Durban FilmMart Head on Why This Year’s Event Is ‘Looking Inward’

The Durban FilmMart returns for its 17th edition with a full slate of conversations and events looking to build on the legacy of innovation, disruption and industry-defining discussions at what is arguably the most influential film market on the continent.

Running from Oct. 9 – 12, this year’s event is organized around the theme “Shifting Worlds, Turning Toward Ourselves,” a focus that Durban FilmMart Institute director Magdalene Reddy says was inspired by the pioneering Senegalese filmmaker Ousmane Sembène’s memorable assertion: “Why be a sunflower and turn towards the sun? I myself am the sun.”

“We are very much looking inward [at this year’s edition],” Reddy tells Variety. “In a world where…everything is shifting, we find that, at this time, it’s important for us as the African cinema community to look at what we need to create systems that will work for us. How can we consolidate? How can we create solutions?”

The four-day event features a wide range of panel discussions, masterclasses, one-on-one meetings and mentorship sessions designed to capitalize on a moment of unprecedented visibility — and unparalleled disruption — for the African screen industries.

In a departure from previous editions, which ran parallel to the Durban Intl. Film Festival, this year’s DFM will open with a screening, of Rwandan debutante Marie-Clémentine Dusabejambo’s Cannes Caméra d’Or winner “Ben’Imana.” The film, an alumnus of DFM’s influential pitching and finance forum, was selected to highlight the event’s outsized impact on the African filmmaking community.

“This was a DFM project. It was pitched at DFM two years ago, and they were able to win two awards at Cannes [including the FIPRESCI prize],” says Reddy. “For us, the celebration of hosting a screening at the market — which we’ve not done previously — is based on the fact that we want to show our local content in our local context.”

A crucial pillar of every DFM is its influential Think Tank strand, whose conversations and conclusions often “become a blueprint for the next DFM and the direction which the industry is going,” according to Reddy.

Central this year will be a closed-door session gathering key distributors, financiers and industry leaders looking to tackle some of the vexing challenges of film distribution on the African continent, which has been hit especially hard by successive waves of corporate consolidation in the global industry. Another session will focus on audience development, “trying to see how we can connect better with our local [audiences],” Reddy says.

A backbone of this year’s event will be a spotlight on equitable co-production, with a series of sessions organized in collaboration with the European Audiovisual Entrepreneurs network (EAVE). Tackling knotty issues such as how to best incorporate inclusivity into financing, development and production, the conversations will address the systemic imbalances that face African producers when partnering with outside co-producers, “even when they are coming with the stories, coming with the IP,” says Reddy.

“How can they go in as an equal partner? How can they sit confidently at the table, so they are engaging in a way that will benefit them? Engaging in a way where finances can still come back to Africa?” she asks.

Collaboration is a theme across the Durban FilmMart’s various strands, with the event forging a wide range of partnerships with industry bodies such as EAVE; the Nature, Environment and Wildlife Filmmakers (NEWF); the Cape Town Intl. Animation Festival (CTIAF); Documentary Africa; The StoryBoard Collective; and the Ladima Foundation, which supports African women working in the film and television industries, and will launch an initiative to push for greater gender equity at African film festivals.

“Collaboration is something that has underpinned all the work that DFM has been doing over the years,” says Reddy. “In order for the industry to survive, we need to be working together.”

This year’s Durban FilmMart unfolds at a turbulent time for the host nation, whose screen industries have been “struggling,” according to Reddy, particularly with ongoing uncertainty around South Africa’s 25% cash rebate.

To that end, leading South African policymakers are expected to be on hand at DFM, which will host a closed session for local industry to meet one-on-one with representatives of the influential Dept. of Trade, Industry and Competition, which manages the country’s rebate policy; the National Film and Video Foundation; and various local and regional film commissions.

“For us as DFM, the platform that we create is a platform for filmmakers not just to create a community for the filmmaking industry on the continent, but also a space for filmmakers to connect with policymakers,” says Reddy. “A space for policymakers to understand what are the challenges, what are the issues our filmmakers are facing. We try to bridge that gap between industry and policymakers so we can create a conducive environment and ecosystem for our filmmakers.”

That mandate, she adds, extends to DFM’s broader engagement with the African continent as a whole. “Last year’s theme was creating bridges, and that’s what we continue to do. Even though it’s challenging within the continent to work with each other, we are trying to find ways to do that.”