What is Cooler than a Million?

Following the news that ZUKU had pumped 1 Million USD into the Zanzibar International Film Festival (ZIFF) over 10 years, we got to thinking amidst the champagne toasts. What is cooler than a million?

We reckon the objective of a film festival such as ZIFF is to expose a growing number of film makers in the region to the world. That is to distributers, technicians, producers, broadcasters of international repute not to mention  audiences.

It would be cool if some of this money went towards facilitating skills and knowledge transfers through co productions for instance. Productions commissioned by ZIFF produced by crews from all over the world including East Africa to be broadcast on the ZUKU platform, with ZIFF retaining the rights to the broadcast so as to recoup its seed investment thereby sustaining the ecosystem of film and tv regionally and outernationally. Its important that East African slots on such a production crew are competed for and not just handed out, ZIFF jury selections can be a guide.

Cooler still would be training seminars and all manner of support for  would be festival directors in the region with the objective being to create a feeder system or tier of platforms for film making talent . So for instance a festival selection at say ZUKA automatically qualifies one to ZIFF. The competition at one prepares the filmmaker for the next stage, a consistency in quality of content will result.

For this to work, the partner film festivals and in particular the teams that organise them ought to be trained to run the festivals to a standard that complements ZIFF, still these smaller festivals must retain their creative autonomy and remain authentic to the communities in which they are situated. The diversity of jury selections from festivals across the region will sustain ZIFF and more importantly the community of film lovers across the region.

Positively ice age would be, school tours across the region to expose the work of filmmakers in the region to a wider regional audience which will attract financial backing from investors in the region eager to reach the same audience. These school tours would include screenings and appearances by renowned film makers to share experiences with the next generation.

Cool?

Made in Uganda for the whales in Japan and polar bears in Alaska

There is that scene in Children of Men where the end of the world is upon man kind and a sculptor oblivious to the despair around him carries on adding finishing touches to a sculpture. For some artists the ability to work is enough its a privilege in itself  and yet for others that's not enough anybody can paint, sing, make a film so that's a given, the minimum. For the latter the former is more vain but at least  unlikely to  sacrifice aesthetics for functionality. Optimism over pragmatism, look ahead or stare at the ground. This is what every young artist, nay every one wrestles with.

For young filmmakers in Uganda, confronted daily by the ills of their communities,not to mention the hassles of getting a film made, each frame references this reality directly or indirectly. With the filmmaker as a development journalist though,the concern is these unwieldy job titles exert unnecessary pressure on creativity and the result is didactic work hardly captivating viewing. For most to be self serving, a self expressionist, read independent lasts until the hunger pains. Hence the need to stay relevant if only to attract funding from NGOs whose agenda is often more dubious than the source of their money.

Mutual exploitation, hand washing, log rolling as its called by negotiators at events like Rio +20 or the latest  round of trade talks is what film making is about and so too it appears is changing the world .
Name check the greatest film ever sold and you get the picture , having gone through all that trouble why not make a masterpiece as close as possible to your boldest vision. May be its as the savvy have  learnt,know your audience, 1% will pay to watch your film ,99% will just watch.