Co-sponsored by Pasturescapes, University of Kassel
Tuesday, 15 September, 18:30 – 21:30 CEST
Celebrating Women Pastoralists Part I 18:30 – 19:10 CEST
Films and discussion
Behind the scenes – decolonising collaboration with pastoralist communities
Opening of the 5th Edition Perspectives on Pastoralism Film Festival with Echi Gabbert and Ginno Ballo, who will present content from their in-progress film about agropastoralism in Ethiopia. The initiative Jireen – Sharing land, a community-led film project, will be showed in part.
This meeting shares the ongoing journey of collaborative filmmaking and project development in the agropastoralist Arbore community in southern Ethiopia. It also explores what it means to protect community ownership.
When Ethiopian co-creators were denied Schengen visas, completing the film in Europe would have been the easiest solution but it would also have reproduced the very hierarchies the collaboration sought to overcome. Instead, the team chose to preserve shared authorship and develop new forms of co-creation, allowing creative decisions to remain with the community. We will watch some of the footage in progress.
Our experience invites broader reflection: Decolonial collaboration is about language and participation and it is also about redesigning processes when existing structures undermine equity.
Participants are invited to discuss how filmmaking and international cooperation can move beyond damage-centred approaches toward collaborations that recognise pastoralist communities as experts on land, animals, health, culture and their temporalities.
Photo: @ Paulina Guskowski, 2018 – Filmmakers Echi Gabbert and Ginno Ballo working on Jireen – Sharing Land