KULCHA Symposium Presenter, Lee Mcloughlin: Can Folklore Help Save the Forest?
After 12 years working towards the conservation of Belize's forests and rivers, Lee began to develop personal projects to better communicate important conservation messages. The first of these involved the development of a story and colouring book 'The Adventures of Tenuk the Tapir' which printed and distributed through reading groups, summer camps and classrooms to 5000 children aged 5-9. Following this Lee developed a short story 'Tecuani and the Duende' which adopted the well-known folklore of Tata Duende into Belize's first animated movie short.
About the Presentation
Thematic Session: Creative Arts & Belizean Heritage - September 3rd, 2021 from 12:30 PM to 1:45 PM (UTC-6:00)
The idea for the short story that eventually grew into Belize’s first animated short film ‘Tecuani and the Duende’ was borne out of a degree of frustration with frequently dry and formulaic approaches to conservation education. Building on the much-discussed impact of animation to influence ideologies, attitudes and behaviors globally, we sought to utilize a locally popular folklore story to deliver messages in support of conservation and sustainable development. After a successful debut short film including winning the Belize International Film Festival and screening at two others, the team is now working on a seven-episode series with seed funding from Netflix/Ambulante. There are four aspects of the movie and its real and potential impact that I would like to focus on in this presentation; 1) the process taken to develop the script and screenplay, particularly ensuring respect and accuracy for this popular and important part of Maya and Mestizo folklore, 2) the process taken to ensure that the movie stayed true to the original intention of reaching as many Belizeans as possible with an innovative approach to conservation messaging, 3) the potential to represent Belize’s linguistic diversity, and 4) the development of Belize’s budding animation industry.