My brother, Sajid, used to be a cell phone trader in Guangzhou, China. He told me a great story: He once shared an apartment with a trader from India, a man a few years older than him. On their first night in the apartment, the man asked my brother if he could sleep in the same room with him. There were two rooms in the apartment, so it didn't really make any sense.
It turned out that the man had never slept in a room alone. This is not actually that unusual in Indian culture, but the story fascinated me.
So, in my head, I envisioned a story about lonely foreign cell phone traders, all gathering in a hectic market.
But after we started shooting,the interesting story turned out to be a different one, one about a special group of Chinese women who really put my "worldly traveler" self-image in proper perspective.
After finding the story, the most difficult part was making our first contacts to make introductions and get people to talk to us on camera.
My ambition as a documentary maker is simple: To tell the stories of people who aren't usually turned into documentary subjects.
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(Note: While this video didn't win the contest, it got shortlisted. Thanks! Just beginning, trying to get better, so please comment if you have any ideas on how this video could have been better. For example, after seeing the winners, I think I could have used some music, and maybe had more b-roll of the area around the market. Also need to work on my sound recording. Any other ideas?)
