In 2023, Connect4Climate partnered with Resilient Foundation and WaterBear on the 8billion campaign to enable rising filmmakers in climate-vulnerable countries to confidently tell their stories through film, supporting in the process the Sahel Landscape Restoration Program, an initiative headed up by the World Bank’s PROGREEN trust fund.

First in the Sahelian nations of Mali and Burkina Faso, then in Niger and Chad, dedicated 8billion workshops have put experienced African filmmakers in direct contact with young trainees, equipping them with the technical capacity as well as the creative enthusiasm needed to begin cultivating their voices as documentarians.

Training in Burkina Faso.

Young participants in Mali and Burkina Faso learned the fundamentals of filmmaking under the tutelage of a team of local pros acting as ambassadors for 8billion. Following a series of training sessions in the spring  of 2023, the ten trainees used their newfound skills to shoot eye-opening shorts on wide-ranging topics: sustainable agroecology, aquaponics, reforestation, and protection of the Niger River. These films were then exhibited in a series of community screenings spanning both countries, with discussion time built in to facilitate audience engagement with the subject matter and filmmakers.

Participants emerged from the program with renewed passion for sharing their climate narratives through film, plus the skills to do so effectively. “I’m thinking that we’re already on the right track in the fight against climate change,” one trainee reflected. “We have little stories right here in Burkina, in our daily lives, that can inspire us… Why not find little stories that might interest people?”

Mali trainee Paty Ka is now working across several different film sets, continuing to hone her craft as a director, and her program peer Ousmane Sarré recently shot a documentary short for Al Jazeera.

Mali trainees get hands-on with film equipment.

Resilient was pleased to find in its surveys at the end of the program that both the trainees and the ambassadors themselves in Mali and Burkina Faso gained new knowledge of climate issues over the course of the process — and emerged energized to continue the fight for a sustainable future.

Heartened by these results, Resilient expanded the 8billion program into Niger and Chad, which posed unique challenges but also yielded unique successes. Six trainees from Niger and four from Chad participated in the workshops of autumn 2023, honing their craft and developing four original films with subject matter ranging from sustainable menstrual hygiene to gardening as a tool of community resilience — all against a backdrop of political and economic tumult in their home countries.

Chadian 8billion ambassador Aché Ahmat Moustapha went above and beyond to secure as wide a viewership as possible for her trainees’ films, organizing five community screenings with accompanying panel discussions in the Chadian cities of Mao, Bol, Mongo, N'Djaména and Moundou, reaching roughly 1,000 local attendees, as well as prestigious additional screenings at the Institut Francais (IFT) in N’Djamena, Chad and the RARE Gallery in Paris, France. Connect4Climate helped extend this reach globally with a social media and partner outreach campaign, which included a live-streamed session at the COP28 We Don’t Have Time media hub that reached over 4 million viewers.

Mentor Aché Ahmat Moustapha (center) poses with trainees in Chad.

Meanwhile, “Plastic Man,” a product of the Niger workshops following the advocacy of local environmental education hero Karim Elajadon, was selected for inclusion at prestigious film festivals including Senegal’s Films Femmes Afriques, Cameroon’s FIRST SHORT Festival, and Madagascar’s Madagascourt Festival.

Trainees from both Niger and Chad unanimously expressed a strong interest in continuing their pursuit of filmmaking following the conclusion of the program. “This workshop was a real eye-opener for us,” a Niger trainee reflected, “as it has given us a new perspective on the process for generation to realization.”

Niger program participant Bachir Maman Bawa is now pursuing a master’s degree in visual anthropology at the University of Niamey, while Chadian trainee Komna Marie Madeleine has gone on to pursue audiovisual journalism with the Centre d'Etudes et Formation pour le Développement. Similar success stories abound among the other 8billion alumni.

Niger trainees work together to capture video and audio.

Perhaps most importantly, participants across all four participant countries to date emerged from 8billion with newfound confidence in their ability to positively impact the world. “I can use this knowledge to raise awareness,” one Burkina Faso trainee shared, while a Niger participant noted that the workshops “enabled us to be more visible in the fight against climate change.”

Connect4Climate is grateful to have been a part of these empowering youth-focused programs and eagerly awaits future collaborations with Resilient to continue amplifying the vital perspectives of Sahelian youth.

Watch the 8billion films described above for free on the WaterBear YouTube channel. Photos in this article courtesy of Resilient.