Project Updates

 

DISTRIBUTION

The Elephants and the Grass is excited to announce our partnership with Journeyman Pictures.

Journeyman has a long history of distributing documentaries about varying social justice and geopolitical topics, and has even done work in South Sudan. We are collectively aiming to release the film in *April 2024.

* BIG ASTERISK ON THIS DATE! SCROLL TO BOTTOM TO SEE WHY.

FILM CHANGES

New Runtime - 1h 43m (prev. 2h 14m)

TV Cut - A 52m cut has been made for broadcast

New Trailer - In the Fall, we cut the final trailer!

New Awards - We recently won the Topanga Film Festival!

A message from Steve Roese…

FOUNDER, WATER IS BASIC

YASMIN & SHAMIRA

Yasmin is still in Rhino Refugee Camp, and she has been struggling lately to keep afloat given financial instability in the region. (Inflation has struck hard in East Africa.) Over the past year, Yasmin has had a handful of new injuries which have made her much less able to work. She remains hopeful, and even sent us a video to share with you all.

Shamira has recently finished Pre-Med school and purchased a small pharmacy in Kampala that she now operates.

PROJECT FINANCES

Below you can see the total spend to produce this film.

The turquoise bar represents how much of the funds came from donations, while the rest of the pie was financed by Philamedia or personally by the filmmakers.

  • This is where we owe the most thanks. Dozens of people gave their time at steep discounts (or free!) to help us tell Shamira’s story. This figure does not include the localroduction team we hired to help us with recreations in Rwanda. That is included the travel budget.

  • Nothing! In fact, we intend to continue losing money on this project until it gets out into the world!

    We hope to recoup a teeny portion of what we’ve put into it over the years, but we have no expectations. The crew and Yasmin & Shamira hold equity in the project if there are any receipts from a sale.

  • Yasmin and Shamira have had various needs over the past few years, and this is some of what has been sent to them to help. Things like education fees for Shamira, repair costs for Yasmin’s home, etc.

  • Philamedia is leading the production team both creatively and financially. Out-of-pocket contributions (not from donors) for the film have come either from Philamedia, or Philamedia’s owners.

    In Association on the film is Ingoma Films, which produced the Rwanda portion of our filming.

WHAT’S NEXT?

See that white slice of the pie? That’s the one thing left to pay for and it’s the very last step before this film gets released. This represents all of the archival and news material we currently use in the documentary that needs to be licensed before the film can be released. We are slowly paying this chunk down as we are able, but we are moving at a snail’s pace.

We’re raising money to try and cover this last piece for a few reasons.

  • Elections have been postponed six times since we started this film. They are coming up again this year, and it’s critical that the world places accountability on South Sudan to execute a fair and legal election.

  • There have been recent, public developments with some of our subjects. It’s urgent that we get this story out while their stories are being told (or not told) in the media.

  • Yasmin, Shamira, and other members of the film have equity in this project. Times are tough for them and we want them to start receiving revenue from all their hard work and personal investment in the film.

SO, WHEN AND WHERE WILL THE FILM BE RELEASED?

As soon as possible. If you help us get across the licensing hurdle, we can release in just a few weeks on most major streaming platforms that host individual films for rent. If we can’t raise those funds, we will still finish and release the film, but it will take us a long time to do it without help.

We think this film needs to be released now, and not 1-2 years from now. Can you help?