Filming Wild

Conservation Education through Film

Category: background information | Date: Mar 19 2008 | By: admin

The African Environmental Film Foundation (AEFF) is separately registered as a US non-profit organization and as a UK Charity, with its operational base in Kenya, East Africa. The Foundation has a bold vision for transforming the face of environmental education in Africa, primarily through the medium of educational films, supported by modern technology and communication methods.

Our aim is to significantly contribute to financial independence in Africa by increasing people’s awareness of conservation-based enterprises and environmentally sustainable ventures. Education is crucial for personal empowerment, resulting in local and national development. African people hunger for knowledge, but are starved of learning resources – especially those relevant and applicable to their own particular situation.

We believe that if people do not KNOW about their wildlife and natural resources, they cannot care about them. More to the point perhaps in Africa’s many poor rural and urban areas, even if people know that killing wildlife and over-exploiting their natural resources is wrong and harmful in the long term, if they do not know of any ALTERNATIVE methods to make a living without destroying the very resources they rely on in the long term, it is impossible for them to change their ways. Therefore, education is crucial, and we believe that film is one of the most powerful ways of imparting information in a memorable way, and also of sharing information between communities so that they can learn from each other.

Films made about Africa for Western television do not have much resonance in Africa itself; hence the reason for the birth of the African Environmental Film Foundation. Since its launch in 1998, AEFF has been producing and distributing educational films about environmental issues in Africa, for the people of Africa, in their own languages. These films are distributed free of charge and are seen by millions of people, predominantly in East Africa and increasingly further afield on the continent and internationally.

By making films exclusively about African issues, in multiple African dialects and languages, and by presenting the facts and working examples in a balanced and impartial way, AEFF enables people to make informed decisions about their own environment, and shows them ways to forge a way out of poverty without depleting the very natural resources on which they depend for a healthy and sustainable future in the long term.
In tandem, these same films allow people in Western countries to gain a true understanding of the real issues facing people in Africa, which could have long-lasting benefits for cross-cultural understanding and cooperation.

One of our distribution partners sets up the screen for a film showing in Maungu Town, rural Kenya.

As with many of our audiences, this one at Maungu consisted of eager kids as well as knowledge-hungry adults.

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4 Responses to “Conservation Education through Film”

Theresa Siskind St Petersburg FL, on 21 Mar 2008

This is a brilliant concept. On to your next entry.

filmingwild, on 24 Mar 2008

Thank you Theresa. In the ten years that the Film Foundation has been running, we have had tremendous success, and have seen some very real changes in people’s attitudes towards wildlife, and in their thinking when it comes to earning a living in harmony with their environment. I look forward to sharing our success stories with you on this blog. It’s all about empowering people with the information they need in relation to their wildlife and their natural environment…which also in turn helps other conservation organizations when trying to implement projects as, having seen our films, local communities then have a better understanding of why the projects are important for them. To coin a phrase much used in other theaters, it’s all about “winning hearts and minds”.

Dipesh Pabari, on 24 Mar 2008

Last year, I was fortunate enough to conduct an evaluation for an amazing organization called FilmAid who work in large refugee camps. I visited Kakumu in Northern Kenya which has over 60,000 refugees mostly from Sudan. Some people have been there over 15 years. FilmAid basically uses film to reach and inform as many people as possible by setting up large screens in the camps where literally thousands of people gather around and have the access to the only bit of entertainment available in a refugee camp and equally important is that the show short videos about things people need to learn about such as HIV/AIDS, landmines, how to enroll for repatriation.
From all the focus group discussions I participated in and simply from observation, using film was unquestionably one of the most effective way of reaching so many people. FilmAid has taken it one step further and created film clubs made up of young Sudanese refugees who are making their own little films and documentaries and telling their own stories through their own lens. I was blown away!

filmingwild, on 25 Mar 2008

This film club venture sounds like an amazing project - I am sure that the stories emerging are both harrowing and fascinating in equal measure.

We (AEFF) have supplied FilmAid with our films in the past and, coincidentally, we are just in the process of renewing contact with them and sending them our latest programs.

I was happy to read that your observations and focus groups confirmed what we too have learned: that film is a hugely effective medium for reaching out to people, and for informing and educating a wide scale. The moving image often stays in the mind longer and more vividly than the written word, and is able to illustrate issues in a way that is difficult to match using other media.

Thank you so much for your interesting feedback and insight.

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