Who funds our films?
Many of our films are commissioned by health and research organisation who approach us. We give advice and design projects to help them target key audiences.
Other film projects we have developed where we have seen a need, always in partnership with health teams working on the ground, seeking funding or creating films with donations.
The World Health Organisation, Department of Maternal, Newborn, Child and Adolescent Health and Ageing
A set of films about ETAT – training for emergency triage, assessment and treatment of very sick children.
A series of films to disseminate the results of 5 WHO co-ordinated clinical trials (INSPIRE Trials) to find the best ways of retaining women who test HIV positive during pregnancy on treatment and so prevent them from infecting their babies.
A film to promote a project to help women working informally in some of the world’s largest cities to provide care to their children, without losing their livelihoods.
We are finalising a film to disseminate results of a WHO trial which showed immediate Kangaroo Mother Care (iKMC) significantly reduces mortality of sick and premature babies. The research shows babies should not be separated from their mothers to be put in intensive care units.
NEST 360
NEST 360 is an alliance of universities and medical engineering departments in Kenya, Malawi, Nigeria, Tanzania, UK and US dedicated to stopping preventable deaths of newborns in Africa. The project is introducing appropriate low cost technology in Africa. We have been making 48 short training films to teach the use and maintenance of 8 machines used to keep babies alive, including oxygen concentrators, low cost CPAP machines, pulse oximeters and radiant warmers.
PENTA – Child Health Research
Penta was started as the Paediatric European Network for the Treatment of Aids. For many years they have run courses around the world for clinicians who look after HIV positive children, which have used our Paediatric HIV case study films. They have also funded us to make films about adolescents growing up with HIV.
World Diabetes Federation
This international organisation funded us to make a series of films for a complete diabetes course in Malawi, made in partnership with the Diabetes Association of Malawi.
Medical Research Council – Clinical Trials Unit (MRC-CTU) at University College London
Imperial College London
The MRC pioneered the development of Randomised Controlled Clinical trials in medicine in the 1930s and 40s. Today the MRC-CTU co-ordinate clinical trial teams, not only in the UK but around the world. We have been working with the MRC-CTU for the last 14 years. They first commissioned us to make a documentary on what was the largest HIV treatment trial yet carried out in Africa (for which we also made a documentary for BBC) – the DART clinical trial. Since then we have been commissioned to make films for 10 more large MTC-CTU coordinated trials and research projects, several also with the participation of Imperial College. These films have been to disseminate results, to train health workers, to inform communities where research has taken place and to reach wider audiences.
London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine
We have made two sets of films for LSHTM. One looked at the worldwide toll of stillbirth and what more could be done to prevent it. The other was an interactive feature length film about a girl growing up with HIV in Zimbabwe – which we showed to large audiences in community halls in Harare. It was subsequently adapted for use in schools to start discussion on sexual health and confront preconceptions about HIV.
Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health
We are currently filming a series of ETAT training films in Sierra Leone to accompany an online course being set up by the RCPCH.
Donations from the public and in kind
During COVID we raised funds to create several public health messaging animations which were used extensively on TV channels in Uganda, Malawi and Zimbabwe, reaching audiences of millions. The animations were made through donations of time by animators at BrightCarbon. We translated and edited them in multiple African languages. We are currently making another series of animations to combat vaccine hesitancy, funded by grants from the Africa COVID-19 Rapid Response Fund. This is in partnership with research and implementation organisations working in Uganda and Zimbabwe.