East African Filmmakers Forum Seeks InformationEast African Filmmakers Forum, a cultural industry development organ supporting independent film development in the eastern Africa region, appeals to players in the audiovisual sector to feed the network with information that would stimulate professional film and television practice and networking.

Any one with information that can be used in the network’s fortnightly e-letter can channel it to ArtMatters.Info through martin.mhando@ziff.or.tz or nsigaye@yahoo.com.

The motivation for this Forum was the series of discussions and workshops at ZIFF from 1998 culminating in a two-day event in 2003. This was in response to the concerns expressed by filmmakers in East Africa, over the need to establish a collaborative body within the East African region that would allow filmmakers to network within the region and the continent and to have a voice at the international level.

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EAFF seeks:

  •   To gather all statistics available on the market in order to prepare for a complete study of our regional market
  •   To fight for culture to be put on the political and economic agenda
  • To fight against culture dumping through proper regulations
  •   To gather information on professionals available in our markets with biographies filmographies, and average salaries per field
  •   To build and strengthen our market with commercial thinking on strong marketing strategies, identifying the target audience, co-operation among professionals for common goals, exploring the potential of different means of distribution, generating more projects
  •   To establish a profession with support for its members and aspiring members
  •   To collaborate with training institutions in order to create and improve professional expertise for film professionals and aspiring professionals. Establish a close link with training institutions so that aspiring professionals can get hands-on experience
  •   To work on delivering quality films with production value
  •   To fight for a special investment fund to be created for the regional film economy
  •   To fight for more African films to be bought and programmed by our broadcasters, cinema halls, video shops, and education programmes.