Volta

Volta

(Documentary 11mins)

YDA 2019 (Cannes Lions) - Gold Screen Award

Ciclope Africa 2019 - Winner Best Direction (over 180sec)

Finalist Ciclope Berlin 2019 - Best Direction (over 180sec)

Finalist GZDOC 2019

Winner Graham Wade Pilgrim Media Prize 2019 (Australia)

The relics of Ghana's colonial past still occupy large stretches of the coastline. Towering from the cliffs, former slave forts are the grim sentinels of a brutal past.

Stolen from their homes and categorised as mere merchandise, these dark dungeons would have been the final vision hundreds of thousands of enslaved men and women saw before being loaded onto slave ships and transported to the far flung corners of Europe's rival empires.

200 years after the end of the transatlantic slave trade, children in Ghana are once again becoming slaves…this time in their own country.

Lake Volta, Ghana: the world's largest man-made lake sustains thousands of lives - but its fishing industry is too often built on the backs of vulnerable children. Most are younger than 10. Many are trafficked against their will. The overwhelming majority suffer abuse and work long hours in life-threatening conditions.

Henry, a Compassion centre director, is fighting the practice. "We teach our young people about their rights." he says. "We teach them to look out for each other and report any time they suspect a child would be trafficked or abused. I know that when these young people grow older, we will be free of child traffickers forever."

Featured on Directors Notes

http://directorsnotes.com/2018/05/10/paul-nevison-lake-volta/

Featured on Film Shortage

https://filmshortage.com/shorts/volta/

CREDITS

Client: Compassion

Director/Writer/Editor: Paul Nevison

Client Rep: Janine Daly, Jess King

Production Assist: Stacy Kennedy

Cinematography: Bjorn Amundsen

AC: Caleb Ware

Composer: Brett Anthony Shaw