Lights, camera, action for African film festival organizers in Berlin

For the ninth year in a row, DW-AKADEMIE is conducting a special film festival and event management training in cooperation with the annual Berlin International Film Festival, Berlinale. And, the last few weeks have been action-packed for the participants in Berlin during the festival.

The workshop is specifically designed for managers and organizers of film festivals in Africa, Asia and Latin America. Every year it’s a red-carpet intensive training to discuss festival planning, marketing strategies, and ideas to boost the genre of local film-making in developing regions and networking in the name of cinematic impact.

Of this year’s group, four are from Africa. Natalie Kombe is the festival coordinator of  the Zimbabwe International Film Festival. Natalie works directly under the festivals’s director. She’s responsible for press relations and interaction with the public.

Laza Razanajatovo from Madagascar works as filmmaker and director of the festival Rencontres du Film Court Madagascar. For this festival, he does everything from chosing the theme to finding sponsors or inviting filmmakers to participate.

Godfrey Mambwe coordinates the Zambian View Special Images Film Festival. Among other tasks he has to provide marketing and advertisement tools for the festival. He’s also responsible for communication with international filmmakers and prospective guests.

Gervais Hien from Burkina Faso works for the most famous African film festival: He is the head of press services at the FESPACO in Ouagadougou, which will hold the festival’s next edition in 2013.

Over the past five weeks, all of them have gained behind-the-scenes access and a rare close-up look at one of Germany’s foremost international and cultural media events. But their stay in Germany is not all glamor and glitz.

Their days are long and full of hard work. The rigorous schedule has included attending the official Berlinale press conferences, completing understudy and group activities alongside other festival specialists and holding in-depth discussions with experts.

“The Berlinale is an eye-opener for me”, said Godfrey Mambwe from Zambia. “The workshop has energized me, refreshed me and equipped me with skills I have desired to aquire for a long time.”

Besides honing their own communication and presentation skills, the workshop introduces the participants to tools and methods to effectively improve the profiles of their home film events. Sales and distribution, securing funding and film selection criteria are just some of the areas they’ve been focusing on to help extend the reach of film festivals in Africa and expand their pool of sponsors, filmmakers and audiences.

“Everyone is aware of the big things when planning a festival and it’s always the overlooking of the small details that cause errors during the festival”, says Natalie Kombe from Zimbabwe. “It’s been great to learn some of the small details that make for a smoother festival.” DW AKADEMIE is also closely involved with the special film award CINEMA fairbindet (CINEMA connects), which honors a film for outstanding contribution to the progress of development issues. The training workshop wraps up this week as participants review the Berlinale and workshop activities, present individual reports and will hopefully be heading home full of new ideas and international contacts for their film festivals in Africa.
Author: Pamela Schobess / CH