We Come From Jambiani

When a Chapman College film professor challenged his students to submit their work to Mountainfilm, there were no guarantees. The student work was judged alongside all others submitted. One student film, however, rose to the top. Bobby Moser and MJ Lat’s We Come from Jambiani takes on the subject of the Tanzanian island of Zanzibar, a deeply impoverished land whose people are at the mercy of inhospitable forces outside their control, and looks at the Zanzibar Action Project (ZAP), an aid undertaking that provides relief in the only way that outside aid can ever truly work—based on what the people themselves deem their needs to be. In addition to beautiful cinematography, the pace, sensitivity and incision of this film combine to reveal a true talent in the making.