Earlier this week, Serge-Armand Noukoue, the Film and Media Attaché for East Africa at the French Embassy in Kenya and Somalia was in Rwanda to encourage Rwandan filmmakers to take advantage of financing opportunities placed on the table to finance their film projects. His visit was part of the workshop dubbed ‘France and African Cinema’, during which stakeholders in Rwanda’s cinema industry were shown opportunities being availed by French investors and organisations that normally provide funding for potential film projects struggling for funds to run. The workshop was organised as part of the seventh edition of the Mashariki African Film Festival (MAFF) 2021 which concludes in Kigali on December 17. This year’s edition of the festival is being held under the theme ‘Tell the Tale’ as an occasion to encourage filmmakers to tell stories that can build a healthy and safe community. During the workshop, filmmakers said that the majority of filmmakers’ movie projects go unsuccessful or remain in the books due to crosscutting challenges dominated by lack of funding. “We have thousands and thousands of stories to tell but financial resources to produce a film that meets international standards remain a big challenge,” said Rwandan filmmaker Muniru Habiyakare. However, Noukoue argued that the main problem is that Rwandan filmmakers may not have information about financial opportunities being available to them, so they start exploring them to produce successful film projects. “France is a country of co-productions either with African countries or elsewhere across the globe. There are funding opportunities available for African filmmakers, training opportunities, and other programmes that aim to contribute to the growth of the industry and professionalisation of the industry as well,” said Noukoue. According to Noukoue, plenty of funding opportunities are offered by Organisational International e Francophonie (OIF) and at Fonds Jeune Creation Francophone, which is newer. Filmmakers can also seek funding at Centre National du Cinema (CNC) which normally handles anything related to cinema in France, while others can apply for funding through African, Caribbean, and Pacific (ACP)-EU partnership. ‘Nameless’, Rwanda’s latest film by Mutiganda wa Nkunda, which has been produced privately by Orange in France, and ‘Mercy of the Jungle’, a Franco-Belgo Rwandan co-production with Rwandan filmmaker Joel Karekezi, are the latest successful projects funded by French funding institutions However, the co-production trend between France and Rwanda is still low as filmmakers claim the financing should be extended to other filmmakers. “There is definitely a lot going on and we want filmmakers to be aware of such opportunities. We want to raise awareness about that so that there would be more films which are co-productions between France and Rwanda,” Noukoue said. France has for years been contributing to the growth of the African film industry, especially through the country’s cooperation with country members of the Francophonie.
