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Eighth Pan African Film Festival opens
in Accra
Accra, July 9, GNA – Mr. Kwamena Bartels Minister of
Information and National Orientation on Monday called for a
new breed of film and television professionals, who should
be equipped with the requisite knowledge and skills, to
prosecute the development agenda of African countries.
“Africa's future depended on the harnessing and utilisation
of its resources for social mobilisation, promotion of
Africa's cultural values and economic integration.
"The teachers and students of our film and television
training centres must appreciate that Africa's future does
not depend on unnecessary partisan politics but on the
harnessing and utilisation of our resources for social
mobilisation, promotion of Africa's cultural values and
economic development and integration," Mr Bartels stated.
Mr Bartels stated at the opening of the eighth edition of
the Pan-African Student Film and Television Festival,
dubbed: "ANIWA Africa 2007".
The biennial two-week festival organised by the National
Film and Television Institute of Ghana (NAFTI) starts from
July 9th to July 21st is under the general theme:
"Championing African Excellence Through Film and
Television."
Hundreds of students, lecturers and professionals in the
film sector from Ghana, Burkina Faso, Nigeria, South Africa,
Kenya, and The Gambia.
Mr Bartels said the choice of the theme was to remind cinema
and television professionals of the need to shift emphasis
to the production of materials that would enable them to
overcome superstition, ethnicity, civil strife, fear,
violence and other negative cultural practices that
undermined the Continent's search for development.
He said most people in recent times had expressed
reservation and disquiet about the quality and content of
films being shown on the screens and in theatres.
"The effect on our children and youth is clearly damaging
our cultural fabric. Unbridled application of digital
technology in the creation of negative images is quite
worrying."
The Minister, therefore, urged the participants to use the
festival to learn new technologies that would support
production of materials that would promote health, eliminate
poverty and sustain Africa's cultural values.
He said a new Film Development and Classification Act that
Ghana was in the process of finalizing was expected to
promote national integration, cohesion and development.
Mr Martin Loh, Director of NAFTI, said the festival was to
bring together teachers, students and professionals to
acquire new knowledge and share experience and skills.
He said film training was very expensive and had, therefore,
suffered budgetary problems over the years.
Mr Loh said ANIWA had gained international recognition as a
major student film and TV event in Africa and must be
sustained.
He, therefore, urged African regional groupings such as the
African Union and New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD)
ECOWAS with other international development partners to
support film and television institutions with resources for
they held the key to development.
Mr Jim Awindor, Festival Co-ordinator, said Africa's image
had been represented in a way that most Africans themselves
did not understand, hence the organisation of ANIWA to help
restore Africa's lost image within the international
community.
Ghana and Nigeria shares laurels at African film festival
Mr. Bill Kwabena Marshall former Director of NAFTI chaired
the opening ceremony.
GNA
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