The future of humanity is at stake as we face an unprecedented crisis if we don’t act collectively and with urgency.
Africa is the lowest producer of emissions, yet Africa suffers most in the fallout of the on-going climate crisis, with catastrophic losses from flooding, forest fires and desertification.
With the climate emergency taking centre-stage in global discourse, the African voice is missing. Africa has the opportunity to show the world how young people on the continent are driving solutions and actions on how to build an equitable, sustainable and decarbonized future. We need stories that give voice to these ideas.
Generation Africa 2.0 is a pan-African documentary film project to produce a new narrative on an urgent major social, political and economic global crisis through stories made by African filmmakers.
This is about spotlighting injustices and human rights issues linked to climate change and the environment, and what needs to be or is being done to address them.
Africa – as well as other parts of the Global South – is experiencing the damage caused by exploitation of natural resources, continued dependence on and investment in fossil fuels, over-consumption, class privilege, and inequality.
The consequences of centuries of extractive, exploitative global economics are being experienced through droughts, floods, extreme heat, forced migration, food shortages, loss of livelihoods – leading to conflict and instability. It is clear that climate action is necessary for peace and security.
Everything is a climate justice issue – migration, corruption, labour rights, human rights, gender, land and water rights, indigenous rights – but while the clock is ticking, there is hope and solutions to all of these challenges. The young people of the world hold the key to future solutions and need a bigger stake in the critical conversations about the future.
What kind of films?
Generation Africa 2.0 will be a provocative collection of stories cross-cutting the intersectional themes of decarbonization, decolonisation, human rights and social justice – all through the lens of climate change.
We are looking for stories that are unapologetic and angry. Stories that go against the grain.
Stories that are character driven. Stories that are unpredictable, touching, moving, revolutionary, and challenging.
Stories that are complex and multi-layered. Stories that will spark the imagination of what is possible.
These stories should come from all parts of Africa, across the colonial divides of Anglophone, Francophone, Lusophone and Arabic regions. In this collection, these stories will allow a sharing of perspectives and solutions.
Let’s connect the dots between the causes and effects:
– the resource curse in Africa that creates poverty while holding huge wealth beneath the soil
– the extraction of rare earth materials to power electric vehicles and mobile phones
– the roles of imperialism and capitalism
– collusion between elites in the North and South, the monopoly of the affluent
We are interested in an intersectional view of climate justice – there is a need for a gender justice and a feminist approach as women and children are the biggest victims of climate change.
We want stories which will:
– expose the political will needed for change and challenge the corruption on many levels
– highlight indigenous knowledge on how to survive
– highlight the work of environmental activists doing brave work to secure the major forests of the world, such as the Congo Basin
– show that climate change does not recognise borders
– show the interconnectedness of struggles everywhere
– be innovative in finding solutions, to create a new social compact.
Brief to filmmakers:
We are looking for your ideas for stories, to provide an African narrative on environmental justice and climate change. Stories can be initial ideas with strong characters and demonstrated access.
You can send in one to three proposals. They can even be an idea presented on one page. If you have already shot material or if you have longer treatments, this is most welcome.
The films can be of any length – from feature length, to medium-length, or shorts of five to ten minutes.
We are expecting submissions from filmmakers who have already made one or two documentary films that have been screened at film festivals and/or on broadcast platforms. Only African filmmakers are eligible to apply.
The proposals must be in English, or French and Portuguese with an English translation (you can use Deepl.com to translate).
We will invite filmmakers to participate in story development labs based on story proposals.
The Labs will be held between mid-January and mid-March online, and held over five days with input from consultants who are documentary film experts, climate change activists, and journalists.
A selection of stories will get development funding for further research and filming after the workshops. STEPS will co-produce these stories for distribution through our pan-African documentary platform AfriDocs and international broadcasters.
Deadline for submissions
Submissions must be sent in by the 15th November 2022.
All submissions and queries should be sent to: generationafrica@steps.co.za
A STEPS project for AfriDocs
Cape Town, South Africa
Tel: +27 21 4655805
Generation Africa 2.0 is supported by the Deutsche Welle Akademie and the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development.
