Keith O'Shea was head hunted even before he graduated from BA (Hons) Documentary Film and Television in 2009 – on graduation day he was working as a producer/director in Kabul (Afghanistan) for one the largest media company in Afghanistan making films in a war zone for charities, NGO’s and private companies.
Keith keeps in touch with us on a regular basis – here is the first email he sent us after arriving in Afghanistan.
“It's week two - here in sunny Kabul and so far all is well. The picture is of me on a recce. This rather nice young guy who's job it is to guard this ruin obligingly stood in for a photo. It is quite simply a city of contradiction after contradiction. I was filming half way up a mountain overlooking the city at 5:30am Friday morning. The location was called Tapa Toop, which means two cannons, and true to its name there are indeed two large cannons up there.
As we were filming one of my many new friends tapped me on the shoulder and said "Keith we should make this quick, this is Afghanistan and people are recording this on mobile phones." The problem was that we were filming a woman near a man and they definitely get touchy about this kind of thing here. Needless to say I took the advice! It is an extraordinary city, the sun and moon are enormous, I realise now how they are able get those extraordinary sun shots in this part of the world. There is so much dust constantly rising that you can look directly at it without getting your iris' burned out.”
Keith’s Graduation film ‘Dear Matthew’won Best Film at The Canary Wharf Film Festival 2009.
If you wish to keep up with Keith’s adventure why not visit his blog.
http://encountersattheendoftheworld.wordpress.com/2009/10/
Dear Matthew has also been selected for Hot Docs in Toronto.
http://www.hotdocs.ca/film/title/dear_matthew