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The First Edition
of the Africa International Film Festival (AFRIFF), themed, ‘Africa
Unites’, is scheduled to hold from December 1 to 5 at the Genesis
Deluxe Cinema, Port Harcourt. This was announced at a press briefing
held on September 15 at City Mall, Onikan, Lagos.

According to Chioma
Ude, Founder and Project Director of the Festival, “AFRIFF draws on the
principle that being African is a bond that goes beyond geography,
birth or lineage; people of African origin are spread across the globe
and Africa is a proud home to many non Nigerians.”

Calls for
registration of film productions by both indigenous international film
makers have been made by the festival body. And according to Ude, the
response has been encouraging, “We have over 200 movies registered
already, from which [those] to be screened at the workshops will be
selected”. The festival will also culminate in an award ceremony in
recognition of outstanding movies screened during the festival. Movies
to be screened fall under the categories of features, documentaries,
short films and animation.

Workshops

Chioma Ude revealed
that while planning the festival has been challenging as expected, she
has had a lot of support from four other organisers, all female. “What
I like about the festival planning is the planning committee, each of
us have come together with different competencies.”

Peace
Anyiam-Osigwe, founder of the African Movie Academy Award (AMAA)’, is
the creative director of the festival. She says concerning her role,
“This will be the first time that there will be a call for projects. A
content market is one of the best things that the festival is bringing.
Most times we say that we have the stories, now we want to work in
putting those stories out properly.”

In a novel
development, the festival will incorporate workshops in the aspects of
scriptwriting, sound and cameras. Soledad Grognett, Technical Director
of the Festival, spoke further on the scriptwriting laboratory, saying,
“It will contribute to the long-term ambition of the festival. We are
already receiving short stories with a maximum length of 30 pages.
Instructors will select 3 to 5 projects which will be awarded cash
prizes towards the realisation of their production, with a view to
having them featured next year. We are utilising the youth and their
raw talent in the way stories are being told.”

While however the
scriptwriting workshop invites new entrants and university students,
especially from the Niger Delta, some of whom are being sponsored by
corporate bodies; the other workshops, According to Grognett, “are more
inclined to enhance skill rather than start planting; and work with
practitioners rather than students.”

Ude also disclosed
that, “this year, with the help of Film 24 and other partners, we are
introducing an equipments market, where equipments can be bought or
leased. The idea is to foster the African Film industry from within.
There is also the film content market established with the view to meet
supply with demand; to stimulate Africans to know the type of project
the market is interested in. And enable international film makers to
get the real African content.”

Rivers and Cannes

Scheduled to hold
annually in Port Harcourt, AFRIFF hopes to unite film makers from
across the world on African soil. And speaking on the choice of
Port-Harcourt, Ude disclosed that, “the Rivers State government is our
main sponsor; when you have a project, you take it to the most
receptive body. And the government of Rivers State has been a foremost
supporter of Arts and Culture.”

On hand to give his
support at the press briefing was movie marketer Emma Isikaku, who
praised the festival committee. “The people behind the festival are
tested hands behind the AMAA and the ION film festival. At the ION
festival last year, I saw something different from what we had been
seeing, so with AFRIFF I hope to see that same quality,” he said in a
chat with NEXT.

Isikaku, who
expressed a desire to market his films and acquire marketing rights to
some movies, at the festival, also remarked that, “Festivals like this
help producers and marketers to begin to see that they need to up their
game. It is a starting point.”

Ude, whose career has spanned nursing, medical staffing, marketing
and logistic planning, is the initiator and organiser of the AMAA
charity balls and producer the ION Film Festival held last year in
Port-Harcourt, through which the vision for AFRIFF was derived. She
concluded the press conference by expressing hopes that the festival
will take on a national significance, “I want AFRIFF to be viewed as a
national programme, like Cannes is for France.”