Wij zijn cinemAfrika! Welkom op onze website. Heb je na het lezen nog vragen of wil je meedoen? Graag! Neem dan contact met ons op. Onze contactgegevens vind je op de laatste pagina.
cinemAfrika staat voor samenwerking tussen makers uit Europa en Afrika. Niet zomaar film-en tv makers, fotografen of schrijvers. Onze Afrikaanse partners zijn (bijna) altijd ambitieuze jonge mensen, met een hart voor film en andere media en afkomstig uit “sloppenwijken” en andere achtergestelde gebieden. Veel van onze studenten/collega’s hebben niet eens de kans gehad basis of middelbare school af te maken. Toch zijn ze niet te stuiten als het gaat om het vertellen van verhalen. Hun verhalen! De verhalen van armoede, onrecht, en misbruik. Maar ook het verhaal van fantasie, kunst, veerkracht en vol Afrikaanse humor.
Het verhaal van deze mensen moet verteld worden! cinemAfrika wil hen daarbij ondersteunen met workshops, coaching, samenwerkingsverbanden, coproducties en trainingen. Samen beter worden in ons vak. Zodat er meer mensen hun verhaal kunnen horen en zien en er een (betere) boterham kan worden verdiend. Voor een Europese filmmaker is zo’n samenwerking bijzonder en verrijkend. Voor hem/haar als mens en als maker.
De oprichters van cinemAfrika zijn al sinds 2008 betrokken bij het coachen van makers met deze achtergrond. In 2020 werd het hoog tijd om dit werk meer structuur te geven. Zo ontstond het programma cinemAfrika.
We proudly invite you to participate in any way you see fit for you.
Our goals are:
Supporting the development of artistic and journalistic media made by people from economic disadvantaged groups in Africa in order to:
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Produce more artistic and relevant productions
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Work on the East-African narrative/way of storytelling (so no copy of Hollywood or Europe)
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Make the voices of these groups heard and thus contribute to development of human rights and democratic processes.
- Achieve better incomes for makers from slums.
- Stimulate exchange between African and Western makers and organizations.
Living conditions in the slums are just terrible. One never gets used to that and shouldn't!
People are no rats and shouldn't have to live like that. But many are now. Despite this, the major media outlets in Africa, often controlled by governments, hardly give attention to people in the slums.
Most people from the economic middle and upper classes are also not interested in their poverty-stricken countrymen. In fact, they are looked down upon and by many.
Gelukkig zijn heel veel mensen uit deze ‘slums’ veerkrachtig en creatief. cinemAfrika wil hen ondersteunen in het ‘vertellen’ van hun verhaal. Dit is geen ‘noodhulp’ maar ontwikkelingsondersteuning in een bijzonder krachtige vorm, want goed vertelde verhalen kunnen in potentie veel mensen bereiken.
Due to the scarcity of resources and inadequate education in the slums, the quality of many media productions stays, from a European perspective, behind. As a result, the produced films are often not bought or viewed often enough. Therefore, it is hard for a maker to make an impact and earn a decent income. In recent years, the initiators of CinemAfrika have built a wide network of organizations and makers.
De afgelopen jaren hebben de initiatiefnemers van cinemAfrika een breed netwerk van organisaties en makers opgebouwd. We hebben lessen en workshops gegeven, producties gecoacht en samen met enkele van hen coproducties gemaakt die o.a. op de Nederlandse, Belgische, Duitse en Taiwanese tv te zien zijn geweest alsook op festivals over de hele wereld werden vertoond.
Two productions with local makers:
Earlier productions from people coming from the slum we supported have been
screened at Netherlands, Belgian, German and Taiwanese TV and at festivals around
the world.
Two productions, amongst others, which were made in cooperation local makers are:
Kippen voor Kimaru, About 10-year-old Kimaru does not resign to the fact that there is no money for
school
Dusty Bin Dreams, mid-length documentary (56 min). About 5 people who live and work on a garbage dump in Nairobi and dream about their future.
We cooperated in the organization of the Nairobi Slum Film Festival and were a jury member of the Mtaa Film Festival 2020 that had Gender Based Violence as its subject.
We work/worked and together with The Big 5 Center (which we helped set-up), ASMO (Alliance of Slum Media Organizations), Voices of Africa Media Foundation, Nairobi Community Media House, Slum TV, Nairobi University, South Sudan TV, Miraya Radio (Sudan and South Sudan) and many others in Mali, Swaziland, Tanzania and (a bit off the route) Bangladesh, Turkey, Bulgaria as well as the African School and NHTV University of Applied sciences in the Netherlands.
We maakten naast de hierboven genoemde documentaires, in samenwerking met Afrikaanse filmmakers, diverse TV-programma’s en internetproducties en betrokken Afrikaanse makers bij ons werk voor Nederlandse omroepen. In 2020 werd het tijd om al deze activiteiten onder een officieel dak te plaatsen, tijd voor het oprichten van cinemAfrika. De ANBI status levert ook bescherming op voor de vrijwilligers en donateurs.
Our goal has been described, our ambition for the film world in East-Afrrica is:
Er was een tijd voor cinemAfrika en een tijd erna!
You want to help? Visit "Participation" on this site and register as a volunteer and/or donate.
cinemAfrika is een zelfstandig programma binnen stichting e-Progress. Samen met 3 andere programma’s die ook in Oost-Afrika werken, dragen we de kosten van organisatie en administratie. Elk programma heeft z’n eigen kopgroep en vaardigt 1 of 2 leden af aan het bestuur van e-Progress. Binnen het bestuur en de diverse andere verbanden inspireren en adviseren we elkaar. Als we in Afrika zijn bezoeken we elkaars projecten. Op die manier houden we met elkaar en voor elkaar de vinger aan de pols. De oprichters van cinemAfrika, Gerhard Rijksen, Floor Koomen en Anne van Campenhout en de andere vrijwilligers hebben allen een sterke band met Afrika.
cinemAfrika initieert doorgaans geen projecten in Afrika maar reageert op verzoeken van Afrikaanse organisaties en makers. Dan onderzoeken hoe we hoe we ondersteuning kunnen bieden.
Geert Jan Blanken
Geert Jan (1957) is ooit afgestudeerd als wijsgerig pedagoog, en heeft gewerkt als filosofie-docent, jeugdconsulent, hoofdredacteur en manager bij de Evangelische Omroep. Hij schreef twee boeken over Søren Kierkegaard, en werkt aan een derde. Hij laat zich graag inspireren door de visie van deze bijzondere filosoof op de liefde: “Liefde tot de naaste wil niet bezongen worden, zij wil worden gedaan.”
Anne van Campenhout
Anne (1989) is a documentary filmmaker and coach. She makes films and trains media students in The Netherlands and various (African) countries. She worked as a director at Netherlands Film Festival and won several prestigious awards with her films. She also organizes discussion groups for women for whom sex is complicated. She is co-founder of the SAM foundation, that is also active in East Africa
Floor Koomen
Floor (1963) is documentairemaker, schrijver, docent, eindredacteur en Afrika-deskundige. Hij bracht een deel van zijn jeugd in Afrika door en kwam er sindsdien talloze keren om films te maken en les te geven. Over zijn reizen schreef hij het boek Soms In Afrika. Hij is medeoprichter van het Programma SAM dat ook in Oost-Afrika actief is.
André van der Zee is financially knowledgeable and therefore the treasurer. Gert Visscher has visited Africa several times to visit projects and worked for multiple organizations for international development. internationale ontwikkelings- en noodhulp.
Stichting e-Progress – cinemAfrika
cinemAfrika valt onder de ANBI geregistreerde Stichting e-Progress. Stichting e-Progress biedt projecten in Afrika een financieel en juridisch onderdak.
Downloads
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Accountability ANBI-status (PDF)
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e-Progress statutes (PDF)
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Financial Statement 2018 (PDF)
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Financial Statement 2019 (PDF)
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Jaarverslag 2020 (PDF)
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Jaarverslag 2021 (PDF)
April 2021
Unique Production Wins Award!
As the end result of the training ‘telling YOUR story” cinemAfrika.nl did in Nairobi all participants (4 small groups) presented their ‘film idea’.
All were good and fun, but one plan stood out! Everybody agreed! A film idea by Karo Wambui. In the WhatsApp group, people remained enthusiastic and pulled together. One person would supply a camera, another a computer to edit on, another one music skills. A typical case of good of African Obuntu! cinemAfrika.nl followed this conversation for a week or two. And as it did not die out, we decided to offer our support. We put together a small budget and offered the trainer, Floor Koomen, coach to the project.
We took about one month to finish the short film trying beat the submission deadline of the MACHFEST (Machakos Film Festival). We did and…. ‘SUN, MEN, MOON AND WOMAN’ won the award!
Such encouragement for the students! We are so proud! A big step forward in the development for these creatives from the Slums. Please enjoy watching it here.
We are now looking for funds to re-edit it a bit, add to sound, so we could go onto an international level of distribution. Wanna help? Check this website under ‘Participation’ or ‘Help mee’.
October 2021
cineActive?
We might have to change the name of our foundation from cinemAfrika into cineActive! Because we have been really busy and active.
As you can read under this article, we organized the first coast film MAKERS festival that actually leads us to be involved in the production of 1, 2 or three film projects!
artwork by Karolina Wambui
Then we moved from Kenya’s coast to the capital Nairobi where we conducted 2 workshops. One in Kariobangi (partnering with K-Yout and AGMA), close to the slum area’s of Dandora (see earlier doc Dusty Bin Dreams) and Korogocho. This workshop was called ‘Prepare and produce your Story’. The +/- 16 students worked in 4 groups and created a scenario. All were great and the presentation were touching and very funny. One was outstanding! When we left the class, the students could not stop talking about it on WhatsApp. Serious plans to actually make were droughted. One student offered a camera, another a editing facility, again another offered to write the music and… After a few days of following this, we decided to offer our coaching for the production now to be called; the Sun, Moon, woman and men (mixed media 7 minutes). The topic is greed and climate change in a very African setting. We aim to get it ready by November 6th 2021 and submit it to the Machakos Film Festival. If the team keeps it together, I am convinced we will be shortlisted for the prices (equipment) at least!
Of course, we will share the film here.
From Kariobangi we moved to Mathare and worked with AGMA partner SlumTv.
There we did part one of in total a 6 day workshop on the creation of mini-documentaries (1 to 7 minutes). 12 young students from the slum Mathare joined in and passionately committed got to work on matters of cinematography and storytelling. In 3 weeks’ time we will meet again for another 3 days of training and filming.
In the first week of November we will conduct a writers camp trying to work out a scenario for a project The Afrikanist where African screenwriters are challenged to come up with pure African stories and an African structure to tell them. And no, we will not change the name. Because African cinema made by grassroots African film makers is still our thing, our passion! So cinemAfrika it is and will be.
Want to join, help or get involved in any other way? Drop us a line on email!
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First edition of Coast Film Makers Festival 2021
CinemAfrika has organised the first edition of the two days Coast Film Makers Festival in Mombasa. The festival was organised on the 9th and 10th of September 2021 in co-operation with AGMA and our local partner Swahilipot Hub. Together, we tried to reach local film makers, to discuss and analyse films and film-making. Expectations were met, when 40 motivated filmmakers joined to; network, socialize, analyse films, listen to lectures, and participate in Masterclasses about storytelling and cinematography by CinemAfrika’s co-founder Floor Koomen.
Covid measures limited the number of participants and therefore we had to disappoint at least the same number of attendants that registered in time. Although we missed their input; it was great to see the interest Kenyan filmmakers show for our event. We hope to meet them another time soon.
Our partners in organizing the Coast Film Makers Festival are AGMA and Swahilipot Hub. AGMA is a consortium of grassroots art and media organizations, working with children and youth to nurture talents, give tools of self-representation and create pathways to business innovation and employment in the creative sector. Swahilipot Hub is a non-profit organization based in Mombasa that focuses on inspiring and developing upcoming innovative technology and art. They aim at providing an appropriate environment for the youth to build sustainable solutions around the challenges in the community.
We at CinemAfrika would like to thank all, for their support and input. Among them; Kaladze Vidze, Stephanie Maseki, DJ Lenium, Mahmood Noor, George Karnaja, Onno Groenewegen (IT-Connect), Hugo Drost (Goveart Makelaars) and Steef Sadelmeier (IT-Recycling). With special thanks to all the Swahilipot volunteers – led by Zuhra Zuhra – that made it all happen!
Please do not hesitate to contact us for more information or if you would like to help in our mission to enhance African grassroot film.
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We always like working with ASMO But this time more so than ever! Because this time the theme of the film Challenge was ‘Gender Based Violence’ which is one of the targets of CinemAfrika. We watched 53 films. Results move the sweetest homemade video of a group of girls living in a shelter that picked up a camera and played out part of their horrific live (special mention) and a very impressive award winner ‘Linear Circle’.
Judging Comments:
What I love in this short is: CINEMA. The director is saying “Let the shots/images do the talking”. And that is what it did! It didn’t push viewers opinions but evoked viewers thinking. That is what makes this film intelligent and artistic…..
The acting was never over the top. And by the cuts between scenes (moving in close to a prop and getting out in a new scene) one could clearly see that it was well scripted.
This film was never pretentious. It was never a ‘blow up’. It did what it had to do. In my few a just number 1 and a good piece of African art!
Hopefully we will be able to show the film here after it has been released.
The Jury consisted of 2 Kenyan ladies, a Kenyan man, a US American and Floor Koomen (the Netherlands) as a volunteer for CinemAfrika
All the participants of the Mtaa Challenge will be invited to an intensive training first half of 2021. CinemAfrika has been asked to deliver one or more trainers and is currently looking for funds to make this happen.
CinemAfrika was asked to be part of the Mtaa Film Festival in December 2020 MtaaChallenge in Nairobi. An initiative of our Partner ASMO (Alliance of Slum Media Organisations)
In September 2019 CinemAfrika’s partner ASMO introduced us to their member SLUM-TV.
We were asked to do a week long workshop on conceptual thinking and a 3 day work shop on pitching your idea to investors and Tv-stations.
Here are some pictures:
Wilt u als vaste sponsor het werk van cinemAfrika ondersteunen? Voelt u meer voor een specifiek project? Bent u een ondernemer en wilt u een sponsorrelatie? Wilt u een eenmalige gift doen? Alle hulp is van harte welkom.
You can help us by making your contribution at Triodos Bank in Zeist, the Netherlands
NL88TRIO0320098745
St. e-Progress-cinemAfrika
If desired, mention the name of the specific project.
Uw giften zijn aftrekbaar van de belasting. U heeft daarvoor een afschrift van uw rekening nodig en geen ontvangstbevestiging van ons. Indien u die toch graag ontvangt voor uw administratie, dan kunt u dat in een bericht laten weten. De bevestiging krijgt u einde van het jaar over het totaalbedrag dat u dat jaar overschreef.
Your donations are tax deductible. In most European countries you don’t need an
acknowledgement receipt. If you would nevertheless like to receive one for your
administration, let us know in an email message.
You will then get the confirmation on years-end on the total amount that you donated
that year.
Donations made without ‘tag’ will be spent on causes consistent with our overall
goals.
We are in close contact with our African partners and makers, together we will decide on priorities.
cinemAfrika wil zoveel mogelijk van het geschonken geld besteden aan ons werk in de slums aan het werk in de slums besteden. Daarom houden wij onze overheadkosten laag. Geen van de medewerkers ontvangt een salaris. De onderhouds- en administratiekosten verdelen we over 4 e-Progress programma’s. Wij verantwoorden onze uitgaven in de jaarverslagen die u kunt inzien via de links op de pagina ‘Organisatie’ op deze website.
