I want to be a pilot

by Diego Quemada-Diez
11', 35 mm, Kenya, Mexico, Spain, 2006

Omondi is twelve years old. He lives in Kibera, one of the biggest shantytowns in Kenya, at 1800 meters above sea level on the Nairobi upland plain. Like many other children, he has lost his parents: here, AIDS is still among the principal causes of death. Omondi lives alone and spends his days roaming around the dump looking for something to eat, gazing at the sky and the airplanes that pass above him, and dreaming. He dreams of becoming a pilot, of wearing a uniform, and of flying far away where children can have a family, go to school, play barefoot in the grass and not in the mud, amid garbage – where the life of a child is not crushed every day by poverty, injustice, and disease.

Diego Quemada-Diez
Diego Quemada-Diez began his career as an assistant to the British director Ken Loach. He studied at the American Film Institute and his final project there, A Table is a Table, won the 2001 Students’ Prize of the American Society of Cinematographers.