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Namibia: Nujoma Movie Not Part of Local Film Festival
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New Era (Windhoek)
28 March 2008
Posted to the web 28 March 2008
Frederick Philander
Windhoek
Twelve Namibian produced films and 15 music videos will be featured in this year's popular annual Wild Cinema Windhoek International Film Festival, the organisers announced during a press conference this week.
The festival under the theme, 'Open Your Mind', officially starts next Thursday with the premiere of the film, 10000 BC, at the National Theatre of Namibia. Mayor of Windhoek, Mathew Shikongo, will officiate.
"A nation's strength lies in culture. Therefore, in all societies cultural forms of expression are linked to a sense of national and cultural identity. What makes this festival truly unique is the developmental approach of inclusiveness," said the Charge d'Affaires of the Finnish embassy, Seija Kinni-Huttunen, during a special press conference this week.
The Finnish embassy, as the main sponsor, has channelled N$95000 into the festival.
"By way of this film festival the Namibian public is afforded an opportunity to view non-Hollywood or independent films that are shown at various venues accessible to all. At the same time a lot of emphasis is put in providing capacity building to local filmmakers through training and the provision of a screening platform," the Finnish envoy said of the festival that will also feature 23 international films, three of which were shot on location in Namibia.
According to Trust Fund committee member, Volker Roder, the 'Open Your Mind' theme for the festival is aimed at the general movie-going audiences expected to attend the festival, in existence for a number of years.
"The films in the festival are aimed at opening the minds of Namibians to experiences and emotions not commonly used to. As Namibians we tend to believe that Windhoek is the navel of the known universe and little else is of consequence. Hence, the fact that we encourage people from all walks of life to attend the festival, featuring action, adventure, drama, thrillers, family films and documentaries from around the world," Roder said enthusiastically.
Awards for Namibian produced films will once again be part of the festival since it's inception last year.
Asked why the Nujoma film, Namibia: The Liberation Struggle does not feature as part of the film festival, committee member Irmi Schreiber explained as follows:
"It would have been very appropriate to premiere screen this film, but unfortunately we could not succeed in six months getting the rights to show the film from the producers, even as a benefit screening."
It is general knowledge that the producers have been and are still hard at work to find an international distributor for this particular feature film that has already won four awards at international film festivals.
"We are very happy that this year the festival has attracted more submissions from local producers than ever before. No doubt local producers have realised the importance of the festival and the help it provides. With the awards the festival will once again recognise the endeavours of Namibia's talented and ambitious filmmakers by giving away 11 awards in a number of categories," he said.
The awards will be announced at a special ceremony at the National Theatre of Namibia on 16 April.
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The judges for this year's awards are filmmaker, Vickson Hangula, media personality, Robin Tyson, film producer Michaela Bauer, community activist and politician, Rosa Namises, and Michael Mansfield, a former arts and culture journalist.
A filmmaker's brunch will also be held on Saturday April 5 at the Goethe Centre.
Screening venues will be the FNCC, The Warehouse Theatre, Ster Kinekor, Zoo Park and the Goethe Centre.
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