Hi, I'm Talley, and this is first day back.

When we left off a couple of episodes ago, my film about the fayas, the sculpture that the kids build and then burn down, was in limbo.

We still didn't have enough funding to decide if we could go ahead.

It's not unheard of to be in a situation like this,

where you don't know if you'll film just a few weeks before you're actually supposed to film,

but it's stressful.

You can't plan anything, and your mind is constantly working on two options,

if we film or if we don't film.

We made a decision to shave two more weeks off the filming start date,

but then the Fayette organizers were going to be doing their recruitment interviews,

and we needed to film that.

While I was emailing my producer, Philipp, about our one last idea for money,

I got an urgent message to call Elodie.

She's the person in charge of the Faya.

I called her back.

She is saying that they've not been able to get their own budget in order, and they've decided to cancel this season.

I'm shocked because even though I knew they were having funding problems, I had heard that they do every year and that they always pull through.

Now, they won't be building the sculpture.

They won't be burning it down.

Instead, my film is going up in flames.

When they light stuff on fire, it's intentional, which is way more fun.

Their whole building up and burning down metaphor is obviously more resonant for me than ever.

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