Documentary Filming

A few months ago I was contacted by Karen, a Canadian journalist who had read my story in Acclimate magazine. She's producing a documentary on expats and divorce and asked if I would be willing to speak with her.

We met this week for lunch and, because I'm leaving Bangkok soon she decided it would be best if she could film me now while she was in town. Yesterday we met at her hotel and she interviewed me on film.

It was a fun experience- I, of course, worried about what to wear and how I was going to do my hair and makeup. Was I even slightly nervous about the fact that I will be telling the entire world all the gory details of how I moved to Bangkok and was separated less than a year later? NAH! As long as I looked good while telling it!

Since we had already met once, she knew what parts of my story she wanted to hi-light and asked certain questions to guide me in the right direction. I worried that I spoke too fast (I know that will come as a shock to those of you who know me), but she assured me that I was fine. We finished the interview with some stock footage of us just generally talking, then me walking in the gardens, etc.

She told me that she had hoped to get some footage of me on the street, maybe getting food from a street vendor, to emphasize the daily life in Bangkok. I told her that I was planning on taking a motorcycle taxi to the BTS, so she could film me getting on that and riding away. She loved the idea, and the camera man took it one step further. We hired two motorbikes and, after he filmed me getting on mine he hopped onto one, zoomed in front of us and filmed me riding down the street.

There I was, being filmed riding side saddle on the back of a motorbike through the streets of Bangkok. I can only imagine what the people who passed us in the cars must have thought was going on!

If all goes well, the documentary will be shown in about a year on the Canadian Television Network. When I have more details I'll be sure to share.

As I mentioned above, I'll be leaving Bangkok soon to enter the US Foreign Service. I will first head to Washington DC for training and then will be posted to another country. I am quite sure that I'll have stories to fill these pages for quite some time to come!