a fireor a civil war. Literally, they

(23:02):
look for grassrootsorganizations on the continent
and help bring the financialresources to them that they need
for empowerment of women andgirls, for literacy, for food
security. And that wasrevolutionary as well. So the
blueprint that we talk about inthis film is it really is

(23:23):
journalists, healthcare workers,and then how the nonprofits, the
musicians of course, how thosenonprofits work after they've
got the money in their hands.It's one of the most successful
organizations around the worldin terms of truly empowering
people in one particular Yeah.

Cathy (23:40):
I also wanted to tell our listeners that my husband was
Ken Craigen. He's passed awaynow, but he's the one that made
all the phone calls to pull theartists together for We Are The
World. And, yes, when theystarted the board and he's on
the board and years and years goby and they kept trying to
disband the board, more moneycame in, and so they just kept

(24:02):
it going and he was on the boardwhen he passed away and the
board is still strong entitythat really cares what they fund
and who they fund, and it becamea whole second career that he
had to assimilate into his life.It was really amazing. Salim,
what were the challenges andobstacles in making this

(24:24):
documentary?

Salim Amin (24:25):
Oh, I think, well, Chip's probably better better
answer that. One was wasfinance. I mean but but, you
know, I'll I'll take a stab atit. One was obviously finance.
We we financed this whole thingourselves.
We we were hoping to getfinancing from various entities,
and it didn't happen. COVIDinterfered with it. We were in
the middle of production whenCOVID happened. That that that

(24:47):
went through, you know, thegreatest night of pop came out
and and that, you know, everyoneassumed that that's the same
story. And so why why would theywanna give to another story not
understanding the differencebetween the two documentaries?
You know? And and so that was achallenge. And also getting hold
of all these people. I mean,Chip spent, you know, months

(25:10):
looking for Claire. And ClaireBurchinger turns out to be the,
you know, really the the the oneof the centerpieces, not the
centerpiece of of of the film,but finding her and getting her
to agree to talk was, you know,months of months of work on
Chip's part.
You know, getting Harry's lastinterview, getting Ken's last

(25:34):
interview. Those were just wewere lucky to get those because
we happened to be in the rightplace at the right time. And
they both agreed. They bothagreed to do it, I think, simply
because of the friendship thatthey had with my father. And
that was the the the reason thatthey agreed to sit down with us.
You know, Harry was, you know,very elderly, very not very well

(25:57):
when he gave that interview, wasvery reluctant to do that. But I
think just did it as a favorbecause of his his his memories
of my dad. And at the time thiswent together, Ken was was
really not well when when whenwe did that interview. He's he
was in you know, his back wasgiving him a lot of problems. He
was in a lot of pain that day,Kathy.

(26:18):
You'll remember when we werewhen we came for the thirty
fifth anniversary.

Cathy (26:22):
Thirty fifth anniversary of We Are The World.

Salim Amin (26:24):
Of We Are World. Yeah. So he was in a lot of
pain, but he, you know, he likea trooper, he sat through he sat
through that whole interview forI think it was almost an hour
that we were that we wereinterviewing him in that theater
at at A and M Studios. And and,again, I think a lot of it had
to do with, you know, with withthe fact that they'd all been in

(26:44):
Ethiopia with my dad. They'd allthey'd all traveled together.
They'd all spent time together,and they'd stayed in touch, you
know, until dad passed away. Igot lovely notes from Harry,
from Ken, from everybody when hepassed away in the hijack, in
plane crash. And I think it wasjust I think it's that was a lot

(27:09):
of goodwill went into makingthis film. But, you know, it's
still financially, you know, hasalmost bankrupted both of us in
making this film. So we hope atsome point we'll recover
something.
But if we could, you know, useit to help people do better
things, then that's rewardenough as well.

Chip Duncan (27:30):
And I'm going to actually do something that's
probably a little less typicalon podcast like this, but I'd
like to ask both of you, Kathyand Mary, for your impressions
of Dame Claire Birchinger, thenurse that we're talking about.
And the reason being that shenever sought any publicity.

(27:51):
This, for the listeners andviewers, when the BBC crew
arrived on the fields of Quorumand in the city of Michalay to
document this famine, the oneperson that was providing
healthcare for hundreds ofthousands of people was a nurse
for the International Red Cross.And she has never sought any

(28:12):
attention whatsoever, but to me,she's the soul of the film. And
I just wondered what what youguys thought when you saw the
film in terms of Claire and whatshe brings to the production.

Merry (28:24):
Yeah. First of all, I think you mentioned it, Salim,
perhaps you did, Chip. Her lifewas service. She was there, and
I think the most gratificationthat she had in her life was the
fact that she could make adifference to help all of these

(28:45):
people and to try to make surethat the people that she was
able to feed and help in theirmedical care try to assure that
they would go on and survive.And I know you had a man in the
film who was a survivor, and Idon't know if it was because of
her help and service, but I wasvery impressed with that and her

(29:11):
dedication, and also the factthat she said that they had to
choose the people there becausethere were so many people who
were starving and ill andtalking about what a choice to
have to make in life to choosepeople that would live and die.

(29:34):
That was powerful, and it'sfrightening to think that that
may still be going on today. AndI was very impressed with her
because of her dedication andlove for the people in the
country and justice.

Cathy (29:50):
Well, having lived through Ken going over there and
going with the supplies andtelling me what it was like was
very I didn't have any footagelike that to look at. I never
knew about Claire. I'm not surewhether Ken met Claire, but he
probably did. I just was soshocked that one person could do

(30:14):
that much. I'll start crying, Iwas just really, really shocked
and flabbergasted that she's byherself, helping people, trying
to put food in babies, trying tojust decide is this one, can we
give this one the food or is theother one worse off?
Is the one we have to feed theone that's better because they

(30:38):
can get better? It was just likelife decisions that she was
having to make every minute ofevery day and doing it month
after month after month. Howlong was she there, Chip? I
missed that piece.

Chip Duncan (30:53):
She was there over two more than two years. I'll
tell you, this is a stunning Imean, when we interviewed her, I
knew a lot about her. But thiswoman came to Northern Ethiopia
with very little experience onthe continent from two years as

(31:14):
a nurse for the InternationalRed Cross in Lebanon during
their Lebanese Civil War, eightytwo, eighty three. So she went
from one war zone to another,and when she left Ethiopia, she
went to Afghanistan. So the arcof her career, I could be wrong,
but I believe she's the firstnurse who's been more or less

(31:35):
knighted by the crown inEngland.
She's Dame Claire Birchinger.And it's so compelling to me
that the country finallyrecognized what I consider some
of the greatest traits that anyhuman can have, which is to put
your own needs Obviously, youhave to sustain yourself through
food and water and sleep, but toput her needs to the side to be

(31:59):
able to help all of these peoplefor as long as she did, and not
just in Ethiopia.

Cathy (32:04):
And how amazing is it that she's still alive on the
planet being in these war zones?Completely amazing that she
survived.

Chip Duncan (32:14):
And never took quite a break.

Salim Amin (32:25):
Yeah.

Merry (32:27):
Yeah.

Salim Amin (32:31):
But like Michael Buig said, to make those
choices, what you said, Mary, tomake those choices at the age of
only, you know, 23, 20 fouryears old, to have to decide who
lives and who dies, it's notit's not something that anyone
should ever have to do. And notnot just for a day, but to do it

(32:54):
for a period of two years ormaybe more in different war
zones. It's it's it's notacceptable. I mean, it's
something that the world wenever should have to to to put
people in that situation. But asagain, nothing has changed.
Unfortunately, nothing

Chip Duncan (33:12):
with the world has changed.

Salim Amin (33:13):
If anything, it's even worse. If you look at
what's happening in Gaza now

Chip Duncan (33:17):
And Sully mentioned

Salim Amin (33:18):
look at Ukraine.

Chip Duncan (33:18):
You look at than we could

Salim Amin (33:19):
have imagined. You look at Sudan. You look at all
of the Ethiopia. It's allhappening. Again, it just don't
seem

Chip Duncan (33:26):
to right now. With things like Elon Musk with a
chainsaw cutting, cutting,cutting indiscriminately, And
the antithesis of that, thecounterpoint to that is Claire
Berchinger, Harry Belafonte, KenCraig, and artist Bob Geldof,
who are saying, I'm here tohelp. I'm not here to cut. I'm

(33:47):
not here to take away. Theempathy that comes through in
this film, the need forcompassion and the importance of
it, think is what's reallydriving this production.
And that's why when it hitspeople in these big group
environments, and they wannapeople it's kind of fun when
you're done watching it, youwanna talk about it. And you

(34:09):
wanna say, what can I do in mycommunity with my family, with
my friends? Is it working withthe Boys and Girls Club or the
food pantry, or helping teachsomeone to read, or Humane
Society. Everybody has withinthem the possibility of finding
a niche where they canvolunteer, and they can be of

(34:29):
service, and they can help. Andyou can do it through your
mosque, your church, yoursynagogue, or just if you're not
religious, do it the way youwanna do it.
And Clare just embodies that.And I think Harry did too. I
mean, Harry, his whole life waslike that. And Ken, when he, you
know, he went from this to HandsAcross America, and they

(34:50):
understood the importance ofnumber one, food, clean water,
you know, reproductive rights,you know, all of the different
things that that, you know, eachof us needs, civil rights, human
rights, it's all in the film. Itall comes through.

Merry (35:06):
You know, that's the question I asked myself after I
saw the film. What can I do?What can I do even just for a
little niche somewhere to makethe world a little bit of a
better place? And on that note,Chip, as far as all the people
who were in the film, how didyou get the rights clearances

(35:26):
for those songs and the footage?Was it difficult like finding
Claire?
How did you find Claire? Andgetting the rights, and how did
you also, as far as making thefilm, how did you and Salim
divide up the tasks that wereinvolved?

Chip Duncan (35:46):
Well, the rights are an interesting issue. So USA
for Africa owns the recordingand the behind the scenes
footage and all of the differentaspects of We Are The World. So
they're not our partner in theproduction, but they've been our
collaborators from the get go.And so we knew we had clearances

(36:07):
for all of the We Are The Worldmaterial at the time we started
the production. We did not knowwhat amount of material we would
use from Live Aid or Band Aiduntil we started editing the
film.
And they've been delightful towork with. They understand the
same importance that we do,which is, like Saleem mentioned,
that we didn't get paid to makethe film. We're making it and

(36:31):
marketing it in the same spiritthat Bob Geldof did and that We
Are The World team did. But withthe Live Aid, Band Aid
charitable trusts, we've workedout a deal with them where if
there is revenue, a percentageof it goes back to them for
their ongoing work on thecontinent as well.

Cathy (36:49):
Yeah. Because you had some amazing Live Aid footage.

Merry (36:53):
Yeah.

Cathy (36:53):
You've got Queen, and you've got Everybody's

Chip Duncan (36:57):
in it for just a matter of seconds, but it does
it is a who's who's realize theimportance of Live Aid is is
without question the greatestconcert in history. I mean,
literally 40% of the worldwatched some part of that
concert on on broadcasttelevision. It was way before
streaming or platforms.

Salim Amin (37:17):
Yeah. Right.

Chip Duncan (37:18):
But then, of course, the footage we use the
most, which is both the famineand then the food distribution
that comes after these musicalefforts, is from camera picks.
It's material that Salim'sfather, Mohammed Amin, created.
His colleagues were there. Theyhelped create it. There's the
sound engineer, Abdul Ramadan,other colleagues, Duncan

(37:43):
Willits, all of that Camera Pixteam played a role here and
continues to to this day.
So I was sitting in the Midwestworking on the editing, but I'd
be on the phone with Salimsaying, hey, do you guys have
pictures of the graveyards onthe Coram Plateau? Do you have
footage of Harry and Kendistributing food a year later?

(38:08):
All of that was back and forth,back and forth. And Camera Pix
archive is truly, other than theDuncan Group archive, I mean,
it's one of the finest archivesin the world. Both Salim and I
work really hard on maintainingour archives and making them
preserve both preserving forhistory, but also making them
digitally friendly andavailable.

(38:29):
So Mo's work is so the filmwould not exist without Mo's
incredible coverage of theseevents.

Cathy (38:37):
And I was so surprised and happy to see that footage of
them arriving in Africa becausethat's something that hasn't
been shown that I've never seen,and it is stuff that Moamine
shot, and I didn't even knowthat still existed. It's very
exciting to see my husband withHarry Belafonte and Bob Geldof

(38:57):
walking into the crowds inEthiopia. I mean, very moving.

Merry (39:03):
Very. It will sound Yeah.

Chip Duncan (39:06):
Know, it's interesting because in audience
responses, it's almost to beexpected that some percentage of
an audience will shed a tear orseveral tears watching the first
act because you're seeing, it'salmost as if, and I think this
is an apt comparison, it's as ifthere were cameras inside the

(39:29):
Holocaust. This is that kind ofevent. More than a million
people starved to death. Mo ablecapture that in a way that is so
heartbreaking when you see it.But almost everybody, including
me when I was editing, when thereal tears come when the food
arrives.

(39:51):
And know, when you see, whenClaire is at the little tiny
airport and points out theairplane coming. Those sorts of
things are so emotionallymoving, and all of that is
because of camera pics havingthat footage and shooting that
footage. So like you, Kathy,when I saw Ken and Harry are

(40:13):
walking in the crowds in Tigrayprovince, it's unbelievable that
that footage exists.

Cathy (40:19):
Yeah.

Salim Amin (40:36):
Even the press conferences and, you know, doing
the stuff in Ethiopia, the pressconferences, we didn't I didn't
know we had it until we startedsearching through the tapes and
viewing everything. And andthen, you know, you asked about
challenges earlier. One of themwas restoring all of this
archive, which was all done inMilwaukee with Chip, was

(40:56):
restoring this content, which is40 years old now and shot on
tape and, you know, getting allthe glitches. Some of the
footage was not completely weweren't able to completely
restore it, and you can see, youknow, the tearing in the screen
and stuff. But That must havescary.
To the authenticity of it, butwe did try and repair it as best

(41:17):
as we could so that it wasusable. But, you know, that's
that was also we also discovereda lot of new content when we
were working on this film.

Cathy (41:31):
Yeah.

Salim Amin (41:35):
And like I said earlier, we seem to you know, in
this archive, we have, you know,8,000,000 images and twenty two
thousand hours of footage. Sowe're still discovering every
time we go into it. We stillfind new things that we had no
idea existed because it's notall digital. And so we're still
going through the physicalnegatives and slides and tapes

(41:56):
and and film reels, even 16 milYes. Film reels.
And we don't know what's on themuntil we most see and and view
them. And what is best way it?So, hopefully, we'll be able to
make many more films together onon some of these important
historical events. Well, I Ithink, you know, I'll speak for

(42:27):
Chip on this as well, is that wewant as many people as possible
to see this. Mhmm.
There's obviously an audiencethat remembers Live Aid,
remembers We Are The World andthe recording, and remembers the
famine. And for them, it'snostalgia. It's look going back
and looking and reliving some ofthat those events. But there is

(42:49):
two generations that probablyhave no idea that these events
ever took place, or they mightknow the song We Are The World,
but they have no idea of theorigins of the song and why it
was recorded and what made ithappen and who were the people
that put it all together. Andthat's, that's very important,
we think, for them to see thisfilm and to understand how that

(43:15):
generation, our generation madea difference, such a huge
difference at that time.
So universities, schools, Imean, pretty much any audience,
I think it's important anywherein the world, not just
Americans, but Europeans, butAfricans, They need to see this

(43:37):
film because everybody was apart of this movement in the
nineteen eighties. There wasn'tany part of the world that
wasn't affected by whathappened, and every one of them
had their own versions of We AreThe World or Do They Know It's
Christmas? There was a Canadiansong. There was a German song.
There was a Dutch song.
Everybody copied what was doneby USA for Africa to to to

(44:03):
contribute something. And thenMarcia was telling us that that
to date, the largestcontributions to the song come
from Japan. You know, Japanseems to love this song, and
that's where the majority of thedownloads happen, the majority
of the money comes from to thisday. So this was truly a global
event, and and it seems,unfortunately, with technology,

(44:28):
which should make things likethis much more global, it seems
to be the opposite. It seems themore information we have and the
more access to information wehave, the more misinformed or
uninformed we are than we wereforty years ago.

(44:49):
And that's, to me, that's atragedy because I think young
people have the ability, theyhave too much choice now, so
they have the ability to filtertheir information. They have the
they are they are they they canthey can put their own algorithm
so they only receive what theywant to receive, whether it's
music or sports. They don'treally want to know about a

(45:11):
civil war in Sudan or about thedevastation in Ukraine. Young
people, majority of them are notinterested in this. But in the
1980s, and I'm old enough toremember that, and and you guys
are just slightly younger thanme.
But, you know, but you'llremember that in America, there

(45:33):
was three channels. There wasABC, there was NBC, there was
CBS. You are either a Brokawfan, a Rather fan, or a Peter
Jennings fan, and you watchedyour favorite broadcaster at
6PM, and you watched the news.And you have the whole family
sat together and watched thenews. And whether you liked it

(45:53):
or not, you had to watch yourtwenty minutes of local news and
your ten minutes ofinternational news, and you had
to know.
And then people had dinnerafterwards, and they discussed
the news and what was going on.And so young people were so much
better informed than they arenow because now they're all
doing their own things. Nobodysits down at dinner together

(46:16):
anymore. They're all on theirown devices, watching their own
things, doing their own things.That culture has gone, and it's
never gonna come back.
But I think we're we're poorerfor it as as a society.

Merry (46:30):
Hopefully, the film breaks

Salim Amin (46:31):
through to all audiences. Trying to get people
to to remember and understandthe importance of coming
together is one. Emotionalimpact is is very important for
this film. The is the importantmessage for the from this film.

Merry (46:46):
I know that we were just discussing editing, the editing
involved, but was there anythingin the film that you had to cut
that you wish you could havekept in?

Chip Duncan (47:00):
That's an interesting question. I would
say no. And the reason beingthat if we were constrained by
budget, obviously, but also, westayed on task. I mean, the
three act structure that weoutlined at the beginning I
think is a big part of it. Weknew that we were gonna come up

(47:21):
against dollars if we exploitit, tried to exploit Live Aid in
any more significant way.
We also knew that Lionel's filmcame out before ours, The
Greatest Night and Pop, and wewere we were very well set on
not covering the same ground. Soit's a lovely film. You know,
hats off to that production, butwe didn't wanna have to redo the

(47:45):
same thing or retell the samestories. I think the power of
journalism and the power ofservice really come through
strongly in the way that wecreated it. And as much as we
use the Camera Picks archivefully, we probably, I would say
we covered it as exhaustively aswe could.

(48:09):
If there was anything that Iwish we could add, it would have
been, which was mostly a budgetconsideration, it would have
been to cover more of theprograms of USA for Africa on
the continent. We didn't havethe resources to do it, but when
I was talking earlier abouttheir approach to giving, I've
been on a lot of nonprofitboards, and I love what they've

(48:33):
been able to do. I've been on aboard in Nicaragua called the
Roberto Clemente Health Clinic,and they're very similar. The
money is generated here, butit's facilitated without
overhead directly to Nicaraguain that case, or in this case,
Ethiopia. So it's a rare thing,I think, to see a nonprofit

(48:55):
operate that way.
But I guess if anything, I wouldhave added more about USA for
Africa if we'd been able to.

Salim Amin (49:19):
Yeah. We would have gone to travel to some of these
countries that well, we weren't

Merry (49:23):
able to go through all the continent and actually film
a lot more

Salim Amin (49:27):
of programs and interview a lot more of the
people who benefit me. So Youknow, years of US as a
photojournalist. And with theseprograms and their giving.

Chip Duncan (49:40):
One of the things that you see a lot of media
cover is the the thespecifically the death and
destruction, the crumbledbuildings, the corpses lying
under rubble, those sorts ofthings. And I think this film in
part will succeed because weshow acts of kindness, we show
acts of empathy, we show acts ofcompassion. We're trying to make

(50:04):
sure that we come away with adifferent narrative. And in that
regard, I wanna mentionspecifically for your listeners
or viewers that while we'rerecording this, Sudan is going
through one of the worstatrocities on earth is getting
almost no media coverage becauseit's a civil war. It's not that

(50:24):
journalists are unwilling or inany way afraid to go in and
document it.
They're simply being held atbay. You can't get in to do the
coverage. But we know that about20,000,000 people are struggling
with food security in Sudanright now as we're recording
this. And so the death toll fromstarvation in that country may

(50:46):
far surpass what we saw inEthiopia. It's hard to say.
But the challenges remain. Andultimately it comes down to
will. Really, Salim was talkingabout young people, but it comes
down to teaching. If you don'thave empathy within you, if you
don't feel compassion withinyou, then it's up to all of us

(51:10):
to say, let's reinvent thatwheel and make sure that people
understand the power and theimportance of those emotions and
those gestures so that peoplecan really help each other. I
mean, we know who gets the mediaspotlight in The United States,
and neither of the two mainplayers right now, or three or

(51:32):
four or five or you name it,their message is the opposite of
this film.
And this film is really it it itreally works hard to show what's
possible when we stand togetheras one.

Cathy (51:45):
Mhmm. And the theme of unity is central to the film.
And Celine, what do you thinkthe film says about the
importance of community intoday's world?

Salim Amin (52:13):
I think it can't be said more aggressively than in
the film that as a community, asindividuals, we can do only so
little. But when we all gettogether and we combine the
talents of so many differentsectors of society to come
together and do something, youcan change history. I mean,

(52:36):
little children in 1985 raisedclose to $50,000,000 children
under the age of 10, becausethey saw this footage and they
told their parents that, youknow, don't give us pocket money

(52:56):
for the next six months. Youknow? Don't we'll go and do bake
sales and and and lemonade salesand do this, and we'll go and
raise money because thesechildren are dying in Ethiopia
because they watched thatfootage.
They saw that. And yet thosechildren had empathy and a sense
responsibility that they had todo something. So we all have it

(53:21):
in us. We all, I think,fundamentally are good people. I
would like to believe that weare deep down, we're all good
people.
It's just we seem to have lostour way. And COVID, I thought,
would bring people togethermore, would give a sense of
empathy and community. But Ithink it was the opposite

(53:43):
almost. We realized we becamemore selfish and more self
centered and realized we couldactually live without each other
and survive. And I think we losta lot in COVID that we need to
get back.
And hopefully films like thiscan rebuild that sense of
community and solidarity. And,you know, like in Los Angeles

(54:04):
when the fires happened,communities came together to
help each other to, you know,people who had lost their homes
or the things that were takenin, that were looked after. You
know, communities came togetherbecause you have that sense of
of of

Cathy (54:20):
Mhmm.

Salim Amin (54:21):
Wanting to help and wanting to do something. But
yet, in conflicts like Sudan,Chip mentioned, you know, people
don't care because they don'tknow. In conflicts like Ukraine
where they do know or in Gazawhere they do know, they still
don't care because, again, theseare maybe people of a different
of a different color or of adifferent religion or of a

(54:41):
different, society. And I thinkin 1984, 'eighty five, this
wasn't the case. We weren't asdivided as world.
We were not divided like we aretoday, unfortunately, to
politicians mainly, not not foryou know, politicians have
succeeded in dividing us. But inin nineteen eighty four, eighty

(55:04):
five, people did not look atyour religion and your color and
your faith and your andgeographic location. It was
simply, you know, why don'tthese people have food when we
have everything here? Why don'tpeople have the basics? And that
shocked people.
Also, the 1980s were a time ofgreat prosperity in the world.

(55:28):
Now it's a time of great it'snot a time of great prosperity.
People are struggling everywherein the world to make ends meet.
So the troubles of people on theother side of the world are not
so important anymore becauseeverybody has their own

(55:49):
struggles that they're trying todeal with to put food on their
table. So perhaps the it's moredifficult to find empathy when
you have your own challenges.
And I think this is trying

Merry (56:02):
to achieve in this Sadly,

Salim Amin (56:04):
what society has what has become of the

Merry (56:07):
world post COVID. I mean, in senior

Salim Amin (56:09):
post, there's political

Merry (56:10):
I'm certainly

Salim Amin (56:11):
split Impact. Splitting of of people.

Merry (56:13):
And it I think it will influence people. I have to ask
you both, though, on the filmside, were there any unexpected
moments or revelations duringfilming that you made that made
you rethink what you thought youknew about the subjects and the

(56:33):
whole issue of what occurredthere. Can you both take a stab
at this?

Salim Amin (57:00):
Hi, Bobby. As I said earlier, I was just finding some
of that footage and and seeingsome, you know, Harry and Ken
and others, you know, inEthiopia and and having that. I
didn't know we had it. So, youknow, discovering some of that
footage again was quite arevelation in that way. Harry's
interview was was quite, youknow, quite amazing because he

(57:26):
struggled.
You know, he was he was kindagoing all over the place a
little bit, and but he told ussome fascinating stories about
life and and and and things thathe had done that nothing related
to Ethiopia, but but just, youknow, some really interesting
things. It was watch ship aboutthree hours, that interview,

(57:47):
three and a half hours. Therewas a lot of really interesting
stuff in there.

Cathy (57:52):
Say who Marcia.

Merry (57:54):
Yes. Marcia Tom. I mean,

Salim Amin (57:55):
Marcia was quite a a revelation in the film. I mean,
you know, she comes acrossreally well. She really
explained a lot of things very,very well. And Claire, as we've
said, is sort of the unexplored.Marcia Thomas is the executive
director of USA for Africa andhas been for the last, I think,

(58:17):
probably thirty five years now.
She wasn't there right at thebeginning, but she joined
shortly after the song wasreleased and and has become a
huge part of that movement andthe organization. And at this
age, she's now in her late, Iguess, seventies. Now she still
goes to the continent half adozen times a year to go and see

(58:39):
the projects and oversee it. Youknow, learning about this stuff
that all is really veryinteresting to me.

Chip Duncan (58:47):
I much about

Salim Amin (58:48):
though I knew the story very well, I didn't I
didn't know it that well. Youknow, I I I found out a lot of

Chip Duncan (58:53):
things but I didn't know

Salim Amin (58:54):
it before making the The

Cathy (58:55):
way

Chip Duncan (58:55):
media and distribution happens for
television today is it's counterto the film that we made. And by
that I mean, if you when we werepitching this project, and it
didn't matter who we weretalking to. So let's say you're

(59:16):
at Apple, you're at Oprah,you're at Obama's company,
wherever you are pitching thisNetflix. If you if you go in
with this project, what whatyou're essentially saying is we
wanna talk we wanna do a filmabout great acts of
philanthropy, where artists cometogether and successfully go

(59:40):
help people. That is not a goodpitch for this media
environment.
If you're looking for a goodpitch, you're talking about The
Last of Us or The Walking Deador Game of Thrones or, you know,
none of those are anything likethis film. And so what we what
we don't have is the big mediasupport, the the machine that

(01:00:05):
you see with the networks fromDisney percolating down or
Netflix percolating down.Because it's like, okay, you
think about the story of We AreThe World. Well, you got Harry
Bel afonte calls Ken Cragen, andthen they bring in Quincy,
Michael, and Lionel, and theygenerate a hundred million
dollars to go help feed people.That's not the drama that the

(01:00:30):
networks are looking for.
And so are they willing to putmoney into that kind of story?
The answer we found out is no.But in fact, what the world
really needs are stories aboutpeople like Claire Berchinger or
like Belafonte or like, youknow, the and it's and we you

(01:00:53):
can do the story of MohammedAmin because he's so versatile.
It's an episodic tale, but it'slike he is in the thick of Black
Hawk Down and Idi Amin andEmperor Bukassa. He's in the
thick of it as a journalist.
But this film, it it flies inthe face of the media

(01:01:13):
environment in which we live in.And so for me, that was probably
the big surprise. Oh, you wantto tell a story about
successful, generous, empatheticpeople? It's like, no, it's kind
of contrary to the mediaenvironment. So that was

Merry (01:01:29):
Well well, have to say when you win your Oscar for it,
I think a lot of people willwanna air it.

Cathy (01:01:37):
Well, I still but that chip what you described is a
very unpleasant surprise. It'snot at all what you thought you
would be hit with, an unpleasantsurprise like that.

Merry (01:01:51):
And we've touched on this From your

Salim Amin (01:01:53):
lips to God's ears.

Chip Duncan (01:01:54):
They like celebrities, so we had that. We
did have celebrity, but it's notkind of, you know, good news
story that you would typicallysee. It is inspiring, though.

Cathy (01:02:06):
Yes. Mhmm. And we touched on this quite a bit already, so
we can maybe gloss over thisquestion that I had. But, Salim,
you were very young when yourfather, the late great Moamin,
was out there shooting thefamous footage of the famine and
a lot of war footage. So how doyou feel this impacted you?

(01:02:28):
Do you feel you've covered thatalready? Mhmm.

Salim Amin (01:02:48):
Yeah. I I mean, like I said, I do you know, I was not
aware of the significance of thework that he did at that age. I
was a teenager and, you know,really had more important things
on my mind, you know, likepartying and, you know, what
else to do rather than, youknow, realizing the what he was
doing. And it was always like,yeah. Oh, yeah.
He helped make We Are the World,and do they know it's Christmas?

(01:03:11):
But I didn't really understandthe importance of that work
until until after he died, to behonest. You know, it's when I
when I made when I started, youknow, going into his life a lot
more, when I made thedocumentary Moe and Me on on his
life, that's when I startedunderstanding the impact of what

(01:03:32):
he did and the impact of thearchive that we have. And yeah.
So he was significant.
He was a significant person inthe history of this continent.
But often you know, but it'sbeen thirty years since he died,
so people forget. And we try andkeep that memory going, but

(01:03:55):
people do forget, and peoplemove on. Mhmm. These days, you
know, I mean, it's it's youknow, you're lucky if you get
not even fifteen seconds offame.
You're lucky if you get threeseconds of fame when you go. You
know? And and so, you know, thefact that people still do
remember

Chip Duncan (01:04:11):
I'll add to that by just saying that both

Salim Amin (01:04:13):
thirty years later is And it's a nice thing. It's
it's nice household names. It'sheartwarming that people do
remember the one that hecontributed.

Chip Duncan (01:04:21):
Somewhere north of 60,000,000

Salim Amin (01:04:23):
people in that

Chip Duncan (01:04:23):
country will,

Salim Amin (01:04:24):
you know, bring it

Chip Duncan (01:04:25):
back to hundred million. They know who these
guys are. And Salim and I haveexperienced this personally. If
ever in doubt, you go toWashington, D. C, and you will
never pay for a cab ride if yourdriver happens to be Ethiopian,
because the minute you bring upMohammed Amin, everybody knows
who Mohammed Amin is in Ethiopiaand in Kenya.

(01:04:47):
I mean, both.

Cathy (01:04:48):
He's so gratifying.

Chip Duncan (01:04:50):
He's credited with saving millions of lives. That
footage I mean, if you thinkabout it, here's something your
listeners and viewers willrelate to. If if there had not
been a camera photographingGeorge Floyd, that story would
not have taken on the the powerthat it did and changed, you
know, the the whole Black LivesMatter movement here in The

(01:05:12):
United States. It all tracesback, and then you look at the
same thing in the continent.Moe's footage saved millions of
lives, and you can't disputethat.

Merry (01:05:22):
Just the impact of that statement. It's powerful. And it
the film, in relation to whatKathy asked you, Salim, you must
have been emotionally impacted,and you must still be every time
you see this footage or discovernew footage. And also on the
same note, Chip just working onstand together of one stand

(01:05:47):
together as one must havechanged your I wanted to get
that right. It it must havechanged your personal view on
social activism and socialissues.
Did did it not?

Chip Duncan (01:06:03):
Well, I I for me personally, I've I've worked as
a photojournalist in a number ofthese very similar places and
covered with Salim, NorthernEthiopia a number of times. But
I've also worked on a lot ofhumanitarian projects around the
world. So this has been, for mepersonally, the film is very

(01:06:27):
much in sync with the mission ofour company and very much in
sync with the kinds of films andbooks that I set out to write
forty years ago when we startedthe company. So I think it
represent in a way, it's like apinnacle of what I think is
important. It's a visualizationof I'm just talking about our

(01:06:52):
own work here, but the kinds ofthings that we've done in
Colombia, Nicaragua, Ghana,Ethiopia, Myanmar.
It's very much in sync with whowe are and what we do. So I
really love seeing this storyabout Moe and Ken and Harry come
out and and Claire, all of them.It's so it's so important for

(01:07:16):
people to see what's possibleand then participate.

Merry (01:07:20):
Yes. What's possible.

Cathy (01:07:21):
Yeah. We thank you so much for this. Is there anything
else either of you would like toshare with our audience that we
haven't touched on yet?

Salim Amin (01:07:46):
I think you guys have covered pretty much
everything. I mean, you knowwhat? The obvious question is,
you know, where can people seethe film and and, you know,
where where you know, how is itout? As Chip has touched on,
we're we're working on, youknow, the distribution side of
it. We're working with with a toget it out there.
There is going to be privatescreenings and university

(01:08:09):
screenings happening, you know,for the rest of this year, film
festivals as well. It's justpremiered at the Milwaukee Film
Festival this last week, andthere's one more screening, I
think, on the May 7 in Milwaukeeas well. So there will be other
festivals. We hope to come toNewport Beach. Is it Chip in in

(01:08:33):
in October?
We'll be at Newport Beach, orthe film will be there. I don't
know if we'll be there, but thefilm will be there. And and so
we're hoping that people will beable to catch it. And if we can
get it on we we are hoping thatit'll be on public TV as well in
the fall.

Chip Duncan (01:08:49):
And out of

Salim Amin (01:08:51):
Final The US, so it'll be it'll we'll hopefully
have it on public that we're allaware of and So that millions of
people can look at it and

Chip Duncan (01:09:01):
A man with a chain being trying

Salim Amin (01:09:03):
to move and inspired by all

Chip Duncan (01:09:04):
of those programs, and in particular USAID. When
USAID goes away, literallymillions of people on the
continent now no longer have theresources they need through the
PEPFAR program. So if you're HIVpositive, if you have nutrition
issues, you name it, all of thatchanges. But I wanna maybe, from

(01:09:27):
a personal perspective, closewith a story from a screening I
did of the film in Budapest inJanuary. So I spoke and screened
the film downtown Budapest, andusually when you're done with a
screening, there's a handful ofpeople that wanna come up and
talk about their own experiencesor give you feedback on the

(01:09:48):
film.
And after two or three peoplewere in line, and finally a guy
walks up toward the He was thelast guy in lane. He walks up
and he was in, I would say, hisearly fifties, and he had a very
dour look on his face. And Ilooked at him and I thought, is
this gonna punch me out? I mean,what's going on? And I said, how

(01:10:08):
can I help you?
And he said, well, I just wannatell you. Because obviously you
know how to make a film, it'svery powerful, and I really wish
I hadn't seen it. And I paused,and I said, okay. And he said,
because now I have to dosomething. And this is almost

(01:10:33):
verbatim of our conversation,and then of course we got into
what that means and how heinteracts in the city of
Budapest, etcetera.
But he admitted to me that hehad never helped anyone. Mean,
he literally said those words,and I thought, hey, if this film

(01:10:54):
inspires you to do something,whatever that might be, and the
examples are many of things thatwe can all do, then we served
our purpose. And I've told thatstory in front of audiences, and
he, I'm sure, has gone on to dothings to help other people.

Cathy (01:11:12):
Beautiful. Beautiful, beautiful. Thank you for sharing
that.

Merry (01:11:18):
Way to sum up. Thank you both. It's been really exciting
to talk to both of you. Ourguests on Late Boomers today
have been Salim Amin and ChipDuncan, the filmmakers with a
new documentary called standtogether as one, the famine, the

(01:11:39):
music, the impact. It's been agreat privilege to have both of
you here.
Thank you.

Cathy (01:11:45):
Thank Thank you. And, yes, thank you. And for thank
you to our listeners forlistening to our late boomers
podcast and subscribing to ourlate boomers podcast channel on
YouTube. And listen in next weekwhen you'll meet life coach

Salim Amin (01:12:02):
Addison. Great time. Thank you both.

Cathy (01:12:03):
You can listen on any podcast platform, and we do
appreciate you. Please follow uson Instagram at I am Kathy
Worthington and at I am MaryElkins and at late boomers.
Thanks again so so very much,Salim Amin and Chip Duncan.

(01:12:32):
Thank you for joining us on late boomers, the podcast
that is your guide to creating athird act with style, power, and
impact. Please visit our websiteand get in touch with us at late
boomers dot biz. If you wouldlike to listen to or download
other episodes of late boomers,go to ewnpodcastnetwork.com.

Merry (01:12:54):
This podcast is also available on Spotify, Apple
Podcast, and most other majorpodcast sites. We hope you make
use of the wisdom you've gainedhere and that you enjoy a
successful third act with yourown style, power, and impact.