Nice and warm summer evenings, cold beer and a spicy steak on the hot embers – isn’t that most beautiful? This film is not about the grilled food on the grill, but about the coal that makes it glow: 243,000 tons of charcoal is imported annually by Germany; The trend is ascending, because barbecue is hip in Germany. With 59,000 tons Poland is the main supplier for Germany, followed by Nigeria with 31,816 tons. In total, 40 percent of Europe’s total consumption of charcoal comes from African countries. Much of it from dubious, often illegal structures that earn a lot of money with it. The revenue from illegal charcoal exports in East, – West, and Central Africa exceed with over US $ 7.4 trillion almost the triple the value of illegal drug trafficking.

Moreover, 2.7 billion people around the world cook and heat with wood or charcoal. The related emission of climate gases is enormous. 55 percent of global wood is used as fuel per year. Especially during dry periods, local Nigerian farmers use coal production as a lifeline to feed their families. Charcoal mills roam the countryside in family groups, charring all the trees they can cut down. To produce one ton of charcoal, three gallons of wood are needed in efficient oilers. In contrast, the self-built charcoal kilns of informal Nigerian charcoal makers use up to twelve tons. The effects are enormous.

In Nigeria alone, where most of the charcoal produced is destined for exports, since the country itself mainly relies on kerosene, 36 percent of its forests were lost between 1990 and 2005. At present, twelve percent of the country is covered with forest – but coal production continues to increase. 350,000 hectares of fertile land are lost here every year. According to the UN, coal production is one of the main causes of Africa’s deforestation and, closely linked to this, the massive deterioration in soil quality and the growing risk of crop failure. Trees provide a moister microclimate, consequentially they hold water. Due to the loss of trees, the soil lacks support, and the fertile humus layer is simply washed away during heavy rainfall.

The research for this project was supported by a scholarship from the non-profit Olin gGmbH and supervised by the journalist’s association netzwerk recherche.

With mere hammers they knock chunks out of the rock. Every year, 727t of mercury is released worldwide through gold mining in informal mines, which makes gold production the greatest mercury polluter. And everything for the dazzling symbol of wealth: gold. The documentary accompanies the renowned Hamburg goldsmith Jan Spille, who has been campaigning for fair and ecological gold mining for many years, as he visits the first Fairtrade certified mines in Kenya and Uganda.

A short documentary about the importance of Lake Turkana for the indigenous people in northern Kenya. Seen from their own perspective and expressed in a modern artistic way, which delivers the alarming message packed in a positive tune. ‘Until the Last Drop’ was produced in 2016 and is running in 2017 on various international film festivals. Among others in Los Angeles, Toronto und Budapest. In Germany, the film premiered at Germanys oldest festival in Oberhausen and is nominated at the GREEN SCREEN, Europe’s largest annual wildlife film festival, as best short.

Makwekwe is an up-and-coming Kenyan Hiphop artist and son of the peaceful El Molo tribe- the smallest ethnic group in Kenya. Today, the El Molo people number roughly 500 people, who stick to their traditional way of life and speak their own language. They live on the shores of Lake Turkana in northern Kenya- the world’s biggest desert lake and home to ~300,000 people, mostly from the pastoralist Turkana tribe.

The film follows Makwekwe on his impressive journey through the dramatic landscape of the region to learn more about the importance of the lake for his community and their neighbors, because in 2017, their lake is rapidly disappearing. The recently finished Gibe 3 hydroelectric dam in Ethiopia pulls water from the Omo River, upon which Lake Turkana depends for 85% of its inflow. Lakeside communities are watching the waterline retreat, which puts their life in danger. More alarmingly, he learns that there are 2 more dams scheduled to pull water from the same river to cultivate export sugar and cotton.

How will the future of the Omo River and Lake Turkana communities look when their lifeline has vanished? Makwekwe believes he has found the answer when he visits Kenya’s Kakuma refugee camp. Upon seeing the communities permanently living there as regional war refugees, he knows that a camp like this would mean the end of his people’s way of life. As an artist, his response is his music. As an El Molo, his hope is that his songs will carry a message of salvation.

Kenias zweitgrößtes Flüchtlingscamp. Mitten in der Wüste leben 180.000 Menschen.

Übersicht kommende Filmvorführungen von Toxic Business

A documentary on the profits international chemical companies are gaining in Africa at cost of the environment, health of small-scaled-farmers and consumers. The film inspired a movement on the African continent.

International chemical companies sell high toxic agro-chemicals in Kenya, which are banned since long in Europe. They are banned because their ingredients cause cancer and have a major negative impact on the nature and environment. Anyhow – in developing countries like Kenya those toxic chemicals are sold without any regulations through small agro-shops all over the country. The small scaled farmers do believe in the promises of better and safer harvest those companies give. Today, the use of pesticides even inside the villages is already a daily business. Furthermore many of them already depend on hybrid seeds, old and resistant seeds supplants. Most of the consumers do not have the knowledge, how dangerous those agro-chemicals are: the WHO announced that annually 346.000 people die, caused by accidentally poisoning with those chemicals, 2/3 of them within developing countries.

In the face of world food, industry is trying to push its way into the markets. On the contrary, statistics and alternative farming methods in East Africa show that it no longer needs chemicals and hybrid seeds to feed the world, but a general rethinking.

This film inspired a Kenyan politician Gladys Shollei supported by local NGOs to hand in a petition to withdraw a range of highly hazardous pesticides from the Kenyan market. In 2021 the CEO of the Kenyan registration body was replaced and more than 20 active ingredients are reassessed for approval based on their environmental and human health hazard.