This weekend was hard. There is no other way that I can describe it. Malinda and I went to Skopje, Macedonia to tell the story of protests through the eyes of main protestors. In these protests, the people use paint as a way to show their defiance towards the government. We thought this was interesting and were hoping to focus our story on this aspect.
But that’s not what happened.
After contacting many people and not having a solid “yes” from anyone, the weekend came and we had already made arrangements to get to Skopje. Our plan was to target someone in the protest and talk to them. Little did we know that even protesters take a vacation.
After talking to Branimir Jovanovic, a 34 year old economic professor and avid protestor, we learned that the protests had been way too frequent before to keep up daily. With the summer here, many students went home or on holiday. The protests were taking place maybe once a week and that was when something provoked them.
Our story slipped through our fingers faster than we could get a grasp on it.
We had a solid interview from Branimir about his experience getting arrested during a protest. His view towards protests was that they should not be violent, which is the reason for using the paint. We have many images of what the buildings look like with the paint splattered on them, some people we talked to even thought it looked better that way.
Admittedly we were not as prepared as we could have been before going, but we felt the pressure of time closing in fast. We didn’t have any other ideas. We thought that if we cared enough about the story then magically it would all work out.
It didn’t work out and we failed. But that’s all part of life no matter what profession you are in. So when, not if, you fail, it is important to remember that nothing is a mistake if you can take away a lesson learned. I know now to be more prepared and to really think through the story before I start it. I need to have better contacts in place before starting the story.
I still had fun seeing the city and getting to “live” there for a few days. The paint looks oddly beautiful against the vibrant white statues.
But today is a new day and I am going to walk away from this experience with my head held high and not let it get me down. I have too much to do to be bogged down by this mistake, and I’ll only move forward from here.