Lara Utian-Preston

The Zanzibar International Film Festival (ZIFF) is entering its 20th year with a host of new additions to the programme and some key partnerships.

SOKO FILAM Film and TV Content Market 

For the first time, ZIFF will be hosting a Film and TV Content Market as part of the festival schedule, SOKO FILAM, this  East African Film and TV Market will be a three-day business focused gathering taking place from 12 to 14 July at the Hyatt Hotel in Stone Town.

Industry stakeholders will come together to buy and sell film and TV content, exchange new ideas, identify alternative channels for distribution, and discover the latest technology and innovative business models that are driving the expectations and usage of a rapidly growing consumer base in East Africa.

SOKO FILM is being made possible by the support of the newest and most innovative film distribution and funding platform and community scheduled to launch later this year, mahala.tv.

mahala.tv will revolutionise the way that content producers can create, share, monetise, and ultimately, fund their productions, from films and TV shows, to short content and music videos. The platform will create a community for filmmakers across Africa to cooperatively and effectively create a viable industry.  To find out more or register: http://www.ziff.or.tz/soko-filam/

US Embassy Tanzania Supported Workshops

ZIFF also recently signed an agreement with the US Embassy in Tanzania who will be supporting the SOKO FILAM sidebar programme through a host of workshops run by top American filmmakers and talent.

Creative Documentary Film Production

Judd Ehrlich, an Emmy Award winning documentary filmmaker will facilitate a Documentary Workshop that will include leading one day of discussions with 15 Tanzanian and East African documentary filmmakers.

Women Make Movies Workshop/Documentary Workshop

This year, ZIFF has announced a new award for women documentary filmmakers, led by Aylin Basaran, Priscilla Mlay, and Debra Zimmerman. Basaran is an M.A., a filmmaker and scholar, currently working on her PhD and a documentary on film production in Tanzania after Independence.  Mlay is a filmmaker who has been working in the Tanzania film/TV industry since 2012, and Zimmerman is the executive director of Women Make Movies, a NY-based film organisation that supports women filmmakers.

Marketing and Distribution Workshop and Pitching

Debra Zimmerman will facilitate one day of a two-day workshop on Marketing and Distribution of films, in collaboration with Dexter Davis CEO/founder of D Street Media Group. This workshop will culminate in a day of Pitching for Funds at the SOKO FILAM MARKET.

Film Student Programme

ZIFF at 20 also sees the inclusion of a comprehensive Film Student Competition and programme. This new category received a massive response, with film students as young as nine submitting their works. A host of students from Kenya and beyond will also be attending ZIFF to attend a full day of Student Film Screenings and specifically designed workshops.

Trace Mziki East Africa Video Music Award

In partnership with Trace Mziki, ZIFF also will be hosting the first annual East African Video Music Award that recognises that a well-produced music video is, in fact, a short film. The award will honour the video producers as well as the East African artists who support local producers.

ZIFF 2017 Official Selection

The ZIFF 2017 Official Selection has also been announced after a gruelling decision-making process that saw the team have to select films from over 600 submissions.

Filmmakers from over 70 countries submitted films and amongst those countries represented in the final selection are Kenya, Canada, Spain, France, South Africa, Tanzania, India, Australia, the United States, Nigeria, Rwanda, Brasil, Ghana, Chad, Uganda, Mozambique, Hungary, the UK, and Ethiopia amongst others.

Films will compete across various categories including the official ZIFF awards of the Golden Dhow, the Sembene Ousmane Award, Best African Film, The Adiaha Award for Best African Female Documentary Filmmaker, Best International Film, Best Film from the Dhow Countries, the Emerson of Zanzibar award and the Trace East African Music Award amongst a host of others.

The honour of the ZIFF opening night this year will see the World Premiere of the Tanzanian comedic feature film T-Junction directed by Amil Shivji. The film includes some new acting faces and is an honest and amusing look at modern urban life in Tanzania. The film stars Magdalena Christopher and Hawa Ally as the two girls at the centre of the story.

Other highlights in the selection include Mbithi Masya’s poetic feature film Kati Kati, a Kenyan film that won the Prize of the International Film Critics at the Toronto Film Festival, Florian Schott’s Katutura, one of the few feature films to come out of Namibia, and Klumeni, a new style of bongo movies from director Ernest Napoleon.

ZIFF is also excited to include Winnie, the newest documentary on Winnie Mandela to come out of South Africa, directed by Pascale Lamche. Another exciting inclusion in the schedule sees the return of well-known and respected documentary filmmaker Nick Broomfield to ZIFF with his latest documentary on Whitney Houston, Whitney: Can I Be Me. The Ivory Game is another Netflix documentary from executive producer Leonardo DiCaprio, and directors Kief Davidson and Richard Ladkani, and will also be screened at this year’s festival.

For a full list of films, competition categories and more information visit the ZIFF website: www.ziff.or.tz

Convergence has been one of the buzzwords of the industry for a while now. As the world shrinks further and further and all content roads inexorably lead to digital, the various lines between content categories and the means in which this content is produced and consumed begin to blur more and more.

Hollywood driven categories that separated cinematic (Film) content from TV content have existed for decades, until very recently when the slickly produced TV shows of Netflix and HBO amongst others have become prestige projects for big named actors and directors.  Gone are the days when starring in a TV series was the kiss of death for Hollywood box-office stars.

With this change, the world of entertainment has seen the first phase of content convergence – the conflation of so-called cinematic and TV content, with the inclusion of gaming content well on its way. Additionally, there has been a technologically driven change in how content around the world is consumed.

Increasingly all kinds of content, including movies are moving away from the big screens of commercial cinemas in favour of the small screens of televisions and devices.

This convergence of content and consumption has been led globally by players such as Netflix, HBO and now even Amazon Prime and YouTube TV. Thanks to these content producers and distributors, types of content and their means of consumption have blurred traditional categories and thinking, at least for those producing and distributing content in the so-called developed world.

For these producers, this initial phase of convergence has presented a variety of opportunities to reach wider and more diverse audiences. In the developed world of content, this break-down between formats and delivery mechanisms has transformed the industry. In her book, Television and British Cinema: Convergence and Divergence since 1990, Hannah Andrews points out that up until very recently, academic and economic discussions about cinema and TV were separate and its only in the past decade or so that researchers and experts have realised that “one of the biggest platforms for film is television.”

In Africa however, the impact of this convergence has been minimal in that these so-called divisions amongst content formats and delivery methods have never been a practical reality.

For decades, African consumers have consumed all kinds of content, whether films, series, or soapies predominantly on their TV screens. The historical conception of movies or films as an innately separate category of content from television makes no sense in an African context where TV or DVD are, and have been, the only truly mass mechanisms of distribution for producers and consumption for viewers.

Outside of major urban centres in a handful of sub-Saharan African countries, (with Ethiopia being a key exception), there are very few formal or commercial cinemas in operation. Even in countries such as Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa, more often than not, commercial cinemas screen Western content far more than African produced movies.

In a continent where only a tiny fraction of people have ever viewed their entertainment content within the confines of a cinema, content is simply content, and it is viewed wherever possible. For many Africans up until recently content of all kinds has been available only for the small screen and only via free-to air TV (or for a minority, pay TV), retail purchased DVDs, or in many places via pirated VCDs.

Many of the films nominated for awards in events such as the Africa Academy Movie Awards have never even seen the inside of a cinema, with some not even being officially screened on TV across the continent. Consumption of content in Africa then is a very different environment for both audiences and producers.

Additionally, across Africa, broadcast TV has not just been a platform for distribution for most kinds of content, but also television stations have acted as significant commissioners and producers of a variety of content, including film.

Hence, in terms of the content and the delivery mechanism, ‘convergence’ as such has never really been a necessary phenomenon in the world of African content. Yet, going forward, with the next – and for Africa the more relevant – phase of convergence taking place, that of technology and VOD and streaming to both TV’s and devices, African content producers are now poised to reap the benefits.

With the whole world now abandoning the rigid categories of content and distribution platforms, African producers, having used diverse and often informal platforms for years, are ideally poised to quickly and efficiently create and distribute content via these new mechanisms.

As broadband and Wi-Fi access spread further across the continent, people are choosing more and more to consume content on their devices and phones. The real value of convergence then, in an African context, will be realised when producers can more readily deliver their products directly to consumers without the middleman of the broadcaster, cinema chain or the legal (or illegal) DVD manufacturer and retailer.

The next phase of convergence will benefit African content producers when this pipeline from producer to consumer is truly open. How this manifests in a way that finally sees royalties and revenue for producers is still however a process that needs to unfold. However, more and more the framework for this to take place is at least falling into place.

Many cities across Africa host film festivals that attract thousands of guests from near and far, with some cities hosting multiple events throughout the year. The cumulative effect of these festivals contributes to growing both local film industries and audiences. However, there is an initiative that a host of countries have adopted that takes the impact of a local film festival to the national scale.

Indonesia, Canada, Argentina, Serbia, and Bangladesh all celebrate National Film Days that are aimed at developing local film industries as well as creating new audiences. In countries with smaller or ‘emerging’ film industries, this kind of initiative has proven to be an innovative and effective way of developing audiences and creating the kind of film-going culture that is required for a vibrant cinema industry.

Using Canada’s National Film Day as a benchmark, film industries in growing markets across the continent can also find ways to creatively celebrate the role of films in the cultural, social and economic life of nations.

If done properly, with the buy-in of a host or partners and stakeholders, a National Film Day can be one of the most powerful tools for growing audiences. With theatrical and broadcast content still dominated by Western productions, a National Film Day is a way to expose local productions to hundreds of thousands of people in the spaces they already live, work, socialise and play.

By including commercial cinemas, educational institutions, public spaces, transportation hubs (bus and train stations, airports and even airplanes), broadcast media, libraries, malls, post offices, banks, and museums, a National Film Day effectively brings the films to the people.

Some of the initiatives in countries that already celebrate National Film days include the more obvious activities such as discounted screenings of local films in commercial cinema chains, film screenings at schools and universities, and TV channels airing local films.

However, the potential is there to go so much further, for example, this year as Canada celebrates its 150th birthday, its National Film Day aims to create the world’s largest film festival ever, as the website explains, “On 19 April 2017, great Canadian movies will be available on air, online and on foot at over 800 screenings in cinemas, libraries, public squares and anywhere you can show a film. With free events happening across every province and territory, many involving Canadian film talent, NCFD 150 — a Canada 150 Signature Project — promises to be the largest film festival in the world. Ever.”

Turning every imaginable public space into a film screening venue not only promotes local films, but also creates a sense of community, shared space, and engagement in urban areas that are too often walled off or passed through.

Canada’s National Film Day is managed by REEL CANADA who in turn has partnered with literally dozens of industry, government, and commercial organisations to make the event possible. In order to facilitate these public screenings and screenings at schools, REEL CANADA provides webcasts and “the opportunity to watch a great Canadian film, engage in interactive Q&As with stars and filmmakers, and participate in lots of online activities exploring Canadian identity, culture and storytelling. It’s an opportunity to interact with students from other corners of the country.”

Indonesia’s National Film Day also puts a major focus on film journalists, appointing them as judges for the Usmar Ismail Film Awards that form part of the event. The inclusion and engagement of film media is a critical element for ensuring an increased standard of film journalism and also creating a sense of engagement and empowerment amongst film media.

All of these countries also utilise public institutions such as museums, libraries and parks as screening venues. More creative solutions are also envisioned, with every screen becoming a potential tool to screen local films.

A National Film Day enables us to imagine screens in shopping malls, bus and train stations, on airplanes, at banks and post offices, all screening films. Short content would be ideal for these kinds of locations with captive audiences.

By making local content ubiquitous for one day; across every TV, computer, plasma, LED, big and small screens, a zeitgeist of pride, excitement and appreciation of the creative industries would be created. The related spin-offs for musicians, designers, technicians, and related fields would also be immense.

Additionally, National Film Days are a way to celebrate the historical and cultural diversity of a nation. A combination of top-down curated programmes, supplemented by community developed schedules and content would mean that a diversity of films would be screened.

Indonesia uses the annual event toput the country’s focus on the economic impact of the film industry and to focus on the growth of the industry. The day of 30 March is in fact the

anniversary of the start of the production of the first feature film produced in Indonesia, 1950 – Darah & Doa (Blood & Prayer). In the past they have used the day to promote anti-piracy campaigns, and to announce government supported initiatives.

The recent rise of film festivals across the continent is an indication that there is an appetite for locally produced content especially when it is creatively packaged and promoted. National Film Days could be a way to exponentially increase the impact of these localised and niched festivals. Something to think about for planners in our local film industries.

As the present economic stresses continue to take their toll on governments, NGO’s, businesses, and individuals across the globe, the arts, and support of the arts may seem like a luxury. However, this could not be further from the truth, and especially so in the so-called developing world where events such as film festivals are of critical importance, both culturally and economically.

African institutions, now more than ever, should ensure the continued support, promotion and development of African arts and culture, with film festivals taking a leading role in this regard. It has been encouraging to see the increase in the number of film festivals and markets taking place across Africa as these events are often at the forefront of promoting Africa’s stories and cultures, whilst also developing both the the industry and audiences for African films.

The Zanzibar International Film Festival, (ZIFF), The Durban International Film Festival (DIFF), the Joburg Film Festival (JFF), FESPACO, The Encounters Documentary Film Festival, Zimbabwe International Film Festival, the Rwanda Film Festival, the Maisha Film Festival in Uganda, the Udada Film Festival in Kenya, and the Salaam Kivu International Film Festival, Democratic Republic of Congo are just some of the festivals attracting thousands of people across the continent in a celebration of African culture, talent, stories and films.

As drivers of cultural pride, social expression, political change, film festivals also hold a special place as many are built around principles of inclusion, tolerance and outreach to communities, as well as providing workshops, training and development for young filmmakers. More and more, film festivals are built around the commercial development of the African content industry and are also becoming vital drivers of economic growth within the film sector and beyond.

This year for example, the Zanzibar International Film Festival will be expanding to include a film and TV content market in order to further create commercial distribution platforms for African content. DISCOP Johannesburg, Africa’s largest content market partnered in 2016 with the Joburg Film Festival to further cement these links between the cultural and commercial aspects of the industry. These events, amongst others, are essential in ensuring a viable and commercial future for African content.

Recent statistics released by DISCOP Johannesburg show the marked increase in the interest in African content, not just in Africa, but from around the world. Film festivals provide one of the most credible and prestigious platforms by which African content is shared and promoted. When combined with the commercial opportunities created at related markets, Festivals clearly are integral to the continued growth and development of the sector.

It is therefore vital that film festivals are supported by governments and the private sector. Many festivals operate as non-profits and are reliant on funders and sponsors to survive, despite their economic and cultural benefits. As African cinema rises, so will Africa, and by supporting festivals, funders are able to simultaneously improve both the cultural and economic future of the continent.