Sponsor the Documentary


We are going to tell the story of Mathare. Two people are going to Kenya to make this documentary, but you can be a part of it, learn how here. All of the time and labor is being donated by us, but we still need to get to Mathare with equipment. You will be acknowledged as a sponsor in the documentary, and thanked in many ways for helping people live happier lives in this brutal valley.

Welcome to Mathare
a documentary by Adam and Matt Costanza

We went to Kenya…
in December of 2007, careful to be out by the elections, because we anticipated trouble. We weren’t on vacation: we weren’t with any group. The two of us traveled to a valley in Nairobi called Mathare.

Mathare is deemed to be the most brutal slum in Africa, yet we have seen the impossible hope created by some of it’s people. We’re both passionate about change, environmental and social, and we went to make a documentary of this place and the people.

10 days and 10 thousand dollars
We had a few challenges. Maybe the most obvious: how do two foreigners take expensive equipment to a place where people live on less than a dollar a day, where violence, corruption, and criminality are features of the landscape, and film the contrasts of life honestly without upsetting or interfering with the fragile balance in the community… And in 10 days with virtually no budget, we shot hours of footage and thousands of photographs, we interviewed dozens of community members and leaders, made valuable friendships, and came back- together we did it.

The pace was frantic
The stimulus, the slum, was overwhelming. The trip changed us in ways we couldn’t imagine, I knew my eyes would be opened by the experience, but so did my compassion. And after, we’ve had to distill what we were able to document into a film. Our goals have changed, and now our greatest aim is to allow others a glimpse of what we’ve seen.

Proceeds are being donated…
to help change the lives of people in the Mathare Valley, and to help them accomplish their goals. But our goals are for you to experience Mathare; it’s light, it’s dark, it’s living, and it’s bleeding; and through this movie and the associated works, we hope in earnest that you are affected by it and perhaps more mindful of life in it’s contrasts.

So, we’re going to bring you to Mathare, Kenya, but this journey will not be easy. Welcome to Mathare.