It took six months of planning, but we're finally off to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Patrick Fleming and I are flying down this afternoon to spend a few days shooting a couple stories at the detention facilities at the U.S. Naval Base. We return to Florida on Thursday.
The stories will air on the University of Florida's PBS station, WUFT-TV. I'd like to thank the station and the College of Journalism & Communications for financing the trip. Needless to say, we're both excited to be traveling to Cuba and we're looking forward to bringing back a few good stories.
This will be an interesting time to visit GITMO for a few reasons. First, President Obama wants the detention facilities shut down by January. Whether that's going to happen in time or happen at all is a major point of discussion. Not to mention what will happen to the detainees.
Second, the eighth anniversary of the September 11th attacks is this Friday. I'm curious to see what the behavior of the detainees will be like leading up to that date.
Also, we will be visiting during Ramadan, the Islamic month of fasting. This is when some of the detainees, if they choose to, go without eating from sun-up to sun-down. It changes the way food is prepared and distributed to the detainees.
In case you're curious about what kind of gear we'd be taking with us on a trip like this, here's a list:
- Panasonic AG-DVX100 miniDV camera
- Tripod
- 2 MacBook Pro laptops with Final Cut Pro installed
- MiniDV deck
- Wireless and cabled mics
- Power cords and chargers
- Firewire cables
- Canon Rebel XSI digital SLR w/ 17-200mm lens
- HD Flip Cam
- Digital audio recorder
- Plenty of miniDV tapes
- Background books with notes
I'm not sure what our internet connection situation will be like when we arrive, but I hope to post updates throughout the trip on this blog. Otherwise, I'll upload the posts when we get back later this week.
