Recent work in film
A helping hand to link the film chain.
One of the advantages of the Commonwealth Foundation's responsive grants scheme is that it enables the Foundation - whose offices are based at the Commonwealth headquarters in London - to keep in touch with development initiatives on the ground in its 46 member countries around the world. Together, these provide a broad view of some of the development sectors. Over the last year, the Culture and Diversity programme has recently awarded several grants to cultural and development organisations working at different levels of the film industry. As the beneficiaries of the grant usually state, film is a key tool for cultural expression: it celebrates, explores and promotes identities; it raises the profile of people and places; and, because of its reach, it has the potential to be a means of cultural exchange within and between regions. Yet, those in the film industries in Commonwealth countries recognise the need for investment in each part of the chain, from the film-makers to the producers and distributors.
The recent Zanzibar International Film Festival included workshops to bring the links of the film chain together. Its organisers recognise that artists face many obstacles to local and global market participation created by the industry's lack of cohesion. Participants in the Soko Filam Workshop - which included artists, producers, distributors and representatives from government - contributed to a Value Chain Study, which will explore the film chain in greater detail. The study is due for publication in the coming months.
The Maisha Film Laboratory, held in Uganda every year, invites young film-makers from East Africa and South Asia to build their capacity as writers and directors and for them to experience the process of film-making from the screenplay to the screen. The emphasis of the programme is also to highlight the local cultures and communities of the film-makers themselves.
At the other end of the film 'chain' is the challenge surrounding the distribution of film. The Film Resource Unit's work is to build networks of distributors, linking the film-makers with international broadcasters, educational institutions, non-governmental organisations, and regional government bodies in Southern Africa. It sees film as a tool to implement the Southern African Development Community's social development initiatives in the region and sees its constituency as the millions of viewers that see the films and the film-makers themselves.
Finally, film festivals such as the Brisbane International Film Festival, the Kampala International Film Festival and the Bird's Eye Film Festival provide an important forum for talented film-makers to generate international exposure and meet contemporaries. The Bird's Eye Festival targets women film-makers specifically, as only about seven per cent of film directors are women.
The Foundation has supported each of the organisations in this article with small grants as part of its responsive grants scheme.
