Climate Storytelling Fellowship
Africa has had few climate stories in mainstream entertainment considering the significant impact of the crisis on the continent. Many of the stories told today are with a common practice of representing Africa's vast complexity through a single one-sided lens.
These stories depict extreme weather disasters, causalities and societal breakdown. And while true on some of these apocalyptic stories, they portray despair for African future and sometimes with no hope unless with Global North intervention.
We want to change the narrative and showcase the enormous potential for original content that illuminates the complexities and nuanced human reality of the African climate crisis, including stories about people particularly the youth fighting for a healthier, more equitable and sustainable future.
Future Perspectives aims to actively engage with the youth, introduce them to climate global issues, and empower innovation through film. Film transcends cultures, language and provides a very powerful tool to influence young minds beyond their immediate communities.
The youth can bring attention to urgent environmental issues facing their respective communities and ecosystems, share climate research and solutions, and highlight youth-led climate action initiatives.
The transformative social impact storytelling fellowship program is to empower, advocate, build capacity and amplify diverse voices of young Africans who aspire to be filmmakers, content creators, communicators and journalists in the climate space.
It’ll provide the foundational skills and knowledge to effectively tell African related climate stories affecting their communities to bring African climate issues and justice to the global stage.
The fellowship will harness the unique perspectives, activism, and participation of Africa's youth particularly women in the global climate discourse, recognizing their essential role in shaping the future. Women will make up at least 60% of the participants. African women in filmmaking play a crucial role in reshaping narratives, fostering diversity, and challenging stereotypes as they are the ones greatly affected by the climate issues in Africa.
Film categories include Agriculture, Clean Cooking, Clean Air, Renewable Energy, Waste Management, Water, Others
Application date coming soon.
“Climate storytelling highlights the ways that climate change affects characters, influences choices, and/or drives action. A climate story acknowledges that we already live in a climate-altered world and are grappling with the impacts to our homes, health, communities, and jobs.”
Resources
Africa’s Youth will not stay Silent
Hear Our Voices
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Embracing the power of storytelling and film as my weapons of change. Unveiling the untold stories of resilience amidst adversity, weaving a narrative of hope and action against the backdrop of the climate crisis in Borno state.
Aisha Zannah Mustapha
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Storytelling plays a vital role in conflict regions. It empowers marginalized voices, promotes healing, reconciliation, and helps people cope with trauma and displacement by amplifying the stories of those affected.
Musa Ajit
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If we do not document our efforts to save the climate through storytelling, what is our proof that we did our best? In our diversity as humans, stories of climate change is the ultimate common ground.
TheGift Chikere
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The interaction of climate change and storytelling put people and planet as the center of focus. As people, we can look back and review our mistakes, judge all our actions and inactions towards our environment with data/facts.
Chiamaka Nwaoyibo
Flooding in Borno
Hear from one of our Program Coaches, Muhammad Bintube on the recent flooding in Borno, his home state.
“As journalists and communications specialists, we need to appreciate the real issues. We are not just the monitors but also the catalysts of change.”
Joel Kachi Benson - Award Winning Documentary Filmmaker/Visual Storyteller/VR Content Creator
I am a firm believer in the use of storytelling as a catalyst for positive change.
Storytelling is at the core of my work as a filmmaker, and my stories are here. They are not in the U.K. or America. I couldn’t have made Daughters of Chibok or Madu if I was living abroad. One of the things that gives me a lot of pride is that a documentary film like Madu which was backed by a mega studio like Disney was done by a Nigerian filmmaker, based in Nigeria.
And I hope it inspires other documentary filmmakers that we can still tell stories from here that can travel and gain global acceptance and recognition.
Learn more about Storytelling
