Film
Changing Land
Disability, Climate Change, and Farming in Rural Uganda
Once, the land Steven Bukaya farms was green and full — a place of trees, rain, and steady seasons. He remembers it as “a shiny place,” alive with growth. Today, that landscape is changing. Trees have been cut down, rainfall has become unpredictable, and the land has been divided into smaller and smaller pieces. In Changing Land, Disability Justice Project Fellow Christine Dhikusooka returns to share the film she made with Steven last year and to reflect with him on what has changed since she first recorded his story. Together, they reflect on how climate change and land fragmentation continue to shape farming, livelihood, and daily life for disabled people in rural Uganda.
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Filmmaker: Isaac Oboth
Isaac Oboth is a self-taught filmmaker from Uganda. In 2010, he founded his first production company, Media 256. In 2017 (barely 7 years later), Media 256 was the single largest freelance producer of feature Africa shows on CNN International (African Voices, Inside Africa, and Marketplace Africa). Oboth has personally shot, produced, and edited over 50 hours of internationally distributed documentary content from 40 African countries. At age 21, Isaac received the Young Achievers' Award for Film and Television, presented to him by the presidents of Uganda and Rwanda and the queen of Buganda. Isaac was listed by Forbes as one of the top 30 under-30 entrepreneurs in Africa in 2014/15/17.
In 2015, Isaac founded his second production company, African Storytellers, which is based in Mauritius. The new company was founded to focus on scripted content exclusively. The first project of the company was a 23-minute short film titled Lights Out. The film was produced in collaboration with the Mastercard Foundation. Lights Out was released on October 15th, 2020, via Facebook Live. Within the half-hour premiere, the film got 1,400 live views on Facebook. And the hashtag #lightsoutpremiere reached over 30 million people. On the night of its release, the Lights Out film was the number one trending topic on social media in Uganda, where the film takes place, and the number two trending topic on social media in Kenya. Here is a link to the 45-second trailer of the film - Lights Out Trailer.
