Veteran filmmaker Shemu Joyah leaves the country on Thursday for the Durban FilmMart in South Africa, which runs from July 21 to 24 2023.
French Honorary Consul to Malawi Luc Deschamps confirmed the development Sunday, saying Joyah, who is the brains behind award winning films such as Seasons of A Life and The Road to Sunrise, is attending the FilmMart courtesy of the French Embassy.
“The FilmMart is a film market where African filmmakers meet with producers and financiers from all over the world. He will pitch his John Chilembwe movie project as well as other film projects and a series,” Deschamps said.
Joyah said he was excited to be attending the FilmMart.
“The annual Durban FilmMart is a pan-African finance and co-production market designed to create partnerships and further the development and production of African cinema,” he said of the platform named in Unesco’s 2021 Film Trends in Africa Report as the continent’s best film market.
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He said FilmMart provides selected African filmmakers with projects in development and opportunity to pitch film projects to leading financiers and content buyers.
“It also offers a full programme of industry-film related master classes, workshops and panel discussions as well as networking opportunities for African and international filmmakers to form alliances for the future.
He said some of the international producing companies attending this year’s FilmMart include Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Showmax, Trace Studios and Tik Tok.
“This opportunity is very important to me because it gives me a chance to meet face to face with executives from Netflix, Amazon and other platforms, who are directly responsible for the acquisition of content and selection of films to finance in Africa,” Joyah said.
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A press statement from First Dawn Arts says, in April this year, the Adviser for Cooperation and Cultural Action at the French Embassy in South Africa Ludovic Cocogne visited the country where he interacted with Joyah and other artists at Jacaranda Cultural Centre in Blantyre.
“Mr Joyah brought to the attention of Mr Cocogne the problems Malawian filmmakers face in accessing funding for their film projects, giving an example of the John Chilembwe film as he has been looking for funding since 2010,” reads the statement.
It further says that Cocogne requested Joyah to send some of his film proposals.
The statement says that a few weeks later, Emmanuelle Denavit- Feller, the regional head of new media, film and music at the French Embassy contacted Joyah, where they indicated that they wanted him to attend the Durban FilmMart.
Recently, Solomonic Peacocks Director McArthur Matukuta also attended a theatre workshop in South Africa courtesy of the French Embassy.
