Filming with Indigenous communities in Tanzania: consent, payment and respect

Tanzania’s Indigenous communities, among them the Maasai, the Hadzabe and the Datoga, appear in more documentaries than almost any other people in East Africa. Many of them have seen crews arrive, film and leave without anything changing. A good cultural shoot starts by acknowledging that history and arranging the work so the community gains from it.

Access comes from the community

Permission to film a community is given by that community, usually through its elders or village leadership, and often with the local government office aware of the visit. We arrange a first meeting before the shoot to explain the project, what will be filmed and how it will be used. Sometimes the answer is no, or yes with conditions. Both are answers to respect.

Informed consent

• Explain the project in Swahili or Maa, not only English, through a translator the community trusts.
• Say where the film will be shown and for how long it will be available.
• Get individual consent from each person filmed, recorded on camera or on a signed release they understand.
• Tell people they can stop at any point, and mean it.
• Take extra care with children, ceremonies and sacred places, which may be off limits.

Payment

Payment should be agreed before filming, in writing, and paid to the people the community names. It usually has two parts: a fee to the community as a whole, often towards a shared project such as water, school costs or health, and fees to individuals who give their time as contributors, guides or translators. We publish the amounts to the production so nothing is negotiated on camera.

A cultural guide on set

We place a cultural guide from the community, or closely connected to it, with every crew. They translate, read the room and tell the director when something should not be filmed. For the Hadzabe near Lake Eyasi, where a small number of families live by hunting and gathering, this matters even more: the crew is small, the visits are short, and the day follows the community’s schedule, not the call sheet.

After the shoot

• Send copies of the finished film, or the parts people appear in, back to the community.
• Keep the promises made about how the footage is used.
• Credit contributors and translators by name.

A community that is treated well will welcome the next crew. That is the practical reason for doing this properly, alongside the obvious one.

Filming in Tanzania: culture, wildlife, travel and adventure