(THIS ARTICLE IS MACHINE TRANSLATED by Google from Norwegian)
"Now that the movie is released, only half the job is done," says Julia Dahr.
The Norwegian filmmaker is in Copenhagen on the occasion of the world premiere of his new film Thank You For The Rain, and to present the documentary at the event GoodPitch. Dahr has worked with the film for six years and believes she will continue to work with it for many years to come. She hopes the film can reach far beyond the festival audience and Northern European TV viewers. Dahr wants it to create change and have a ripple effect at both the local and global levels.
With that, Dahr is part of a wave of new documentary filmmakers who are reluctant to document a phenomenon, show it to the world and then move on. They want to create real social change, outside the dark viewing rooms.
From farmer to climate activist. Six years ago Julia Dahr and camera woman Julie Lunde Lilleseter went to Kenya. They wanted to make a movie about people who were directly affected by climate change. One of them was Kisilu Musya.
In 2011, Musya returned to the countryside from the city to settle down as a farmer, like his parents. The parents had also experienced difficult weather conditions, but Musya had never imagined how bad it would be. With climate change, the weather has become more extreme. For example, Musya and her family could experience periods of drought. When they then tried to adapt the crops to dry weather, the flood came and washed everything away. The storm blew the roof of his house.
"It is difficult to plan for climate change," says Musya when Ny Tid meets him in Copenhagen with Julia Dahr.
The Kenyan farmer asked Dahr to give him a camera so he could document the weather when she wasn't there. Over time, Musya herself has become a filmmaker and climate activist, as well as serving as an informal advisor and leader in the local community. He helps other farmers find different strategies for securing crops against climate change. He has set up self-help groups and initiated tree planting projects. They have started to collect water when it rains, and water by hand and with a single irrigation system. This allows them to harvest several times during a season.
One can continue to work on the themes and subjects for an eternity.
Spread awareness. Now Musya and Dahr will also use the documentary they have created to spread awareness of the ongoing climate change. The documentary, which will be dubbed into the East African languages of Kamba and Swahili, will hopefully be shown to more than 100 East African residents. They both hope that it can inspire and help build climate-resistant communities, based on Musya's model.
The filmmakers will use the film to hold the world's leaders accountable and ensure that the promises made by the Paris Agreement are not forgotten. An opportunity arose when Dahr and Musya presented Thank You For The Rain on GoodPitch, the forum that connects filmmakers to nonprofit organizations. Among those praising the film this time were Denmark's former foreign and finance minister and former chairman of the UN General Assembly Mogens Lykketoft, who rose from the assembly and thanked the filmmakers for their efforts.
In ten years, GoodPitch has been organized on six continents. Filmmakers from 25 countries have raised a total of € 25 million for their various projects. During the event in Copenhagen Thank You For The Rain presented to policy makers, organizations, politicians and the media. The film team met representatives of the World Economic Forum and the Mary Robinson Foundation, among others.
"We have come in contact with many we would not otherwise have reached, and several have already signaled that they will help us get Kisilu and the film into various forums, organize local screenings and spread the film about the film," says Julie Lunde Lillesæter. In addition to photography, she has also been given the title "impact producer" afterwards.
Little Setters have no doubt that this opportunity will make it easier to get a strong campaign and show the movie to the right people in the right places.
Better than a campaign. Documentaries often receive support from nonprofit organizations, but organizations often have their own agenda. A key word here is "impact": You want the film to be used in influential work in the real world and create real change.
"For the right organization, film can be a useful tool. If it fits well with the theme, country or demographics, an external documentary may be better suited to create change than an in-house campaign, "the seminar" The Art of Impact "said in Copenhagen.
"It's difficult to plan for climate change."
The Belgian-produced documentary Virunga from 2014, Congolese National Park Guardians deal with sniper shootings and a powerful, international company. This film is a good example of a documentary that has received such support. It has raised funds from, among others, Global Witness, the anti-corruption and environmental crime organization, and the Howard G. Buffett Foundation, which works to raise living standards for the poor.
Abigail Anketell-Jones has worked on the production of boats Virunga and the award-winning card documentary The White Helmets, which tells about the Syrian civil defense. Both films are GoodPitch projects, and have created ripple effects far beyond what the filmmakers could imagine.
"GoodPitch asks the ambitious question: What is the best thing to do with this documentary? It's extremely inspiring, ”said Anketell-Jones during the seminar.
Real changes. On their websites, the filmmakers have summarized the "impact" Virunga has achieved. They believe that the documentary has changed people's consciousness, and in addition, the behavior of individuals, for example, to ensure that there is no investment in companies such as the oil and gas producer SOCO – the documentary's big ugly wolf. The film reveals widespread corruption in the company. These disclosures have been taken seriously and have been passed on by major news media such as the BBC, The New York Times, The Telegraph and Al Jazeera.
SOCO finally conducted an internal investigation, and then assured the press that they had cleared the ranks.
"It was a setback," says Anketell-Jones. "We had to work twice as hard to make people realize that the fight was not over." The investigation was subsequently stamped as insufficient by the company's shareholders, which led to one of them, the English Church, asking SOCO's chairman to withdraw themselves.
VirungaThe creators can clearly say that the documentary has helped change the situation of the national park and its guardians. The film has also helped to shed light on corruption.
One challenge that arises when doing such extensive work in the wake of a documentary is that you can continue to work on the themes and the subjects for an eternity, says Anketell-Jones.
"You have to ask: When is the job done?" She says.
Hannisdal is a freelance journalist. aurorahannisdal@gmail.com
