Locations

Where is this thing filmed?

The Country

Tomé is filmed in São Tomé & Príncipe, an island country in the Gulf of Guinea.

Also known as STP.

By its location STP is the best candidate for the geographical center of the world. Right on the Equator and 6° east of the Greenwich line.

With a population of 150 thousand living on 1001 square kilometers, it’s the smallest country in West Africa (the 2nd smallest in the whole of Africa).

Santomean dirt roads

Why S. Tomé?

STP is a tropical archipelago that provides a unique context for an universal story.

I also happen to like the place.

Locations

Mama Africa

Mama Africa

Balcony of Ronny Key’s mother

Balcony of Nelito Pereira’s restaurant Mionga

Rasta’s house

Alex-Keller’s house

Olavo Amado’s studio

Teia D’Arte gallery

Passante Café and the waterfront

CACAU

Roca Sao Joao

Roof of the Portuguese Cultural Center

Political Situation

Riches are on the horizon. Sao Tome & Principe has hopes to become a wealthy oil nation.

People in the city and around in the villages know that demand by Asian countries is increasing the need to drill oil around the world.

(The United States has 8 years of oil left on their shores. Instability in the Middle East means the U.S. needs to diversify its production partners to more stable areas. New places to drill are actively being sought out. Like this tiny unnamed country.)

Six multinational companies, including Chevron and The Chinese National Oil Company have bid on the oil permit. For the permits of exploration (no drilling has begun) the country received 83 million U.S. dollars.

The promise of easy wealth – the myth of oil – has been in the air for years. But no real results have been delivered.

If there’s no oil, entrepreneurs can make money with non-oil business.

Like art.

I use the idea of an entrepreneurial journey as the driving narrative force.

Pushing the story forward.

Continue

How are you going to produce the film? Continue reading production plan and schedule.

– Kris Haamer