How do we get people to care about what’s happening in the world? How do we draw attention to crisis situations most of us don’t even know exist?
It is questions like these that drive the creative vision at Port Elizabeth-based video production company Rooftop, which created the newly released United Nations Children’s Fund’s (Unicef’s) video titled A fight for education like you’ve never seen before.
With a script that reads like a fairy tale, it tells the story of a little girl overcoming great obstacles to get to school in South Sudan, a country where more than 70% of children are out of school because of ongoing conflict.
It is Unicef’s very first stop-motion video. Just a day after its release late last month, it had already notched up over a million views on Unicef’s Facebook page.
These have since climbed to over two million views.
“What’s happening in South Sudan is a story that needs to be told,” Rooftop managing director Richard Ahlfeldt said.
The video was inspired by the real-life story of a South Sudanese girl, Anne Kaku Yorudma, 18. She was attending school in the town of Yei when fighting broke out in July last year.
Unable to find her family, who lived in a nearby village, she embarked on a difficult and dangerous journey out of the war-torn country, on foot.
She now lives in a refugee camp in Uganda, staying with another family.
What gives her hope is being able to go to school in the camp – because “that is all I have … I don’t have my family to help me, so I need to finish. I want to be a doctor”.
Ahlfeldt said: “This video took careful attention to detail and plenty of collaboration with Unicef to make sure we got it right . . . Telling stories that make a difference is why we exist.”
Rooftop art director and animator Scott Kelly created the video’s main character, sculpting her with Plasticine modelling clay, around a custom-made armature.
Kelly sewed her clothes and created a tiny backpack with matching shoes – and was responsible for bringing her to life, “moving her one frame at a time”.
It took significant team effort to build the set, which included creating a landscape that resembled South Sudan’s countryside, a school, a library with a mountain of tiny books, and a cloudscape.
“It took about 1 200 photographs to create the two-minute video clip, with 10 to 12 photos per second,” Kelly said. “There was a lot of pre-production, getting all the different elements ready. But once we got into the full swing of production, it took about three weeks to make.”
The video’s director, James Collins, said: “The challenge for me was to stay focused on the story, and not get lost in the art or the technical details . . . I had to keep asking myself: Is this doing justice to what’s going on? What shots would work best to tell the story?”
He said he hoped the video would “get the conversation started” about South Sudan.
Related
Newer articles:
- Pope Francis: Do not distance yourself from South Sudan - 15/10/2017 10:36
- South Sudan Likely To Plunge Into Genocide Of Rwandan Proportions – Report - 15/10/2017 10:22
- How South Sudan can overcome hiccups, rise as EAC oil giant - 14/10/2017 13:03
- Catastrophic flooding affects thousands of families in conflict-ridden Pibor, South Sudan - 14/10/2017 11:36
- Seeking shelter in war-torn South Sudan - 14/10/2017 10:03
Older news items
- The unspoken resilience of rural women in South Sudan - 13/10/2017 14:38
- South Sudan’s energy minister promises electricity for major towns - 13/10/2017 10:55
- Oil-rich South Sudan faces fuel shortage as 'people suffer' - 13/10/2017 07:20
- South Sudan urged to establish oil research institute - 13/10/2017 00:58
- China donates emergency relief package to S. Sudan - 12/10/2017 15:57
Latest news items (all categories):
- South Sudan looks up to December elections for stability, economic resilience - 31/07/2026 11:45
- South Sudan’s forgotten crisis - 31/07/2026 11:44
- South Sudan’s president dismisses central bank governor - 31/07/2026 11:38
- South Sudan’s fight against the triple threat: Advancing action on HIV, Syphilis, and Hepatitis B - 31/07/2026 11:33
- South Sudan Nutrition Cluster - Quarterly Bulletin | Q3 2026 - 31/07/2026 11:29
Random articles (all categories):
- BRAC official killed in South Sudan - 21/06/2013 03:39
- A Platoon of the SPLA’s Commandos unit under captain Joseph Gambur joins REMNASA - Press Release - 29/05/2015 16:49
- Women plough the way to peace in South Sudan resettlement project - 19/03/2020 00:39
- South Sudan still Africa’s biggest refugee crisis: UNHCR - 03/07/2019 03:38
- Trying to Catch China, Japan Pledges South Sudanese Oil Pipeline - 07/06/2013 10:03
Popular articles:
- Who is the darkest person in the world, according to Guinness World Record? - 25/10/2022 02:34 - Read 148240 times
- School exam results in South Sudan show decline - 01/04/2012 17:58 - Read 27914 times
- Top 10 weakest currency exchange rates in Africa in 2023 - 19/07/2023 00:24 - Read 25000 times
- No oil in troubled waters - 25/03/2014 15:02 - Read 24319 times
- NDSU student from South Sudan receives scholarship - In-Forum - 29/09/2012 01:44 - Read 22276 times
