We've put together a new reel for 2010, featuring mostly the work we've done over the past three years in Kinshasa, but including some older work from the past decade as well.
It looks good on yooouuutuuube
We travelled to GE factories in Florence (South Carolina), Erie (Pennsylvania) and Peebles (Ohio) and filmed them with cameras attached to remote-control helicopters. For The GE Show.
We sliced, photographed, and animated a variety of objects, organic and inorganic, to illustrate medical tomography. For The GE Show.
We interviewed kids about the future of flight, asked two aviation experts to respond, and made an animated short of the conversation. Experts character design and animation by Eun-Ha Paek. For The GE Show.
We filmed various objects hitting gelatin molds and harder surfaces to demonstrate the principle of the transfer of energy for The GE Show.
We captured all the take-offs and landings that happen over the course of one day at multiple airports and combined them into one short film for The GE Show.
We've put together a new reel for 2010, featuring mostly the work we've done over the past three years in Kinshasa, but including some older work from the past decade as well.
It looks good on yooouuutuuube
Animated intro for the Beyblade Metal Fusion video game website.
Promotion for season two of RQLV. Featuring Moïse ILUNGA and Nicaise MUNGA.
Katya and friends discussing the trick they played on her teacher who was trying to take advantage of her. Shot on location in Kinshasa, DR Congo, for the TV show RQLV.
Katya's friends discuss her increasing detachment from reality due to her increasing worry about her friend Constant. Shot on location in Kinshasa, DR Congo for the TV show RQLV.
Constant moves to protect Katya from an attacker, but quickly loses control.
Constant flashes back to a traumatic scene from his past after losing control and beating a man nearly to death.
Mami brags about her amazing husband to a skeptical audience at the salon.
a quick advert for CALI, the Congo American Language Institute in Kinshasa.
Max steals from the wrong people and gets his payback.
Dady Tola has something to say to Katya, and she's not happy to hear it.
Sony's fear that he's contracted HIV manifests itself as he stares in the mirror. Featuring Yves MAFUMBUKU.
Papi exhorts Koko to change the way he does things in a scene from the first episode of Rien que la Vérité. Featuring Moïse ILUNGA and Nicaise MUNGA.
Katya and Dady Tola talk about their relationship while a little spy watches. Featuring Magali SHAFALI, Trésor BITONGO, and Hugor KATENDE KAPUKU.
Bibiche has a business proposal for Mami in a scene from the second episode of Rien que la Vérité. Featuring Thérèse BODE and Jeanine TSHIBOLA.
Sony misses a goal and starts a fight in this scene from episode 2 of Rien que la Vérité. Featuring Yves MAFUMBUKU.
Koko-Di-Koko describes his spy movie to some skeptical customers in an excerpt from Rien que la Vérité Episode Three. Featuring Nicaise MUNGA, Yves BOUSSEN, Becky WILD, and Cojack NGANDU.
Anxious over his HIV test results, Sony fantasizes about escaping from his life in this scene from episode 3 of Rien que la Vérité. Animation by Eun-Ha Paek. Featuring Yves MAFUMBUKU and Yves MASHAKO.
The host of Rien que la Vérité doing an intro and an outro for an episode of the show.
Live Karmapa rehearsal of their song for RQLV.
An ad aired during broadcast of Rien que la Vérité for our SMS contest line. People would text us their information for a chance to win some RQLV merchandise. Starring Erikas BITONGO.
A quick TV ad for the Congo American Language Institute in Kinshasa.
An ad for the CDC's Ligne Verte, a toll-free AIDS/HIV hotline, that aired during broadcast of RQLV. Featuring the voice of Gildas MOUELLE.
An HIV/AIDS themed music video for the song from the Rien que la Vérité project in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The ensemble video from the CD, featuring Papa Wemba, Fally Ipupa, Karmapa, Manda Chante, Jean Goubald, Lexxus Legal, Candy, and others.
An HIV/AIDS themed music video for the song from the Rien que la Vérité project in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
an HIV/AIDS related music video from the Rien que la Vérité project in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Song: Alain Mpela, Animation: Eun-Ha Paek.
An HIV/AIDS themed music video for the song from the Rien que la Vérité project in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
We make narrative and documentary video and write code.
From 2007 to 2010, smallpower was based in Kinshasa, the capital city of the Democratic Republic of Congo. While we were there, we made, marketed, and distributed music, music videos, a documentary, a concert film, and a television show. We also produced live concerts, theatrical performances, and public screenings of our work.
The work we did in the DRC addressed social issues around HIV/AIDS, sexual and gender-based violence, and conflict resolution.
Ben Olander is a co-founder of smallpower, where he is a writer, director, designer and show runner. Ben ran the HIV/AIDS platform for PSI (Population Services International) in the Democratic Republic of Congo and worked with a microfinance bank for UK-based VSO (Voluntary Services Overseas) in Cameroon. Ben also has an extensive background in new media as the co-founder of San Francisco-based Angry Monkey and the former Executive Creative Director at web-development agency Organic.
Tomas Apodaca (website) is a co-founder of smallpower, where he is a writer, director, and the technical lead. He worked at Stamen Design where he helped build sites and applications like cabspotting and the MoveOn.org national town hall map. He was a co-founder of the web development, entertainment, and R&D company Angry Monkey.
Peregrine McCroskey has been part of the smallpower team since the filming of the Rien Que La Vérité pilot in 2007 during which time she also co-directed an original music video raising awareness about sexual violence against women in the DRC. She has a masters in Global Communications and specializes in Franco-American production work, negotiating cultural logistics, and creative problem solving. Her first feature length film debuted at the UrbanWorld Film Festival in New York in 2010. In 2013 she is returning for her third year as the Senior Logistics Coordinator at the Cannes Film Festival for the American Pavilion working as a linguistic and cultural translator. A producer on many different levels, Peregrine especially enjoys the hands-on aspects, from making trash jello molds, to sewing costumes for puppets. Peregrine proudly hails from Kansas, but considers France her second home.
The generative smallpower logo on this site was coded in Processing.js. The logo is based on a design by Gillian Evans (pdf). This site is running on the Stacey content management system.
We're based in the San Francisco Bay Area. You can reach us at info@smallpower.org
Tunga Mbia was smallpower’s Executive Producer. She’s worked behind the camera, as a documentary director (Miseducating the World: The Misrepresentation of Africans in the Media), and a production assistant for 40 Acres and a Mule. She’s also worked in front of the camera, as a presenter for Imagine Afrika, a pan-African reality show, and as a VJ for MTV Europe.