Logline:
Laissa Malih — the first female Maasai filmmaker — returns to the community her parents left behind in this deeply personal look at how the lands of her forefathers are being reshaped by climate change. Synopsis: As the first female Maasai filmmaker, Laissa Malih initially set out to document the land-based practices of her forefathers and ways in which climate change is reshaping Maasai communities. In returning to the IL-Laikipiak Maasai village that her parents left when she was a child, Malih experiences an epiphany: her own life is a reflection of the myriad challenges between Maasai youth and elders, women and men, ancestral ways of passing down essential knowledge and modern methods of education. In ENCHUKUNOTO, Malih’s singular perspective also challenges ways in which the Maasai peoples have long been seen and documented by tourists and other outsiders. “Many tourists come to our Maa lands to film the lions, the gazelles,” she observes. “The camera takes and takes. I wonder what my camera can give my people in return?” In moments of clarity as well as vulnerability, Malih offers a heretofore unseen perspective as an insider and an outsider, a woman among men, a filmmaker carrying on sacred Maasai traditions of storytelling in an era defined by uncertainty. |
Director Biography - Laissa MalihLaissa Malih (IL-Laikipia Maasai) is the first female Maasai filmmaker. Her work focuses on documenting, linking, amplifying and scaling up youth and women's voices across diverse Indigenous cultures in Kenya and the world. Her 2020 documentary, RIVER OF BROWN WATERS, looks at the significance of the Ewaso Ng’iro, a river that serves as a lifeline for pastoralist communities surrounding Mount Kenya, and as a focal point for community traditions and identity. RIVER OF BROWN WATER was an official selection of Film Africa and screened in various film festivals in Kenya and the UK.
In addition to her work as a filmmaker, photographer, and writer, since 2019, Laissa has worked as a coordinator with Maasai Cultural Heritage, a community development initiative aimed at supporting the Maasai community in preserving their cultural traditions and legacy. She has participated in a number of international conferences, including COP28 UAE in 2023, the Community Based Adaptation (CBA) conference in Ethiopia in 2019 which focused on local community action on climate adaptation initiatives, and the Convention on Biodiversity in Italy in 2020. In 2021, Ms. Malih was awarded a Mandela Washington fellowship, which supports academic and leadership training for young accomplished innovators from across Africa. |
Director Statement
ENCHUKUNOTO was born from my own curiosity as a young filmmaker, an outsider at that moment heading into the Samburu and Maasai lands to document what sacredness and spirituality mean to the communities, and ways in which their relationship to land is infused in every aspect of the culture. Though I initially felt like an outsider, that feeling changed once I arrived, in ways that are hard to put to words. For one, I realized that I wasn't just there as a filmmaker but as a daughter of these lands, a storyteller from a different generation, much like my foremothers and forefathers were storytellers. Through this film, I was brought closer to home. I felt one with my community, my ancestors, my culture, my heritage — my roots. I left with blessings from the community, and I knew that storytelling was my destiny, just as it was for those who came before me. It's my fate and my privilege to tell stories of our heritage, culture, traditions, and lands, for my generation and for future generations.