First ever Africa Cinema Summit kicks off in Ghana

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00:00 platform for the celebration and exploration of African filmmaking has emerged. On Wednesday,

00:05 the first ever Africa Cinema Summit kicked off in Ghana's capital. The recent huge success of

00:10 the Nigerian Netflix thriller The Black Book is a reflection of the growing international reach of

00:16 African productions. And earlier I asked the CEO of Ghana's National Film Authority about what she

00:23 sees as being the ambitions of the Africa Cinema Summit. The Africa Cinema Summit, just as the name

00:32 states, is focused on actual cinema exhibition. And so the marketplace is the biggest or one of

00:40 the biggest gaps. And so you can have good productions coming out, but without a marketplace,

00:46 filmmakers are going nowhere. And the entire continent of Africa has less than 1,700 screens.

00:54 I mean, compared to France, we know that France has over 6,000, you know, China has over 60,000,

01:01 the US 40, India 11, and yet a continent of over 1.4 billion people have less than 1,700 screens.

01:10 And so the cinema summit really is focused on one, the growth of content, just like you said,

01:17 but as well the marketplace and cinema exhibition to be specific. And so this is not a festival

01:24 exactly. This is actually a summit. It's the first gathering ever of cinema investors,

01:30 exhibitors, builders, architects, studios, I mean, all players, stakeholders down the value chain

01:37 on the African continent. And we are really excited about that.

01:41 So it's trying to bring together, trying to boost the overall infrastructure needed

01:46 within the African film industry, both from the side of, you know, viewers to investment. Is that

01:54 what influences some of the remarks I've heard that you've said recently, which is that you think

02:00 that despite all the excitement about the continent's filmmaking potential, that it's far

02:07 from having fulfilled its potential. What's your vision of the scope on that front?

02:12 Well, I can tell you for sure that we are barely scratching the surface. I mean,

02:18 Africa is a continent of over 54 countries with many diverse people, cultures, stories.

02:25 It's a continent of storytelling, storytellers. And we haven't told those stories.

02:30 There's obviously huge gaps, like the lack of infrastructure. Cinema is one of those.

02:36 Studios are one of those. Funding is one. Training. There's so many issues at the table.

02:43 However, without funding, the right funding and the right infrastructure, like I said,

02:49 we are going nowhere. So we see that there's been some attempts and some successes,

02:54 and we are grateful for that. But we think that the world is losing out without Africa at the

02:59 table. And I must say, in just seven years, Africa will have over 40 percent of the global youth

03:04 population. And by 2050, over 70 percent of the global youth population. And so, you know,

03:11 trendsetters, consumers of the future are going to be in Africa. And so if you have a continent

03:18 that is barely watching the world tell its stories, but don't see themselves on screen,

03:23 that is one. And then do not have the marketplace to be able to grow as well as make stories that

03:30 can fill those marketplaces and reach its people. I think the world as well is losing out if we are

03:36 not hearing stories from Africa, because there's so many beautiful stories here.

03:41 And how did day one of the summit go? Do you feel that some of the ambitions that you have

03:45 will move just a little bit closer? Is there anything that you were particularly excited about?

03:50 I'm excited about a lot. First of all, the networking, the conversations, the businesses,

03:56 that, you know, has been going on. Today, the President of Ghana, Nana, you know, His Excellency,

04:04 the President was at the summit at the beginning and, for instance, talked about tax incentive as

04:10 something that the government of Ghana is looking at. The king of the ruler of the Akwemud people

04:17 was here promising land, setting aside land for the development of a film city.

04:22 And so, so many things are happening.

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