The first Sorosoro film crew left early 2009 for Gabon, in order to film in the Benga and the Mpongwè communities. The goal was to record images and sounds of the languages and cultures of these peoples. Other crews followed along the years, in Gabon, again, but also in Senegal, Guatemala, Guyana, New Caledonia …

Three years later, on December 8, 2011, Sorosoro presented a public update of all these activities during the 3rd Sorosoro conference. The conference was organized along three main lines:

• An assesment of the field shoots
  Rozenn Milin, the Director of Sorosoro, presented the outcomes of the previous two years of filming in Senegal, New Caledonia, and French Guiana. A selection of short films made there by Sorosoro’s crews was shown. The focus was especially on Senegal, and Marcel Camara, from the Bedik community over there, reported on the usefulness of the documentation work led by Sorosoro.
• A presentation by Colette Grinevald
  Colette Grinevald, the President of the Scientific board of Sorosoro, delivered a presentation on « 40 Years of Fieldwork, Why? Who for? ».
  After having spent her whole professionnal life doing field work in different areas of Latin America, she spoke of essential issues: what is the use of linguists work? How do they help peoples develop? Though her experience and humanistic vision, she addressed the role played by field linguists and their involvement towards indigenous populations.
• A focus on India
  – Writer Irène Frain, the author of several books revolving around India (Le Nabab, Devi, Gandhi, La Forêt des 29…), spoke in particular of the Bishnoi, a community of Rajasthan that has been living in the deepest respect of nature for the last five centuries, and is thus a concrete example of balance between man and nature.
  – As for Anvita Abbi, the great Indian linguist, she described what we lose when a language dies. She referred in particular to the Andaman Islands off the Indian shores, that are home to very ancient languages, all threatened with extinction. Among them, the Bo language, which Abbi has described and documented, before its last speaker died early 2010.
  – The meeting ended with the screening of Yarwng, a movie made in Kokborok language, a tribal Indian language, and directed by Joseph Pulinthanath. The film received awards at various festivals, but this was the first time it was released in France. Based on a true story, it tells the story of a village like many others in the northeast of India, which is doomed to end up underwater following the construction of a dam upstream. The population has to flee when elephants come to destroy their homes. Karmati and Wakhirai are then separated…