"Impact Was Always At The Very Heart Of This Film"

The film was shot over the course of five years and in the early stages Debra was introduced to the team as a translator. She then quickly became co-director. How did your relationship as co-directors develop? 

Debra Aroko: I was brought on at the recommendation of our Kenyan producer to work as a translator and transcriber, which meant that I watched all of the interviews. I think it took about a year to go through everything. By the time I was done, I had the entire film memorized, even though I hadn’t been on the shoots with them. When Nicole and the team were getting into the edit, they were very open to listening to the input of other team members, so they were very open to my comments. My work as a translator was to really bring out the context of what the boys were saying and what their day-to-day was like—because this is my reality and my culture. And so being allowed to paint in finer strokes and being able to bring out this detail and nuance, I think, allowed us to create the story that we have now. And the relationship progressed or developed from there because I had always been a filmmaker; translating was kind of something I did to pay the bills. I would say it was pretty organic growth and a pretty organic development of the relationship into a co-direction.

How did you navigate filming with Simon and his family, who were still actively grieving their loss?

Nicole Gormley: It was tough. One of the producers had met Simon about three months after his father died and given him a camera. At that time, Simon wasn’t really talking that much to his family or to anybody else around. But his mum had often expressed how he was using the camera to talk to his community, not only about his father but also about issues such as Covid. From the very beginning, it was a pretty cathartic relationship, with him being able to express grief through the camera. The camera gave him an excuse to ask the people who surrounded him questions. 

It was really important for us to also make sure that we had protections in place for his mental well-being so that he wasn’t reliving this traumatic experience over and over again. We had a professional helping us to assess Simon’s mental well-being separately from the film production because we were worried about that, honestly, from the very beginning. And in that kind of assessment, it came out that Simon was actually doing pretty well with his grief compared to his family and to others because he kind of had this outlet through which he could talk about it. 

So the short answer to your question is: we just treaded really lightly, and we asked a lot of people’s advice on how to move forward. And we just always had his mental and physical well-being at the forefront of all our priorities.This film could have been a very different film that we really could have made about the conflict. But this film is about Simon and his life and his grief.

Debra Aroko: It was a journey for Simon and his family to go through and also an opportunity for them to have agency and feel like they could take control. The collaboration went beyond just the film crew. It was also a partnership with the family to just ensure that everyone felt supported. It was like a process of discovery for us as filmmakers, but for the family as well.

Did Simon’s journalistic interest change the way you made the film with him? What was it like to work with him so closely?

Nicole Gormley: He had been looking up to newscasters since he was six years old. He had always dreamt about working in journalism and in that kind of space. He was instantly drawn to the camera. And so I think that part of him was very necessary for us to be able to tell this story

You have these headlines floating around that we can see, whether from afar or even on the ground. Oftentimes, in the news, there is a very impersonal way of talking about events that are, as we found out in Simon’s experience, deeply difficult and moving and intimate. I think that the dichotomy between the news and the headline portrayal of what was happening versus what we were experiencing with the family was so vast. So I think the film just would not have been the same if Simon hadn’t wanted to be a journalist. His curiosity to explore the world around him through journalism is a critical pillar of the film. 

Debra Aroko: I definitely agree with that. To practice agency is not something that is taught or encouraged, especially not for African kids. We are brought up to just stay in row and follow the rules and not ask any questions. I was very inspired by Simon. A lot of what makes this film what it is is Simon’s strength, his tenacity, his curiosity about being able to see and understand the world—and his determination to find out what happened to his father despite his young age and despite coming from a fairly difficult background. I just knew that this story deserved to be told and that it could actually change the lives of kids his age. Seeing them represented on screen and seeing Simon acting on his own accord and being supported by the adults around him means a lot. 

What were the challenges that you faced while making the documentary? 

Nicole Gormley: I think the biggest challenge, and also the greatest strength of the film, is that it is told from the perspective of Simon, who we follow from the  ages of 13 and 17. That was quite challenging because the world in which he was growing up and the events that took place and impacted his family were quite complicated and nuanced. And for a long time we were trying to figure out whether we were telling Simon’s story or the story of the issues that surround his community. And that kind of tension between the two—they are very much related. But the fact that we had to distill everything down to the perspective of a young boy added, I think, in the end, a really valuable limitation on the scope within which we could tell this story. Because there’s so much nuance and history that is omitted between the colonial tension of the Conservancy and the Indigenous communities that surround it. I think that, in this instance, the most challenging aspect of the edit was trying to make those decisions about what kind of film we were making and how much history and context we needed to include that maybe somebody from Germany or the United States or Kenya may not even know about.

In the beginning, we were trying to make two different films in one. But once we committed to the film being Simon’s story—that was really helpful for making editorial decisions. It allowed us not to feel like we had to say everything, which is really important when you are trying to tell an intimate story. People don’t learn or feel by getting all the facts. They care about something because they fall in love with somebody or something. In this instance, Simon as a protagonist allows us to connect with people from all over the world. 

Could you tell me more about the impact campaign that you are currently planning?

Debra Aroko: We haven’t released that much about the impact campaign just yet because we’re still getting ready to launch it in Kenya. I can proudly say that impact was always at the very heart of this film. We are filmmakers, we are observers, our job is really to bring issues and stories out to the forefront and bring them to audiences and then provide people with a platform or opportunity to speak about these issues and have conversations and hopefully develop solutions. So that’s why it’s also really huge for us that the film came back and was shown in the community where it was made, which is also where we are hoping to launch the first leg of our impact campaign. We are actually collaborating with incredible partners on the ground in Kenya and globally to increase our reach as we try to create as much impact and as much awareness around the issue of climate change and the issues of climate conflict and conservation as possible. The goal is not to divide or to take sides, but to facilitate conversations that lead to solutions. 

We will be touring the world, going to festivals and having Simon speak with audiences. We also developed a learning guide with educational materials which are targeted at younger people. At its core, our impact campaign is about using Simon’s strength, which is him finding and acting on his agency, and hoping that, again, that can be reflected by the audiences that watch this film. 

Nicole Gormley: Debra has been working really hard spearheading the launch of our impact campaign. We really appreciate the award from Dokumentale because it is going directly to the first stage of kicking off our impact campaign. We have been using these funds to get a lot of these plans off the ground. 

Are you still in touch with Simon and do you know how he is doing today?

Nicole Gormley: Yeah it’s going great. I think that’s one of the really wonderful things about this film, that we both and the entire team are very in touch with Simon and Haran, Simon’s best friend.

Haran graduated school and is now working with one of our partners, Paula Kahumbu, at Wildlife Direct and helping to liaise with kids and teaching them about conservation. He still wants to pursue journalism, so he just did this amazing training program to up his storytelling skills.

Simon has been enjoying amazing opportunities travelling the world for film festivals, meeting people from all over, but as of lately, the priority is for him to finish his last year of school because he hopes to go to university abroad and has a big test coming up at the end of the year. They’re doing really well, and, fortunately, through the film, we’ve been able to leverage a lot of support and partnerships to continue their education and make sure that they’re in the right spaces to materialize the dreams that they have of becoming journalists.That’s the best part about this film actually. 

Debra Aroko: I am so proud of what they’ve been able to achieve on their own. It is amazing to have played a small part in making their dreams come true.