Community Supported Film presents 10 Afghan-made documentaries that provide an unseen view of the Afghan experience since 9/11 and the US-led invasion of Afghanistan. “The Fruit of Our Labor” full series will be available to be watched online from September 11th until October 7th. You can watch the films at www.csfilm.org/films.
The 10th anniversaries of 9-11 and the October 7th US-led invasion of Afghanistan are upon us. As Americans reflect on the impact of these events on our lives, Community Supported Film is providing an opportunity to also reflect on the situation from an Afghan perspective.
CSFilm is hoping to get these films seen as widely as possible, and is seeking collaborations with organizations, groups, government officials, schools, activists, organizers, and individuals to get these films put to use in discussions about Afghanistan. Please contact us with your ideas at info[at]csfilm.org.
These 10 films come from The Fruit of Our Labor – an intimate collection of stories about survival in war-ridden Afghanistan, made in a filmmaking training in Kabul last fall. Each documentary short offers a personal and first-hand point of view rarely seen or heard in the US, even after 10 years of intense media coverage. As a series, these films bring to life Afghans’ daily efforts to address their challenging social and economic conditions – providing an insider perspective behind and beyond the battlefront.
Seven of the 10 films focus on women and women's issues; four of which were filmed and produced by Afghan women. Their cameras eavesdrop on the saucy banter of women as they tend to everyday tasks such as baking bread and planting seedlings, and on their consoling but firm words as they counsel each other in the aftermath of traumatic war injuries. One video short documents a woman’s search for her lost husband – one of the nations’ 1 million addicted to heroine, while a pregnant woman navigates the options for healthcare and birth control – without a functioning maternity clinic nearby. The Fruit of Our Labor details Afghans’ inexorable struggle to survive: from the constant quest for water for themselves and for their fields, to the humble hawking of fruit from urban pushcarts.
As an organization that trains Afghan documentary filmmakers, Community Supported Film works for an Afghanistan that is not abandoned and left to survive another humanitarian crisis. CSFilm’s online airing of The Fruit of Our Labor between the 10th anniversary of 9/11 and the 10/7 invasion of Afghanistan seeks to put Afghans into our daily considerations and invigorate conversations about the immediate and long-term future of Afghanistan.
Community Supported Film
CSFilm trains local women and men in documentary filmmaking with a focus on their community’s social and economic development issues. Their stories, rooted in realities often unrepresented in the media, are used to influence local and international perspectives on sustainable paths to a more peaceful and equitable world. In the interest of amplifying the voices and expertise of Afghans, Community Supported Film conducted an intensive 5-week training of 10 Afghans in documentary production in the fall of 2010. The resulting films are gathered in the collection, The Fruit of Our Labor, and can be seen at www.csfilm.org.
