It's funny how things snowball. I first wanted to go to Cuba because it was a place I wasn't suppose to go. And when Ward MacDonald told me about the Canadian-Cuban Celtic Society, I was intrigued. Apparently, several years ago, bagpipers from Cuba had been invited to Celtic Colours. They made friends with many Cape Breton fiddlers and bought some Cape Breton Fiddle albums, which they brought back to Cuba with them. Then, they invited some of their new friends down to Cuba. Several Cape Bretoners went down to Cuba and found that fiddlers there had learned some of their tunes.
Now, the CCCS, headed by Cape Bretoner Lisa Butchart, is helping the Cubans with a festival of their own. It will be a week long event in April with musicians from Cuba forming the base of the events, but will also include many Celtic musicians, including their new Cape Breton friends, from across the Globe.
But the snowball got bigger. I decided I'd try to raise money for a camera for the trip on Kickstarter. I thought it'd be a huge service to the greater piping community to see the great stuff happening down in Cuba. Not to mention how good it would be to help promote future CeltFest Cubas.
Well, I had originally thought I'd just take a bunch of pictures and videos and put them on my website, but kickstarter uses "rewards" as a means of enticing people to donate. So I needed some "rewards". Obviously a DVD with tastefully edited together videos and stills from the festival would suit the bill perfectly. And what to do you call such a DVD? A documentary of course! So now I'm making a documentary. It was not something I had originally planned to do, but now I'm very excited about it. Obviously it won't be as big as Buena Vista Social Club, with just one trip to Cuba, and one camera, and a separate sound recording device of course. But I've got several friends (and a brother) who work or worked in the film industry, so I'm confident, with time and patience, I can put together something decent.
But it grows even larger! There are no full-time Cuban bagpipe makers. They have to import them from Spain, and that's expensive. But it turns out that there is a piper in Cuba, Alejandro Gispert, who is trying to make pipes for Cuban pipers. He can rent a lathe every now and then, but he needs his own lathe. Well, now the focus of the documentary shifts! From more of a promotional piece about the festival, now we have a human interest piece.
And get this, Alejandro Gispert promised his pipe teacher, one of the last original Cuban pipers, soon before his death, that he would learn to make pipes. Get this man a lathe! CCCS is going to do their best to raise funds for a lathe, and figure out how to get it to Cuba. And they're hoping my documentary will help. Now I'm a man on a mission.
So check out my kickstarter page. I promise to do my best to help the Cubans with my pipe making knowledge, and to do the best documentary I can. And I promise my customers I'll do all that without taking any time away from my own pipe making (except for the week in Cuba of course!). Donate a $1 or maybe a little more. And thanks.
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