Guest: Dr Liani Maasdorp - Climate Story Lab ZA co-director, impact
consultant and UCT film lecturer.
Climate Story Lab ZA invites Southern African creatives to submit innovative and
imaginative projects for an opportunity to participate in a four-day residential lab
near Cape Town in January 2023.

Calling creatives to act on the most pressing emergency facing humanity - the climate
crisis. The first Climate Story Lab ZA is an incubator aimed at shifting the narrative and
amplifying communication around climate change in order to make positive impacts
against the global crisis.
• The work and mission of Climate Story Lab
• The call to creatives and their role on issues of climate change
• The work you hope to be produced by the creatives
• How they can take part and where to find additional information
Applications can be made online: https://climatestorylabza.org/application-form/
and close on 7 October at 5pm.
Climate Story Lab ZA calls for submissions of creative narrative-based projects
whether they are films, animation, social media campaigns, XR/VR/AR, theatre,
dance, stand-up comedy, poetry, children’s/teen/adult fiction writing, podcasts,
visual art, performance art – anything that uses a creative medium to communicate a message about climate change.
Up to eight projects will be selected for CSL ZA, and up to two team members
per project will be invited to a four-day lab near Cape Town from 22 to 26 January
2023. The lab will focus on developing the stories, designing impact strategies,
and introducing projects to potential partners.
Creatives from Southern African countries including Angola, Botswana, Eswatini,
DRC, Lesotho, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Seychelles, South
Africa, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe may apply.
“We keep hearing about the issue and how dire the situation is,” explains Dr Liani
Maasdorp, CSL ZA co-director, impact consultant and UCT film lecturer. “People
feel overwhelmed and sometimes don't do anything because they don't think they
can make a difference. But one person can - as long as we all do something. Statistics and graphs don't move people to action, but emotions do. That is why we
are inviting creatives to come together to make their stories as strong as possible
and make sure they reach the right audiences to take action against the climate
crisis.”
“We see creatives as a kind of emergency corps rushing in at a time when global
leaders are just not acting fast enough,” explains Anita Khanna, climate justice
activist, producer and CSL ZA co-director. “Creatives can help spread the message about how urgent this is, push back against false solutions to the crisis in
accessible ways, help to get people to see that climate impacts are affecting
every part of their lives, and importantly, give us a vision of a world that sustains
life, not one that destroys it.”
“We firmly believe that storytelling can reach into the hearts and minds of people
and shift behaviour and inspire action. Now is the time to harness our creative energy to support urgent and innovative action on the climate crisis” says Miki Redelinghuys, CSL ZA co-director, documentary filmmaker and impact producer.
This intensive residential Lab is supported by the UMI Fund and hosted by the
UCT Centre for Film and Media Studies in partnership with Doc Society and the
Climate Story Unit