Film project to change Africa’s migration story
Friday October 05 2018
Generation Africa, a project by South Africa-based non-profit Social Transformation and Empowerment Projects (Steps) is calling for stories on migration to develop into documentaries for production next year.
Generation Africa is seeking to stimulate a new narrative on migration based on stories by Africans and produced for and by Africans. The project will be done in collaboration with AfriDocs, the free global streaming platform for African documentaries.
The issue of migration, especially across the treacherous waters of the Mediterranean, have dominated world news in the past five years, polarising societies in the West as governments scramble to get a handle on what they view as a “crisis.’’
The crisis has grown with each year, as negative images and portrayal of Africa and Africans are used as the face of the problem proliferated more and more.
Cumulatively, these images have contributed to a singular narrative told about African migration, without the inclusion of African voices. Many facts have gone untold, such as migration within Africa being higher than that out of the continent, or that Uganda hosts the third highest number of refugees in the world.
The organisers are looking for stories which are unpredictable, touching, moving, revolutionary and challenging.
The films should show action plan and achievements rather than complaints and hopelessness. The stories are aimed at an Africa audience to elicit laughter, thought, action and discourse.
“We are looking for compelling, nuanced and unpredictable stories that celebrate the achievements of African youth on the continent,” explains Steps executive producer, Don Edkins. “The focus for the project is East and West Africa as well as the Horn of Africa, but we will consider stories from the entire continent if they are compelling.”
Filmmakers can submit up to three story ideas in the form of a one page synopsis, along with a CV, filmography, and links to previous works.
Submissions are invited from filmmakers who have made at least one documentary that has been broadcast or shown at a film festival. The proposals must be in English, or French with an English translation. Only African filmmakers are eligible to apply.
The films can be of any length, from feature length, to shorts of five minutes long. And separately the organisers will prepare the production of stories shot by mobile phones.
The deadline for submissions from East Africans is October 8. The story development workshop for East Africa takes place on November 5-9 in Nairobi, Kenya.