To mark its tenth anniversary, Communicating for Change (CFC) hosted the second edition of Future of Development Film in Africa conference at Eko Hotel, Lagos, last week focusing on the best practices in the Nigerian film industry.
Sandra Obiago, CFC’s executive director in her speech called on the government to recognize the potentialities of the country’s creative industries especially the Nollywood in becoming the bedrock of Nigeria’s future economy while Donna Ghelfi , representing the United Nations World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) assured of her organization’s interest and determination in working with professionals in the nation’s creative industries to showcase the huge contribution of the sectors to the country’s economy .
The strategy according to Ghelfi would strengthen the political will on part of the government in implementing policies that will promote the creative industries as well as establish effective control mechanisms even as she believes it will also help to boost the film industry’s capacity to increase supply of creative and original content by overcoming constraints in film development, production, distribution, exhibition, sale, marketing and retailing within and across the borders.
The two day event was attended by professionals from advertising, film industry, the media as well as from the legal profession while key note speech which centered on Best Practices in International Film : A Vehicle for National Development was delivered by Andrea Calderwood, managing director State Films and producer of Oscar winning film.
In the Media that Matters, Deji Arosho, head of productions, BBC World Service Trust and Mo Abudu, managing director, Inspire Africa and Talk show host of Moments with Mo ignited the session . Mo believed that the media coverage of the African continent portrays the continent in the dark while so much of the positive side of what is happening on the continent is left unreported while Arosho said the BBC as a western press had tried to promote African cultures and lifestyles even as it tries to report events happening in Africa as they are. Contributors to the debate asked for a balancing in the coverage of what is happening in Africa by the western press.
Sessions focused on assessing the impact of intellectual property in the creative industries, Chain of the Basks, Business Models in the Nigeria film industry and the Global Finance and Distribution Environment.
Hollywood attorney and member of the Board of directors of the American Film Marketing Association, Rob Aft spoke alongside Richard Moxon, British Intellectual Property rights and financing expert with Davenport Lyons. Kenyan expert on Intellectual Property Law, Marisella Ouma, and WIPO creative industry expert, Donna Ghelfi.