Wow! What a beautiful city! The campus of the College of Charleston, which was founded in 1770, looks like a set for an American revolutionary war movie. Actually, it was. It served as part of the set of Mel Gibson's "The Patriot" with its Spanish moss groping nearly every tree and an occasional frantic horseman blazing by screaming about the British coming or something.
The entire campus was empty due to the annual beach pilgrimage called "Spring Break" where the women tint their skin a bright orange and men start a rigorous training routine that requires downing several beers around 9 a.m.
About 3.5 students who refused to partake in the beach ritual showed up for the screening, but a lively group of 30 locals turned out to fill the youth void. The locals wanted to know why a couple of white guys would want to make a documentary about Cuban rappers. That's when Thomas and I had to don our "Mad Street Skillz." I told them about how my favorite movie was "The Jerk," a story about a goofy white guy raised by a black family, while Thomas did the robot. After a brief moment of silence -- and now moving to a more serious note, one audience member wanted to know how we traveled to Cuba. Thomas detailed the whole process of applying for press visas through the U.S. Treasury Department: sending in a shooting schedule, our resumes, a synopsis of the film, plus job references to prove that we were journalists.
-- Simon
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