8 Feb, 2010 - The Gisborne Herald- Fire is back — ‘I’m going to win’

Kristine Walsh

POLLY Green’s mate reckoned that if she started training now, she could be in the top 10 at the 2011 whitewater kayaking freestyle world championships, in Germany.

He should know — German kayaker Arnd Schaeftlein is considered a legend in the sport. But Green says she did not receive his praise with much grace.

“I’m not interested in being in the top 10,” says the US-born sportswoman and filmmaker, who settled in Gisborne in 2007.

“I’m going to win.”

A bold claim but, if anyone’s going to make it, she is. This is the woman who last year told The Gisborne Herald she wanted her second short documentary — Soft Power Health, about kayaker Dr Jessie Stone’s humanitarian aid efforts in Uganda — to be an award-winner. The film was last month named jury winner of best action sports film at California’s Mammoth Mountain Film Festival.

She has a strong foundation to work from. As a fine arts student at the University of Colorado, she was already a hardcore sportswoman when she took up freestyle kayaking in the early 1990s. In 2003, she was fifth at the world champs in Austria.

Though she gave up competing two years later, Green believes her experience and ability to work under pressure will stand her in good stead.

Taking a top place next year will not be easy. In 2009 the championship in Switzerland was won by US kayaker Emily Jackson, at 19 half Green’s age.

“But it’s certainly do-able so I’m stoked that my sponsors, Jackson Kayaks and Kokatat Watersports Wear, are back on board.”

Green is already doing her part — a seven-hour-a-day, six-day-a-week schedule that combines flatwater training on the Waimata River with cycling, yoga and meditation.

To supplement that she plans regular trips starting this week to Rotorua’s Kaituna River which, with its grade five rating, will give her the whitewater she needs to perfect her tricks.

“But because I don’t really want to leave Gisborne, much of my training will be on flat water — which means a lot of the work I do will be mental,” she says.

Schaeftlein will coach her via the internet. Today she is in Auckland for a session with neuroscientist/sports coach Kerry Spackman, whose book The Winner’s Bible is a source of inspiration to her.

She will also appear on tomorrow’s 8.20am edition of the Sunrise television programme to talk about both her sport and her filmmaking.

She has a meeting booked with the New Zealand Film Commission to talk about funding for A Fire Burning, the feature film she intends to make documenting her comeback into whitewater kayaking.

The first shoot for the film has already been done and Green has assembled a team that includes co-producer/co-writer Darnelle Timbs and co-directer/co-photographer Jo Tito, with high-profile Gisborne-based US duo Peter and Sarah Dixon on board as mentors.

“You have to approach these things with a sense of humour, so the film should be quite funny as well as being very personal,” Green says as she buckles on her helmet for the day’s training session.

“It will be very raw, very real but should have a few life lessons along the way.”

Polly Green in part blames The Gisborne Herald for her coming out of retirement, after it reported comments she made last year about not having won the world championship she coveted.

“Seeing it in black and white brought it home that I hadn’t achieved my goal to be the world No. 1 and I knew that if I didn’t go for it, I’d regret it.

“So now I’m absolutely committed. The fire is back.”

Soft Power Health Official selection NY International Film Festival and Jury Prize Mammoth Mountian Film

Soft Power Health has just been announced as an official selection in the New York International Film Festival and has received the Jury Prize in Action Sports at the Mammoth Mountain Film festival in California.

SOFT POWER HEALTH
What an incredible and inspiring documentary! Dr Jessie Stone should win a humanitarian award for her efforts. Dr Stone helps people in Uganda receive mosquito prevention sleeping nets to prevent malaria, contraceptive education and much more. Polly Green has done an excellent job with professional videography & editing as well as some amazing shots. Very informative and a must see documentary!
Anoo Cottoor
Executive Artistic Director
New York International Film Festival

Client Testimonials

“I just finished watching your Soft Power Health film and I think its great - I really like it and I think you touched on everything that's important for us and did it in a really good and effective way. The filming is also really beautiful! I am excited to watch it again too! I think you did a fantastic job and I am really psyched about the piece.”

– Jessie Stone - Founder Soft Power Health

Malaria Education and Prevention- Soft Power Health

Professional kayaker Dr. Jessie Stone is educating Ugandans about malaria and helping to prevent it by distributing subsidized mosquito nets. Her grass roots model has reached over 100,000 Ugandans and she has distributed over 30,000 mosquito nets. See how she does it in my latest Soft Power Health video.

Soft Power Health

Soft Power Health

This is the latest video I have been working on about Dr. Jessie Stone and her amazing humanitarian work in Uganda. She is helping to educate people about malaria which is the number one killer in Uganda, and sells subsidized mosquito nets. She has also opened a rural health clinic, and is doing family planning outreach. She is truly an inspiration and example of how one person can make a difference.

Uganda shoot -2009 Soft Power Health

For some reason this time to Uganda has been harder for me in terms of the discrepancy between what I have being western and what life is like for the local Ugandans. I don’t really have any conclusions. It just seems like luck of the draw. Why was I born into a western country with every opportunity put in front of me and not into a Ugandan village living in a mud hut with no running water or electricity. Why? These questions have no answer and as my time comes near to an end here I think that at least I am doing what I am meant to be doing. By making this film at least other people will see what it is like here. It has also made me think about giving back and making a difference and what it all means. At the end of the day a feeling of gratitude first and foremost is what I am taking away from here. Who knows if my film will make a difference but at least I have gotten reminded again of how good my life is and how lucky I am.

 We went on another field patient visit to see a little baby with heart trouble. I asked Jessie how she decides who she helps in the field, as it seems to me there are countless people here that need it. She said it depends on the severity of their illness. I guess the possibility of even one person being helped is worth it.

I was talking to a friend of mine last night who has lived here for many years and she said to survive here you need to be resilient. That is the truth. She said its not like they can wake up and say I don’t feel like walking to get water today. They have to. It is survival. We in the west don’t even think about these things that for these people are a matter of life and death. Which is all around. The saying life is cheap here I have heard a few times, but people still smile and wave and dance in the face of extreme hardship.

After a very hot, dry, tiring day of filming a malaria education session and net sale we went to stay in a beautiful lodge with a stunning waterfall, amazing food and hot shower. I was so happy to have a real shower, and thought about the people I was filming who will probably never experience this in their whole lives. I am grateful for these things. A hot shower, access to medical care, enough food, the list goes on and on and the opportunity to come back here and be reminded.

Uganda 2009-Soft Power Health

Jessie Stone handing out mosquito nets-Uganda

Polly Green filming

photo by Morgan Koons

Uganda Shoot- Soft Power Health-2009

For the past few weeks I have been filming in Uganda for Jessie Stone who is the founder of Soft Power Health, a non profit organization that does grass roots malaria education and prevention, operates a rural medical clinic and does family planning. This is my third time back to film in Uganda, and it is always inspiring and challenging.

On one of the most emotionally difficult days, Jessie, Jessica(Jessie's interpreter/educator) and I  went with the clinical advisor (social worker) from Jinga(the nearest town)  to evaluate a two year old HIV positive baby who had been brought in to the clinic a week prior with serious burns. Jessie and her Ugandan translator, Jessica, had determined that the mother was unfit to care for the child.

We went to the family’s small mud hut, which was down a narrow path in a rural village. Upon reaching the hut we immediately heard the baby crying. Jessie and the social worker entered the hut. The baby sat on the mud floor, dirty, malnourished and  severely undeveloped for his age. Tears were coming to my eyes as I was filming the sad state of this poor little being. The local equivalent to a social worker began interviewing the very thin father as the mother did the washing up on the ground. The social worker was furiously writing while Jessie, Jessica and I anxiously awaited his decision of the baby’s fate. The mother began washing the thin baby in a plastic basin on the ground and dressed the child in clean clothes.

 At this stage we began to deduce they were going to hand the baby over to us. The mother hands the child to Jessica and the parents follow us back down the narrow track to the car. The mother has no display of emotion about her baby’s departure. The father waves goodbye as we make the journey over bumpy washed out dirt road to the HIV positive children’s home in Jinga. We arrive 30 minutes later. Jessica carries the now quiet baby and we all walk into the children’s home. About twenty children of various ages are sitting on the clean cement floor eating their chipati dinner. The children look clean, well fed, and healthy. Jessie reviews the baby’s history with one of the homes caregivers, as we wait for “Mama Holly” the woman who runs the home. Mama Holly arrives and Jessie explains the situation. Mama Holly welcomes the baby with open arms, and says “this is why we are here”.  We thank her and say goodbye. Jessie and I commented on how fortunate it was that a home like this existed and how lucky it was that maybe now this baby will have a chance at survival.

This story still brings tears to my eyes when I think about it. Not all of the stories here have a “happy” ending, and even tho this one was “happy” all of the things I have seen here make me realize how lucky I am to have been born into the Western world and how trivial my concerns are most of the time.

For more information on Jessie’s work in Uganda please go to www.softpowerhealth.org