NewEnglandFilm.com

For most of us, high school was a time of boring classes, note-passing, and popularity contests. But at Newton North High School, thanks to a partnership with World Challenge Expeditions based in London, a group of students was able to visit Tanzania and climb Mount Kilimanjaro last summer. One of these students, Josh Woolf, along with his friend Ben Bancroft, filmed the adventure and has created the documentary "Four Weeks in Tanzania."

Josh Woolf is 18-years old. Set to graduate high school this spring, he has been making films since childhood. His largest endeavor was a 75-minute film about the slave revolt in ancient Rome lead by Spartacus.

"Although the film wasn’t spectacular (you can only imagine what would happen if a bunch of high school kids tried to make an ancient Roman epic in the suburbs of Boston), we learned a lot about how much work and dedication it takes to make a real film," Woolf says. From costumes, to sets in their backyards, to battle scenes with nearly 100 extras, Woolf discovered that, "anything is possible if you put your mind to it."

In addition, Woolf has gained experience with a part-time job at a Newton Television Station, and as co-producer of his high school’s television show for two years, all while creating his own short films. The highlight of his education was a four-week course at the New York Film Academy at Universal Studios where they shot on a backlot with 16mm film, which he says afforded him, "a greater appreciation for framing and images and taught me to pay more attention to each individual shot."

"Making a documentary of the trip was one of the main reasons why I joined," Woolf says of the expedition to Tanzania. The World Challenge Expeditions is an educational company that takes students on expeditions around the world, but not in the ‘pre-packaged tour’ sense

"Everything is up to the students, from fundraising, to itinerary, to transportation," Woolf says. "The program is meant to develop leadership, teamwork, and decision-making skills while at the same time teaching things like outdoor survival and general skills related to living and traveling in third world or developing countries." Newton North High is one of the first American schools the British company has worked with. After 18 months of preparation, Woolf and 12 other students with three advisors set out on their journey.

For 17 years, World Challenge Expeditions has guided over 700 schools and 40,000 students through what they describe as an "amazing journey of both mind and body." They provide training and advice on fundraising through their Money Management program, while taking full responsibility for the groups’ safety. At a school assembly two years ago, a representative from WCE gave a brief talk on the trip and gave the kids contact information if anyone was interested.

One WCE leader accompanies each group on the expedition. On Woolf’s expedition their leader was forced to activate their emergency signal that lets the Air Force and the WCE headquarters know there is a life and death situation. Woolf’s team member was helped in a hospital a few hours away while Woolf, whose day it was to lead, helped organize the rest of the team and wait for news. The trip is divided into five phases: Community Service, Acclimatization, Safari, Mt. Kilimanjaro, and finally Zanzibar. In the first phase the group helped repair the Kimbushi Primary School. Phase Two was meant to get the group used to the trials of mountain climbing by making it to the 8,625- foot summit of Mt. Longido. The hike up Mt. Kilimanjaro itself is a 5 ½ day trip up 19,340 feet.

In those 18 months of physical training and preparation, Woolf signed on his friend Ben Bancroft who had participated in "Spartacus" and Woolf also got permission from the WCE representative whom he says was, "very open to the idea, but warned me that it wouldn’t be easy" and also reminded Woolf of the team-building aspect of the trip. Since he had a camera, editing equipment, and experience, Woolf says, "I pretty much just smiled and nodded and then immediately went home to start planning." Pre-production entailed, as Woolf describes it, "working out the gist" of the film.

"We didn’t have time to return to Tanzania again if we needed more shots or anything, so we had to get it right the first time around. Therefore, we really couldn’t go in blindly and just start shooting." They also decided to use interviews with six of the travelers as their narration to make the film more personal and to make the entire group part of the project, which is a main goal for WCE.

The first challenge facing Woolf took place during his preparation time. Obviously, hiking a mountain requires certain gear and nothing else. The film equipment would add weight to their packs that he and Bancroft could not spare. "I bought the smallest and lightest camera I could find… The quality wouldn’t be as good, but that was really a sacrifice that I had to make. Besides, there’s always color correction," Woolf said. After adding 25 MiniDV tapes to the bill, Woolf added $1000 to his total fundraising goal. Woolf reached his goal through group fundraising, but largely due to his job at a television station and some freelance production between work and school.

With the idea of bare necessities on his mind, Woolf says all he really needed was "a camera, access to an editing system, and an idea."

"I would stress the importance of a good idea," Woolf says. "It doesn’t matter how good your technical skills are or how top-of-the-line your camera is. If you don’t have a good idea, then you don’t really have anything." Motivation and passion were the other key factors. "You need to be able to sit down and work on it almost every day." In the end, Woolf says the film benefited from his interest in it. "It made the film a lot easier and a lot more fun to work on."

Woolf’s other challenge involved the actual shooting. "I found it difficult to juggle the roles of filmmaker and team member… As a documentary filmmaker, your role tends to be that of an observer. It’s not easy to film something and be involved with it at the same time." Again, however, Woolf believes giving the film a personal touch gave it a step in the right direction. "It felt like it was from the perspective of a team member rather than a mysterious third party."

Along with making a film the entire team was involved in, Woolf was rewarded with the beauty of Tanzania and its people. "What interest me are people in places, rather than one or the other. It’s all about the adventure and what the people experience," he says. "If the viewer feels a connection to the team and they feel like they’re traveling with them, then I think the film is a lot more powerful."

"I had to restrain myself because everywhere I looked; I saw something that I wanted to film." The test was also portraying the full experience. Someday, Woolf hopes to "really show people what it’s like to stand on the summit of Kilimanjaro, or to walk through a Masai village, or to help repair a school in the middle of the rainforest. What does it sound like? What does it smell like?" Continuing his quest for a more real documentary, Woolf is in the planning stages for his next film about Mt. Washington. "I just wanted to share the experience and allow people to translate that into whatever they wanted. Going to a place like Tanzania means different things to different people."

After filming 20 hours of footage, logging it, recording six interviews, and editing for two months, Woolf and Bancroft have a 100-minute rough cut of "Four Weeks in Tanzania." But the screening will be, for Woolf, the greatest reward, because "it really is the culmination of all the work you’ve done."