Voices of the Drylands. a 27-minute documentary written, directed and edited by Liesl-Dana van Schalkwyk from North-West University in Potchefstroom will showcase South Africa’s campaign to fight desertification in Rome’s La Casa del Cinema on 3 December 2006.
The documentary partially fulfils the requirements for her masters degree in communication studies. Her supervisor, prof. Attie Gerber, was responsible for most of the videography done on a Sony HVR-Z1.
Voices documents people living in the dryland areas of the Molopo in the North-West Province as well as the Southern Kalahari Mier district, Suid-Bokkeveld and Paulshoek in the Northern Cape Province of South Africa.
Through glances at the life situations of these people who face drought and land constraints, the video illustrates the work of the Desert Margins Program in these areas. This program runs in nine African countries, one of which is South Africa.
The film was first screened at the Global Environment Facility (GEF) Assembly in Cape Town at the end of August this year. The GEF Assembly attracted international political and environmental organisation delegates and Voices received high praise for its artistic representation of the plight of subsistence farmers.
The next public screening of Voices will be the Desert Nights Film Festival in Rome which concludes the International Year of Deserts and Desertification declared by the United Nations.
The film festival is organised under the broad theme “Tales from the Desert’ by the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD).
Indeed, the moving stories of people like Gert Tieties from Mier, Gert Keteltjie Joseph from Paulshoek in Namaqualand, and Hendrik Hesselman from the Bokkeveld will be heard loudly on this important international platform.
- Advertisement -
- Advertisement -
- Advertisement -
