Botswana: The Film office of the Ministry of Youth, Sports, Art and Culture hosted the district film capacity building and stakeholder engagement meeting in Kasane. The event was a part of a series of meetings to support and train the stakeholders in the art of film making.
During the meeting Gaonyadiwe Kwalate, Coordinator of the MYSC Film Office highlighted that Chobe region has content that needs to be captured and documented. The region is originally known as the tourism hub of the nation.
The region, accordingly has a variety of tourists spots and stories which can be told from the region. However, the no script or film was received from Kasane for the 2023 district film development project.
Gaonyadiwe Kwalate was disappointed by the response of the creatives from the Kasane District. She highlighted that there were no films and stories from the region even though the creatives have the gateway to tourism attraction areas.
The organization is dedicatedly working to promote the people working in the creative sector to achieve their goals in filmmaking and storytelling. She further recommended creatives to register their work or ideas with the Companies and Intellectual Property Authority (CIPA) to protect their craft.
The film capacity building and stakeholder engagement meeting in Kasane is the Ministry’s support to the film sector. Legae Digwaamaje, Content Acquisition and Aggregator in the Film Office, stated that the district film programme aims to conduct skills audit and bridge any gaps.
He stated that mentors will be assigned to different districts for the 2024 film development plan. These mentors will help the creatives in these districts to assist in the production and documentation of short films.
District Film Coordinator, Mandla Mogomotsi, highlighted that the 2023 film development programme were looking forward to receiving 77 scripts in all districts and funding 22 scripts, but only 34 scripts were recieved and 13 were funded. He urged creatives to submit scripts and be funded to produce short films and documentaries in the 2024 district film development programme.
Filmmakers and the general public had the opportunity to appreciate the screening of the 2023 district film development short films.