Documentary Projects 1st Place

‘If I had been born at the top of my street, behind the corrugated-iron border, I would have been British. Incredible to think. My whole idea of myself, the attachments made to a culture, heritage, religion, nationalism and politics are all an accident of birth. I was one street away from being born my “enemy.”’ Paul McVeigh, Belfast-born novelist. Binder notes ‘there is hardly any other country in Europe where a past conflict is still as present in daily life as it is in Northern Ireland.’ It is not only the physical barriers – the walls and fences – but also the psychological divisions in society. For many years, Toby Binder has been documenting what it means for young people, all of whom were born after the peace agreement was signed, to grow up under this intergenerational tension in both Protestant and Catholic neighbourhoods.

Whether it's children stigmatised as witches in Nigeria, the first female mayor in Afghanistan or miners in the DR Congo who have declared war on the militias. It is the unusual stories that tell us so much about our world that attract him. The fact that he often takes the perspective of children and young people is based on the firm conviction that we should actually be leaving a better world to the next generation - and are obviously in danger of failing to do so.