This journey began with an email that landed in my inbox last July: an inbound from Dragonfly Film and Television, a BAFTA award-winning production company with a background in specialist factual. They were in talks with the BBC to make a film about albinism in Africa, and had discovered our initiatives supporting thousands of people with albinism on the ground in Tanzania.

Standing Voice is regularly asked to collaborate with journalists and filmmakers. This was not new. In the past, much of the material produced on this topic has had a tendency to sensationalise, or simplify, reducing the complexity of people with albinism and their lives into tidy, singular headlines: Murder. Mutilation. Witchcraft. Evil. These have helped put albinism on the map, but not always with the most constructive or accurate depiction.

Still, we kept an open mind, and went for an introductory chat.

It was then that we met Oscar Duke, the NHS doctor with albinism who fronts the documentary. Meeting Oscar and the rest of the team, it was clear their priority was to produce a thoughtful and sensitive documentary honouring the nuances of this topic. Oscar's status as a person with albinism himself, and moreover as a medical doctor, brought a refreshing novelty to the pitch, and set a clear precedent for other dimensions of this issue to be explored: not just the killings of Africans with albinism -- extreme and alarming atrocities inviting urgent attention, of course -- but other expressions of discrimination too. The genetic basis of albinism; its implications for health in resource-poor settings; elevated risks of skin cancer; the experience of visual impairment at home, at school, in the workplace; the everyday grind of prejudice: this film would open up a vital space for reflection, and create a conversation about these neglected problems.

We decided to take this film on, and worked with the crew to establish an itinerary. We arranged for them to visit our project locations, and opened doors to some of the incredible people we work alongside.

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March 8th, 2022

In conversation with Standing Voice

The Singers

- Neema -

Speaking Out

2021 so far

March 8^th, 2022