Kisilu: The Climate Diaries is an upcoming Al Jazeera documentary
about how climate change is affecting a small farming family in Mutomo, Kenya.
Over the last four years, Kisilu Musya, a Kenyan small-holder farmer, has used his
camera to capture the life of his family, his village and the impacts of climate
change. Over the years he has filmed floods, droughts, and storms but also the
more human impacts of climate change –kids are sent home from school when
school fees can’t be paid, men are moving to towns in search for jobs, and family
relations are strained.
Through seamless intercutting of Musya’s video diaries and director Julia Dahl’s
footage, the film creates a raw and honest portrait of family life in rural Kenya at
the frontline of climate change.
Musya and his wife Christina live together with their nine children. They have been
self-reliant and surviving off the land for generations, but now they are facing
harder times due to more and more extreme weather conditions.
The documentary is an inspiring portrait of a man who refuses to give up, who
continues to drive long-term change in a community fighting for day-to-day
survival. This year Musya and his community received government funding to set up
an irrigation system. This December Musya will be attending the UN Climate Change
Conference in Paris.
Director Julia Dahl won the 2015 One World Media Student Award for an earlier,
short version of this documentary, which also won five other international awards
and is nominated for the Grierson Award.
Kisilu: The Climate Diaries premieres on Wednesday, 2 December
2015 at 22h00 SAST on Witness, Al Jazeera’s observational
documentary strand, with repeats on Thursday, 3 December at 14h00, Friday, 4
December at 03h00, and Saturday, 5 December at 08h00.
