David Borish & Team Launch ‘IHAMBA’ Film
Join David Borish, EC50 Class of 2023, on May 27 for the official launch of IHAMBA, a documentary film tracing the enduring bond between the Batwa people and Bwindi Impenetrable Forest, Uganda.
When ihamba — the local word for “forest” — was designated a national park in the early 1990s, the Batwa were forcibly removed from their ancestral lands. They have since endured poverty, marginalization, and violence simply for returning to gather food, medicine, and access sacred sites.
Developed through years of close collaboration with Batwa communities, the film weaves together voices from youth to Elders to put a human face on conservation-driven displacement, and to bear witness to Batwa resilience, memory, and hope for justice.
Following the virtual screening on May 27 at 12pm ET, join a live webinar with co-directors and Batwa community members for a behind-the-scenes look at the co-creation process and a deeper conversation about the intersections of Indigenous rights, cultural loss, and conservation.
David Borish is a social and health researcher and visual artist pushing the boundaries of using audio-visual methodologies to explore and understand relationships between humans and the environment. His work sits at the interface of documentary film, public health, cultural and social wellbeing, wildlife conservation, and audio-visual research methods. Through his PhD, Borish was the director of HERD: Inuit Voices on Caribou, a research-based documentary film project about the connection between caribou and Inuit well-being in Labrador, Canada, which has been broadcasted on CBC and has been screened at more than 15 international film festivals. His particular expertise is blending documentary film with qualitative analysis for community-based research projects. Previously, he has worked as a visual educator for National Geographic Student Expeditions in Iceland and Alaska, and has led a variety of visual-based projects about environmental and social issues in Uganda, Peru, Nepal, Kenya, Malaysia, and other parts of the world.
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