Pirated movies on the local market are a threat and are already failing the local film industry according to the Rwanda Film Federation president, Jean Kwezi. Rwanda Film Federation is an organisation that brings together all people working in the film industry including actors, actresses, script writers, producers, and directors. Speaking to The New Times, Kwezi said most foreign and a number of local movies on the market are pirated or obtained at zero cost by local movie translators and distributors who, in turn, put them on the market, hence outcompeting locally produced movies since they are sold cheaply. “Our locally produced movies are outcompeted by foreign pirated movies that are brought on the market cheaply by local translators, mostly movies from the U.S and Europe. They become people’s preference since they are cheap and easy to access,” he said He added that local movies have also not been spared, forcing producers to incur heavy losses, which in turn hinders the industry’s growth. “Our local industry cannot grow when we are not making returns from our investments. You invest a lot of money to make a movie at the end you harvest nothing because of film pirates,” he noted Kwezi says their appeals on the issue have failed to have an impact as the concerned stakeholders have not come up with concrete measureslike enforcing the copyright law and protecting the local movie industry under the Made-in-Rwanda policy.” He notes, however, he is positive that the negotiations they are planning with the Digital Arts Distribution (DAD), an association of movie distributors and translators finally bear fruits. editorial@newtimes.co.rw
