Rehema Imani Trimiew

Learning to Fly: How We Finally Got Our Documentaries off the Ground Rehema Imani Trimiew

Some have a smooth and easy path through graduate school. Rehema's was filled with rocks, briers, tumultuous weather and even a few trolls. This fairy-tale turned Brothers Grimm story chronicles Rehema's journey completing her thesis documentary "Learning to Fly." While an MFA student at Rochester Institute of Technology Rehema embarked on a documentary quest to embrace and amplify the underrepresented stories of Black teenage girls in Rochester, NY USA and in Lusaka, Zambia. The main focus of this text is on the pitfalls encountered in Rehema's efforts to produce, direct and shoot the documentary, which almost wasn't completed. She details the people and organizations that she worked with, the issues shooting teenagers in the foster-care program, shooting a documentary as a foreigner in another country and a whole lot more. She hopes that others can learn from her experiences. The text contained in this book was submitted as her written thesis for her MFA completion.