Mighty Carthage Documentary

When we were told we had to produce a documentary for a university assignment, I was so worried about putting something together by myself. Before this documentary, I had only produced short fiction films. I didn't think I'd have the skills to pull it off.

But what I produced turned out to be the best project I have ever worked on in my opinion.

The assignment said that we were allowed to choose our own topics. I chose to do my documentary on Carthage, a link to my Tunisian heritage - and also because filming in a different country would be really impressive and hopefully gain me extra points just for effort.

The first challenge was the timeframe. I would be taking a "holiday" in Tunisia for one week only. In that one week, I would have to film all of the main footage for my documentary. So the project was pretty chaotic. Everyday involved going out to at least three different sites to shoot footage of the ruins of a mighty civilisation.

In the end, I wasn't alone. I developed a small crew of my own, including history-lover Conor Hudson as my co-producer and cameraman while I had to be in the shots. I also had the services of Ramla Walker as a translator who was able to secure interviews with experts on the Carthaginians. It was fantastic getting the chance to speak to people who are basically celebrities in Tunisia.

I was relieved when filming was over. But I didn't have time to rest much. Two weeks of editing commenced. It was a long and tedious process but very fun to see the documentary develop into a professional piece. I was allowed to use some lovely ancient music in the credits and during the crucial scenes.

There was so much that I could have included in the final version of Carthage. I wanted the documentary to cover a large timeline from the establishment of the Carthaginian society to its downfall during the Roman Empire. This meant that I had to sacrifice the level of detail I could go into in order to meet the 30-minute timeframe. But I am satisfied with the variety of different types of footage in there. There are parts with me presenting, parts with interviews, B-footage of beautiful landscapes and ancient ruins, narration sequences with images and graphics and maps to tell the story of Carthage from beginning to end.