Every year the Durban International Film Festival (DIFF) adds extra value to the festival by hosting the additional Durban FilmMart (DFM).
This year’s edition of “Engage” will be hosted virtually with a series of webinars highlighting the future perspectives of the African film industry.
The Engage discussions will focus on three topics, “The Art of Fallism” - Reflecting on North/South Collaboration moderated by Oris Aigbokhaevbolo, a film/music writer, media consultant, and Nollywood expert from Nigeria.
The collaborative documentary debut, “The Art of Fallism” interrogates colonialism and ‘Fallist’ movements as a whole. In the session producers Wisaal Abrahams from South Africa and Ingvild Aagedal Skage from Norway speak candidly about their experience and the notion of decolonial approaches to storytelling which became a strong guiding tool for their production process.
The second “Engage” panel brings together script development experts to discuss story development in “Engage: Who Feels, Knows It - The Power of African Story Development” by Africans. With the growing presence of Africa in the global film landscape, this panel looks at story development and the key role it plays in the film value chain.
Featuring in this panel are South African script writers Tracey-Lee Rainers, whose experience includes “Sho’t Left” and “Breaking New Ground” and script doctor Mmabatho Kau whose films include amongst others “Happiness is a Four Letter Word”, “Kalushi” and “The Solomon Mahlangu Story”.
They will be joined by the celebrated award-winning Nigerian film director Ike Nnaebue and Kenyan award-winning producer Njoki Muhoho.
The “Engage: East Africa Rising - Reflections on Diverse and Dynamic Industry” panel brings together young dynamic film professionals from East Africa in a discussion about initiatives and communities that are building support structures for film professionals and creating spaces for filmmakers to drive growth.
Panellists include Silas Miami from Kenya, a performing artist, photographer and filmmaker. Hajooj Kuka from Sudan, an Academy member and Fibby Kioria from Uganda.
Engage forms part of 35 sessions of talks and panel discussions that will be hosted during the DFM.
Delegate registration is still open at www.durbanfilmmart.co.za.