PETER'S DREAM

Year
2005

DIrector
Enrico Cerasuolo

Production
Mestiere Cinema

Producer
Guido Cerasuolo

Length
55'

Shoting format
DV pal

Master
DIGIBETA

Shot in
Kenya

SINOPSIS

Peter Kamauis a 13 year old street child. He is an orphan and lives in Kawangware, one of the slums around Nairobi, Kenya.

Between May 25th and July 5th 2005 Peter participates in the educational project called African Spelling Book
50 boys and girls

living on the streets write, film and edit their own stories, their own Africa from A to Z. The project is coordinated by John Muiruri

(Amref Kenya), by Giulio Cederna (Amref Italy) and by Angelo Loy, a documentary director, produced by Mestiere Cinema with

cooperation from Amref for the US National Geographic.

Peter’s Dream is the story written by young Peter

“My name is Peter Kamau. I sleep in the street, in a petrol station in Kawangware. I wake up in the morning and go and search in

the garbage for things to sell. I once used to use the money to buy glue to sniff; I have stopped now and when I have money I buy

tea and food at Mama Karanja’s kiosk. She is kind to me. One day I was in the slum, in a video shop called Dynamic Video. There

I met a boy called Oscar. We went to his home where I met his mother. I spent a week with them. On Sunday we went to church. I

was surprised to see a photo of my uncle in the sanctuary. I was afraid and I ran away. That night I slept at the petrol station and

every time I tried to go to sleep I got nightmares. After seeing a film about Jesus Christ the nightmares disappeared. I am starting

rehabilitation and I hope I will be able to go to school soon.”

This story will become a small three minute film, made by Peter and the boys in this project. Peter’s Dream is also his dream of

rehabilitation; being able to win the right to go to school. A few months ago Peter left the Zion Base, one of the headquarters used

by the street children in Kawangware. He now lives with his grandmother. Peter learns to speak more freely during the Amref

project. He plays and runs and is silly, but he initially remains wary; he needs to understand who he can trust. He is happy

because they feed him. He looks for affection but is also tough and often loses his temper.

Peter’s education and rehabilitation involves two reference figures
Samuel Navutanyi,a volunteer and former street child

becomes a reference figure for the chokora (people who live on garbage, a word often used to describe street children). Samuel

plays a paternal role for Peter; he listens to his outbursts and tries to set him off in the right direction. Samuel in turn has his own

reference figure in John Muiruri, today the project’s coordinator and for 20 years now a reference point for street children in

Nairobi. Three generations facing one another, because only those who have personally experienced life on the streets can

understand, respect and help them change.

The documentary follows Peter’s story, helped by Samuel and John within the context of the African Spelling Book. The

group’s objective is to produce the film for the National Geographic, the objective of each of the 50 participants, and Amref’s, is to

find individual paths to rehabilitation. Peter’s will lead him to his first day at school. With a lot of hard work and a little luck the

two objectives will be achieved by the time the documentary is made, proposing a possible positive model for the rehabilitation of

boys and girls who are full of life and talent and who until now have been denied any chance to overcome a state of survival.