Open Doors, the Locarno Film Festival’s co-production platform and talent development programme, is focusing on African filmmakers and producers for its 23rd edition, taking place from August 7-12. in Switzerland.
This year’s edition aims to push for collaboration and solidarity over competition between the participants, giving them the space to forge a fresh approach to producing and distributing films in the African countries represented.
It follows a three-year cycle focused on Latin America and the Caribbean.
“Africa is not one reality, it is an array of fragmented realities and fragmented markets,” notes Yanis Gaye, the new head of studies at Open Doors. “There are some commonalities in terms of the challenges facing the industry, including what the continent is facing both in terms of challenges, but also opportunities.”
Film professionals from 42 countries in Africa were eligible to apply to this iteration of Open Doors, which is aimed at filmmakers from equity seeking communities and regions where artistic expression is at risk.
Gaye, a French-Senegalese creative producer and co-founder of the boutique production houses Goree Cinema in Senegal and Strange Fruit Production House in France, is well-placed to steer this year’s Open Doors. In 2023 Gaye co-founded YETU (Un)Limited – a multi-venture African film studio.
YETU is a multi-venture film studio founded on a sustainable business model and endogenous creative processes which aims to foster cinematic storytelling for the growing diverse African diasporic and global audiences alike.
“We’re talking about a continent where you have the most youth and the most connectivity pathways that have yet to be built, which creates a lot of attraction for these specific markets,” he says.
Gaye is working alongside Open Doors chief Zsuzsi Bánkuti to ensure this year’s edition is more collaborative than ever across its three main strands: Co-production platform Open Doors Projects, Open Doors Producers career-building initiative and the Open Doors Directors progamme.
The participants of the Directors programme will show their short films as part of the Open Doors Screenings section. The section also includes eight feature films, screened throughout the festival.
“The idea is not necessarily to point participants to work with Europe and European partners,” says Bánkuti. “The idea is to help identify the challenges the participants have in their country and figure out what is the most sustainable way for them to work and how to do so from their countries.”
Companies including France’s Canal Plus, Netflix and ShowMax Africa – 70% owned by South African pay-TV giant MultiChoice and 30% by Comcast’s NBCUniversal –are already supporting the development of local production and distribution endeavours in various African countries.
“Such backing shows there is like a true interest in the continent,” says Gaye. “But one has yet to crack down on what it means in terms of true investments locally. That’s where Open Doors comes in, because it puts the focus on the talent coming from those spaces, on the producers coming from those spaces.
“What we want to be a part of is a generation of producers that doesn’t just have an eye on content, but also on infrastructure.”
Producers
The six participants in the Open Doors Producers programme are: Kamy Lara (Angola), Moustapha Sawadogo (Burkina Faso), Leul Shoaferaw (Ethiopia), June Wairegi (Kenya), Yannick Mizero Kabano (Rwanda), and Kudakwashe Miss Maradzika (Zimbabwe).
“The future for the creative producer in the African continent is going to be someone that is a jack of all trades when it comes to the whole creative production chain,” suggests Gaye. “Open Doors will help participants identify and collaborate on the direction to take the industry in different African countries.”
Directors
The filmmakers presenting their short films and taking part in Open Doors Directors are: Sudanese director Yasir Faiz (Bourgainvillea); Priscillia Kounkou Hoveyda from Congo and Iran (Where My Memory Began); Ugandan filmmaker Patience Nitumwesiga (JANGU); Amina Abdoulaye Mamani from Niger (The Envoy Of God); and Mauritanian director Abdoulaye Sall (Le Dernier Voyage).
The opening film of the Open Doors Screenings programme is the world premiere of Nigerian filmmaker Ema Edosio feature Where Nigeria Happens.
Leading up to Open Doors, the participants across the three programmes have been collaborating online, guided by a team including Gaye (for the Producers), Marjorie Bendeck (for the Projects, supported by Tiny Mungwe), and Delphine Jeanneret (for the Directors, supported by Ibee Ndaw). Overall support has come from Mitchell Harper and Julia Duarte.
“You have a few weeks where there are going to be synergies for those in the producer programme with either the directors programme and the projects programme,” says Gaye. “Understanding how to better build your slate from the ground up and understanding the crucial role determining role of development within the creative process is at the heart of the Open Doors programme.”
The Open Doors programme runs during the festival’s industry strand Locarno Pro from August 7-12. Open Doors is organised in collaboration with the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) of the Federal Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
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