African filmmakers to breather life into the industry

"As crafters of the African story- as creators, authors and originators and incubators of images of expression and representation- effectively moving into the 21st century, a sustainable and profitable African cinema still remains a challenge," says FEPACI secretary general, Seipati Bulane-Hopa.

With the congress theme: "Institutional Transformation of FEPACI With Aligned Policies, Strategies and Programmes for Filmmaking In The 21st Century," the federation hopes to emerge a stronger, revitalised organisation.

This is the first congress since the African Summit held in 2006 when the organisation's secretariat relocated from its Burkina Faso head quarters to Johannesburg. The headquarters remains in the Burkina's capital, Ouagadougou.

New vision, new sustainability

Congress will also elect new office bearers to lead the organisation's renewal drive. One of the main aims of the congress will be to develop ways to address the challenge of creating a profitable African cinema. Delegates will include pioneers of African cinema such as (Souleymane Cisse from Mali, Timote Bassouri, Kwah Ansah from Ghana, Ola Balogun from Nigeria, and many more

To date, the secretariat has been working on adequate tools and operational instruments required to restructure the reorganisation so that it can adapt to new challenges. "FEPACI will be more equipped after this congress. It will be stronger. The organisation has taken time to rebuild itself. It will be transformed with new vision and new sustainability and review its operations because these tools did not exist during the first part of FEPACI," says FEPACI project manger, Marc Nekaitar.

Nekaitar says the organisation is making a shift from one that fought for the liberation of Africa to one that seeks economic freedom for its members. The second era coincides with the African Renaissance's vision of an economically free Africa.

Economic freedom wanted

"This is the new mandate that the new FEPACI is equipped to achieve. We want economic freedom. It is time that African filmmakers consider their work as a real economical tool. How do we turn our industry into a viable economy?

Strategies and policies adopted at next month's congress will be able to help develop this new vision," he says. Nekaitar adds that another role of the federation is to contribute to implement the global vision of the Africa Union continental integration. The institutional and political transformation of FEPACI should be enhanced to ensure that it has the capacity to fully implement its mandate for the benefit of the filmmakers and the African creative economy.

Pre-congress meetings of the Advisory Council and Regional secretaries will precede Congress on the 1 and 2 May 2013.

It is expected that the recommendations of the Advisory Council meetings, based on analysis of all reports and documents presented, will inform the discussions of Congress and will lead to a concrete roadmap for effective deliberation towards the transformation of FEPACI.

Concrete objectives of the congress are, amongst others, are to adapt to new challenges, assess the needs of filmmakers of the 21st Century, provide access to funding and new technologies.

For more, go to http://fepaci.org