I still remember arriving to the United States in the early 60's. We used to come down from Canada by car. Crossing the border was a welcoming experience. Same for the flights into the United States or even arriving by boat as we did on the Rotterdam. The experience was thrilling. We were being let in but also being greeted. What's more, it was an exact science. Americans were just so efficient.

Well, fast forward to this arrival to the US. An overhaul is required. Arriving at JFK was not easy. Not that I mind standing in line for 90 minutes, as we did. But as we neared the immigration counters, all normalcy faded. Suddenly, despite long line ups, a dozen officers left as if called on an emergency. Others opened but the poor ushers who had to guide us could only guess at how to redispatch those of us in the abandandoned queues. In short, a two and a half hour experience. But we did make it through.

There is good news in the arrival process. The customs officer who had to inspect our camera equipment and sign off on the ATA carnet, was a gentleman and very kind. The whole process took less than five minutes filled mostly with conversation about the film we were working on. As with all Americans we have spoken to since arriving, a film about cancer can only interest them.

From JFK we headed to Manhattan only to find that we (I) took us to the wrong Marriott. Long story but after several negotiations, we managed to get a room in the hotel. At this point Sophie and Gilles were in sensory overdrive as they discovered the US, New York and of all places, Times Square.

This was Sunday. A little personal note; friends of mine threw a little class reunion dinner for me so I shared some nice moments with some old friends from high school. One of them I had not seen in 31 years. We do change.

Monday was an exciting day for the film. We had the privilege of filming Dr. Bernard Levin, professor emeritus at MD Anderson and editor of the World Cancer Report. In addition to great substance, the interview will hopefully reflect the location: Barzani's, a grocery store on Broadway. It was incredibly a propos to be interviewing a leading prevention advocate a few meters from fresh fruit and vegetables.

Monday night was a personal moment as well. My wife Maria and our two girls joined us; they flew in from Geneva to spend the girls' school holiday here visiting family. We managed to schedule the Washington DC shoot to coincide with their arrival. Now comes the fun part. Rather than flying or driving down from New York to DC, I decided that the crew and the family would spend a few days together in an RV (recreational vehicle). This 31-foot Winnebago turned out to be a great idea. We saved money, enjoyed ourselves far more and got to see side road wonders that you would not see from the air or a freeway.

Film-wise, Washington far surpassed expectations. The four interviews were all very powerful. We started with Ruth Hoffman who heads Candlelighters, a great NGO that you will see featured in the film. We also interviewed a well known figure in the fight against cancer, Komen for the Cure's founder and leader, Ambassador Nancy Brinker. Last, but not least, two inspiring figures were interviewed at the Washington Cancer Institute, Dr. Elmer Huerta, President of the American Cancer Society and Dr. Tom Glynn, its scientific director. In the case of Dr. Huerta, I think and hope that we will become friends. His unique style and actions must be emulated. Additionally, our two moms both passed away with cancer within two months of one another. As we shared that moment we were, as you can imagine, both moved. Interestingly, both of us made the same promise as well: to use our respective knowledge, resources or positions to further the cause and fight cancer with all our energy.

The trip back to New York was also fun but goodbyes are never easy and that's what I just did to my little family who will stay in New York for an additional week before flying back home to Annecy.

The film adventure continues as we fly onwards to Atlanta...

What a busy time we have had in Latin America. It has not been calm for a moment. Our arrival in Sao Paulo was already rather lively inasmuch as Iberia lost our luggage. We are not talking any luggage here, we are talking about the two cases with all our camera equipment. That somehow is not good news for a film crew just starting a round the world trip. So our first weekend in Latin America was spent chasing around trying to get some news on our two trunks. Finally, at the last minute, literally an hour before getting on the flight from Sao Paulo to Rio de Janeiro on Sunday 6 April, we found them. Despite being told that they were stuck in Madrid, they had actually never been through Madrid. They had flown on Lufthansa, instead of Iberia, from Lyon to Munich to Sao Paulo. Adding insult to injury, the staff at Iberia in Sao Paulo were really not helpful. But anyway, with the amazing help of Michael's wife Ana, we finally tracked them down. The good news is that the federal policeman who could have very well asked us to pay for a transit deposit, saw my despair and decided he would just trust me to take the equipment back out of the country and let us through.

A quick thank you to all the mondofragilis américa latina team that greeted our crew. It was so good to finally meet all of you face to face. It's crazy when you have foreign partners and staff that you have never met. But now we have and I am very happy we did. And thanks for looking so hard for a vegan restaurant, that was great of you.

So off we went from Sao Paulo, without having done any filming, and on to Rio de Janeiro. That was quite a trip too. When we landed in Rio we were hit by a humidity wall of heat. It was in the low 30s (Celsius) with humidity up in the 90s. This did not help to calm our nerves regarding potential mosquito presence. Not sure if you all heard, but Rio is in the midst of a Dengue fever epidemic. This is what AFP had to say about it a few hours ago: "Twelve more people died from dengue fever in Rio de Janeiro state, raising to 79 the death toll from the start of the year and to 75,399 the infections by the mosquito-borne disease, health authorities said Wednesday." I think we made it through okay, though Gilles got a mosquito bite at the hotel. This said, it was several days ago and he has shown zero symptoms, so he must be fine.

In Rio, we were picked up at the airport and made our way to the hotel right on a beach. Unfortunately, we were only staying there one night, it was late, and the low cloud cover and rain meant we could neither go out or see anything for that matter. We were obviously looking forward to seeing the Cristo but that would not be our destiny. This said, we did see it briefly in the morning when our driver took us to INCA, the national cancer institute.

That's where we went on the Monday. Thank you to Rodrigo and his team for a wonderful welcome. They worked really hard to pack in several interviews into just one morning. We were pleased and honoured to interview most of the directorate including Prof. Santini. We also had some great moments looking around the INCA facility most notably their pediatric section.

From INCA, it was time to rush to the airport. Surprise, the car they provided was too small to fit our trunks. It was a hybrid biofuel/propane car with two large propane tanks in the trunk. So we had to rush to get a van and off we went to the airport to catch our rather bizarre set of flights that would take us from Rio back to Sao Paulo for an on the ground -- not off the plane -- stopover. Then on to Santiago for a couple of hours before heading for Lima.

Peru

Simply perfect. The filming, the people, the interviews, the travelling, the food, the ruins... Need we say more?

Indeed, the INEN team was incredibly prepared. Headed by Edgar Palomino, the team greeted us, led us, had interviews ready... We interviewed two ex-health ministers both current/ex directors of the Cancer Center (INEN). We interviewed the deputy director, the ever charismatic Raúl Cordero. Then we went to Trujillo where Dr. Ayala's team was simply superb. Dr. Ayala, known simply as Pepe, picked us up at the airport and from then on in, it was one busy moment after another.

The hotel in Trujillo was also great. The 'Libertador' is truly a memorable location. It's something out of old colonial Spain. Wait, that's right, Peru was... Actually, it's more like a Zorro location. It could be the governor's palace.

Filming in the ruins was also great. We filmed the intro to the history piece there.

PS. Don't forget to click over to the trip's photo gallery for images along the way...

Good morning from sunny Madrid Barajas airport. I was just thinking that this is the airport from which I first took a plane in 1962. Obviously, it does not look quite the same. We are on our way to Sao Paulo. Tomorrow we'll meet up with Michael and the Sao Paulo gang. Then it's off to Rio de Janeiro for a major series of interviews with staff at INCA. We'll also try to avoid the Denge fever which has struck Rio. We are landing in the midst of it. Fortunately I brought some OFF and we have long sleeves. After Rio it'll be off to Peru for a full five days of filming. We'll keep you posted.

Earlier in the week we shot the intro sequence at the Clinique d'Argonay in Annecy. I'm happy with it. Allison is working hard on getting us a celebrity narrator. I really hope that comes through, especially if we can find someone who is truly committed to cancer.

How is the film going so far? I'm happy. I'm still looking forward to some great new footage, but so far the interviews have been very satisfying.

That's all for now. I'm going to shut down and walk to the gate; I don't really want to miss the flight.

What a hectic week. Planning, buying, fixing... all the things that you do before a major production trip. But we're excited. The countdown is on. We leave in exactly one week. On the up side, the Peru visas came through fine. We're still struggling with the Indian visa though. Seems it's very tough to get a journalist's visa. What's incredible is that we really want to put the country in the forefront in a positive light considering all the great work they are doing. I'm hoping it all works out otherwise it will be a great deception and a logistics nightmare. Today I interviewed Dr. Luc Hessel of Sanofi-Pasteur MSD. Great interview. In fact, all of them have been. I'm getting the feeling that this film is going to be very substantial.

Still ahead before we leave for Brazil, our first round the world stop, is our intro sequence which I will be filming in front of a clinic in Annecy. They have graciously offered to let us film there though they want their name left anonymous. That's a rarity these days. Most people want to be highly visible, with them it's the opposite. Oh, and great filming sequence at IARC on Tuesday. Thanks again to Peter, Caroline and all the wonderful people there. They're making this film much easier to produce.

Good morning from Tirana, Albania. Back after 12 years. This country has changed dramatically. The airport is new, really new, as is the road from the airport to downtown. We are currently at the hotel waiting for the health ministry to come pick us up. We look forward to a few good interviews including a visit to the PACT site at the Mother Teresa hospital.

The weather is grey and ominous. This will definitely mean indoor filming today unless I can find a really nice terrace with an overhang.

Travelling by air was ok. This was our first 'air' leg of the film. We were overweight (arghh). And the tripod had to be checked in after being wrapped in plastic. Not happy about that. I've asked Gilles to figure something out so that we can, at least, protect it.

Anne has been a great crew member as Gilles stayed back in France. He and Sophie went to Paris to secure their Peruvian visa. I'll be going in a couple of days.

That's it for now. Will probably revert with news of the filming later.

Overall a good day today though it started and ended with lots of traffic and a couple of 'wrong turns'. I won't point fingers; instead I'll let Gilles plead guilty in person when he sees each and every one of you.

On the more serious side, we had a great interview with Prof. David Kerr. He is obviously passionate about his work and the new labs at Oxford are quite impressive. As you will see in the film, his work on colorectal cancer is extensive and his search for new drugs is impressive as well.

Rushing out of Oxford we could find nothing healthy to eat so we defaulted to a Domino's Pizza takeout. Then it was off to Folkestone to catch the Eurotunnel. Incredible traffic. Not sure why but there was a line up of trucks several miles long.

Tonight we'll be sleeping in Brussels at a way too expensive hotel but that's all we could find at this late stage downtown which is where we have to be early in the morning for an interview hastily arranged by one of our great guardian angels Caroline G. We were slated to interview Dr. Adamou, but he cancelled out at the last minute for health reasons.

Hope we are not boring you with our trip blog. If you are receiving this by email and wish to be taken off please do so immediately; no hard feelings. If you're reading it on our website, then it's easier, just tune us out (sniff).

I'll close by saying this. I think by the end of the trip, my greatest frustration will be twofold. First will be that I wish I could interview each person for ten times as long. They are fascinating and committed. Secondly, how am I going to edit this film down into a 52 minute piece when every little bit of interview is so captivating?

One last thing. I liked this... in our hotel last night, there was a no smoking sign, but check out the fine! Expensive cigarette; I hope it makes people think twice.

Had a great day today. Very good interview with Prof. Margaret Stanley at Cambridge. She is a leading authority on infectious agents. She was also very eloquent and structured which made for an excellent interview. We then braved UK weather, and wow was it severe, to make it to London. The high note of the drive was my Shell station onion bahjees. Indeed, I found some vegan onion bahjees at a gas station! I was in vegan heaven.
Anyway, we finally made it to London. We went to interview Simon Davies the CEO of Teenage Cancer Trust. Very interesting work being done for teenagers with cancer. The low point of the afternoon was, however, trying to park the van in this tiny underground parking lot. Kudos to Gilles for getting it in and out of the elevator! That's right, we put the van in an elevator.
Rounded off the night by having a quick, but tasty, Indian meal in Thame near Oxford. Tuesday we are in Oxford to interview Professor Kerr and then we're off to... actually not sure. Dr. Adamou (MEP) had to cancel our Strasbourg interview so we're trying to find an alternate for Wednesday before going on to Warsaw for our Thursday interview.

Day one of Cancer is... filming. I picked up Gilles at 5:30 and we went to the studio to pick up the equipment. The first few days of any shoot are always a little scary. You have to dive into the new topic. Make certain all the equipment is working flawlessly. Every detail counts. Admittedly, this is how I feel right now, a little nervous. As most of my friends, clients and stakeholders know, I'm a little bit 'extra' nervous on this one because I really want to do a good job for all my friends and family, notably mom, who have known cancer's wrath. This is really a film that I am making from the heart.
The trip was fine. Left the studio at 6:15 AM and headed North through the mountain roads to join the A41 highway. The weather was beautiful with the sunrise coming just as we joined the highway. Northbound we went through Dijon, Reims and Calais before getting on the Eurotunnel where the Kangoo we are driving did not, we thought, make it through the car section so we went over to the truck section. In fact, we did clear the height; it was just the antenna. The guys at Eurotunnel were cool though and let us on without paying the height penalty. The trip across the Channel has really become uneventful. Drive on to the train, listen to the emergency announcements in English and French and off you go. I remember taking the 'Chunnel' when it first opened and there was an air of excitement. No more.
Perhaps soon we'll be able to say this about cancer. Maybe a cure will be found and we will someday consider cancer a concern of the past. That's what we're going to try to find out.
Travelwise, the big event of the day was being hit by two stones. As we were driving out of Reims, after a quick visit of its unique cathedral, we were getting a little hungry and ready for a sit down meal so we started looking for a restaurant. Little did we know that we would be driving right past a gypsy camp with three kids engaging in David rock throwing target practice. Sure enough, Gilles says to me: "looks like we are about to get hit by some rocks." At this point I had not seen the kids but when the two stones hit the Kangoo roof, there was no doubt that these kids spent more time doing stone throwing practice than studying math. Obviously, with all our film equipment and a sense of innate calm, it was useless to get into an argument we could not win. We knew full well that we would accomplish nothing by confronting the kids and a camp full of testy men. So on we went looking for our restaurant which, by the way, we never found. Gilles ended up eating a burger — not very healthy, we know — and I postponed my vegan eating.
A closing note to do with omens. I am not superstitious but my mom was and for her the first crescent moon was the sign of luck for the month. And the clearer it was, the better. As it happens, as we were driving into the Cambridge area, where we have our first interview tomorrow, sure enough there was a majestic, crystal clear, first crescent. Proof that it was a sign that the production will go well: we missed what I thought to be the hotel exit. Well, believe it or not, after the additional ten miles of complaining that we had missed the right exit, when we got off, at the next exit, what do we find? The hotel was right there, at the 'wrong' exit. Had mom's moon guided us here?