Bufferzone
Documentary about women, solar power, and wildlife at the edge of a Nepali jungle, where humans and wildlife share a border
Rhinos wander past the back fences of homes where women are learning to sell solar lamps door-to-door — this film follows both.
Created for two American solar power nonprofits: Empowered By Light and Empower Generation, who supported a host of electrification projects for communities across the bufferzone.
My brief was to make a three-minute mini-documentary. Two trips, four weeks of shooting, and hundreds of hours of footage later, I realized that this many perspectives required more time.
The nonprofits worked with local Nepali organizations to fund projects that were important to their community - the first was installing solar panels on a ecotourism treehouse at the edge of the park so tourists could watch rhinos in comfort and safety.
We all stayed together in the treehouses during installation.
The second was teaching local women to sell small solar lamps door-to-door.
These lamps were helpful for children so that they could study from home even when the power grid went down.
I went to Nepal twice – once with Jake Wachtel and once with Briene Lermitte, as 2-person crews producing, interviewing, filming, learning from and living with the communities who live with nature.
| Wyatt Roy | Director, Editor, Cinematographer |
| Alyssa Newman | Producer |
| Arthur Scott | Pre-production |
| Ashley Gremmel | Pre-production |
| Jake Wachtel | Cinematographer |
| Briene Lermitte | Cinematopgrapher |
| Justin Cox | Aerial |
| Trishagni Sakya | Line Producer |
