Sarah Stone, Founder and Director of Stone Barrell
Filming. Photography. Story gathering. Sunshine. One of our favourite types of commissions.
In September 2023, Stone Barrell was commissioned to help Church Mission Society (CMS) gather content from their projects in Bidi Bidi refugee settlement, northern Uganda. Their in-house videographer and writer were going out to gather stories for their 2024 appeal, and they wanted some backup.
When Jake and I started Stone Barrell, one of our dreams was to support nonprofits on content gathering trips like this – helping them partner with their project participants to share powerful stories with their supporters, in an ethical and participatory way. So of course, we said yes!
A few weeks later, we were flying out to Uganda as part of the CMS team. With only three full days to gather a plethora of interviews, photos and footage of CMS’ peacebuilding work, run by and for South Sudanese refugees, it was an absolute whirlwind of a trip. And we loved it. We got to hear incredibly inspiring stories, meet highly resilient people, and experience amazing hospitality. We helped gather some pretty stunning content too (if we do say so ourselves). Check out our 40-second behind-the-scenes video for a taster of our trip.
Naomi Rose Steinberg, Head of Communications at Church Mission Society, says this about our collaboration:
“Stone Barrell team travelled with my comms colleagues to northern Uganda for a content gathering trip in Autumn 2023 and I'm so glad and grateful for their involvement. Their experience, professionalism, cultural sensitivity, adaptability, flexibility and keen eye for a good story are exactly what you need for this kind of endeavour. Plus they're fun. I would confidently hire them again for film, photography or editorial. Thank you!”
*****
CMS is currently creating their main video resource of 2024 using the content we gathered together in Uganda. We’ll share it when it goes live later this year!
Have an overseas content gathering trip you need support with? Drop us a message and let’s see how we can work together. Over the last 10+ years, we’ve filmed, photographed and gathered stories in Afghanistan, Chad, France, Guatemala, Haiti, Italy, India, Lebanon, Mozambique, Nepal, Netherlands, Peru, Thailand, Uganda, and of course all over the UK! We’re always up for an adventure.
Find out more about the Church Mission Society and their global work.
