When a Documentary becomes a Eulogy
Doing justice to stories told - this is the definition of my inner compass.
It came naturally from my early steps as a Documentary Storyteller. And it has provided much conviction when the craft challenges me to rise to the occasion. For all intents and purposes, it was meant as a mantra to push ahead and overcome the many obstacles in manifesting a vision. But every now and then, I am reminded of a truth in this belief.
You see, given that documentaries are audio-visual mediums that exist either digitally or on film, its longevity extends beyond most of the entities that it features. Human beings, enterprises, ideas and ideals - they come and go with the passage of time - but the documentaries made of them are less malleable... Its inherent robustness implies some value of documentaries - none more so when the subject itself ceases to exist.
On 6 October 2021, Young Sustainable Impact Global (YSI) announced that their journey has come to an end. It was a particularly poignant moment for me. After all, it was YSI CEO Didrik Strøhm who offered me my first trip to Europe to produce a documentary for their third generation of YSI intakes. For two weeks in Oslo, Norway, 24 amazing youths who went through a rigorous global selection process (8,500 applications across 165 countries) would gather in one place having worked remotely over five months for their sustainability business ideas to reach Minimum Viable Product status. Those two weeks would be the climax of their journey as they pitch for investments and create new opportunities.
As all YSI applicants are 25 years old and below, I was amongst the oldest in the group, though this was definitely a time when one can say "age is just a number" as I paled in comparison to their experience.
I filmed these multilingual, multi-faceted individuals and learnt from them during the process. They welcomed me with open arms, and despite the short time together, we all felt at home. I sang the full catalogue of Hamilton with Antonio Stark (South Korea), exchanged cultural upbringings with Alex Artiach (Spain), Subramanian Ramvijji (India), Halima Lone (UK), Keaton Harris (South Africa) and a few more that made it feel like a mini UN General Assembly.
This melting pot of people may be best represented by three observations I made there:
Interestingly, when your community's common denominator is "being different", you feel more similar and connected.
In a globalised world, asking someone "where one is based in" is more relevant than asking "where one comes from".
English may feel universal for practical reasons, but different languages are beautiful. See the video below when I manifested this observation into a scene of the documentary.
As I watched these weird, wonderful youths work towards a collective vision of a better world, I documented their efforts and dreams, manifesting it into my first commissioned documentary, "To Change The World: A YSI Global Story".
I personally experienced through the making of this documentary and its subsequent distribution the effects one's work could have. This film has been shared to complement the personal storytellings of the YSI graduates past and present. I saw photos of the film being screened from school assemblies in the Philippines to classrooms in Iraq.
At that time, I simply was amazed by how far a documentary could travel. Beyond borders, across communities. With support from YSI's Earthpreneurs network, the documentary was subtitled in 10 languages.
The key objective of commissioning this documentary was to increase the applications for YSI's next programme in 2019 and be a core storytelling asset. After the documentary premiered, the YSI program received more than 12,500 applications from 178 countries - a 40% jump from its previous iteration.
With that measurable impact, I too set sights on my next journey. Fast forward one pandemic later, and YSI too has fallen victim to the relentless shifts to our new normal. And for the past few days, I am left to wonder what this documentary means now.
For the past few years, I have been mentally preparing for the inevitable time when a key human subject of my documentary passes away. How would I react then? What are the effects of a documentary for a person after life? I know I am foolish to find comforting answers, for those lie in the process and not before.
But perhaps for the collective of people that make up Young Sustainable Impact, this documentary remains as a fragment of their legacy. A vivid window to a dream that was acted on.
It is announced that while YSI has come to an end, it's DNA may continue to live on in a different way. In whatever form that might take in the future, may this documentary continue to just that.
To live on.
