Human Rights Media Trust and
Uhuru Productions presents:
HOTSPOT
Climate Film Series
Human Rights Media Trust and Uhuru Productions presents Hotspot Climate Film series – a series of feature length, TV length and short documentary films profiing activists at the forefront of overlapping social and climate crises in Southern Africa.
Southern Africa is a climate change hotspot where millions of people’s lives depend on what activists can motivate their governments to do. From threats to our food supply, our water and our air quality to the extreme weather events we increasingly experience, it’s clear that the climate crisis is the biggest threat humanity has ever faced. Yet governments are failing to respond appropriately. In many parts of the world, gas and oil is being touted as a form of clean energy to replace dirty coal, with cash strapped Southern Africa opening its arms to fossil fuel companies to begin extraction.
Using powerful storytelling to connect viewers to the big threat that the climate emergency presents to the region, this basket of films foreground the resistance forming and within it the realistic solutions that activists are putting forward.
Temperature Rising
As climate induced disasters are on the rise across Southern Africa, three activists grapple with what thinking globally and acting locally means in practise.
Gabriel Klaasen is leading the charge against coal generated energy in South Africa, where more carbon dioxide is emitted per capita than any other country on Earth. With rising global temperatures caused by the burning of fossil fuels, the stakes are high, not only for the world but also for the millions who live in close proximity to poisonous gases.
In Namibia, Ina-Maria Shikongo is working under tough conditions to stop Canadian company, Recon Africa, from fracking for gas in the Okavango Delta. Recon is threatening food security for the country and its neighbours, not to mention the immense beauty of the delta and its pristine water which has birthed a unique bio-diverse region.
When his hometown, Durban, is devastated by flooding, Kumi Naidoo is stunned by government inaction. He’s clear that people must prepare for what is coming and to organise themselves accordingly. But how do we grow a powerful movement when so few people see climate as the big issue?
Taking place between two major climate conferences – COP26 Glasgow and COP27 Sharm el-Sheikh, Temperature Rising uncovers the barriers to climate action and calls loudly for movement building from below, at a time where the very survival of large numbers of people depends on what activists can get political leaders to do
Supporting political education, movement building and mobilisation among civil society campaigners in South Africa.
Capturing Water
We all share the same water
The film highlights three organised struggles. You will meet working class activists, bravely mobilising against water restriction devices and water privatisation; an activist farmer litigating to stop city plans to cement over an aquifer that provides affordable food to thousands of people; and a suburban activist, tirelessly engaging a city that makes decades of empty promises to stop the sewage flowing into life-giving wetlands.
Connecting water bodies across the city and featuring the City’s views on its infrastructure and water provision responsibilities, the film brings fresh insights into activism and hope, and challenges narratives around unjust global ‘solutions’ that are gaining traction for cities elsewhere under threat of running out of water.
Building water justice alliances based on nature-based solutions that resist market driven extractivist approaches that raise prices and penalise the poor
A Perfect Storm
Coming Soon
A South African filmmaker returns to his archive to grapple with two ongoing insurgencies, one armed and the other political rocking neighbouring Mozambique. A disturbing tapestry appears that implicates his own and other economically powerful nations in plunder amidst extreme weather powered by the climate crisis.
Perfect Storm is a haunting cinematic journey taking us through the tangled history of a nation in order to contextualise a currently burgeoning generational revolt. Using present day verité and interviews, plus archival footage spanning decades, the film raises contemporary questions around whether a new generation of Africans, faced with unprecedented systemic challenges including catastrophic climate change, is emerging to unhinge the status quo. The latter is characterised by Marxist dogma, post-colonial state capture and a kleptocratic elite prepared to use increasing levels of violence when threatened. Told through the personal lens of the filmmaker, the role of South Africa as a regional super power, comes into play, raising the stakes for a generation that is desperate to break from the shackles of the past.
