NMG’s James Smart among filmmakers to join Climate Focus in South Africa
Managing Editor, Nation Media Group James Smart is among a panel of journalists and filmmakers who will take part in a panel that will address how the climate crisis needs a similar collective effort from all sectors, including filmmakers through innovative partnerships with funders, broadcasters, and alternative distribution models, decentralised to unlock impactful audience reach.
He will take part in this session at this year’s Durban FilmMart running from July 19 to 22 in South Africa, a major film industry collaborative effort among Climate Story Lab South Africa, Doc Society – Climate Story Unit, STEPS, and the Global Impact Producers Alliance (GIPA). The five are set to host a festival dubbed, Climate Focus.
Apart from Smart, six other Kenyan filmmakers, editors and content creators will attend the event. They include Wanja Emily, Director at African Programmes, and Impact Producer, Miriam Ayoo who is the Co-Coordinator, Global Impact Producers Alliance (GIPA).
They will also be joined by Pete Murimi, Co-Director, The Battle for Laikipia, Development Executive Producer, BBC Africa Eye (Kenya), Cindy Makandi, Founder | Director, Tunga Afrika (Kenya) and Simeon Letoole – Human Rights Activist and the Protagonist: Battle for Laikipia Film.
Speaking to Act Scene, Smart said that this year’s concept is “how do we get more circulations to the films we are doing, more eyeballs and impact”.
He says that people, especially in the African continent produce films that do well internationally but locally where they are supposed to have the most impact it doesn’t happen.
Asked why the film Battle for Laikipai is important to him, he said that “these stories are about us”.
“The process of making films or documentaries takes a lot of time. For Laikipia, it took years. The filmmaker took time to get what side of the story, very intimately for a period of time and the community.”
In The Battle for Laikipia, the documentary offers a prescient perspective by focusing on the communities that are living with the consequences of climate change right now: the ranchers and pastoralists of Laikipia, located on the equator in Kenya.
These people, their cattle, their farms, and their means of life, have been dealing with drought. Over a period of approximately two years, it shows how climate change can directly resurface tensions that have been kept at bay for generations.
In Durban, the Climate Focus promises stimulating sessions to seek tangible approaches to communicate the climate-crisis through film with panel discussions, hands-on dialogues around potential impact strategies to effect change through film, brainstorming sessions, and networking opportunities for film industry participants creating content for this sector.
Emily Wanja, who is Director of African Programmes at Doc Society – Climate Story Unit, says, “This climate focus at DFM is part of Climate Story Unit’s commitment to support transformative storytelling that advances a climate just and biodiverse future by storytellers, impact producers, and movement builders.
“Collectively we can envision, experiment and share how an abundant world for all could look like. DFM provides an opportunity to strengthen partnerships across the information ecosystem on the continent for this work to thrive.”
In the session titled Partnerships and Pathways to Reach Audiences, the need for collective focus and political will to effectively address climate change will be unpacked.
“In Kenya, the problem is distribution, among them, where the funds come from,” adds Smart.
The organisers say that in a practical tool-kit-styled approach the session Impact Strategy in Action aims to equip impact producers with the insights necessary to create effective impact strategies.
The panel will explore key issues such as identifying target audiences, setting measurable goals, leveraging partnerships, and maximising impact through media and outreach efforts.
Well-known impact producers and strategists Liani Maasdorp (Climate Story Lab ZA), Emily Wanja (Doc Society), Nasreen Al Amin (Climate Story Lab Lagos) and Tiny Mungwe will feature on the panel in the Impact Hackathon moderated by Miriam Ayoo (Global Impact Producers Alliance).
In a practical session Who’s Watching Our Films? Alternative Distribution Mapping, Doc Society – Climate Story Unit, CSL ZA, STEPS, DOCA, TUNGA Afrika partner in a session moderated by Cindy Makandi (Tunga Afrika) to ignite an initiative they have started to help film industry professionals to unlock both existing, new and effective distribution pathways to ensure stories reach the people they are meant for.
In this session, they will map out alternative distribution avenues that extend beyond conventional routes. The goal is to create an open-source model that filmmakers can use to discover viable distribution partners across the continent.
Award-winning impact producer Anita Khanna, (Uhuru Productions), says, “It’s shocking how little attention is being given to the biggest threat humanity has ever faced, but we know as activists that this is often because people face many challenges that are more immediate to them.
If we can use our artistry and our campaigns to, at the very least, keep people fully informed of what the climate emergency means to them, and at most, get people motivated to organise around climate demands, then we will see some serious movement. It’s a thing that artists have done in the past, around vital social matters, we need to be doing it now, on steroids.”
The Battle For Laikipia is expected to premiere in Kenya before the of the year.