PLEASE NOTE THAT THE APPLICATION DEADLINE FOR THE 2008 MAISHA FILMMAKERS LAB HAS BEEN EXTENDED TO FEB. 15TH, 2008.
The new applications for the 2008 lab are available now here.
Participants at the 2007 Commonwealth People's Forum were treated to the fruits of an innovative film-making training scheme that took place during the weeklong summit.
The Maisha Film Lab, a Ugandan NGO, run a training course for new film-makers. They received instruction, and were mentored and coached on aspects of film-making technique such as screen-writing, directing, cinematography, sound recording and editing.
By the end of the five day training course, they made three short films on the themes of the Forum, Realising People's Potential, and were shown as part of the closing ceremony on Thursday 22 November. They will be shown again in the film tent of the People's Space, an open access area of the Forum next to the Africana Hotel, at 6.30 on Friday 23 November as part of the Amakula film programme.
The films addressed key development issues: women's human rights, the status of the girl child and access to water in rural communities, using a mix of drama and documentary methods.
Commonwealth Foundation Head of Culture and Diversity Andrew Firmin commented, "This is an excellent training initiative for East African and South Asian film-makers, and it's been great to make the connection with the Forum. The films show how a connection can be made between creative expression and hard-edged development issues."
The programme was supported by a grant from the Commonwealth Foundation.
http://www.commonwealthfoundation.com/news/news/detail.cfm?id=380
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Film is easily one of the most far-reaching mediums in the modern world, one that essentially validates a culture. In the entire African continent, there are few, if any, training programs for aspiring filmmakers. The few films that take place in East Africa are often made by foreigners without local crews, and generally focus on the political turmoil that plagues the region. While there is a flourishing and vital writing and theatre culture in the region, the bridge to convert this talent into screenplays and films has yet to be built.
MAISHA(meaning "life" in Kiswahili) provides new screenwriters and film directors from East Africa (Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania and Rwanda) and South Asia (India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh) with access to the professional training and production resources necessary to articulate their visions. Maisha aims to preserve, cultivate and unleash local voices from these regions, and to become one of the first targeted programs to offer structured and accessible resources to these emerging filmmakers. MAISHA is motivated by the belief that a film which explores the truths and idiosyncrasies of the specifically local often has the power to cross over and become significantly universal.
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