Director Daan Veldhuizen’s upcoming documentary Banana Pancakes and the Children of Sticky Rice examines the impact that backpacker tourism has had on the remote mountain village of Muang Ngoi in northern Laos.

“When I first visited, I remember thinking how perfect it was. I caught myself nostalgically hoping it would never change,” says Veldhuizen. “Years later I heard that Muang Ngoi had become part of the Banana Pancake trail, a figurative trail of villages and regions in Southeast Asia that are said to have lost their authenticity and have become mainstream tourist destinations. Here banana pancakes are being served instead of the local cuisine,” he continues.

The film touches on the conflicting desires of the tourists who are searching for an authentic, traditional village, and the villagers who are fascinated by the West. Veldhuizen and his crew spent three-and-a-half months filming in the village, with the shoot divided into two periods: the 2013 rainy season and the dry season of 2014.

Alongside making the documentary, which is in the final stages of post-production, Veldhuizen and producer Valérie Schuit are also planning an ambitious outreach campaign focused on the backpacking community. “We feel that the theme of our film can potentially resonate throughout the entire backpacker scene and doesn’t need to be limited to Southeast Asia,” explains Veldhuizen.

“There are many online platforms for our audience that we’re trying to tap into but we also hope to be visible in the off-line world. For example, for our cinema release in the Netherlands we’re planning events at popular hostels in order to get international visitors to Dutch cinemas,” he continues.

They also have plans for a Banana Pancake trail aimed at backpackers visiting Amsterdam, in which participants would explore “the authenticity and inauthenticity” of the city, watch the film in a local cinema and be offered banana pancakes. Other plans include a pop-up photography exhibition and an App, enabling backpackers to watch the film while on the road.

Producer Schuit attended an outreach workshop at IDFA last year and Veldhuizen was an observer at an event led by BRITDOC for the Netherlands Film Fund in September.

Pieter Fleury, film consultant of documentary at the Film Fund who invited BRITDOC for the seminar, says he believes outreach techniques could be a good way to counter the dwindling theatrical audiences for documentaries. “We’re keen at the Fund to get filmmakers and producers to look at other ways of engaging audiences and different ways of distributing their works, especially with few documentaries making it into cinemas,” says Fleury.

Veldhuizen reveals he had mixed feelings about the power of outreach campaigns after the workshop. “It showed me how extensive and successful outreach campaigns can be, how they can add many years to a film’s life and how campaign budgets can easily overshadow production budgets,” says the filmmaker. “An outreach campaign is a project in its own right, requiring funding, resources and specialised professionals.”

“That said, I think outreach is undoubtedly a part of filmmaking,” he adds. “As a director I’m excited about my story and it seems no more than logical to explore how other media can be employed to support it.”

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Banana Pancakes and the Children of Sticky Rice Director: Daan Veldhuizen Script: Daan Veldhuizen Production: Viewpoint Productions Expected release: early 2015