Durban FilmMart 2011 Deadline Approaches

Press Release

Durban FilmMart 2011 deadline is around the corner

 

The deadline for the submissions for the second annual Durban FilmMart is looming. Set to take place in Durban from 22-26 July 2011, during the 32 nd edition of the Durban International Film Festival, the closing date for entries is 15 February 2011 . Aimed at raising the visibility of projects from the African continent and creating opportunities for African filmmakers, the Durban FilmMart is a joint venture between DFO, the film-industry development arm of the eThekwini Municipality and the Durban International Festival (DIFF), which is organised by the Centre for Creative Arts (University of KwaZulu-Natal).

 

The inaugural Durban FilmMart in 2010 saw 200 producers, directors, sales agents, distributors, financiers and funding organisations from across the world, attending meetings, project presentations and a series of master classes and workshops on the latest trends in film finance, marketing, distribution and new media technologies. Of the 75 qualifying applicants, 12 projects in both the feature film and documentary genres from as far afield as Egypt , Nigeria , Ethiopia , Zambia and Burkina Faso , were chosen to participate in the Finance Forum segment of the Durban FilmMart.

 

Commenting on the success of the first edition and noting the anticipatory interest of potential investors, Toni Monty of the Durban Film Office (DFO) added, “Film practitioners from all corners of the African continent are encouraged to take this opportunity as a means of promoting their projects, meeting lead experts and networking with industry professionals from across the globe”.

 

Peter Rorvik, Director of the Durban International Film Festival echoed Monty's sentiments: “ The Durban FilmMart will stimulate African cinema production and facilitate project collaboration between African filmmakers.”

 

The Durban FilmMart will also allow aspiring film producers the opportunity to be spotted for inclusion in the International Film Festival Rotterdam's CineMart one of the world's most respected co-production markets. Three producers who participated in last year's Durban FilmMart will attend the CineMart's 2011 Rotterdam Lab, a high-level producer workshop that supports independent film production, and provides an opportunity to meet and network with global film industry players.

 

Filmmakers preparing submissions to the Durban FilmMart can note the comments of Egyptian filmmaker Hossan Elouan, whose film Hawi scooped an award at the Doha Tribeca Film Festival. Elouan took part in the Durban FilmMart in July 2010 and described it as “an exciting experience - it gets all the participants under one roof, so they can exchange ideas, and do business together. It is also important because it puts African filmmakers and producers with the right industry contacts in Europe and North America , which opens doors for international co-productions with Africa , and better distribution possibilities for African films across the globe.”

 

Entry is open to:
•  Projects with an African citizen attached to one of the three key creative roles of producer, director or writer. Proof of African citizenship or birth must be provided through a certified copy of a valid African passport/birth certificate;
•  Africans living in the Diaspora, but who still have African citizenship or have proof of birth in Africa ;
•  Projects with a producer attached.
For more information on the Durban FilmMart and how to submit your project please visit www.durbanfilmmart.com
For further enquires contact email: durbanfilmmart@durban.gov.za or durbanfilmmart@gmail.com

 

Issued by the Durban Film Office and Durban International Film Festival
For enquiries contact:
Ms Tozi Mthethwa and Ms Mona Pilane
DFO Publicists
Tel: 031-705 7131/2989
Fax: 031-705 2479
Cell: 073 681 1234
Cell: 083 307 9067
Email: mona.pilane@gmail.com
Email: tozi@igulamedia.co.za

 

For media enquiries regarding the Durban International Film Festival:
Sharlene Versfeld
Versfeld & Associates: The Communication Works
Tel: 031-8115628
Cell: 083 326 3235
Email: sharlene@versfeld.co.za

 

For 32nd Durban International Film Festival 21- 31 July 2011 enquires

Email: diff@ukzn.ac.za

Tel: +27 (0)31 260 2506

Web: www.cca.ukzn.ac.za

 

22nd Pan African Film and Television Festival

Fespaco bounces back

Two young Burkinabe girls stand 25 February 2007 in front of a cinema theatre in Ouagadougou displaying films competing in the 2007 Fespaco. Africa's biggest film festival returns in February in the capital of Burkina Faso hoping to revive the continent's ailing cinema industry. Photo | FILE | AFRICA REVIEW |

Dated Wednesday, January 19 2011 at 14:40

This is the 22nd Pan African Film and Television Festival of Ouagadougou.Fespaco is considered as one of the biggest film events on the African continent. This biennial event brings together all the uneven years and for one week, African and not – African professionals and festival – goers from all over the world sharing one common factor: the African film and African Diaspora.

During this great film manifest, various film competitions are organized and professionals of the seventh art demonstrate their expertise and excellence to put the African cinema on the international stage. It is both a cultural event, through art and cultural expression, as a festive event with thousands of festival – goers who meet together every two years to communicate, to build relationships, to exchange expertise and to reinvent themselves.

Source: www.artmatters.info

Dates: February 26-March 5, 2011

Venue: Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso

Kenya's Homeboyz studios' 'Tinga Tinga tales', a children animation TV series aired on BBC

A twist to the unpretentious Tinga Tinga tale

A Tinga Tinga exhibition in Copenhagen. Photo | BERTHA KANG'ONG'OI | AFRICA REVIEW |

By BERTHA KANG'ONG'OI  (email the author)

Posted Thursday, January 13 2011 at 08:54

Last year was a great one for Tinga Tinga art - some original, unpretentious art from Tanzania that is currently attracting considerable global attention. There was an exclusive Tinga Tinga exhibition in Copenhagen last August; a piece of Tinga Tinga art returned an impressive $ 51,000 at an auction in Paris last October; then came 'Tinga Tinga tales', a children animation TV series aired on BBC, as created in Kenya's Homeboyz studios.

But these opportunities have not come without challenges: the television production, which is said to be one of the most ambitious animation production in East Africa, has left Tanzanian artists unhappy. Tanzania’s Tinga Tinga Artists Cooperative Society (TACS) and UK-based Tiger Aspects, the production company that produced the series, are warring. And up until a few days before last Christmas, it seemed inevitable that the tussle would end in up court.

So how did this dream project end up here?

Claudia Lloyd, head of animation at Tiger Aspects, was travelling in East Africa in 2005. It was in Tanzania that she came across the Tinga Tinga genre of art. She was quite impressed.

“Finally I met the cooperative’s representatives and we started talking.” Over the years, the production and marketing of the art has been under Tinga Artists Cooperative Society.

Animated dreams
At this stage, it was just a dream project. But Claudia believed so much in the potential of an animated film project of African tales that she went ahead with a pilot project in 2006.

“The initial plan was to do the entire production in Tanzania but it soon became clear to me that that would not be possible,” says Claudia. “The internet connection in Tanzania was not reliable and there were more trained animators and editors in Nairobi than in Tanzania. So Nairobi it was.”

After the pilot project, Claudia returned to Europe to look for funds for a complete series.

By the end of 2007, Claudia had successfully convinced BBC in London and Disney World in the US to buy rights to the concept.

Africa cinema faces moment of truth

Alassane Moustapha during the Rotterdam International Film festival. Photo/BELINDA VAN DE GRAAF |

By MWENDA wa MICHENI  (email the author)

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Posted Saturday, February 27 2010 at 16:41

 
The Ghanaian blockbuster, Love Brewed In African Pot, was never the moment, neither was Kolormask, a Kenyan film that premiered during the inaugural African film week in Nairobi. It has been elusive, but the moment of truth for African cinema seems at sight. But some debates before the action.

Some believe Africa cinema must embrace the commercial filmmaking template now, others are still pursuing their governments to fund huge budget cultural films that must not have a mass appeal. And this debate on African cinema goes on and on. The eclectic reasoning has taken the more cautious route, mass appeal that has a cultural touch, reality in mind.
This comes at a time when the French, believed to have greatly influenced African cinema and Germans, are toying with commercial filmmaking.
Around the continent, several experiments are already going on, with a commercial model apparently shaping up. Leading the race is the Nollywood model- a simple digital camera, few locations and a movie to sell in the kiosks for local consumption. Several others scenarios are in the making, but South Africa’s dalliance with Hollywood big shots has been shaking myths on African cinema, literally.

Rotterdam festival
No wonder, there are serious debates around the issue now. At this year’s edition of the Rotterdam film festival, Africa cinema was the headline, there were several discussions around its future, a token or two for the surviving grandfathers of African cinema and plenty of African melodies and rhythms to crown the occasion.
Moustapha Alassane, the Nigerien animator credited with the first ever African animation, was in attendance. From Nigeria was Tunde Kilani, among a handful of other decorated African filmmakers.
Besides talk and dance, the Rotterdam festival offered opportunity to several young African filmmakers to showcase their works. One such was Hawa Essuman, a Kenyan with Ghanaian parentage.
Soul Boy by the 30-year-old co-director bagged The Dioraphte Award for Hubert Bals Fund film held in highest regard. This is testimony that a black Africa has a chance in the changing scene.
Not that African films have now become very popular at the global level, and neither are here about to get there. But, it is rare that an African film is awarded in the International Film Festival Rotterdam.
It tells the story of Abila, a 14-year-old boy, who lives in one of the most miserable slums in Africa.
Intrigues and power games
Though dwarfed by the artistic flavours and flamboyance displayed by Bollywood and Hollywood, Africa cinema is as old as the film reel itself, almost. But intrigues, power games and disregard have suppressed the growth over the years, something that may not be reversed in a day.
As early as 1896, there were cinemas in Africa, projected from a machine that had been stolen from somewhere in London. This is about the same time it was invented.
On filmmaking, it was generally a preserve of the settlers, telling stories they wanted to see and share, on Africa. Most were naïve, poorly researched and heavily influenced by the foreign interests that informed the settlers.
When Africans started telling their stories on film, most carried the hangover of the previous generation of filmmakers, and this went on, even became worse with the massive funding and training that came from Europe.
Most of the films that emerged from this class of filmmakers were high end, ignoring the mass market. This alienated the African filmmakers from their very audience.
But there was the exciting 90s. When the moment arrived, and cameras became more affordable and there was an opportunity for commercial-minded producers, mostly breaking from theatres and there was Nollywood, Riverwood and the rest of the woods that have spread throughout Africa.
As this boom spread, South Africa was debating how to fund their filmmaking. With a long standing filmmaking legacy, especially after several Hollywood filmmakers shot there, the country decided to fund their own, encourage skills transfer and that has been happening. No wonder, films like Tsotsi, Jerusalema that was all talk last year, and even District 9, had a commercial model inspired by Hollywood, style and trying to ride on the Hollywood distribution network.
The debate is no longer whether Africans can make films, but how to make commercially viable films that are intelligent and aesthetically appealing.

'The First Grader' opens at the London Film Festival 2010

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akseAuYF2h0