The Future of Development Film in Africa Conference
About the TVE African Partner Network
Communicating for Change (CFC) has been part
of TVE’s African Partner Network of development film
producers and distributers for numerous years. The Network
is made up of partners from all over Africa (Sierra
Leone, Liberia,
the Gambia, Ghana, Nigeria, Uganda, Kenya, Malawi, Namibia, Lesotho, Zimbabwe, Zambia and South
Africa). The Network has excelled
in producing development films, translating them in to African
languages, and distributing them through broadcast and non-broadcast
outlets, as well as screening films in some of the remotest
communities on the continent through mobile film units. For
example in Lesotho, our partners, Sesotho Media & Development,
operate a community cinema in their film resource unit which
organizes weekly film shows that are very popular with street
kids, students and other important stake holder groups.
The Network has also made a visible impact in strengthening
the outreach of civil society coalitions through development
television programming. In Malawi for
instance, our partner, The Malawi Economic
Justice Network, which
is a coalition of over 100 NGOs made up of trade unions, faith
based and community based organizations, has a mobile unit
which screens development films all over the country. They
also produce a television program that airs development films,
organizes discussion programs and produces programming on economic
justice issues.
Our South African partner, the Film Resource
Unit, distributes
and screens films through film festivals in low income urban
and rural communities, and has created a curriculum with the
support of the Ministry of Education, teaching unemployed youths
how to start development film centers and organize facilitated
film screenings as a practical means of economic empowerment
and poverty eradication.
Our partners in Kenya,
Ace Communications, specialize in producing films and information,
communications and education materials on HIV & AIDS, while
our Ugandan partners, Television for Development, have produced
over 50 documentaries and distribute a wide range of development
films across East Africa.
Our Zimbabwean partners, Media for Development, have produced
award winning feature films on development issues, and distribute
between 2000-3000 development films every year across southern
Africa through a vast film resource center. They also operate
one of the best audio production studios outside South
Africa, ensuring that they cover their costs
through grants and fee based production services. Our Namibian
partners, Optimedia, have actually set up a free to air television
channel, called the Social Lifestyle Channel, which airs development
programming.
In Sierra Leone, our
partners Environmental Foundation for Africa, distribute and
screen films in refugee communities, while in the Gambia,
our partner is the national television station which airs development
programming, and shows films through a network of community screening
halls all over the country.
Communicating for Change is the central hub of the West African
region, and has had a very positive collaboration with the Africa
Network. Besides producing television programming for the
network, CFC has developed an exemplary partnership with Nigeria’s
television stations, ensuring that development films are distributed
and aired all over the country. CFC has also developed
a unique mobile film screening program by partnering with Nigeria’s
largest commercial bus companies, ensuring that development films
are seen by bus passengers traveling all over the country.
The network was set up and is supported by the Television
Trust for the Environment, a UK based
non-profit development film organization, which has similar networks
in Asia and Latin America. Over the last ten years, TVE
has fundraised for the Africa Network to provide training
and small scale equipment and production grants, as well as organize
regular meetings for network partners. TVE also helps distribute
partner films to broadcast stations outside Africa.
