Lead by Yacob Ndiaye
Yacob’s CAS project is a personal project developed from past experiences, his work with the Ngor beach cleanup and his experience living in the corniche next to fishermen raised in him an interest about their situation. Yacob wanted to know how said fishermen felt about the state of their lives and decided to create a documentary to help spread knowledge on the topic. Footage is primarily interviews taken in Soumbedioune and Wakam. There were recurring complaints from the fishermen about the state of the sea (from climate change to the government selling fishing rights to the Chinese) and how it harmed their ability to make a living.
Yacob heard these complaints and felt that they were not properly addressed, which led to the idea of a documentary. As he has stated he wants to help publicize the issues that these fishermen face because others need to work on the problem to help solve it. He has already made a trailer for the movie and is working on the final product. It is a lengthy process as he does most of the work including translation of interviews and editing.
A few things that Yacob believes were important to the development of this project and that he accomplished well include proper connections to the interviewees. The interviews are the most important part of this documentary and Yacob has been able to overcome his initial nervousness to conduct proper meetings. Another aspect is the organization, both with having a cameraman and meeting the fishermen, had these things not been dealt with properly the whole project could have failed.
There are also certain things that could have been improved, including the balance of footage as mostly fishermen from Wakam were interviewed. Yacob wishes that he could have had more meaningful conversations with the fishermen to gain a greater insight on them.
Overall Yacob has shown a lot of dedication to this project, he hopes to come back to Senegal in the future and work in the long term to help with these issues. He also hopes that others can help and expand upon this idea to shed light on more of these important problems in Senegal.
If this project has piqued your interest and you want to help out with the production of the movie or get guidance on how to make a similar project, contact Yacob at: 20yacon@student.isd.sn