Tramontana
Side By Side
Split-screen filming shows modernised cookstoves saving lives in rural India.
The brief
India is a country of great beauty, ingenuity and productivity but in some areas it is still a place where people in rural communities, particularly women, have little opportunity to earn and are exposed to avoidable risks.
The cookstove is at the heart of family life in rural India. They’re used for cooking, heating and boiling water but they burn wood inefficiently and produce large amounts of toxic smoke, polluting the air inside family homes.
The World Health Organisation has estimated that, in 2019, over 800,000 people in India lost their lives prematurely due to household air pollution. Women are typically responsible for gathering wood and using the stoves. Consequently, they are most at risk of related issues including smoke-induced illnesses, physical injury from wood cutting, and wild animal attacks during wood gathering trips. These inefficient traditional stoves devour wood, and are often the main cause of deforestation in rural areas.
Tramontana is an end-to-end developer of climate projects that accelerate our journey to Net Zero. All of Tramontana’s projects are self-funded and focus on transforming the livelihoods of local communities. They deliver on multiple UN Sustainable Development Goals, including alleviating poverty and gender inequality, improving food security and reducing deforestation.
Tramontana approached us to create a film about its ICS-01 Improved Cookstove project, which is distributing 400,000 improved cookstoves to families in rural India. The firm designed a bespoke Tramontana Improved Cookstove specifically for this project, which represents a safer, less polluting and more efficient cooking technology. Tramontana’s project reduces deforestation, enhances health and transforms the lives of women and children in the region.
Tramontana was keen to create a visual story without the need for voiceover or on-screen text to show how this project will improve lives and positively impact the environment.
These new stoves are a life-changing development for women in rural India. It spoke to our focus on empowering women; as soon as we heard about the project, we were eager to be a part of the campaign.
The film would be used on Tramontana’s website, its social media channels, and in presentations. It needed to show the effects of traditional stoves versus Tramontana Cookstoves, and how they enhance quality of life.
We also wanted to show Tramontana’s commitment to helping rural communities. Its network of employees from the rural area educate communities on the health risks of traditional stoves, encourage them to switch to Tramontana Improved Cookstoves, and continuously provide support during the entire project.
The approach
Our concept was to take a documentary approach to filming, following two women in rural India as they go about daily life. Using a split-screen approach at key moments through their day we show the difference in lived experience between women who have a traditional stove versus those using a Tramontana cookstove.
Reaching these rural areas at the tail end of the monsoon season was a challenge in itself. Our crew travelled for 24 hours, taking three flights followed by a hair-raising journey through a partially flooded, mountainous landscape.
Our team instantly fell in love with the location. What could be better than starting the working day sipping a morning chai, observing the incredible array of birds and insects going about their business, and listening to the chatter of monkeys on the roof?
The shoot itinerary comprised 5 days, and included a complex list of almost 30 non-sequential segments. It involved working through translators, filming inside and outside homes, in different villages. We wanted to capture scenes of the women waking up and starting the stoves, so it also meant a challenging schedule with the women typically starting their day around 4am.
As part of its education programme, Tramontana hosts community meetings for local people. This gave us a chance to capture a wider experience of the project. We filmed contributors visiting the market, cooking and fetching wood from the forests surrounding the villages - these scenes show the backbreaking work of finding enough fuel every day to keep hungry traditional cookstoves alight.
The result
The resulting film is something we’re very proud of. Filming in a far flung location and in an entirely differing culture is always an exciting challenge. Our team were enchanted by the vibrant, endlessly kind and welcoming people in this region of India.
It was a privilege to bring this film to life, demonstrating the power of innovation when it reaches the people that need it most. This project is changing women’s lives for the better and we are proud to to share it.
Output
- 1 x 5 minute project film with subtitles
- 1 x shorter website video
- Photography
Credits
Director – Dan Mellor
Senior Producer – Tom Windsor
Producer – Angeline Elliot
Camera – Dan Mellor and Steve Geliot
Drone operator – Dan Mellor
Editor – Vasil Dzhagalov
Edit support – Kazz Thompson