Khalil and Eli Fantauzzi, a pair of siblings that last made our newscast for a documentary they made on HipHop in Cuba are back in Belize. Not only are they promoting a new documentary that they've been working on for the past 10 years, but they're also a part of NICH's summer program. Khalil will be teaching a two week course on Photography, while his brother Eli will be teaching videography. They came to our studio today and told us more about both the documentary and the summer program.
Khalil Fantauzzi
"I am going to be teaching photography course, it's going to an introduction photography course, we are going to go over learning about lenses and cameras and how to set up a shot and the most important thing is that young people get to lean about how to tell their story and what goes on in their life through photography."
Emaun Hyde
"Do you think photography is important and do you think it's going to help the students?"
Khalil Fantauzzi
"I think that photography is really important because it has to do with images and how you see yourself and identity and a lot of time young people don't have the control of the images that they see because they are seeing it through commercials or through magazines. So this is an opportunity for them to tell their own story and see themselves in a new way so it's impairing."
Emaun Hyde
"In what way specifically do you think the classes will help the students?"
Khalil Fantauzzi
"I think that it will help them get over the fear of thinking that you have to be this person that is a professional like anybody can pick up a camera and become a good photographer. That's my hope."
Emaun Hyde
"Are you looking forward to it?"
Khalil Fantauzzi
"Yes, this is my second time in Belize and as soon as I left Belize I was waiting for my return, so I am very excited to be back in the country and every excited to be a part of the summer classes."
Emaun Hyde
"What specifics are you planning to teach your students?"
Eli Fantauzzi
"Well from the basics; turning on a camera; using a camera, if you have your own camera, hopefully they are going to bring their own camera and we could go over all the functions that the camera has all the way to editing and creating our own pieces."
Emaun Hyde
"Are you looking forward to it?"
Eli Fantauzzi
"Yes, it's my first time in Belize, I am loving it already and I am looking forward to the summer classes."
Emaun Hyde
"We heard that your are presenting videos. Can you tell us more about that?"
Khalil Fantauzzi
"Yes, the last time I was here I got to present a film about hip hop in Cuba which is called "Investos - Hip Hop Cubano" and we were working about hip hop in Ghana and so we have finally completed it after 10 years of shooting a documentary film about hip hop in Ghana called "home Grown" and we will be presenting these films at the Bliss Institute and its going to be towards the latter part of our classes."
Both courses begin next week Monday and will run until August 13th. For both, there is a morning class from 9 to 12 and an evening class from 5 to 7:30. If you'd like to, you can sign up at the Bliss, but space is limited.
