Orlando And My Search For Peter Pan by Marjolein Busstra (March 9, 2010) 
(27 votes, average: 3.81 out of 5)
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Introduction by Marga Rotteveel
As a multimedia journalist, Marjolein Busstra develops a new and good functioning language in today’s fast changing media environment. She encounters the different ways of telling a story and is deeply mentally engaged. She constructed, step by step her layered story, and she shows a solid control of form. She is on top of technological developments and knows that she can express herself more than a journalist who is working for a traditional newspaper. The great thing about her work is that when you watch it, you feel the emotion, yet at the same time you are involved with it.
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Our poll "A photo essay always needs a great written story" closed. 267 people voted, 28% agrees, 72% disagrees. 233 people answered our follow-up question "Are you a photographer?" 82% indicated they are, 18% said no. Initially, negative answers to question #1 were almost 100% as was the pecentage of photographers among respondants. Then, when the level of non-photographers started to rise, the percentage of people indicating good text is always essential started to rise too. This seems to indicate that non-photographers think that adding good text to your photo essays is essential. In my opinion: if you want non-photographers to dig your work, you know what to do...
Due to the earthquake in Haiti thousands of Haitian children are being adopted worldwide. Already, people are talking about ‘Operation Pierre Pan.’ This is in reference to ‘Operation Peter Pan;’ an event during the sixties, where more then 14.000 children were evacuated via an air bridge to the United States without their parents.
When Fidel Castro took over the regime from Dictator Batista approximately 14,000 Cuban children fled, helped by the catholic church and the government of the United States, to America. The plan was that their parents would follow within a few weeks. Unfortunately, due to the extreme repression of Fidel Castro’s regime this was made impossible.
Many of the children were adopted by Catholic families and it took years before parents and children were reunited. Because the flights were conducted by Panam Airlines the event was coined ‘Operation Peter Pan’ and the children are still referred to as ‘Peter Pans.’
The story triggered my curiosity and I wanted to learn everything I could about this bittersweet Cuban fairy tale. “Would I be able to find a Peter Pan?”
I started my search in Orlando, Florida. Here, the relationship between Disney’s Peter Pan and the Cuban ‘Operation Peter Pan’ is still tense. I used symbolism from the Disney story as a guideline for my documentary about the Cuban exodus.
In my search, every Non-Cuban American I interviewed about Peter Pan refers to the Disney character. However, every Cuban-American remembers, without a doubt, the exodus of thousands of Cuban children that escaped the communist regime.
This short film is a preview of the final documentary I’m working on.
Marjolein Busstra (1979) lives and works in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
Click weblink marjoleinbusstra.com or browse our archives
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