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Last Thursday night, I attended the premier of filmmaker Grant Knisely's documentary The Chain Reaction Project at The Arts House in Singapore.

In August 2009 Grant and I traveled to Timor-Leste with the women of The Chain Reaction Project (TCRP) as they competed in the inaugural Tour de Timor, a five day, 450km adventure mountain bike race across nine of Timor's 13 districts.  Coined "The Ride For Peace", the mountain bike race presented the ladies with a grueling challenge on their way to raising USD$35,000 for HIAM-Health, a clinic dedicated to the rehabilitation of malnourished children in the capital city of Dili.

Grant's uses Timor-Leste's historical suffering as a backdrop for his film -- a result of a brutal 1975 Indonesian military invasion and a subsequent 24-year occupation that left over 100,000 Timorese dead -- while documenting the athletic achievements and selfless philanthropic work of the women of TCRP as well as the passion and dedication of the employees of HIAM-Health to help make a better life for the people of Timor-Leste.

As with many small, independent films, funding is often difficult to come by.  But The Chain Reaction Project was a labour of love for Grant and his small Code Red Films

production company, and he persevered in raising the human interest and the monetary capital necessary to complete his movie.

The end result is a short film that Grant should be very proud of.  Indeed, I am proud to have my photographs featured throughout his documentary, as well as gracing the film's DVD cases and movie posters that were on display Thursday night at The Arts House.

Click here to see a slideshow of my Tour de Timor photography.  More of my imagery of the ruggedly beautiful nation of Timor-Leste and her people can be found here and here.