Africa’s finest film makers troop to Nairobi for the Ambika festival

If your answer to any or all of the following questions is in the affirmative and you are passionate about the big and small screens, then, you should be travelling to Nairobi this weekend.

Are you an upcoming filmmaker? Do you want to pitch for funding for making a film? Would you like to watch some of the best films to have come out of Africa and tell Africa’s story?

Do you want to watch Monica Wangu Wamwere? Subtittled The Unbroken Spirit, it is an expression in film of the heroic struggle by the mothers of Kenya’s political prisoners in 1991 and 1992 who stripped naked at Uhuru Park’s Freedom Corner to press for the release of their children.

Yes, Africa’s finest and decorated filmmakers, producers and script writers will converge on Kenya’s capital next week. And their globally acclaimed and award winning movies will be screened for four days running.

Feature films and documentaries — some well known, some as yet seen or heard about — by students and staff of Kenyatta University and the Kenya Institute of Mass Communications will also be screened.

Welcome to the Ambika Africa Safari Film Festival  (AASFF) that will run from October 12 to 19. Ambika is a Kiswahili word for connect or bring together and AASFF has been brought to Nairobi by the continental Pan African Federation of Filmmakers  (FEPACI) and Communication Pathways Trust.

The reason for staging the festival is itself revealing, for AASFF is billed as “a celebration of film as well as a careful and deliberative consideration of the film industry in Africa.” The festival is themed ‘The Africa We Want: One Africa, One Vision, One Destiny.’

This theme dovetails into and brings to mind the African Union’s ambitious blueprint for the continent’s political, economic and social development titled ‘Agenda 2063: The Africa We Want.’

That is as it should be. FEPACI and, indeed, the AU-sanctioned Africa Commission on the Audiovisual and Cinema  (ACAC) have the singular objective of helping Africa produce and distribute best quality and impactful films and documentaries that advance the African story by Africans and promote the continent’s film industry.

Two well known and multiple award winning films will be screened. There are Timbuktu, a one hour 40 minute political drama based on Mali and which expresses the excesses of jihadists, and Ezra, which explores the use of child soldiers in Africa’s wars.

But AASFF is not all about the four movies that will be screened daily at the Louis Leakey Auditorium at the National Museums of Kenya for four days. There is much more. One, there will be the Africa Film Finance Summit to be held on October 13 and 14 at Radisson Blu.

Bringing together financial institutions, investors, entrepreneurs, filmmakers and regulators, the forum will explore and deliberate on financing for Africa’s audiovisual and cinema sector.

CREATIVE ECONOMY

The objective of the forum, says AASFF, is to launch funding partnerships for commercial films and “mobilise US$200 million (Sh20 billion) in two years to catalyst the growth of commercial funding for Africa’s audiovisual and cinema sector.”

This question will be top of mind for participants in this forum: How can Africa increase its share in and revenues accruing from the global creative industry? According to FEPACI, the global creative industry is a $64 billion annual enterprise of which Africa contributes only five per cent or US$3.5 billion.

Invited to this forum are entrepreneurs in audiovisual and cinema, filmmakers, script writers, producers, studio owners, distributors, TV and movie theatre owners, online video executives, bankers and insurance executives.

Also to be held at Radisson Blu on October 18 is the Africa Film Forum, which is billed as “a high level policy discussion intended to generate concrete action to resolve specific bottlenecks and advance industry wide opportunities.”

This forum will focus on two areas. One is lobbying for collection of data on the creative economy and working closely with national bureaus of statistics to capture, collate and analyse data on cultural and creative industries.

The creative economy is defined by UNESCO to include the performing arts, festivals, visual arts, film, TV, radio, video, photography and interactive media.

The second area the forum will address is characterised as the ‘Africa We Want Cinematic Expressions,’ which aims to explore and establish ways of encouraging the development of cinematic expressions anchored in and around the African Union’s Agenda 2063.

The Ambika Pitching and Production Forum will welcome and listen to ideas for making films that advance the African story and the organisers will pick the best from among them.

The owners of those so picked will be trained and given financial support towards actualisation of their ideas.

With AASFF in Nairobi and coming in the heels of the establishment of ACAC in June, Africa is making a huge statement about its desire to grow its creative industry and make this a strong voice for telling the continent’s story.

More information: 

Training topics

The areas of training which will be in-house and will be followed up with online workshops, will comprise:

• Script writing;

• Production scheduling;

• Budgeting;

• Marketing and Writing a pitch that works;

• Intellectual property protection; and

• Entrepreneurship.