Geneva’s International Film Festival and Forum for Human Rights (FIFDH) has just wrapped up but the ‘impact’ of what was screened over the past ten days will resonate way beyond the Swiss city.

Around 100 film projects were submitted for the “Impact Days” programme, organised as part of the event for directors and producers to present their work to potential backers.

Only a dozen documentary films made the shortlist and one of them was Children of Honey, about Tanzania’s Hadzabe people fighting to preserve their language.

The Hadzabe are one of the oldest hunter-gatherer tribes in the world.

Caught in a battle between the preservation of the old ways and the lure of modern conveniences, the community is engaged in an existential war of survival.

“When I first met the Hadza, I immediately realized that they have something which all of us have lost, which is a true connection to the natural world and also to each other. They have a very egalitarian social fabric,” said Jigar Ganatra, the film’s co-director. “When the idea of the film came out, the Hadza said that: “This needs to be big, we want the world to know about our story because for far too long, we have been portrayed in a way that we don’t like and also our story hasn’t been heard.”

“It’s a great opportunity for us to be in front of people that can really support us, not just on the film side but on the real change maker side,” added Ganatra.

The right support

Directors and producers also met with committed international players concerned by the struggles addressed in the films they watched.

Simona Nickmanova, an impact producer on Children of Honey explained more about the filmmakers’ work to understand the Hadza: “We are working to understand where are their most urgent needs right now and how we can support already existing grass roots initiatives. They are very keen on preserving their language, as well as preserving their habitat and making sure that they are telling their own story.”

Sentiments shared by the film’s producer Natalie Humphreys: “This is really participatory, filmmaking co-creation, done in the right way. Not just in the new way, but the only way we should do going forward, which is participatory, where the community invite us in, which is what happened here, so that they have an international team to help get the story out.” 

The talents all share one thing in common; they use film to foster change in communities.

For more details watch the video in the player above.