On the shores of Lake Bogoria in northern Kenya, aspiring young film-makers have been learning how to shoot and edit documentaries about environmental issues.

 

It's part of a project being led by Dr David Harper, a biologist at Leicester University, and renowned television producer Richard Brock, who made the BBC wildlife series Life on Earth.

 

The idea is to give young environmental and biological science graduates from Kenya and Tanzania the skills required to make natural history films for showing in local schools and villages.

 

Funded by a Darwin Initiative grant from the UK Department for the Environment, Farming and Rural Affairs (Defra), the films are conceived and made by the graduates themselves, rather than by foreign film-makers. Topics covered range from the illegal poaching of endangered wildlife for export, to land erosion due to drought.

 

'Our films, made for local audiences, have people in them that pupils can recognise and relate to,' says Dr Harper.

 

The recognition factor

 

Jackson Kipkoech Komen, 28, is being trained by the project. He also works as an environmental education officer in Lake Bogoria, a role which often sees him using films to raise awareness among local people. However, these films are generally not about the local area and people find them 'irrelevant'.

 

'When I used to show films made in other areas, people were never serious,' he says. 'They took everything to be unreal. Since I have made my own films and shown them, communities appreciate (the issues) because they see an environment they recognize.'

 

If a conservation officer in Kenya or Tanzania currently wants to use film to illustrate an environmental point, he or she tends to rely one or two wildlife documentaries made by western filmmakers for western audiences. At 50 minutes, these are too long for young children and unsuitable for showing in packed and lively village meetings.

 

By contrast, the short films made by the graduates are designed to run at between just three and 12 minutes. This allows time for a proper discussion after viewings.

 

Mix and match

 

A challenge that remains, though, is getting the films seen in the most remote and poorly connected parts of the continent.

 

Richard Brock has found a way to do this. 'An extensive 'mix and match' library of 300 or so films will be created for use across Africa,' he says. With such a rich film resource, educators will be able to structure bespoke teaching programmes for different audiences, from school-children to adults involved in community education projects.

 

Harper and Brock intend to invite all environmental and educational NGOs working in the region to take a look at the film library and learn about the various ways that the shorts can be transported to and shown in remote locations.

 

A demand for more films will of course mean there’s a need for more film-makers. There are now over 50 Kenyans and Tanzanians fully trained by the project, and by the end of 2009 more than 40 others will have begun training. Graduates from the first group are currently training new recruits – and, in time, this new crop will themselves provide tuition to fresh participants.

 

This means that when the Darwin Initiative funding runs out, there is a network of local people able to make inexpensive conservation films – helping, in the words of Richard Brock, to inform remote communities about 'the wildest and most splendid parts of the world we all depend on for our survival.'

 

Related links

Watch films made by the graduates

Read testimonies from Elsie and Caroline, two of the film-makers