Focus Features has signed a first-look deal with independentproducer Kisha Imani Cameron and her Completion Films.

Focus has also announced an initiative to nurture African cinema,with Cameron, currently in post production on HBO Films' Rwandan drama SometimesIn April, serving as aproject consultant.

Focus president of production John Lyons and his team will workwith Cameron to cultivate projects for the Focus Features and Rogue Picturesslates, with Focus holding worldwide rights.

Lyons and Cameron recently attended Toronto to meet withfilmmakers and the initiative follows a year-long study commissioned by Focuson the creative state of filmmaking in Africa.

Focus has enjoyed successful collaborations with Asian filmmakerssuch as Ang Lee on Brokeback Mountain and Zhang Yimou on House Of The Flying Daggers, and Latin American luminaries includingWalter Salles on The Motorcycle Diaries and Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu on 21 Grams.

Completion, which will develop a wide range of features,documentaries and television programmes, is nearing the finishing line on RaoulPeck's Sometimes In April, which stars Idris Elba, Oris Erhueroand Debra Winger.

Prior to forming Completion, Cameron worked as director ofdevelopment at Walden Media on film and television projects and also served asan executive at New Line.

"We're so pleased to be pooling our resources with Kisha's," Focusco-presidents David Linde and James Schamus said in a joint statement.

"Her valuableexperience from her years as a film executive as well as from being a workingproducer make her a perfect fit for us here at Focus."