(Busisiwe
Ntintili)
The 8th Durban FilmMart (DFM), Africa’s
premier film finance and co-production forum, has announced an exciting lineup
of speakers for this year’s edition, which takes place at the Tsogo Sun
Elangeni Hotel from July 14 to 17 during the Durban International Film
Festival.
A diverse and insightful industry programme
has been scheduled for this year’s DFM, which aims to stimulate collaboration
between African filmmakers and international producers and financiers. Key
speakers include film distributor Tilane Jones, audience development specialist
Moikgantsi Kgama, film executive Charles Hopkins, writer-director Shmerah
Passchier, virtual reality expert Ingrid Kopp, distributor Nicole Brooks,
editor-director Karen Harley, editor-producer Sabrina S Gordon,
screenwriter-producer Mila Aung-Thwin, screenwriter Busisiwe Ntintili,
filmmaker, playwright, poet and activist Tsitsi Dangarembga, producer-director
Stefano Tealdi and producer, director and writer Alby James.
Tilane Jones is the executive director of
ARRAY Now, a film distribution collaborative focused on women filmmakers and
filmmakers of colour, will be speaking about ARRAY Now and the role it plays in
supporting “Women Led Film”. Since 2011, Array has acquired key titles,
including Ava DuVernay’s Middle of
Nowhere, Andrew Dosunmu’s Restless
City and Haile Gerima’s Ashes and
Embers. Jones’ production credits include DuVernay’s Selma and the Oscar-nominated Netflix documentary The 13th, as well as a range of high
profile fashion and beauty films and television productions.
Moikgantsi Kgama is an audience development
specialist whose credits include I Will
Follow, Killer Sheep, Lumumba and the Academy Award-nominated Trouble the Water. Kgama is also the
founder of the Harlem-based ImageNation Cinema Foundation, which presents
progressive media made by people of colour.
Nicole Brooks, vice president of
CaribbeanTales Worldwide Distribution facilitates the CaribbeanTales Market
Incubator Programme. Brooks will be presenting “CineFAM - Africa, an
Accelerator programme for African women filmmakers”. Brooks has spent more than
15 years developing narratives that illuminate the peoples of the African
Diaspora. With substantial experience as a filmmaker, director, performer,
curator and teacher, Brooks also produces content for film, television and the
performing arts.
Charles Hopkins is an executive at
Shoreline Entertainment, an independent sales and production company based in
Los Angeles who will lead a masterclass called Ten questions to ask yourself before making your pitch. As a
Shoreline Executive, Hopkins has overseen acquisitions of projects in
development, attended various festivals and markets for acquisitions and sales,
and has negotiated a variety of deals with producers, talent, and distributors.
Ingrid Kopp and Shmerah Passchier will lead
a masterclass and workshop around Virtual
Reality: What’s Happening in Africa and What Can We Make Happen? Kopp is a
co-founder of Electric South, a non-profit initiative that aims to develop
virtual reality and mobile storytelling projects across Africa. She is also a
senior consultant in the Interactive Department at the Tribeca Film Institute
where she works at the intersection of storytelling, technology, design and
social change. Shmerah Passchier has worked in the film and television industry
as a writer, director and producer. She has travelled extensively around
Africa, directing magazine, reality shows and documentaries for the SABC and
DSTV.
Editor and director Karen Harley leads a
panel discussion entitled Editors Suite:
Effective Editing together with Sabrina S Gordon a producer/editor and
documentary filmmaker from NYC. Harley co-directed Waste Land, the feature-length documentary about artist Vik Muniz’s
work, which won the audience award at Sundance, Berlin and Durban, and was
nominated for best documentary at the Oscars in 2011. Sabrina S. Gordon’s
editing debut won an Emmy for WGBH’s Greater Boston Arts series and she has
continued to distinguish herself on award-winning films, web and television
programmes. She has many awards and credits to her name, and also produces
media for nonprofit and grassroots organizations, as well as engagement
campaigns that leverage documentaries for tools for social change. She is the
Co-Chair of the Black Documentary Collective and serves on many media panels
and juries.
Mila Aung-Thwin, co-founder of Montreal's
EyeSteelFilm, who is a writer, director, producer and editor, will participate
in a panel discussion – Making Socially
Impactful Documentaries. Aung-Thwin has produced more than 25 documentary
features, including Up the Yangtze,
Forest of the Dancing Spirits and
the Emmy award-winning Last Train Home.
He has served as president of Montreal's International Documentary Festival, as
well as a juror for the International Emmy Awards, the New Zealand Film Awards
and the Sundance Film Festival.
The Durban Talents programme presents South
African Busisiwe Ntintili together with Zimbabwean Tsitsi Dangarembga, who will
appear on a panel From Novel to Script.
Ntintili has had extensive experience as a writer for radio, film and
television, as well as writing the screenplay for the local smash hit, Happiness is a Four Letter Word.
Dangarembga is a filmmaker, playwright, poet and activist who has produced
several documentaries and has credits on most of Zimbabwe’s feature film
classics, including Everyone’s Child,
which she co-wrote and directed.
As part of a collaboration between DFM and
Produire au Sud, Nantes, Stefano Tealdi, a director and producer of film and
television who lives and works in Italy will be conducting a pitching workshop
for DFM Official fiction projects and DFM’s Jumpstart projects which aims to
support emerging filmmakers through exposing them to the pitching process.
Tealdi has directed numerous documentaries as well as the series Food Markets – In the Belly of the City.
Recent works produced include Mostar
United, Vinylmania, Char, and No Man’s Island. He has directed all 17
editions of the annual Italian workshop Documentary in Europe and has chaired
the European Documentary Network. Tealdi tutors film development and
production, as well as film pitching for many of the world’s leading film
events.
From the UK comes Alby James, who will
present a Talents Durban Masterclass entitled Interpreting the Script for the Screen. James has been working as a
producer, director and writer in the field of drama for nearly 40 years in
film, television, radio, theatre and opera and as an educator of creative
skills and professional practice with writers, producers, directors and actors.
He is leader of a new short course for directors at the National Film &
Television School in London to increase the numbers of Black and Asian people,
women and those with disabilities in the industry.
The 8th Durban FilmMart takes place in
Durban, at the Tsogo Sun Elangeni from July 13 to 17 2017, during the 38th
edition of the Durban International Film Festival (July 13 to 23, 2017).
For more information on the Durban FilmMart
and to register as a delegate visit www.durbanfilmmart.com
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