Hotspot Climate Series
The Hotspot film series profiles activists at the forefront of overlapping social and climate crises in Southern Africa, a climate change hotspot, where the lives of millions depend on what activists can motivate their governments to do. From threats to our food supply, our water and our air quality to the extreme weather events we increasingly see, it’s clear that the climate crisis is the biggest threat humanity has ever faced. Yet governments are failing to respond appropriately.
In many parts of the world, gas and oil is being touted as a form of clean energy to replace dirty coal, with cash strapped Southern Africa opening its arms to oil companies to begin extraction. Using powerful storytelling to connect viewers to the big threat that the climate emergency presents to the region the films foreground the resistance and within it the realistic solutions that activists are putting forward.
Temperature Rising – 2023
As climate induced disasters are on the rise across Southern Africa, three activists grapple with what thinking globally and acting locally means in practise. Taking place between two major climate conferences – COP26 Glasgow and COP27 Sharm el-Sheikh, Temperature Rising uncovers the barriers to climate action and calls loudly for movement building from below, at a time where the very survival of large numbers of people depends on what activists can get political leaders to do.
Capturing Water - 2024
In 2018, Cape Town narrowly averted completely running out of drinking water. The dry taps crisis, termed ‘Day Zero’, followed an extended drought. In a country sitting 29th on the list of water scarce places in the world, this became a ghastly harbinger of things to come. In the wake of Day Zero the city council committed to take urgent action to protect the supply of water by enforcing a policy of limited access. Capturing Water follows the unfolding fight, led by working class activist, Faeza Meyer, to overturn Cape Town’s city council’s water cuts offs, Caroline Marx’ use of environmental legislation to demand accountability over the sewage crisis and Nazeer Sonday, a farmer defending the city’s ground water. As the three protagonists take on various aspects of the city council’s mistreatment of the water cycle, what is starkly revealed is the role that a full cost recovery market approach to critical services plays in maintaining South Africa’s water crisis, alongside its place as the most unequal country in the world.
Perfect storm
(In Production)
Perfect Storm is a haunting cinematic journey taking us through the tangled history of a nation in order to contextualise a currently burgeoning generational revolt. Using present day verité and interviews, plus archival footage spanning decades, the film raises contemporary questions around whether a new generation of Africans, faced with unprecedented systemic challenges including catastrophic climate change, is emerging to unhinge the status quo. The latter is characterised by Marxist dogma, post-colonial state capture and a kleptocratic elite prepared to use increasing levels of violence when threatened. Told through the personal lens of the filmmaker, the role of South Africa as a regional super power, comes into play, raising the stakes for a generation that is desperate to break from the shackles of the past.