Representatives of the Durban Film Office and the Durban International Film Festival are in Rotterdam to promote the inaugural Durban FilmMart, to take place in July 2010. Nick Cunningham reports
The event will follow closely the Rotterdam market model and Durban staff are hopeful that it will act as a project feeder for CineMarts of the future. On a not unrelated side-note, Rotterdam and Durban share twinned status.
“We at the Durban Film Festival [DIFF] really want to promote African cinema – that's one of the most important things we can do,” says DIFF manager Nashen Moodley. “But we have found over the years that it's increasingly difficult to promote African cinema, because there is so little African cinema. And Africa gets too little attention, which is why Rotterdam is making such a big effort this year to bring our cinema to the forefront. At the same time, you have to realise that you cannot hang around waiting for great African films to land in your lap. So, as a festival, we think it is very important to play a more proactive role in attracting and getting these African films made.”
Durban Film Office (DFO) CEO Toni Monty confirmed she is looking to secure between 10 and 20 outstanding projects for the event's closed Finance Forum pitching event, and a further 20 to 30 for the Producers' Forum, which will entail a pitching and packaging workshop and conference programme. Immediately following IFFR, DFO and DIFF personnel will spread the word in Berlin and Discop Africa (Dakar), with the aim of luring top-level industry executives to the event. Monty confirmed that her immediate priority is to have between twenty and thirty key financiers from the global industry in place before Durban doors open for business in July.