The Timbuktu Documentaries

Project site

Keywords

Timbuktu. Tuareg. Desertification.

Overview

Two documentary films on myths about the desert city of Timbuktu in West Africa — on the edge of the Sahara. ‹‹African Eldorado or End of the World?›› and ‹‹Where Water is Life and Milk is Food››

Aims

To disseminate recent research on natural resource management in the Sahel, and to questioning the accepted notion of desertification. Far from making a destructive impact on the landscape as is widely thought, the nomadic way of life appears to be an environmentally sustainable method of using African drylands.

Partners

Based on research in Mali by TOR A. BENJAMINSEN, Noragric, Agricultural University of Norway and GUNNVOR BERGE, University of Oslo. Coordinator of Mali research program, ALIDA BOYE, SUM. Produced and directed by CARSTEN SØRENSEN, InterMedia, University of Oslo.

Duration

First film reseach journey to Timbuktu in autum 1998, without film team. First shooting trip in spring 1999 and last recording trip in january 2000. Post production ended in 2002.

Outcomes

NRK1 showed the films in prime time during May 2003, with two subsequent re-runs. The ratings for the premiere held 32% of the marked in Norway, which means an audience close to 500.000.

Related projects

Development and environment in Mali, 1989.
The Maasais of Serengeti — Trespassers on their Own Land, 1998.

Funding

FINANCED BY
THE RESEARCH COUNCIL OF NORWAY
THE NORWEGIAN AGENCY FOR DEVELOPMENT COOPERATION (NORAD)
AND THE UNIVERSITY OF OSLO