The Changing the Story Online International Film Festival (1-5 June, 2020) celebrated the films and animations made from across our 27 projects. However, we also wanted to celebrate the work of many other projects beyond Changing the Story that are similarly using film to change people’s lives.
Films were submitted from 16 countries across the world and span a variety of formats and topics, from documentary shorts, animation to full-length features about mental health, addiction, migration and child soldiers to name a few.
Alongside Changing the Story’s celebration event in June 2022, Researcher Sabrina White and Jazz Pianist Ben Gilbert brought together around a dozen post-graduate and early career researchers to reflect on what the jazz metaphor could offer to research on peacebuilding.
An introduction to the final Changing the Story workshop held in Leeds, 30th June-1st July 2022. Project Principal Investigator Professor Paul Cooke (University of Leeds) introduces the four key research strands to have emerged from this 4 year AHRC/GCRF Network Plus Project.
The short film made by the young people from the Youth Committee at Nigel Caring Community Safe Park, South Africa, explores issues around human trafficking in their community alongside contemporary suspicion of traditional beliefs. This film was made with the support of the Global Challenge Research Fund, the University of Leeds, One Child One Family and the Bishop Simeon Trust.
The film was featured in the ‘Changemakers in Film Summit: Health is Wealth’ (14 July 2021)
Issie Christoffels loves the people of the Karoo. She remembers a hard youth, with very few opportunities: very few things to do, very little positive going on… Today she is against fracking in the Karoo because of the impact it could have on farming. She wishes for more projects and spaces for development where young people can find sustainable things to do with their creativity and energy. She says young people can shine where they are.
This film is released as part of series created by Ilizwi Lenyaniso Lomhlaba, the “true voice of the land”, based in Graaff-Reinet in the Karoo. Ilizwi Lenyaniso Lomhlaba is a collaborative project established between the Support Centre for Land Change and Youth-in-Power in Graaff Reinet, and academic partners at the Wits Centre for Diversity Studies in Johannesburg, and at Leeds University in the UK.
The film was one of four featured in the ‘Changemakers in Film Summit: Dissecting the gender issues surrounding social advocacy in post – conflict societies’ (21 July 2021).
Annie Arries is a primary school teacher who loves the Karoo and says she will never leave. She says here, children can still grow up as children. Her hope for small Karoo towns is more houses, more access to land, and more job opportunities for young people.
The film was one of four featured in the ‘Changemakers in Film Summit: Dissecting the gender issues surrounding social advocacy in post – conflict societies’ (21 July 2021).
Mrs Jaftha was brought up in a strict home, to value the things they had, even the things they got for free. She remembers her childhood as a time of playing in the streets, a time of freedom. She loves the Karoo sunsets and sunrises. She has a lot of trust in the people of the town and the municipality. Still, she is against fracking because of impact she says it will have on water resources: she would rather see the land sustained than exploited, even if it creates work opportunities. She hopes for more recreation centres for young people. Wishes there were a Drive-In (like there used to be) - and space for a proper mall so that people don’t have to drive so far to the cities. She also argues that subsistence farming and access to land adds to your value and your pride as a South African.
This film is released as part of series created by Ilizwi Lenyaniso Lomhlaba, the “true voice of the land”, based in Graaff-Reinet in the Karoo. Ilizwi Lenyaniso Lomhlaba is a collaborative project established between the Support Centre for Land Change and Youth-in-Power in Graaff Reinet, and academic partners at the Wits Centre for Diversity Studies in Johannesburg, and at Leeds University in the UK.
The film was one of four featured in the ‘Changemakers in Film Summit: Dissecting the gender issues surrounding social advocacy in post – conflict societies’ (21 July 2021).
This short film was created by the team at Ilizwi Lenyaniso Lomhlaba to highlight the crucial role that women are playing in claiming space, dreaming new futures, and implementing militant action at the frontlines of land justice in South Africa. We created it for a collaboration between the Support Centre for Land Change and Tshintsha Amakhaya where they brought women activists from across the Karoo to Graaff-Reinet for a conference on 22-24 August 2019.
The film was one of four featured in the ‘Changemakers in Film Summit: Dissecting the gender issues surrounding social advocacy in post – conflict societies’ (21 July 2021).
The ImaginingOtherwise project visited the Zeitz Mocaa museum as our final art-activism-educational event for this difficult year. Meet Gomez who is studying engineering and was fascinated by the architecture of the building and reflects on art, representation and politics in his own life
In September 2021, Changing the Story hosted a week-long work placement for a young person through the Arts Emergency Work Placement programme. Over the course of the week, Rachel engagement with the Changing the Story and PRAXIS team, and the wider network of researchers and young artists. We encouraged Rachel to share her reflections in a creative output of her choice, which would take centre stage in Rachel's final day takeover of the CTS Twitter account.
From 16-27 November 2020, PRAXIS hosted a virtual workshop on transforming conflict and displacement through arts and humanities research. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the event was designed as an entirely virtual space where AHRC GCRF researchers and their communities could join conversations, engage in dialogue and debate key themes of conflict-related research. Part of this programme was around table discussion on 19 November, which brought together two field research experts, Dr Margaret Ebubedike (Faculty of Wellbeing, Education and Language Studies, the Open University) and Dr Heather Flowe (School of Psychology, University of Birmingham) to discuss the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on field research.