PRINTQ&A with Tappan Heher
Director and subject of Gone to Mali
Photo courtesy of Tappan Heher
Tappan Heher is the director and producer of Gone to Mali as well as the star. The film will show at the Third Goal International Film Festival on Nov. 14.
November 12, 2009 | 12:00 a.m. CST
Tappan Heher's film Gone to Mali will be showing at the Third Goal International Film Festival on Sat. Nov. 14 at 5:15 p.m at the MU Animal Sciences Center. The film is about Heher's return journey to find his adopted family in Mali where he served as a Peace Corps Volunteer where he served 12 years prior. Vox sits down to ask questions about Heher's experiences abroad and in the making of the film.
Q: What were the most difficult aspects of re-adapting to American culture upon your return from Mali?
Name: Tappan Heher
Age: 42
Birthplace: Trenton, New Jersey
Peace Corps Service Years: 1990 - 1992
Current City: Lambertville, NJ
A: Two stick out the most — the fact that our American society believes it is a superior culture when Malian society abides by many values that are essential to human happiness and cooperation, which we are losing amidst our materialism and technological advances. The second was just coping with the anger at the number of products available to Americans and the waste we create, few of which are necessary, but are creature-comforts that we are made to believe are important to our happiness. If we could cut back, it would make such a difference to this planet, especially to the poverty and disease in sub-Saharan Africa.
Q: What is the central theme/focus of Gone to Mali?
A: It’s about my return to find Amou, my adopted Malian mother, and in the process analyze the culture I was born into. American culture isn’t really “better” than Malian culture, we are just told from an early age that it is. Peace Corps gives one the ability to see cultures and human interaction that most tourists or even aid workers don’t have the opportunity to.
Q: What inspired you to make this film?
A: The death of my mother from uterine cancer in 2002. I woke up very depressed one day and suddenly thought, “you still have a mother – go find her!” I hadn’t seen or contacted Amou in 10 years because she cannot read or write letters and at that point (2004) there were no cell phones. I decided to film the experience, not knowing what I’d find if she was alive or dead or in the town where I served in the Peace Corps.
Q: How long did you film, and when were you there?
A: This 19-minute “teaser” that is being screened is actually meant to introduce a feature-length film, which we are restructuring (and renaming) to focus more on my American birth mother and my adopted Malian mother. It shows how they faced very different problems and issues as women and mothers and how they defined those roles, influenced by the society and situations they were born into. So, we have been filming the long-form project from 2004, and I will shoot my last round of footage in January 2010. The teaser you will see has footage that was shot in 2004 and 2005.
Q: What were the most interesting/rewarding/special parts of your return trip?
A: Finding Amou, my Malian mom. It was incredibly moving, and I really felt like I had a mom again — and that my birth mom had led me back to her. It was an enormous gift and solace.
Q: How has the Peace Corps experience changed since you served?
A: Oh boy — technologically. I go back to Mali every year due to a project I initiated with Engineers Without Borders to address the issue of the broken pump and the flooding of the collector (the basin for run-off of the water system) which is mentioned in the teaser. I am very current on how volunteers are living there right now. I had no e-mail — my letters would take three weeks to arrive in the U.S., then the response would come three weeks after.
I was so out of touch with home and therefore I think more immersed in Mali, which helped me integrate into their culture but also prevented a constant homesickness and feeling that I was missing lots back home. My friends would write me and mention their fun weekends but then say, “my job is an awful grind, I wish I were having an adventure like you.” Now volunteers can see all their friends’ party pics on Facebook when they’re in their village. That’s great, but also a bit rough! Of course it’s also amazing to have your friends and family at your fingertips. The benefits and disadvantages are definitely a toss-up.
Q: What aspects of Malian culture do you wish were prevalent in Western culture?
A: Strong family connections — your family there is your wealth. They all strive to get along — you greet everyone you meet each day, and ask if they are at peace, and they work together for their communities. A lot of that is because it’s an agricultural society and in that scenario you need the community to work together and interact and promote peace to get things done, but lots of Americans and Europeans were living in similar situations before WWII. The industrial world has taken that away. You have time for people, and in Mali, neighbors are always visiting you, even if it’s just to sit and be there with you. You say very little, just watch the world go by, the goats eating, the wind blowing in the trees. We are so cut off here because of our technology — TVs, computers, etc. They cannot replace that human, and natural, connection.
Q: What do most people not know about Mali?
A: That it’s one of the poorest countries in the world that can also feel like one of the richest. The people are so open and giving and wonderful that you realize that wealth truly is in your heart, and in your interactions with other people.
Q: What would you say to people considering joining the Peace Corps?
A: Go for it! Without a doubt. Also that, depending on where you serve, you may have to make your own job, so go prepared knowing that. And also that it’s as much about adventure and learning about a different culture as it is about doing good. It took me about a year to understand my village’s language and the community’s true needs to really start a project that would be useful and sustainable, so my first year was all about learning, interacting, watching. Returned Peace Corps volunteers had told me this so I didn’t stress about it, but I had some Peace Corps friends who were ambitious and it was very frustrating for them. They felt like they were wasting their time that first year, but they weren’t at all.
Q: Have you attended any returned Peace Corps volunteer film festivals similar to The Third Goal International Film Festival?
A: Yes, and I think they help people understand the power of the Peace Corps and remind us RPCVs that we are not alone when we have our “what is up with American society? Does anyone understand me?!’ moments — and of course to encourage new volunteers to join. And last but not least, bring the experience and the world home for those who just couldn’t join for whatever reason.
Q: So what do you do now?
A: I’m continuing work on this doc about Mali as well as a narrative feature which is based on a novel. I’m working with Engineers Without Borders on our project in Niono (for more information visit ewb-rmp.org and ewb-chicago.org), and I also do branding and marketing consulting for French companies working in the U.S.
Q: Do you plan to pursue filmmaking?
A: Absolutely. It is arguably the most powerful creative medium, and for the first time in history filmmaking is accessible to all, which is having amazing implications socially and politically and will continue to.
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