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Meet the Mentees

Video Recap of Our First Meet the Mentees – June 29, 2022. Click here to watch the full video.

The EMERGING FILMMAKERS PROGRAM by ‘If Not Us Then Who’ is grateful for our community who attended our first ever ‘Meet the Mentees – Virtual Open House’ on June 29th, 2022.

This exciting opportunity allowed us to connect producers, funders, and distributors in the filmmaking industry personally with new talent from Panama, Ecuador, Venezuela, Brazil, Guatemala, Honduras , Indonesia, Guyana, and many more. Together we explore ways to collaborate and support their vision and decolonize the climate narrative.

After our first year of work in training and collaboration, our cohort of 27 filmmakers from 7 countries and over 15 indigenous nations, we are happy to showcase the first 10 audiovisual narratives arising from the heart of their lands. These stories reflect their challenges and hopes, but above all showcase how Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities (IPLCs) are successfully managing their lands and forests.

About the Emerging Filmmakers program

EMERGING FILMMAKERS is a program by ‘If Not Us Then Who?’ designed to expand and build capacity amongst a network of indigenous and local storytellers to use different media, reach broader audiences and shift narratives around indigenous peoples.

The Emerging Filmmakers Professional Development Program, is an If Not Us Then Who? Mentorship program that features and supports Indigenous storytellers from tropical forest communities who are working with grassroots organizations in their territories. Over the course of each year, participants work towards a set of professional development goals that we will help to support with training and peer to peer learning delivered remotely. Support provided is tailored to the goals of the participants, aiming to increase capacity in framing, delivery and distribution of quality content.

We want to empower narratives showcasing that: Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities (IPLCs) are successfully managing their lands and forests.

Specific goals

This project focuses on:

  • Capacity building and micro-financing to emerging Indigenous and local content producers
  • Ongoing mentoring (peer development webinars, feedback on story development & edits, specific technical up-skilling)
  • Translation and distribution of visual content according to collaboratively developed distribution strategies (photo and/or A/V)
  • Equipping filmmakers to tailor their films to different audiences, targeting a decision maker audience where suitable, whilst broadening the wider audience for new content via the INUTW online distribution channels.

Capacity Building

Since 2013 If Not Us Then Who? has been connecting with and amplifying communicators from across the tropical forests regions.

Vibrant Indigenous film production supports:

Cultural resilience and resistance

Record ancestral knowledge and raise pride and profile of indigenous communities

Defence of Indigenous territories and rights

Digital storytelling enables injustices and incursions to be denounced to the world and catalyse action against them

Building solidarity

Sharing stories and solutions across greater distances than ever before

Biodiversity

Indigenous peoples are guardians of 80% of the world’s biodiversity and strong Indigenous land rights have been recognised as an important climate solution

Since 2013 If Not Us Then Who? has been connecting with and amplifying communicators from across the tropical forests regions.