[Africa] is a rich continent with incredible music and people. Yes, there's suffering, but there's also so much strength and spirit in the face of that adversity.

We Are Together: The Power of Song

After two years of filming, the partners needed to raise funds for the final edit. When Agape burnt down and the home’s own fundraising plans fell apart, the film almost failed. Raising finance was a slog — it took a year — but the Mac helped. Taylor took the raw footage and assembled a 20-minute showreel in Final Cut. “The great thing about Final Cut Pro is it’s so user friendly, I was able to jump straight in there and do a lot of the work myself, without being an editor”, says Taylor. He transferred the clips via FTP to Leifer in London, who circulated them in an effort to raise additional funds. “Those clips were so important. We’d never have raised the money without them”, admits Leifer.

Thanks to the Mac, the filmmakers were also able to undertake a lot of the promotional work themselves, using Photoshop to create posters for film festivals, to assemble a proposal pack and to build a website. “We did it all on the Mac, says Taylor. “It was at the centre of everything, where it all happened”.

Crew members Peter Hunt and Siyabonga translating rushes on location.

Channel 4’s BritDoc.org finally stepped in with funding. Then Alicia Keys’ charitable foundation Keep A Child Alive got involved. “That’s what clinched it”, confirms Leifer. Moved by the children’s plight and bowled over by their talent, Keys invited them to New York to sing with herself and Paul Simon. With this endorsement, support from HBO and EMI quickly followed. This second wave of funding allowed Taylor and Leifer to hire editor Masahiro Hirakubo (Trainspotting, The Beach), and helped pay for post-production at Reelsound, Goldcrest and Molinare.

“I used a Mac for all the producing”, says Leifer, who switched to Apple while making the movie. “I wouldn’t go back. It helps you stay organised, all the applications work together and it’s great to use”. Similarly, Taylor can’t imagine another integrated solution that would help make such a film: “I’d maybe have taken a different camera, but I’d still take a Mac, as powerful as I could get”.

With the support of (RED)™, who agreed to help promote the film’s theatrical and soundtrack release, We Are Together has become a huge hit. Now screening at cinemas across the UK and set for broadcast on Channel 4 later this year, the film won the Audience Award at all 13 of its premieres. Its inspirational story secured the highest score ever given by the International Documentary Film Award (IDFA) at its European premiere, and it became the first documentary to win the Audience Award at this year’s Edinburgh International Film Festival since Buena Vista Social Club in 1999.

“Africa isn’t just a place of suffering and despair, which is something we often get from some one-dimensional representations”, says Taylor. “It’s a place with far more depth, a rich continent with incredible music and people. Yes, there is suffering, but there’s also so much strength and spirit in the face of that adversity”. At the very heart of the film lies what Taylor describes as the “juxtaposition of sadness with really joyous human moments”. He adds: “It’s very difficult to turn a blind eye to these vibrant, beautiful kids”.

Taylor and Leifer have set up the RISE Foundation, aiming to raise £500,000 to pay for educating Agape’s present and future AIDS orphans. EMI has released the soundtrack, and profits from both the soundtrack and the film will go to the foundation. “We’re hoping people will see the film as a call to action to help these kids”, says Taylor. “We really hope the education of those children will be the legacy of this film, giving them the power to help themselves”.