Thirty years after it began in Durban, ACCORD faces a world very different from the one it was founded in. The film had to celebrate the past and make the case for the future.
The African Centre for the Constructive Resolution of Disputes (ACCORD) was founded in Durban in 1992 to support South Africa’s transition to democracy. In the thirty years since, it has worked across the continent to encourage and promote the constructive resolution of disputes by the peoples of Africa, and so help achieve political stability and socio-economic recovery within just and democratic societies.
For its 30th anniversary in 2022, ACCORD asked us to make a film that would draw attention to what it has achieved. But a birthday film was not enough. The world ACCORD works in has changed: new great-power rivalries, wars far from Africa with effects felt across it, a pandemic, fast-growing cities, digital technology and climate change. The film needed to show why ACCORD’s experience matters more now, not less.
We built it in two movements. The first looks back, using animated maps to trace ACCORD’s work across Africa and archive photographs to bring back three decades of mediation, dialogue and training. The second looks forward, setting today’s conflicts and pressures against the energy of Africa’s young people, and making the case for a framework that brings peace and development together.
This is one of a series of films we have made with ACCORD over 25 years, alongside its website and brand. See the full partnership.
