The SDC supports the Locarno film festival’s promotion of independent film-makers from the South and East. The festival promotes these film-makers in its Open Doors section. This year, the focus is on countries in sub-Saharan Africa where mainly English or Portuguese is spoken such as Angola, Botswana, Cape Verde, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gambia, Ghana, Kenya, Lesotho, Liberia, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, São Tomé and Príncipe, Sierra Leone, Somalia, South Africa, South Sudan, Sudan, Swaziland, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
From these countries, 12 film-makers have been chosen for the Open Doors section. During the festival, they will have the opportunity to take part in a training session on how to optimise marketing, show their project to potential partners, and participate in workshops.
Once the workshops have been concluded, the most promising projects will receive an award on 12 August. The first prize worth CHF 50,000 will be awarded by Open Doors together with the City of Bellinzona and the Swiss production fund “visions sud est“, which is also supported by the SDC. Additional prizes will be awarded by the French “Centre national du cinéma et de l’image animée“ (CNC) and television channel ARTE.
Various films from the region in focus will be shown at the festival.
Links:
- Open Doors
- Press release, 5 May 2014 (Pardo)
- "Afrikas Filme – kaum entstanden, schon verschwunden/Des films qui naissent et meurent aussitôt/Film che nascono e che subito muoiono“ (available in French, German and Italian only): Interview with Alex Moussa Sawadogo from Burkina Faso, SDC magazine “Eine Welt/Un seul monde/Un solo mondo“ (May 2014, p.32)
- Swiss fund visions sud est
- The SDC’s promotion of culture
