Efficient production in 3 continents
Case Study: Fairtrade International
Kenyan coffee farmers Caroline and Nahashon Rono rest on the lawn next to the coffee trees in the afternoon. They are proud of being increasingly successful in earning a good income from their coffee. Not even the pandemic is deterring them from their path.
©Nyokabi Kahura/Fairtrade International/Fairpicture
Brief
In 2021, Fairtrade International wanted to highlight the consequences of the COVID pandemic in three countries from their community. The concept was to create a nine-part web series called FARMERS, which included three short films and photographs from each cooperative featured. Freelancer videographers and photographers from the Fairpicture network visited Fairtrade partners in Peru, Indonesia, and Kenya and the footage was edited in-house by Fairtrade Germany.
Client
Fairtrade International
Visual Creators
Angela Ponce, Omar Quezada, Nyimas Laula
Theme
Response to the pandemic
Locations
Kenya, Peru, Indonesia
Date
November 2021
Co-creation despite travel limitations
The effects of the pandemic
The negative health and economic effects of COVID-19 disproportionally impacted countries in the Global South compared to in the Global North. With FARMERS, Fairtrade International wanted to raise awareness of this disparity in the Global North and document the impact of their COVID Relief Programme. The programme was launched by Fairtrade in 21 countries with funding support by the German Development Cooperation (BMZ).
In the hope of being able to build a better life, Ponisih moved to the city years ago.
But life was difficult and full of hardships.
Ponisih returned to the countryside and became a coconut sugar farmer.
©Nyimas Laula/Fairtrade International/Fairpicture
Co-creation across continental borders
In the director and editor's desk in Germany sat filmmaker Thorsten Kleinschmidt together with Tobias Thiele from Fairtrade. Lara from Fairpicture took on the role of a coordinating producer. The three Fairpicture visual creator teams comprised of Angela Ponce, Omar Quezada, Nyimas Laula, Rizky Rahad and Nyokabi Kahura in Peru, Indonesia, and Kenya, each researched potential protagonists on-site and then discussed their “casting” with Thorsten. The visual creators were the primary contact for the people portrayed in FARMERS. In addition to photo and video coverage of the series, the visual creators developed the stories and conducted the interviews with the protagonists. The result: three different and unique series from local storytellers' perspective that gave insight into the lives of Roberto, Ponisih and Caroline.
Fairpicture has a fantastic network of creatives and it is easy and efficient to work with them. And it is important to us that we, Fairpicture and the local creators share the same vision of fairness and a sensitive approach to human rights topics.
Tobias Thiele, Image Editor, Fairtrade International
Roberto is a banana farmer, family man and spokesperson of his neighbourhood in La Noria, Peru. He believes that good work and strong cohesion can improve the lives of his family and his whole community.
©Angela Ponce/Fairtrade International/Fairpicture
Millions of views
The final series was selected for 5 online film festivals and had over 16 million views on social media. In response, Tobias from Fairtrade International said: “FARMERS is the most comprehensive video series that we have done within Fairtrade globally. These stories help us communicate why we at Fairtrade advocate and fight for fairer global trade. We achieved to establish an emotional connection between the farmer protagonists and our global audience.”
The broad feedback from our audience was very positive and emotional.
Tobias Thiele, Image Editor, Fairtrade International
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