The African Film Industry – Back to Basics.

When Moabi Mogorosi was a child, a Peace Corp volunteer shot a random video of him and other people in his community. While on a short holiday back home in the United States, the Peace Corp edited the film, brought it back to Mogorosi’s village and screened it for Mogorosi and his community to watch. That video, Mogorosi says, blew his mind.

“It wasn’t anything much but we just loved watching our faces on the screen. Just seeing my face was powerful. The moment stayed in my subconscious,” shares Moabi Mogorosi. In 1984, the mind blowing moment that had stuck with Mogorosi was pitted to the real cinema experience. “The cinema experience inspired me to pursue film production at tertiary school, hence my current line of work,” says the man commonly considered as the natural story teller in the local and international film cliques.

It is no secret that Africans are excellent story telling people. Africans have long told stories at night around the fire, some like to juxtapose this with the modern cinema, a parallel that most fail to gainsay. From the fire place setting, Africans went on to tell an extensive litany of stories through literature.

So it came as no surprise that African story tellers resorted to storytelling through new media. Films, as they inspire and act as a window into cultures beyond immediate surroundings, in consequent expanding the viewer’s world view by igniting the imagination, became the popular alternative. To get the African film industry started, many African children applied to film schools abroad and proceeded to study the art of producing films, then returned home to practice.

“I trained in film for seven years in the United States, then went on to study Dramatic Arts for three years at the University of Wits in Johannesburg,” shares Moabi Mogorosi, who is now Founder of Abi Films company and the Mogolokwane Incubator for the Arts initiative, based in Botswana.

While sitting in the Capitol Cinema with his girlfriend back in the day, Mogorosi had revealed his motivated, and seemingly Elysian vision. “One day you will be sitting here watching my movies, I told my girlfriend one day. She simply said I liked dreaming,” he laughs.

Mogorosi has been in the film industry since 1994 following his studies. The question is, was his vision just a dream?

Under his management Abi Films has produced several productions and has been involved with many. Mogorosi is known for productions like Hot Chilli (1998), Boswa Documentary Series (1995), his involvement with The Number 1 Ladies Detective Agency’s behind the scenes documentary (2007/2008), his production of the David Magang’s Magic of Perseverance documentary (2009) and several of his Orange Botswana television commercials among plenty other works.

That said, one can safely say Mogorosi is on the right path to attaining his dream of seeing his on movie on the big screen. But the question that should be asked is, ‘what has delayed him from doing so?’

Truth is, Africa, though it prides itself with a rich pool of talented film and television producers, the produced content struggles to compete for airing and screening space with cheap productions from America and other much more developed countries across the globe. Referring to his country’s main television station, Mogorosi says, “BTV has been a dumping ground for old international programs. Now the nation adopts, values, emulates and aspires for cultures and popular cultures they see on TV.”

The scarce viewing of African productions on television and in cinemas Thabo Makgato, a Short Film Writer and Director says is not due to a lack of quality and talent. “It is certainly not a lack of quality or talent because whether it is directors like Niel Blomkamp, actors like Shalto Copley, David Oyelowo, Charlize Theron and Lupita Nyon’go, African film professionals prove time and again that we have no shortage of world class talent,” he asserts.

Making reference to Nollywood, he explains that, “Nollywood is of course thriving and to the layman those films may appear over the top and ridiculous but the reality is that their often satirical and exaggerated tones are gimmicks designed to attract commercial viability. However, at their core those films carry strong underlying themes that speak to African cultures and the overall African condition, therefore if we see a shift in cash flow within our industries I have no doubt we will begin to produce more grounded, compelling work.”

To develop, both Mogorosi and Makgato are of the sentiment that African governments need to step up and support the African Film Industry financially. “Our government needs to start sponsoring local productions, not only international productions shot in Botswana or making reference to Botswana. South Africa is doing well, the Francophone countries too, Burkina Faso, Mali, Senegal. Even Kenya in West Africa is busy collaborating with countries like Germany to workshop their own stories and film them. If they can, so can we with some political backing,” says Mogorosi, while Makgato says governments should fund the film industry and then leave it alone. “Government officials are meant to govern and creatives are meant to create without inhibition or fear of persecution. If governments care to foster growth in these industries they should simply hand over the money and walk away,” expounds Makgato.

Though the African Film Industry needs financial help and policies that are favourable to its growth. Makgato strongly believes that African film makers are professionals that have the capacity to build intelligent solutions that encourage revenue generation without falling over at the doorways of parliamentary houses begging for handouts.

In trying to play their part while asking the government to play theirs in encouraging the industry that will not only create employment, but one that will restore to Africans their dignity and strengthen their cultures, film makers like Moabi Mogorosi are contemplating going back to basics, to where it all started. “The triple B, we are considering ‘bringing back bioscopes’. Back in the day we had these in every village. So we want to project our productions, and works of others who let us across the nation. That way people will know who we are and what we do, in turn the industry will grow,” he says.

On the other hand, Thabo Mkagato who has been on a two year film industry hiatus is back with a project that targets the Black Panther movie premier in the local cinemas. In anticipation of the movie screening, he launched a donation campaign in which local cinema tickets are donated to children from poor families that would otherwise never afford access to the cinema.

“There are a select few things that you will experience for the first time and they will vividly stay with you for a lifetime, therefore directly influencing the person you become. A first trip to the cinema is one such thing. Black Panther is a very important film because unlike cinematic heroes of old this is one protagonist who is not brazenly saying to black African children ‘You are other. You can idolise me but you cannot be me’,” he says, adding that, “Black Panther is a proud, strong, gracious, honourable, fierce African king, husband and leader. He wears his Africanism proudly and makes no excuses for his blackness. If a child is going to have a memory that lasts them a lifetime, one that will mould and shape them, what better memory can we offer them than that of being introduced to cinema by such a titan of African power? A symbol of unmitigated greatness that says “I am you, therefore you are me,” expounds Makgato.

Some none governmental organisations have long initiated similar efforts. Not only NGOs, but private companies like the Global Post, Botswana, have since re-introduced ‘bioscopes’ to villages in African countries like Tanzania, Namibia, Zambia, South Africa and Botswana. Called Cine Travel, or On-the-Move Cinema Project, the Global Post does not only ensure the African poor get the cinema experience they would otherwise not afford, but they also give African film productions an alternative platform to be viewed by the masses.

Kabo Ditlhakeng, Managing Editor of the Global Post says, “The positive effects on a society brought by films are huge and should be encouraged. Considering the inadequate cinema resources in Botswana and other countries, GP aims to provide an affordable, movable, outdoor and most importantly, non-profit travelling cinema to all in the SADC region.”

With supportive policies and finance, there is no doubt that on the move cinema projects like Cine Travel by the Global Post can advocate for the development of the African film industry. When audiences are exposed to African productions, they will become automatic consumers of the productions. Though free for now, audiences will gain an appreciation for the industry and will not hesitate to pay affordable rates for cinema access in the long run. Of current, research has it that over 90 percent of the rural dwellers in Africa have never been to a cinema.

In 2009, across major territories, there were over 6.8 billion cinema admissions, compared against a world population of roughly the same number, creating global box office revenues of over US$30 billion. However, out of this number, the portions contributed by Botswana and or other African countries are ignoble. The lack thereof is due to the lack of cinema resources. In Botswana for example, there are only 3 cinemas and all of them are located in the capital city, Gaborone. “The needs of those who stay far remain unfulfilled. Our non-profit making On-the-Move Cinema project will reach out to most people,” says Ditlhakeng.  The asperity of the African film industry has compelled him and others like Moabi Mogorosi and Thabo Makgato, to bridge the gap between the rich and poor while inspiring the growth of the film industry by returning back to basics in order to progress.

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