Mali / 2009 / 82mins / Documentary / French, English and Bambara

Young West African Daniel Dembele looks to make his mark on the world. Leaving Europe to return to his homeland Mali, he seizes an opportunity to build solar panels in rural communities. Taking controversial stances on climate change, poverty, and African self-sufficiency, the film explores what it means to grow up as a man, and what it takes to prosper as a nation.

Cambria Matlow

Cambria Matlow is a filmmaker and photographer. As a film director and producer, she has won funding from the Experimental Television Center, Brooklyn Arts Council, the Puffin Foundation and LEF Foundation. In 2005, she co-founded Birdgirl Productions, whose projects include the award-winning feature documentary Burning in the Sun, about a young man who starts a local solar energy business in Mali, West Africa. The film, which Cambria co-directed and co-produced, was selected for IFP’s 2008 Documentary Rough Cut Lab as well as Independent Film Week’s ‘Spotlight on Docs’ section. After showing as an official selection in over 30 international film festivals, in 2012 the film premiered on PBS World’s AfroPop series and won the prestigious Cinema for Peace International Green Film Award in Berlin. Cambria has also worked in development and production with social issue media organization Arts Engine on the documentary feature films Nicaragua Dreaming and Pushing The Elephant, which showed on PBS. As a film distributor, Cambria worked for two years with Film Movement, where in her role as manager of non-theatrical programming she led nationwide distribution and outreach efforts for international and American independent films, including notable award winners Munyurangabo, Lake Tahoe and Alamar. She also crossed over into film exhibition, serving as the Filmmaker Liaison at the 2011 Ashland Independent Film Festival in Ashland, Oregon, and running a monthly community film series at the Alma Education and Movement Space in Portland. Her 2016 film, Woodsrider, won Best Experimental Feature award the 2017 Santa Cruz Film Festival. Cambria holds a Certificate in Film Production from Burlington College in Vermont and a B.A. in Hispanic Studies from Columbia University. Learn More

Morgan Robinson

Morgan Robinson is a producer at Punched in the Head Productions, an Emmy-winning documentary film production company based in Brooklyn. Morgan has produced True Life: I’m Addicted to Marijuana and True Life: I’m Being Sent Away by my Parents. Morgan has field-produced various ads and educational projects, as well as documentaries for filmmaker John Halpern in Mexico and Kashmir. He began his filmmaking career in the production department for Spike Lee’s He Got Game and Summer of Sam. He attended the New York Film Academy and his narrative short Catabasis won first prize at the Dominique Dunne Memorial Film Festival and a Golden Apple at the National Educational Media Network Film Festival. Morgan assisted filmmaker John Halpern shooting and producing his documentary film Anger on location in Mexico, Colorado and Arizona. Inspired by his work on Burning in the Sun, Morgan is fascinated by stories where global and environmental trends meet the deeply personal lives of individuals within their communities. He is passionate about telling stories of people pursuing the resources they need. Learn More