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BURSARY PROGRAMME
TO BRING BUDDING AFRICAN TALENT TO SITHENGI
2006
DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSIONS - 15 SEPTEMBER
2006
A new bursary programme, funded by the
Goethe-Institut, Germany's Cultural
Institutes abroad, will help budding film
professionals from all over Africa enter the
Sithengi Market mix this year.
The Goethe-Institut with its branches in
Sub-Saharan Africa, will offer fifteen
bursaries of 1000 euros each to students
across the continent
wanting to attend the 2006 Sithengi Talent
Campus. A number of bursaries will also be
allocated to Francophone and Lusophone
states in Sub-Saharan Africa.
The bursary will cover individual travel
expenses as well as accommodation, and might
allow for an additional per diem where
necessary.
The bursary programme will augment
Sithengi's Pan-African outreach and
facilitate a cultural dialogue amongst
African film professionals. It will also
pave the way for new entrants in the
industry to learn from players experienced
in a broad range of film disciplines.
Nikolai Petersen, Head of Programmes at the
Johannesburg Goethe-Institut said: "With
this programme, the Goethe-Institut in
Sub-Saharan Africa intend to strengthen the
existing strategic partnership between
Sithengi Film Festival and the Berlin Film
Festival (Berlinale)".
The bursaries come on the back of a growing
realisation that the Sithengi Talent Campus,
modelled on its Berlinale precursor, has
been instrumental in helping a core of young
filmmakers acquire a spectrum of practical
skills for making and selling movies.
The Sithengi Talent Campus was a huge
success last year and the then co-ordinator,
Jacqueline van Meygaarden, said the feedback
from students was uniformly good. "Most
students said they learnt so much in this
short time."
A series of master classes that deal with
many elements of craft - from scripting,
through production and editing to
distribution - got
two-thumbs-up from students.
Thembisa Cochrane from the Eastern Cape said
that she had developed a "more nuanced and
realistic view of the world I am
approaching." She had also learned "new
approaches to financing, filming, directing,
writing, screening..."
Spokaz Nogaya said "the classes made me
realise that SA filmmakers need to start
producing to satisfy the local market before
aiming for the
international market."
For many of the newcomers, the Campus also
gave encouragement to artists to get out
there and make films. "I also learned that
it does not matter what you do, but how you
do it," said Lenise Llewellyn a student from
Walter Sisulu University in East London.
"But once you discover you have a passion
for it, then just do it, do it good and do
it with your heart." Lenise concludes that
the Sithengi Talent Campus yielded "all
positive vibration from a group of positive
people who were eager to learn."
The bursary programme is good news for many
aspirant filmmakers on the fringe, in rural
areas and small towns in Africa where cinema
is still under-developed. Even for young
students already undergoing some form of
film and media training in South African
tertiary institutions, the Talent Campus
remains a rare opportunity to sample the
skills of masters and mentors in cinema
disciplines. Thembisa Cochrane summed up the
experience:
"Amazing - three years of studying film at
university could not prepare me for the
insights this workshop gave."
So if you are a film student registered at a
tertiary institution or an aspirant
filmmaker not registered at a tertiary
institution, then we invite you to submit
your application to the 2006 Sithengi Talent
Campus, in co-operation with the Berlinale
Talent Campus.
SUBMISSION DEADLINE: 15 SEPTEMBER 2006
To apply, students and aspirants would
need to submit:
----------------------------------------------------------------
-- Completed application form (see website
for application form)
-- A short film / television product or
commercial of no longer than
30 minutes on VHS / DVD format for viewing
-- letter of motivation explaining why you
feel you should participate in the Sithengi
Talent Campus
-- Curriculum Vitae (CV)
PLEASE NOTE: All applications are to
be submitted in duplicate, one submitted to
Sithengi, Cape Town, and the other to the
local Goethe-Institut office in or closest
to your country. Goethe-Institut and
Goethe-Centre offices are based in the
following Sub-Saharan African countries:
Cameroon (Yaoundé); Côte d'Ivoire (Abidjan);
Ethiopia (Addis Ababa); Ghana (Accra); Kenya
(Nairobi); Madagascar (Antananarivo);
Mozambique (Maputo), Namibia (Windhoek);
Nigeria (Lagos); Senegal (Dakar); South
Africa (Johannesburg); Togo (Lomé); Zimbabwe
(Harare). To find out about the address of
your local Goethe-Institut please consult
www.goethe.de or contact the
Goethe-Institut Johannesburg,
petersen@joburg.goethe.org (
27-11-4423232)
Submissions:
Sithengi Talent Campus
SABC Building
209 Beach Road
Sea Point
Cape Town, 8002
South Africa
Applications are open to everyone. Of all
applications received, 20 registered film
students and 10 aspirants from South Africa
will be
selected. Applicants (students and
aspirants) chosen will then have to register
as students through the online Sithengi
registration system.
Once the Sithengi Talent Campus programme is
confirmed and posted on our website, all
registered 2006 Sithengi delegates or
members could select the classes in which
they would like to participate. Bear in mind
that only 20 delegates or members will be
allowed entry into the Talent Campus, with
preference to members.
The sessions will accommodate 70
participants in total and will cover a
variety of topics from the writing of
concepts through
pre-to-post-production to marketing &
distribution. Classes will be presented by
acclaimed local and international masters in
the international film & television
industry.
For more information:
Sithengi
Tel: 27 21 430 8160
Fax: 27 21 430 8186
E-mail:
talent@sithengi.co.za
Website:
www.sithengi.co.za |
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