Jean-Pierre Hué

The donga takes place twice a year after the maize harvest is garnered - hence the title: Plus la Récolte est Bonne (The Better the Harvest.) As the film explains the maize is used to make a bitter fermented drink. Men gulp it and gasp with tears in their eyes. The commentary wryly notes: "It is refreshing … very refreshing."

I knew that the next harvest would be in January. However, as the actual date of a donga could not be predicted, I set out on the journey accepting that I probably would not be able to see one.

Practicalities

Through my travels I meet and talk with other like-minded people who enjoy the exploration of new places. Some of them who were familiar with that part of the world told me about the tribe and advised me how to set about going there, recommending an agency and a travel guide.

I have to work for a living - a matter of necessity! At most I can take a fortnight off at one time. This journey alone meant one day's flight and three days of travel overland in a 4 by 4 - and the same in reverse going back. So regretfully I could allow only four clear days for making the film. The guide spoke Ethiopian and some of the tribe members were able to communicate in that language - enough for him to act as interpreter between me and the Surma.

We had to camp within the tribal territory and were given protection. Two weeks earlier 200 people had been killed in fighting between two other tribes - a dispute to do with cattle rustling - so the situation was "relatively dangerous"! I was soon accepted by the tribe and then found them sociable. I felt a sense of mutual respect. I think I could now go back and be immediately accepted. The children used to crowd round me, the women were friendly, and the village chief came to greet me each morning.

The shooting of Fiery Nature meant a similar timetable of travel to a remote part of Kenya and just four days to capture the material. Most of the shots of flamingos and baboons were done with long lenses but I was able to get very close. Interestingly none of the original sound could be retained - too much wind noise - so the soundtrack was pieced together from music and effects. It usually takes me between one and two months to edit and prepare the film for showing - working almost every evening and some weekends. It is like having another life!

Interfering with Paradise?

I said earlier that that tribes are being "polluted" by tourism more and more. This brings in money with which they buy things that they don't need. They stop working and become increasingly dependent on tourism, on a civilisation which is not theirs. It amounts to the destruction of the values on which their society is built.

Sadly I believe that in a year or two the route which I followed will also have become a tourist trail strewn with luxury camp sites for the wealthy. I regret that there are fewer and fewer places in the world where one can experience the sort of paradise which I visited and filmed - because, for me, it is a paradise - as they are taken over by business interests to provide novelty for people with lots of money.

While we may believe that this should be opposed, it is a phenomenon that we just don't have the means to fight against.

- Jean-Pierre Hué talked to Dave Watterson with translation by Pat Menmuir.