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DOCUMENTARY

FILM FUND The Project Manager and editors would like to thank the initial Advisory Group and other colleagues who assisted us in the realization of this report:

Salim AMIN

Isabel ARRATE

Tracy BING

Mahen BONETTI

Salem BRAHIMI

Rehad DESAI

Don EDKINS

Danny GLOVER

Hadeel IBRAHIM

Alessandro JEDLOWSKI

Coquelicot MAFILLE

Firoze MANJI

Steven MARKOVITZ

Appie MATERE

Cara MERTES

Miriam ODAKA

Elizabeth RADSHAW

Sparkle RICHARDS

Dudu SARR

Tony TABATZNIK

ADFF Project Manager: Rebecca LICHTENFELD

ADFF Report Editor: Joslyn BARNES

Book Design: Abingdon Square Publishing Ltd.

Copy Editor (French) and Translator (English to French): Françoise BOUFFAULT

ADFF Logo Design: Jan BARACZ

ADFF Website Designer: Louis SPITZER

Preface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . i

Joslyn Barnes

Executive Summary . . . . . . . . . . . .1

Alessandro Jedlowski

L"Afrique du Nord / North Africa. . . . .15

Ali Essafi

(en français et anglais/ in french and english)

L"Afrique de l"Ouest / West Africa . . . .64

(Francophone)

Kadidiatou Diallo-Oriach

(en français)

West Africa (Anglophone) . . . . . . . 345

Femi Odugbemi

(in english)

East Africa . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 574

Judy Kibinge & Josh Mwamunga

(in english)

Central Africa

Djo Tunda wa Munga . . . . . . . . . . 625

(in english)

Les pays africains de langue

. . . . . 698

African Countries with Portuguese

Pedro Pimenta & Marion Berger

(en français)

Southern Africa

. . . . . . . . . . . . . 723

Patrick Vergeynst

(in english) P

REFACE

and why not documentary? ii

— Joslyn Barnes

1 by Alessandro Jedlowski

INTRODUCT

I ON: as highlighted in the proposal for the creation of the african Documentary film fund, “supporting nonfiction/documentary storytelling is a path to reinforcing freedom of expression and a more vigorous citizenship". Documentary film is, in fact, an invaluable tool for the development of an open and dynamic public sphere within which political, moral and cultural issues of collective and individual interest can be debated and negotiated. in this sense, then, documentary filmmaking can be seen as a tool for democracy and, in the same vein, the support of indigenous documentary film production and dissemination can be considered as a way to promote and consolidate locally-generated processes of social and political democratization. starting from this assumptions, aDff"s priority focus is to support the creation of a solid, sustainable and durable african documentary film industry, whose production would be firstly and mainly geared toward african audiences. Production sustainability and legitimacy with local audiences are here considered as two of the most important factors for achieving a global recognition for the african documentary film industry and, thus, the most effective tools to make african voices and points of view become more influential in the formulation of international discourses and representations about africa. While the project proposal recognizes “the enormous capacity, talent and creativity that exists across the continent and that is struggling to manifest itself", it also acknowledges the need for more precise and detailed information about the reality on the ground.

What is the history of documentary filmmaking in

africa? What are the main economic, political and cultural factors at play within this context? What

are the infrastructures available on the field, and how effective are they? What is the impact that the introduction of new technologies has had on film production and distribution over the past few years, and what are the prospects that this transformation offers for the future of filmmaking in africa? What are the legal frameworks and the political sensitivities that define the film production environment in african countries and how do african documentary film directors position themselves in respect to them? these and many others are the questions that guided the research in seven regions (north africa, West africa - anglophone, West africa - francophone, east africa, central africa, the PaloP countries, and southern africa) launched by the aDff"s advisory group to investigate the state of documentary filmmaking in all african countries and to assess the feasibility of the aDff initiative.

this executive summary aims at briefly introducing the reports by highlighting the most significant information that they made available. the information has been organized and combined in relation to six different thematic areas: (a) Historical context; (b) Production; (c) infrastructure and new technologies; (D) Distribution; (e) training; (f) legal framework and advocacy organizations. (A) H I STOR I C A L C

ONTEXT

the specific social, historical and economic context within which african producers, directors, distributors and audiences are located has profoundly conditioned the evolution and the present state of documentary filmmaking in the continent. in order to summarize africa"s very complex and articulated historical itinerary in terms of documentary filmmaking, it is possible to identify four key periods, each of them defined by a set of economic and political characteristics whose specificity has been highly influential in shaping the local filmmaking environment: (1) the colonial era [1880s - 1960s]; (2) the era of early independences, 2 (1) The Colonial Era [1880s - 1960s]: (2) The Era of Early Independences, Cold War, and

Mono-Party States [1960s - 1980s]:

1

the analysis of the history of documentary filmmaking during the colonial era goes beyond the scopes of the

aDff-commissioned reports, but more information may be found, among others, in m

Diawara (african cinema:

Politics and culture, bloomington: indiana university Press, 1992) and in P.J. bloom (french colonial Documen-

taries: mythologies of Humanitarianism minneapolis: minnesota university Press, 2008)

it is important to underline that similar infrastructures existed also in other british colonies, such as Kenya,

uganda, tanzania, and rhodesia (present-day Zimbabwe), but they were not indigenized, and film production

in these countries closed down after independence, only to eventually re-emerge in the following years as the

result of newly conceived local initiatives 3 (3) The Era of Structural Adjustment Programs [mid-1980s - 1990s]: 3

i am here referring particularly to the debate around the role of francophonie, and of the cultural policies con

nected to it, within the wider context of the neocolonial power structure known as françafrique more about this

topic can be found in f.-X. verschave (françafrique: le plus long scandale de la république; Paris: stock, 1998)

and J -l amselle (l"art de la friche essai sur l"art africain contemporain; Paris: flammarion, 2005) 4 (4) The Era of Geopolitical Multi-Polarization and the Growth of BRICS Countries [2000s - ...]: 5 (B) PRODUCT I ON

1) Key countries:

2) emerging countries:

6

3) Countries where a low intensity documentary

filmmaking activity takes place:

4) Countries where almost no documentary

filmmaking activity is taking place: 7 (C) INFRASTRUCTURES AND NEW T EC H NOLOG I ES 8 D DI STR IB UT I ON 9 4

It is important to underline that since the early 1990s the television market has been liberalized in numerous

countries, but only in very few cases has thisprovoked any real transformation in the way the television market is

administered, the privileged position of state-owned televisions being still unchallenged in most countries

10 11 E T R AI N I NG 12 鍃o F L EG A L F R A

MEWORK

A

ND ADVOC

A CY O RG A N I Z

ATIONS

13 Z C

ONCLUS

I ON 14

Algérie, Egypte, Libye,

Maroc / Sahara occidental,

Mauritanie, Soudan, Tchad, Tunisie

Algeria, Egypt, Libya,

Morocco / Western Sahara,

Mauritania, Sudan, Chad, Tunisia

16 t 鉥r

OCÉAN ATLANTIQUE

OCÉAN INDIEN

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KenYasuD-souDan

seYcHelles ouganDa tanZanie burunDirWanDacameroun rePubliQue centrafricaine rÉPubliQue

DÉmocratiQue Du congoguinÉe ÉQuatoriale

gabon rÉPubliQue Du congoDJibouti angola sÃo tomÉ e PrinciPe moZambiQue

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CAP-VERT

AFRIQUE

gambie

Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . .18 / 20

Algérie

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

Algeria

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

Egypte . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .28

Egypt. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .32

Libye . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36 Libya . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37

Maroc / Sahara occidental . . . . . .38 / 43

Morocco / Western Sahara. . . . . . .44 / 48

Mauritanie . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49

Mauritania . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51

Soudan. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .53

Sudan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54

Tchad . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55

Chad . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56

Tunisie

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57

Tunisia

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61 18 18 En plus de la langue, les pays d'Afrique arabophone ont en commun le même contexte historique. A part l'Egypte, qui a accédé très tôt a l'indépendance, et dont l'intérêt au cinéma remonte à la naissance de ce médium, les autres pays ont commencé à développer ce secteur il y a a peine quelques décennies. Ils se sont appropriés les infrastructures, la culture et parfois même les lois héritées de la colonisation. Cependant, les régimes militaires ou policiers qui ont succédé à la décolonisation, et leur contrôle systématique sur la création et la diffusion, n'ont presque jamais permis la construction d'un secteur de cinéma et d'audiovisuel bien créatif, compétitif et rentable. Et petit à petit, même le patrimoine qui avait été hérité de la colonisation a fini par être dilapidé. Notamment le parc des salles de cinéma et les structures de formation. Pour des raisons qui seront exposées dans l'évaluation de chacun des pays, ce bilan est encore plus dramatique dans les pays et les régions désertiques. Le film documentaire étant le parent pauvre du cinéma et de la TV, son état est le plus désastreux du secteur. Depuis le début, il est au mieux utilisé comme support didactique ou institutionnel, et au pire comme un outil de propagande. Quelques cas d'école ont bien existé ça et la, durant la vague des années 60/70, mais n'ont pas pu résister face aux courants dominants. Après sa quasi-disparition durant les années 80, il évite une mort programmée dans la plupart des pays de la région, grâce à l'essor de l'industrie du cinéma documentaire en occident, notamment en Europe. Les réalisateurs évoluant en exil, politique ou économique, en ont profité pour relancer leurs cinémas documentaires en tournant des films chez eux avec des fonds étrangers. Mais la censure qui sévit dans la région a souvent empêché que ces productions soient librement diffusées dans leurs pays respectifs. Le public local ne pouvait y avoir accès qu'à travers les TV satellitaires étrangères, et plus tard grâce aux réseaux du web. Bien qu'une partie de cette production ait été

conditionnée par les exigences ou les orientations des commanditaires occidentaux et de leurs audiences, elle a incité à un regain d'intérêt chez le public et auprès des structures de formation. Depuis quelques années, les ressortissants de la région peuvent bénéficier de nouveaux fonds d'aide et de soutien arabes, notamment ceux des pays du Golfe Arabe. Ces derniers ne profitent pas encore suffisamment aux productions locales, qui manquent de savoir-faire en écriture et en développement de projets. Paradoxalement, certains pays de la région (Maroc, Algérie, Egypte...) dépensent des budgets annuels considérables dans la production de films documentaires. Divers ministères et Chaînes TV ont des cahiers de charges les obligeant à en produire des dizaines. Cependant le documentaire de création en est exclu, au profit du film institutionnel ou didactique.

Depuis l'avènement du " printemps arabe », un brin d'espoir est né. En Tunisie et en Egypte, le vent de liberté, a lui tout seul, est derrière la production de dizaines de films réalisés avec les moyens du bord. Ce défi est porté par les collectifs nouvellement constitués ainsi que par certaines structures de production qui ont connu un regain d'intérêt pour le cinéma documentaire. De même, un bon nombre de réalisateurs établis qui ne réalisaient que des films de fiction, se sont à leur tour convertis au genre documentaire. Cette dynamique reste pourtant fragile, elle exige d'avantage d'aide et de soutien pour construire une économie viable et pérenne. Si elle réussit à s'imposer dans ces deux pays, cette dynamique pourrait ensuite attirer dans son sillage les autres pays voisins, notamment les plus démunis, à la lisière de la région sub-saharienne. C'est le vœu le plus cher des principaux acteurs de cette région dont l'indice d'intégration régional est le plus faible du continent malgré la communauté de la langue et l'homogénéité de la culture. Cet espoir est d'autant plus permis quand on sait l'engouement actuel dans la région pour les réseaux web et les nouveaux médias. Ces derniers restent les canaux essentiels, permettant à la fois d'échapper à la censure et d'optimiser les ressources 19 r g r 20 20 Arabic speaking countries of Africa share not only the same language but also the same historical background.

Apart from Egypt which got its independence very

early and was interested in movie making since the birth of this industry, the other countries started to develop this sector only a few decades ago. They adopted the infrastructures, the culture and often even the laws inherited from colonisation. However the military or police states that came after decolonization and their near-total control over creation and distribution presented challenges to the creativity of the film and audiovisual sectors, and also may have played a role in limiting the profit end of the industry as well. In fact even what was inherited from colonisation disappeared eventually, especially movie theaters and training centers. This is even more drastic indesertic areas; as we will see when we evaluate each of these countries individually.

As for documentaries, which have been less valued

in the movies and TV industry, their fate is even worse. Right from the start documentaries were used at best as didactic or institutional tools, or merely as propaganda. There were a few exceptions in the Sixties and Seventies, but they could not survive under the prevailing tendencies. After having almost disappeared in the Eighties, documentaries escaped a planned death in most countries of this region thanks to the fast growing documentary industry in the West and especially in Europe. Film directors working in exile, either for political or economic reasons, took advantage of this fact to restart making documentaries by filming in their home country with foreign funds. But prevailing censorship often prevented the free distribution of these films in these countries. Local audiences could only see them via foreign satellite TV and later thanks to Internet. Although part of this production was conditioned by the demands and influences of their western sponsors and of course their viewers, it created a renewed interest in the public and training organisations. For a few years now, the countries of this region have been getting new assistance from

funds in the Arab States, mainly from the Gulf. But local productions are not really getting full benefit from this aid as they lack writing and project development know-how. On the other hand some countries in the area like MOROCCO, ALGERIA, and EGYPT spend huge budgets each year in making documentaries. Various ministries and TV channels have to produce dozens of them. However creative documentaries are for the most part not permitted, only institutional or didactic movies are made.

Since the Arab Spring, a ray of hope appeared. In

Tunisia and Egypt a breath of freedom is behind

the production of dozens of movies made with the means available. This challenge is taken up by newly formed associations and some production companies that have shown renewed interest in documentaries as well as numerous well established movie directors who previously were making only works of fiction. But this impetus is rather fragile; it needs added help to build a viable and long lasting industry. If this impetus manages to impose itself in Tunisia and Egypt, it could then pull along the neighboring countries, especially the poorest ones close to the Sahel. This the most fervent wish of the main field actors of the area whose regional integration index is the lowest of the continent, despite common language and culture. This hope is complemented by the recent interest in the Internet and new media that prevail in the area. These have become essential channels that allow for evading censorship as well as maximising the whole region's resources, including the most neglected areas. Associations and independent organisations are already benefiting from this to exchange their experiences and share their resources. While those in Egypt collaborate and help their Sudanese and Libyan colleagues, those in Tunisia, more united and active, show that they are the pivot of the region by sharing their abilities and actions with all their neighbors. This dynamic role is no doubt made easier by the geographic position and the culture of this country which is right at the center of the region. Extensive research is made difficult by the fact that the production and 21
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Institutions de tutelle

Production actuelle

Chaînes TV nationales

ꬠe

ChaînesTV étrangères

v recommandations

Sociétés de productions

ALGÉ

RIE 23

Industries & équipements

Ressources professionnelles

Fonds d'aide & subventions

Nationaux:

Internationaux:

Fonds d'aide de la région MENA (Moyen Orient et l'Afrique du Nord) ꬠS 鉥nv

Distribution, chaînes TV & audiences

24
Société civile, underground & web-multimédia recommandations

Festivals

ꬠF ꬠF recommandations

Ecoles/Formations/Training

Recommandations

Archives, cinémathèques & droits d'auteurs

25
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The film industry was born after independence

in 1962. The first two generations, trained mainlyquotesdbs_dbs27.pdfusesText_33

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