Alice Aedy, an award-winning documentary maker and co-founder of Earthrise, shares her passion for storytelling focused on the climate crisis and human rights. She discusses her commitment to supporting female filmmakers and the importance of building trust with local storytellers, especially in the Global South. Aedy highlights the need for inclusivity in climate narratives and emphasizes the role of passion over perfection in activism. The conversation also touches on empowering women's perspectives in filmmaking and the emotive power of music in driving social change.
Alice Aedy emphasizes the necessity of ethical storytelling to empower marginalized voices and build trust with local communities affected by climate crises.
The podcast discusses how innovative multimedia formats can make climate narratives more accessible, challenging traditional storytelling to engage a broader audience.
Deep dives
The Power of Storytelling in Climate Action
Storytelling plays a crucial role in raising awareness about the climate crisis and inspiring action. Alice Aidy emphasizes the importance of narratives that highlight marginalized voices and human stories, moving beyond traditional views that focus solely on nature or biodiversity. By documenting experiences at climate frontlines, such as the refugee crisis, filmmakers can showcase the intersection of social justice and environmental issues. This approach aims to shift perspectives and engage a broader audience in the climate conversation, fostering empathy and understanding.
Building Collaborative Platforms
The establishment of Earthrise represents a shift towards creating a collaborative platform for climate storytelling. Alice explains that the pandemic prompted a reevaluation of how stories can be shared, leading to innovative formats like graphic design and social media outreach. The aim is to make climate narratives more accessible and relatable, challenging conventional storytelling approaches that may alienate the audience. This collaborative effort also extends to the integration of diverse voices and perspectives, emphasizing that filmmaking must involve those who are directly impacted.
Navigating Ethical Storytelling
Ethical storytelling is paramount when documenting marginalized communities and their experiences. Alice discusses the importance of building trust and fostering authentic relationships with the subjects of the films. Utilizing local fixers, who serve as cultural translators, enhances the sensitivity and accuracy of the narratives being told. This collaborative approach not only honors the cultures being represented but also shifts the narrative power back to local communities, allowing them to share their own stories.
Hope and Activism Through Filmmaking
Alice sees filmmaking as a pathway to foster hope, especially in the face of a climate crisis that can often feel overwhelming. By highlighting innovative solutions and grassroots movements, filmmakers can inspire action and optimism among viewers. She believes that the accumulation of creative efforts and activism creates momentum for change and reflects a growing awareness about environmental issues. This sense of purpose drives her mission to create impactful stories that resonate and inspire collective action toward a better future.
Jayda meets the dynamic documentary maker Alice Aedy, who specialises in telling stories around the theme of climate crisis and human rights. Alice and Jayda share why making beautiful documentaries is core to engaging people around these themes and Alice talks about why she loves working with female filmmakers and women in general. Alice and Jayda also discuss the imposter syndrome you can feel as a woman starting out and so why they love to champion other women in their fields. Alice talks about how she navigates working with brands and assessing whether they align with her own values, and also why she thinks it’s important to give the platform to more local storytellers, and moving towards more of a producer role and supporting the autonomy of people capturing their own stories, especially in the global south. As well as why Alice thinks building genuine trust between film crews, local filmmakers and then people who’s story they capture is so important, how she approaches building that trust but also why it’s is so hard and such a big responsibility for her as a Western documentarian.
Alice Aedy is Co-Founder + CEO of Earthrise, an impact-driven media company for climate pioneering innovative multimedia storytelling. Alice is an award-winning Documentary Director & Producer sharing human stories around climate and social justice.