Hey AFRISOS friend!

Happy New Year! We're so grateful for an amazing 2024 with you. Together, we made a real difference, preserving Africa's natural and cultural heritage through community-driven storytelling. Let's celebrate our successes from last year and tell you about the exciting opportunities awaiting us all this year—you won't want to miss this!

Since our founding in 2021, AFRISOS has aimed to provide life-changing opportunities to filmmakers and photographers in Africa. While building capacity for budding creative talents, we tell impactful and authentic stories that preserve and celebrate Africa’s culture and nature. 

In 2024 our team not only empowered emerging photographers and filmmakers, but we also expanded our impact to other audiences for the first time. We ran digital storytelling programs with Indigenous communities, Children and academic universities as well.

After starting the year with an Expedition Filmmaking workshop in the Okavango Delta of Botswana, we ran a series of workshops on still photography and filmmaking in the Hadzabe and Maasai communities of Tanzania, whom we will be continuing to co-create with this year. In addition, we also ran a 1-week workshop on non-extractive filmmaking for researchers at Durham University in the UK.

Last year, we created a Swahili conservation film for children titled “Chameleon Corridors” shot in the Eastern Arc mountains of Tanzania. Over 400 people joined us for the premiere of this film during Wildscreen Festival Tanzania, which we co-hosted. This 2-day event, which brought together 200+ filmmakers, photographers, conservationists and community members, was Tanzania’s first wildlife film festival. At the festival’s Wild Pitch competition, a total of $19,000 was awarded to three winning filmmakers: Juvenal Vitalis - Lost and Found; Augustino Lyanga & Yvonne Chizara - Lesser Known: Saving the Last Orchids of Kitulo and Michael Loy - Old in Future.

Do you want to be part of all that in 2025? Get in touch, we have open applications!

AFRISOS, in partnership with The Great Spine of Africa, is calling all passionate African filmmakers to apply for the Expedition Filmmaking Workshop 2025. This fully funded workshop is designed to help filmmakers master the art of cultural storytelling while connecting with Africa’s rich landscapes and communities. 

This is your chance to learn from world-class mentors and gain real-world filmmaking experience whilst getting paid to share stories that matter. This workshop will take place across three iconic African locations - Namibia, Zambia and Rwanda. 

We only have 15 spots available so don’t wait! Applications close at midnight EAT on Monday, January 20th, 2025. You can apply below:

If you’d like to support our mission and help us continue empowering young storytellers across Africa, please donate to our NGO:

If you would like to join our movement and offer your help in other ways, please reach out to us at hello@afrisos.ngo to find out how to get involved.

Warmly,

The AFRISOS Team