How can we build a sustainable world?

 

How can we achieve a sustainable world? from InsightShare on Vimeo.

Title	How can we build a sustainable world?
Director(s)	Participatory production
Date released   (year)	2012
Production   company	Insightshare
Length	3.03mins
Location	South Africa, India, Bangladesh, Ethiopia
Keywords/tags	Climate change, sustainability
Link to film	http://insightshare.org/watch/video/how-can-we-achieve-sustainable-world
Synopsis	A short film of voices from India, South   Africa, Bangladesh, and Ethiopia, giving their ideas on how we can achieve a   sustainable world. Source:   http://insightshare.org/watch/video/how-can-we-achieve-sustainable-world
Reviews/discussion	Participatory Video (PV) is a   set of techniques to involve a group or community in shaping and creating   their own film. The idea behind this is that making a video is easy and   accessible, and is a great way of bringing people together to explore issues,   voice concerns or simply to be creative and tell stories. This process can be very   empowering, enabling a group or community to take action to solve their own   problems and also to communicate their needs and ideas to decision-makers   and/or other groups and communities. As such, PV can be a highly effective   tool to engage and mobilise marginalised people and to help them implement   their own forms of sustainable development based on local needs. Source: http://www.insightshare.org/pv/pv-nutshell
Links to   other resources	See Visioning the Future PV blog with   videos: http://visioningthefuture.wordpress.com Global Oneness Project: http://www.globalonenessproject.org What if we Change? http://www.whatifwechange.org/magazine/

Horn of Africa Drought 2011 – Give me hope that ‘help’ is coming!

 

Title	Horn of Africa   Drought 2011 – Give me hope that ‘help’ is coming!
Director(s)	RGB Street Scholar
Date released	2011
Production company	RGB Street Scholar
Length	4.10mins
Location	Somalia, Kenya, Djibouti, Ethiopia
Keywords/tags	Food security, climate, food aid,   activism
Link to film	http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U8YoCdMpMUU&feature=share&list=PLIAHio7X18uEHwLYz6zWwgoV96r3BLu1X
Synopsis	This music video (featuring a remix   of the Tracy Chapman song ‘Let It Rain’) endeavours to highlight the urgent   need of our brothers and sisters in Horn of Africa, whose lives are   endangered by the worst drought in sixty years. More than 10 million people   (including those in the worst affected areas of Somalia, Kenya, Djibouti, and   Ethiopia). Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U8YoCdMpMUU
Reviews/discussion	United Nations and international   aid agencies say the crisis is overwhelming their ability to provide   assistance to the millions of people who are suffering… and as the agencies   are overstretched and under-funded, they are appealing for more help from the   international community. The U.N. Children’s Fund estimates more than two million young children from the Horn of Africa are malnourished, and in need of urgent life-saving actions. It says half a million of those children are facing imminent life-threatening conditions… and warns that many of the children may be left with long-lasting physical and mental problems. Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) teams are fully stretched in various locations   inside Somalia, as well as assisting exhausted refugees crossing Somalia’s   borders into Ethiopia and Kenya. According to World Vision… Risks of the outbreak of disease are growing,   and people’s access to food and water is in jeopardy. Children are among   those most vulnerable in the worst hit countries of Ethiopia, Kenya, and   Somalia. Save the Children has advised that more than a quarter of children in the   worst-hit parts of Kenya are now dangerously malnourished… and in Somalia,   malnutrition rates have reached 30 percent in some areas, making the Horn of   Africa one of the hungriest places on earth. Save the Children has already launched a major humanitarian response in   Kenya, Somalia and Ethiopia… feeding tens of thousands of underweight   children; providing life-saving medical treatment; and getting clean water to   remote communities. But with the situation worsening by the day – and no more   rain due till late September – Save the Children urgently needs money to   dramatically ramp up its response. According to Matt Croucher, Save the Children’s regional emergency manager   for East Africa… “Thousands of children could starve if we don’t get   life-saving help to them fast”… “Parents no longer have any way   to feed their children; they’ve lost their animals; their wells have dried   up; and food is too expensive to afford”… “We can stop this   tragedy unfolding, but we only have half the money we need. We urgently need   to raise the rest so we can save more children’s lives.” Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U8YoCdMpMUU
Links to other resources	World Food   Programme https://www.wfp.org/ Save the Children: https://secure.savethechildren.org/ Médecins Sans Frontières: http://www.msf.org/ CARE International: https://my.care.org World Vision: http://donate.worldvision.org Unicef: http://www.supportunicef.org Plan International: http://plan-international.org Oxfam International: http://www.oxfam.org/ Oxfam published a briefing on   climate change and drought in east Africa The Guardian Poverty Matters Blog: Posted by Duncan Green , Monday 8 August 2011   07.00 BST guardian.co.uk

Durban Reality Tour

 

Title	Durban Reality Tour
Director(s)	Pamela Ngwenya
Date released (year)	2009
Production company	Malinga Productions
Length	28 mins
Location	Durban, South Africa
Keywords/tags	Dumping, toxic waste,   sustainability, informal settlements
Link to film	https://vimeo.com/10374472 Durban Reality Tour from Pamela Ngwenya on Vimeo.
Synopsis	On 4th November 2009, the Centre for Civil   Society at the University of KwaZulu-Natal led a tour of Durban that conveys   the gritty reality faced by ordinary Durbanites. This video documents the   highlights of the tour, including the ‘toxic’ South Durban Industrial Basin,   the tented community of Crossmoor and, on a more positive note, the   development of an organic community garden and biodigester in the township of   Cato Manor.
Reviews/discussion	When critically‑minded people   visit Durban and seek out a ‘reality tour’ typically denied by the mainstream   tourist circuit, one of the stops is the Centre for Civil Society at the   University of KwaZulu‑Natal. Located at the highest point in Durban (the top   floors of Memorial Tower Building in Glenwood), the Centre introduces   sympathetic visitors to the work of leading social activists and environmentalists.   The sites that kombi‑taxis arranged by CCS reach include an inner‑city tense   with resistance to xenophobia and gentrification, the largest petrochemical complex   in a residential area in Africa, a variety of shack settlements and working‑class   ‘African’, ‘Indian’ and ‘coloured’ neighbourhoods, the hotly‑contested source   of Durban’s water at Inanda Dam, and the university environs. Source: http://ccs.ukzn.ac.za/default.asp?10,14’ John Vidal   in Durban, www.guardian.co.uk, Tuesday   6 December 2011: Why south   Durban stinks of rotten cabbage, eggs and cat wee In the ‘centre of   toxic Africa’, residents say they can identify nausea, drowsiness, vomiting   and headaches by industrial sources. There’s the metaphorical whiff of diplomats burning the midnight oil to   find a deal at the the UN climate talks. But 5km away in south Durban, the   air really does smell of rotten cabbage, cat wee and almonds. With two crude oil refineries, South Africa‘s two biggest paper   mills, its biggest container port, a dozen chemical companies, several major   landfill sites and a huge number of factories together producing 80% of South Africa‘s oil   products and much of its industrial emissions, south Durban locals have   learned to identify the coughs, nausea, drowsiness, vomiting and headaches   they suffer by their sources. Oil companies are said to create a stink of a cocktail of rotten eggs and   burned matches, a carworks reeks of ethanol and the vinegar smell comes from   a leather company. (Contd…) Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/dec/06/south-durban-industrial-pollution South African   Environmental Justice struggles against “toxic” petrochemical   industries in South Durban: The Engen Refinery Case This   case study explores the South Durban community’s struggle against   disproportionate exposure to a hazardous environment and sulphur dioxide   pollution, and at the same time, being faced with “clear and   present” health hazards linked to petrochemical industrial production.   To unpack the environmental justice challenges facing post-apartheid South   Africa, the case study examines the role played by the South Durban Community   Environmental Alliance in articulating environmental injustices and poor   environmental responsibility of the petrochemical industry in South Africa. Source:   http://www.umich.edu/~snre492/brian.html
Links to other resources	Africa’s Biggest Landfill Site: The Case Of Bisasar   Road | by Patrick Bond and Khadija Sharife: http://www.amandlapublishers.co.za/amandla-blog/patrick-bond/1196-africas-biggest-landfill-site-the-case-of-bisasar-road–by-patrick-bond-and-khadija-sharife

Taking Root: The Vision of Wangari Maathai

 

Title	Taking Root: The Vision of Wangari Maathai
Director(s)	Alan Dater and Lisa Merton
Date released (year)	2008
Length	81 mins
Production company	Independent
Location	Kenya
Keywords/tags	Kenya, women,   deforestation, activism, planting trees, feminism, environmental justice,   ecofeminism, land degradation, environmentalism
Link to film	http://www.pbs.org/independentlens/takingroot/film.html
Synopsis	TAKING ROOT: The Vision of Wangari Maathai   tells the story of Kenya’s Green Belt Movement, a grassroots organization   encouraging rural women and families to plant trees in community groups, and   follows Maathai, the movement’s founder and the first environmentalist and   African woman to win the Nobel Prize. Maathai discovered her life’s work by   reconnecting with the rural women with whom she had grown up. They told her   they were walking long distances for firewood, and that clean water was   scarce. The soil was disappearing from their fields and their children were   suffering from malnutrition. “Well, why not plant trees?” she suggested. Maathai   soon discovered that tree planting had a ripple effect of empowering change.   In the mid-1980s, Kenya was under the repressive regime of Daniel arap Moi,   whose dictatorship outlawed group gatherings and the right of association. In   tending their nurseries, women had a legitimate reason to gather outside   their homes and discuss the roots of their problems. They soon found   themselves working against deforestation, poverty, ignorance, embedded   economic interests and government corruption; they became a national   political force that helped to bring down the country’s 24-year dictatorship. Using   archival footage and first-person accounts, the film documents dramatic political   confrontations of 1980s and 1990s Kenya and captures Maathai’s infectious   determination and unwavering courage through in-depth conversations with the   film’s subjects. TAKING ROOT captures a world view in which nothing is   perceived as impossible. The film also presents an awe-inspiring profile of   one woman’s three-decade journey of courage to protect the environment,   ensure gender equality, defend human rights and promote democracy—all   sprouting from the achievable act of planting trees. Source:   http://www.pbs.org/independentlens/takingroot/film.html
Reviews/discussion	Awards & Festivals: 2008, Winner,   Audience Choice Prize, Rencontres Internationales du Documentaire de Montréal   (RIDM) 2008, Winner,   Prix Ecocamera (Ecocamera Award), Rencontres Internationales du Documentaire   du Montréal (RIDM) 2008, Winner,   Margaret Blank Award for Storytelling Vermont International Film Festival 2008, Winner,   Amnesty International Durban Human Rights Award, Durban International Film   Festival 2008, Winner,   Green Cinema Award, Maui Film Festival 2008, Winner,   Audience Award, Projecting Change Film Festival, Vancouver 2008, Winner,   Audience Award Winner, Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival 2008, Winner,   Full Frame Women in Leadership Award, Full Frame Documentary Film Festival,   Durham, North Carolina 2008, Winner,   Nashville Women in Film & Television Award for Best Feature Length Film   Directed or Co-Directed by a Woman Nashville Film Festival 2008, Winner,   Best Documentary Feature, Honorable Mention, Nashville Film Festival Below taken from:   http://takingrootfilm.com/reviews.htm “Highly recommended” read Video   Librarian review… “We have just completed the month-long book tour [The   Challenge for Africa] and … hardly was there a place we went that people did   not mention Taking   Root. It has been a wonderful project… I hope the film will   continue to inspire people across the globe especially as the message is so   fitting for our time.” Wangari Maathai Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, Founder of the Green Belt Movement, and subject of Taking Root: The Vision of Wangari Maathai “[Taking Root: The Vision of Wangari Maathai]   portrays a woman’s fight against all odds not to be a victim in her own   natural environment. Indeed, ‘the tree woman’ and her initiative of planting   trees led to the emancipation of women in her community. Through this act,   she became the epitome of success and a role model of an enriching   woman.” read more… Jury, International Images Film Festival for Women, Zimbabwe upon presenting the Best Documentary Award “Taking Root underscores the critical importance of   education to a social movement. It portrays a vision of education that is not   about changing people’s heads, but ultimately changing the conditions under   which people live. We can talk in the classroom about education for social   change, but this extraordinary film provides a model for change that engages   and inspires. It is worth a hundred hours of classroom talk…both the film   and the woman are truly extraordinary!” Dr. Thomas Heaney, Adult & Continuing Education National-Louis University
Links to other resources	Official   site: http://takingrootfilm.com/reviews.htm   From filmmakers Alan Dater and Lisa Merton: We hope that TAKING ROOT: The Vision of Wangari Maathai will help viewers to see their relationship to the natural world in a different way. The connection between a healthy environment and healthy communities is at the core of the work of the Green Belt Movement, the NGO that Wangari Maathai founded in 1977, when she realized that the problems the rural women were having were directly related to their degraded environment. In taking steps to ameliorate their situation by planting trees, these women were not only addressing their immediate problems but the root cause of those problems as well. Viewers   have been moved and inspired by TAKING ROOT, and we hope that inspiration   leads to action. The path that Wangari Maathai took from environmental   justice to social and economic justice and then, ultimately, to peace, is   what inspires audiences. They start to make connections that they have   perhaps not made before. In   that spirit, we have partnered with the Katahdin Foundation to produce an action   guide. The guide encourages people to take action in   their local communities by becoming aware of trees and encouraging people to   plant trees, and to make the connections between tree-planting, clean air,   strong children and healthier communities and ultimately a healthier planet.   We hope that TAKING ROOT encourages viewers to ask questions such as, “Who is   living in degraded environments in the United States and why?” and then to   seek solutions. We   also hope that the historical context of the film will raise awareness about   how colonialism across the globe has been, and continues to be, at the root   of environmental destruction in the “developing world.” Viewing the   land as a commodity, and the extraction of resources as more important than   anything else, has led us to the global climate crisis in which we find   ourselves today. This way of doing business in the developing world continues   without taking into account the livelihoods, well being and environmental   sustainability of local communities; we take what we need and leave. Source:   http://www.pbs.org/independentlens/takingroot/filmmakers.html Deforestation   101: http://www.pbs.org/independentlens/takingroot/deforestation.html

Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide

Title	Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity   for Women Worldwide
Director(s)	A team of veteran filmmakers   collaborated to create to bring the stories and ideas of Nicholas Kristof and   Sheryl WuDunn’s best-selling book to public television audiences nationwide.
Date   released (year)	2012
Length	4 hours
Production   company	Show of Force, LLC and Fugitive   Films, LLC in association with PBS and ITVS
Location	International (10 countries),   including Somaliland, Kenya and Sierra Lione
Keywords/tags	Gender, feminism, prostitution, sex   trafficking, women, domestic violence, education, health, economic   empowerment, livelihoods
Link   to film	http://www.halftheskymovement.org/pages/film http://www.pbs.org/independentlens/half-the-sky/video/
Synopsis	Half the Sky: Turning Oppression   into Opportunity for Women Worldwide was filmed in 10 countries and   follows Kristof, WuDunn, and celebrity activists America Ferrera, Diane Lane,   Eva Mendes, Meg Ryan, Gabrielle Union, and Olivia Wilde on a journey to tell   the stories of inspiring, courageous individuals. Across the globe oppression   is being confronted, and real meaningful solutions are being fashioned   through health care, education, and economic empowerment for women and girls.   The linked problems of sex trafficking and forced prostitution, gender-based   violence, and maternal mortality — which needlessly claim one woman every 90   seconds — present to us the single most vital opportunity of our time: the   opportunity to make a change. All over the world women are seizing this   opportunity.
Reviews/discussion	Women   and girls across the globe face threats — trafficking, prostitution,   violence, discrimination — every day of their lives. But hope endures. Brave   men and women have developed innovative ways of helping those living in some   of the most challenging conditions. A   girl in India is on the brink of being sold into the commercial sex trade. A   young mother in Somaliland may die giving birth. In Sierra Leone, a girl has   been raped and must confront the norms of her community. A women whose   husband abused her now helps those suffering at the hands of their spouses. These   are the stories of individuals who represent hundreds of millions of women   and girls around the world who are victimized and abused, denied access to   education, medicine or property, prevented from reaching their full potential   and contributing in more meaningful ways to their communities. These are   stories of dehumanizing violence and discrimination. But these are also   stories of struggle and victories, large and small, in the face of the   longest odds. A   women whose husband abused her now helps those suffering at the hands of   their spouses. With a book, a teenage girl in Vietnam takes the first steps   towards breaking the cycle of grinding poverty that plagues her family.   Dozens of former impoverished individuals, seeking economic independence,   band together to establish what will become Kenya’s fastest-growing   microfinance organization. Each   of these stories puts a human face to an otherwise abstract idea or string of   statistics that could never convey the true human cost of the discrimination   and abuse suffered by hundreds of millions. These stories also illuminate the   spirit of perseverance that is embodied by the women and girls who face these   violations each day, and those who have made it their life’s mission to help   them Source: http://www.pbs.org/independentlens/half-the-sky/stories/
Links   to other resources	The Half the   Sky Movement is cutting across platforms to ignite the change needed to put   an end to the oppression of women and girls worldwide, the defining issue of   our time. Inspired by journalists Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn’s book   of the same name, Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women   Worldwide brings together video, websites, games, blogs and other educational   tools to not only raise awareness of women’s issues, but to also provide   concrete steps to fight these problems and empower women. Change is possible,   and you can   be part of the solution. See http://www.halftheskymovement.org/pages/movement