My story was inspired by a trip I took in 2009 to make a documentary about climate change affecting the Ādivāsi in Andhra Pradesh. It was my first trip to India as well as the first time I had been invited into a tribal village anywhere in the world, so it blew my mind. I chose this trip for my video because it was the most intense local encounter I have experienced and I love the images I captured. My contact with the people in Manapuram village has changed me and I love reflecting on that experience. It was challenging to make this video because I wasn’t able to put myself into the story – I was behind the camera throughout and all the people I interviewed spoke a tribal dialect. I chose to get around this by making it a voiced piece about my reflections on the experience, using the footage to illustrate the story.
I am passionate about the issues facing our environment and particularly how this affects and will increasingly affect third world inhabitants. I want to make documentaries that open people’s eyes to this so that we can do something to help these people adapt to the changing environment.
