#7AUAgencies BRIEF – Creative Arts
DECISIONS OF THE EXECUTIVE COUNCIL
Forty-Eighth Ordinary Session
By E K Bensah Jr
According to the AU, the African Audiovisual Cinema Commission (AACC) was established in Maputo, Mozambique, in 2003 by the Kenyan Government; the AU Commission; and the Pan-African Federation of Filmmakers (FEPACI).
The key objective was to enable Africa and its diaspora to take their rightful place in the global creative and cultural industry value chain, while creating exponential local job-creation opportunities, and to coordinate the film and audiovisual sector with AU member states.
Although the establishment of the Secretariat culminated in its launch on 10th May 2024, it’s been a clear two years since the continent heard anything about the AACC.
Until now.
Earlier this year at the AU Summit, there was an attempt to renew conversations around the AACC – as evidenced by the directions in the AU’s Decisions of the Executive Council.
The AU Commission has requested that Member States “take steps to accelerate the ratification process of key arts, culture and heritage instruments, including the Charter for African Cultural Renaissance and the Statute of the African Audio-Visual and Cinema Commission.”
There is a whole section entitled “ON THE FRAMEWORK FOR ACTION ON UPSCALING THE AUDIO-VISUAL AND CINEMA SECTOR IN AFRICA”.
Despite its lengthy title, the key words here are “framework for action”, which suggests the AU is finally moving on this critical conversation.
As per the Decisions document, the Commission has endorsed the “Framework for Action of the Stakeholders’ Event on Audiovisual and Cinema for implementation by the African Audiovisual and Cinema Commission”. This sounds like an important piece of work mandated for the AACC to work on.
The document “commends the Republic of Kenya for launching the Temporary Secretariat of the African Audiovisual and Cinema Commission”, and “directs the African Audiovisual and Cinema Commission (AACC) to champion the process of changing narratives about Africa through strategic storytelling and promotion of local content in film and audiovisual productions.”
The Commission also “advocates for Africa to develop a homegrown framework for collecting cultural and creative industries statistics which should broaden the process of data collection from traditional sources to include administrative data, business registers, professional associations, big data providers and cultural observatories to evolve accurate, reliable and timely data that support business decision and investment in the sector.”
Reading through the document, our minds are drawn to another item related to the AACC – the Ambika Africa Film Project, under the wordy heading “ON AMBIKA AFRIKA FILM PROJECT (AAFP) – STRENGTHENING AFRIKAN FILM CONNECTIVITY & ADVANCING AU AGENDA 2063”
For those of us actively working on projects to promote Agenda 2063 beyond rehashing press releases, this comes as an interesting development.
According to Business Daily Africa, the Ambika Film Festival “connects the best African filmmakers with international financiers. It focuses on commercial viability, helping storytellers pitch their movies to investors who want to fund African cinema.”
The reason why this project matters is because it will help create jobs.
The African film sector is growing rapidly, and has the potential to generate $20 billion and create millions of jobs.
Another important corollary is in how it facilitates authentic storytelling by helping African creators tell their own stories instead of relying on Western perspectives.
Finally, its reach is global as “it ensures that high-quality African movies get the funding they need to reach worldwide audiences.”
The AU Commission requests “Member States to strengthen African narrative, promote talents of African filmmakers through capacity building, production, co-productions and distribution of African films.”
Most importantly, it “further requests the Commission to partner with AAFP to promote the ratification of the African Audio-Visual and Cinema Commission (AACC) Statute.”
At a time when the AUC is already advertising its third cohort of the AU Media Fellows, while an Agenda 2063 Media Network, under the supervision of AUDA NEPAD, continues to struggle to punch above its weight, this development could be one part of the critical answer of amplifying the AACC’s potential for the budding African creative still looking for options to making impact.
ENDs
