The Sol’ i Sakhar (‘salt and sugar’) Project's documentarians have started a fundraiser to make a film about sustainable consumption in Russia, What is Left When I am Gone. Raised funds will be used to pay for the production and editing team’s work, transport, and promotion of the finished documentary. This is stated in the project outline on the Sila Slova (‘the power of words’) Platform.
On October 20, the Sol’ i Sakhar Project’s journalists started a crowdfunding campaign to make a film about ecology in Russia. According to the authors, many people in the country already sort household refuse. However, there are people who are sure that the waste collected separately is still sent to one landfill. In their opinion, collecting waste by fractions will not help to improve the environment.
"We do believe that effective changes in the state should begin ‘grassroots’ — from society, that is, from ourselves. That's why we want to make a film about it. We will show the various ways in which a plastic bottle or a torn package moves. Will it remain in the ground for many years, be thrown into the fire and release dangerous substances into the air — or will it be recycled and get a second life as part of, for example, paver tile," said Alexei Sabelsky, the project’s journalist and 7x7’s correspondent.
The Sol’ i Sakhar Documentary Project was created in the spring of 2021. Since then, the team has already released a feature film about a happy life in a poor province and shot a short film about moving from Moscow to the countryside.
In 2020, the 7x7 Online Newspaper and the Alliance of Independent Regional Publishers (AIRP) launched the Sila Slova Crowdfunding Platform for media editorial boards, initiative journalists, bloggers, and civic organizations. The project’s goal is to help media and journalists speak on complex topics and unite to prepare important materials.
In 2021, 7x7’s journalists Evgeny Malyshev and Ekaterina Malysheva started a crowdfunding campaign to make a film about a conflict between Russian and Romani people in Chemodanovka in 2019. As a result, the correspondents have released the film on 7x7’s YouTube channel.
In October 2021, the journalists of the VK-Media Publishing Group (the Globus, Vecherniy Krasnoturyinsk, Vecherniy Karpinsk, and ProSeverouralsk.ru media) started a fundraiser to make specials about people who live near former or existing colonies in the north of the Urals. The correspondents plan to go on an expedition and capture the life of dying "prison villages’" residents.
