Set in Togo, Africa, The Dancing Forest is a beautiful triumphant film by director Brice Lainé, and tells the story of the Centre International de Développement Agro-Pastoral and the Bakote Women’s Collective. The Dancing Forest is an extraordinary story of hope, perseverance and how one individual - Seda - and the Bakote Women's Collective were able to make such an enormous difference in so many people’s lives.
The CIDAP was created by Seda, a local man schooled in new agricultural techniques. He initially approached widows and divorced women -the most deprived in Nawdba society- and showed them how to increase crop yields, an education that has empowered subsequent generations of Bakote women, and which has proved so successful that more than a thousand locals come every year to learn more about agriculture and self-sufficiency. The skills they learn are then shared with their family and communities.
The Dancing Forest shows a positive story of hope, self-sufficiency and prosperity in direct contrast to the stories of despair we normally see from Africa.
The women and men assisted by CIDAP, explain in their own words their experience of being part of the collective and how it changed their lives. They explain how their success brought the participants a gauntlet of responses from respect, camaraderie, a deepening of community, to envy and at times, even resentment.
It is necessary for the agricultural worker to be able to produce their own wealth, explains the CIDAP. Following sustainable farming practices, the people have transformed poverty into wealth; poor soil into food, and their hard work into products and produce they sell for profit. Aside from teaching valuable skills, their innovative collective teaches other people that they must protect and take care of their natural environment.
The Dancing Forest shows a positive story of hope, self-sufficiency and prosperity in direct contrast to the stories of despair we normally see from Africa. This is director Brice Lainé’s, a recent graduate from Ravensbourne College of Design and Communication in England, first film. He lived in Togo for seven years as a child: “When I started studying film and video in London, I realized that I had to make a film to tell the world about these people and their fight for survival.” We predict he has a very, very bright future ahead of him.
In French and Nawdem, with English subtitles.
Visit: http://www.thedancingforest.com/
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