16/09/2025
To My Fellow Storytellers: Filmmakers as Architects of Social Cohesion
Dear friends in the craft of cinema—the dream-weavers, the lens-holders, the narrative alchemists who transform the raw chaos of human experience into something profound and shared—
We've all chased the spotlight: the red carpets, the awards that gleam like false idols, the viral moments that promise immortality in the scroll. But let's pause the reel for a moment and confront the deeper truth of our calling. Our work isn't merely entertainment; it's the invisible thread that stitches fractured societies back together. In an era where personal growth disrupts worlds and unexplained gaps in our collective backstories breed division, we filmmakers are the guardians of coherence, the builders of empathy, and the quiet revolutionaries fostering social cohesion.
Consider this: every survivor's story we tell begins in the psyche's shadows. As researchers of human resilience know, the drive to better our lives—whether through individual triumphs or societal shifts—inevitably shatters the familiar. It's a heroic upheaval, much like the inciting incident in our scripts, where protagonists must dismantle their old worlds to forge ahead. Yet without a logical piecing together of backstories, these disruptions leave lives riddled with the inexplicable: why the sudden loss, the betrayal, the systemic failures? This void isn't just personal; it's communal, amplifying anxieties that echo through families, communities, and nations.
Enter the dark poetry of witch-hunting, that age-old impulse to make the incoherent coherent. When gaps in our fragmented narratives yawn wide, we humans instinctively fill them with myths—projecting our fears onto "others" as monstrous figures. Through remotely layered mediums (think folklore evolving into social media echo chambers), we characterize persons of interest as human flesh eaters: devourers of innocence, predators in the night. Historically, this manifested in literal trials and purges; today, it's cancel culture, conspiracy webs, or polarized media that turn ambiguity into villains. It's a narrative shortcut, a false resolution that restores order by sacrifice, but at the cost of real connection.
This is where our power as filmmakers becomes enormous, far beyond the glitz. We don't just tell stories; we reconstruct backstories with intention, turning disruption into dialogue. Imagine a film that delves into a survivor's fragmented psyche—not as exploitation, but as a mirror for the audience's own unresolved voids. Through our lenses, we can expose the witch-hunt mechanism: show how labeling others as "flesh eaters" externalizes internal chaos, and how true coherence comes from empathy, not expulsion. Think of works like Tsotsi, Lionheart, or Faat Kiné, where backstories aren't plot devices but bridges across divides, fostering understanding that knits societies tighter. In Tsotsi, a South African gangster's violent past unravels to reveal a path to redemption, piecing together a fractured life to reconnect with humanity. Lionheart follows a Nigerian woman's fight against patriarchal constraints, her backstory of resilience uniting a community through shared struggle. Faat Kiné portrays a Senegalese single mother's triumph over stigma, weaving personal and communal histories into a mosaic of empowerment.
Our primary objective? Social cohesion. In a world unraveling at the seams—disrupted by pandemics, migrations, technological leaps—we storytellers hold the tools to piece it back. We craft narratives that honor the enormity of survival, revealing how betterment's chaos can lead to collective healing if we fill those gaps collaboratively. No more remote, layered accusations; instead, intimate close-ups on shared humanity. Let's commit to films that interrogate the psyche not for shock value, but to discern the undergirding behaviors that unite us. Beyond glamour, our import lies in this: we make the inexplicable explicable, turning potential witch-hunts into communal firesides where stories heal.
What say you? Let's collaborate on scripts that prioritize this depth. Share your thoughts, your projects—together, we'll illuminate the true scale of our art.
With solidarity in the story,
Achor Yusuf
