Prestigious award for British Academy-funded film

A film funded by a British Academy Small Research Grant has won a prestigious Learning on Screen Award from the British Universities Film and Video Council.

Gender and Fairtrade was directed by Small Grant holder Dr Roy Maconachie from the University of Bath. The film was produced by Dr Elizabeth Fortin from the University of Bristol, a recent British Academy Postdoctoral Fellow.

Filmed in Ghana in 2015, the film tells the story of life for female cocoa farmers, using participatory video footage taken by the women themselves. Gender and Fairtrade shows how access to land, capital and markets is often restricted to men and suggests that the gendered division of labour limits women’s opportunities to fully participate in Fairtrade.

The film won the General In-House Production Award at a ceremony last week at the BFI in London.

Dr Maconachie said: “We are really pleased to receive this award and are delighted that our film has been so well received. We are grateful to the British Academy for funding the project. But ultimately, we are indebted to the female cocoa farmers in Ghana who took part in the study, and told their stories so creatively and passionately on film. Without their participation in the project, the film would not have been possible."

You can watch Gender and Fairtrade here.