The African International Documentary Festival Foundation (AFIDFF) and Dreams Hub have entered into an understanding in a bid to actualize the first ever documentary film festival in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea, to promote the culture of young African storytellers through films and documentaries by encouraging African themed stories with a view to creating jobs for 3000 persons during the festival across the continent of Africa.
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At the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signing, Mrs. Malame Mangzha, Director-General, AFIDFF, underscored the significance of the documentary and film festival.
“The festival is an opportunity to tell our collective stories as Africans, bridge differences in cultures and unravel opportunities in storytelling for young African documentary and film makers. The continent is in dire need for our voices to be heard on the international scene through the telling of positive stories anchored on our technologies, ways of life and community centeredness, including providing business opportunities for local artists and their communities, and improving the way the international community sees Africa and Africans.”
Mr. Oscar Nchaso, Executive Director of Dreams Hub, Malabo, stated that “Only Africans can perfectly narrate their stories by themselves, and the festival will be a great avenue to reach communities within the continent and expose their positive stories from the eyes of the communities, women, children and leadership – The festival will drive the story of our desired Africa. At Dreams Hub, we are building an inclusive network to support African stories by Africans, and an all-inclusive participation of all classes, gender and status of people, especially the youth which makes up the huge percentage of the African populace, while creating access to markets for storytelling, films, as well as breaking barriers to existing markets through the creation of alternative and blue ocean strategies to documentary and filmmaking for the common fortune of participating African countries in the festival.”
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The partnership contributes to the overall objective of the festival to support 3000 documentarians and filmmakers to access international markets through the training, seminars and provision of platforms to reach the international markets, from building capacity that meet benchmarked standards for the international marketplace, including generating jobs in the country. The film festival will focus on telling positive stories about Africa and enhance the readiness of women and youth–led storytelling through high-powered training and linkages to the digital media.
Work is set to be underway on the part of the two parties as they engage in conversations and actions, involving both the public and private sectors, and key stakeholders which will lead to the realization of the aim of this partnership.
African International Documentary Festival Foundation (AFIDFF) is a premier organization founded on the ideals of discovering and promoting talented under discovered/under–represented storytellers and documentary producers to global prominence. One of its goals is to train filmmakers and documentary producers to excel in storytelling. The foundation aims to celebrate aspiring documentarians, filmmakers, and historians as they document stories of Africa’s rich cultural heritage and history. Part of the organization’s goal is to protect history, promote creativity in the cultural industries and project the true image of Africa through documentary and storytelling by Africans themselves and also connecting with Africans in the diaspora through its programs and activities and empowering social entrepreneurs for social Impact.
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AFIDFF is collaborating with Dreams Hub on initiatives to support social innovation, entrepreneurs and community-led initiatives across Africa, allowing both parties to serve as centers that provide support to African film makers/story tellers, documentarians, social entrepreneurs, innovators, developers, and youth-led programs by providing physical co-working and dedicated capacity building trainings, workshops, business, legal and financial support to these members of their communities.
Dreams Hub is a project of XAPIENS SL, an initiative aimed at providing technological tools mainly to young people. Basically, it is an initiative to promote the research, development and innovation (R+D+i) ecosystem, stimulating interest for the generation of nationally produced technological products and services, to meet the demand of Equatorial Guinean population and companies, by promoting entrepreneurship from the early stages, leading to the creation of value at a national level.