(Photo: Julie Lunde Lillesæter/Differ Media)
Since 2011, Kisilu, a Kenyan smallholder 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, 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 challenged.
While Kisilu has been capturing his inner life with his camera, my camera partner and I have got the chance to follow him with a camera, observing from the outside. Through seamless intercutting of footage from multiple ‘directors’ we have created the documentary “KISILU - I’ll Start With Myself” - a raw and honest portrait of family life in rural Kenya at the frontline of climate change.
(Photo: Michael Arvanitidis)
The motivation to make this film came to me in 2010, when I realized that the public debate on climate change was centered on sad polar bears on shrinking ice floes. It seemed as if the human side of it had been forgotten, and I wanted to direct the attention to those who have done the least to cause it but who feel the impacts perhaps more than anyone: smallholder farmers in the Global South.
That is why I in March 2011 left Norway for Kenya in search for a farmer family that would like to collaborate on telling the untold story of how climate change is affecting farmers in the Global South. Over the course of two weeks I interviewed a great number of families, but it was difficult to find someone that I connected well with and that knew English. I had started to lose hope, but finally, on the last day of the research trip I was introduced to Kisilu and his family - and it was “love at first sight”. Kisilu’s passion when he talked about his visions for his family and his village captivated me, and right away I knew I had found the right person for the film. Luckily enough Kisilu and the family also felt a good connection with us, so they agreed to having us stay with them for the next month and record them, day and night.
During the following month we stayed with Kisilu, his wife Christina and their seven young children. In what was supposed to be the wettest time of the year, we experienced a rainy season with almost no rain - for a large part of East Africa, it was the worst rainy season in 60 years. Kisilu’s unceasing optimism was stretched to the limits as his worries about having enough food and money to send the children to school grew bigger and bigger.
(Photo: Julie Lunde Lillesæter/Differ Media)
We were also with Kisilu and the family when a dramatic storm came and carried the entire roof of their small house away. I can still remember today how it felt to be inside the house, and close we were to getting hit by the iron sheets and falling bricks as the house started collapsing around us.
Kisilu’s ability to be optimistic and find solutions continued to surprise and impress me. When the house was destroyed in the storm, Kisilu managed to focus on the rain the positive side that the storm had brought at least some rain, rather than the fact that the family’s only house had collapsed. Only a few days after, Kisilu had collected building materials and asked for help from other farmers to rebuild the house, while keeping his family’s spirits up.
(Photo: Julie Lunde Lillesæter/Differ Media)
Over the course of three years, we have been back three times to film Kisilu and the family over several rainy seasons, and I have got to follow Kisilu’s journey from a smallholder farmer to a local leader that is bringing farmers together in the fight against the ever-increasing drought and storms.
(Photo: Michael Arvanitidis)
Kisilu is one of the most inspiring individuals I know, and I feel truly honoured to get to share his story, and together with him create engagement in the fight against climate change. Our next step together is to make the film into a feature film that we have decided to name “Before The Storm”, for which we need all support possible in funding it through Indiegogo and in helping to spread the word when the film is released in 2016.
Kisilu - I'll Start With Myself is nominated for Best Student Documentrary at The Grierson Awards 2015.
Julia Dahr for Goldsmiths University of London; first shown: University/College screening
