SA filmmakers win UN Forum on Forests award

The South African filmmaking team from Makhulu has won the UN Forum on Forests Short Film award for the Africa region. The awards are being presented as 197 member states meet at the 10th session of the United Nations Forum on Forests in Istanbul.

Photo by Sydelle Willow Smith ©

The winning film for Africa, Amazing Grace, was made during Greenpop's first Trees for Zambia project in 2012 and tells the story of Lloyd Manyana, a Zambian man who stopped cutting down trees for charcoal and started growing and caring for them, and is now one of Greenpop's tree sapling suppliers and partners.

Makhulu is Greenpop's media partner and has been making short films in partnership with the South African- and Zambian-based social enterprise since they began in September 2010.

Stop the deforestation

Of the award Rowan Pybus said: "To be in Istanbul is to be here for Zambia to share the example of a great Zambian man. Lloyd Manyana is a shining example for all Zambians to look up. This film seeks to use his story as a means for others to decide to find a way to stop the deforestation sustainably in and around Victoria Falls, Zambia and Africa as a whole. Makhulu's mission is to tell people's stories and inspire on-the-ground changes through these. This film is part of a larger vision to make a feature-length documentary in collaboration with our partners, Greenpop, called Falling Forests, and this recognition makes me believe we can do it. Thank you very much to the UNFF."

To find out more about supporting Falling Forests and see the film treatment: email Pybus on az.oc.uluhkam@nawor or Sydelle Willow Smith (producer of the film) moc.liamg@htimswolliwelledys.