Yesterday, The HotJem was at the media briefing and press conference organized by the Cameroon International Film Festival (CAMIFF) at the Buea Mountain Hotel. CAMIFF representatives were made up of veteran Cameroonian journalist and professor at the University of Yaounde, professor George Ewane, and actors like Nollywood actor Ramsey Nouah, Epule Jeffrey , Solange Yijika, and Eyinna Ngigwe.
The Press conference began at 12:00 Central African Time with well known blogger Victor Kange as moderator. After several introductions there was a Q&A session with clarification on what CAMIFF is and is not. Some pertinent questions raised were on the challenges CAMIFF, which rallies film actors, producers, movie stakeholders and movie lovers etc have faced over the years.
One of those major challenges has been the lack of government support of the initiative. It’s worth noting that the initiative is only surviving on strong collaborations between CAMIFF and some industry stakeholders who want to see the festival push through. This has been possible so far with CAMIFF’s founder and CEO, Agbor Gilbert Ebot popularly known as AGE, doing his unending magic to see the initiative consistently going up a notch, to celebrate and improve Cameroonian art.
Another major challenge CAMIFF has faced has been the Anglophone crises, worsen by the outburst of COVID-19 pandemic which caused last year’s edition to be postponed. However, the festival returned this year with so many activities taking place like movie master classes, film premieres, pool parties, and many more activities to keep people intersted.
A question was asked on the statistics of the total number of Cameroonian movies produced annually. The question was answered by actor Epule Jeffrey who gave a run down of how come the movie Industry Has come, but couldn’t provide a source or unique stats about such stats.
Nollywood actor, Ramsey Nouah, the CAMiFF ambassador accompanied by fellow compatriot & Actor, Eyinna, did lay much emphacy on the need for internal collaboration ad the main drive towards the growth of the home movie industry.
When asked their opinion on banning foreign content, they considered this idea “misleading” as it will not help the efforts that have already been invested into the movie industry to see it grow.
More light was shed on the opinion of banning foreign content by Professor Ewane who made it clear that a suggestion of an 80/20 quota (that is implementing a rule to have 80% content from local entertainers and 20% content from foreign entertainers), can only work on the music industry and not the movie Industry.
Again, the veteran journalist gave a few reasons why the government is supporting the movie industry per se. Like for broadcasting of movies by the national television, most movies don’t meet the criteria for broadcast, as the state channel has a criteria is uses to select movies for national television. As long as they’re not violent and got a good educational storyline that doesn’t go against the state, the movies would be broadcasted.
Other heated debates between the media and the representative also sparked off, but after a one hour session, a lot geared towards taking the movie industry forward was diagnosed etc. The idea is team work, and effective collaborative works between the film industry & the media, especially now that the government is barely cheeping in to advance the sector.
The Press conference with very much respected COVID-19 measures like masks and sanitization, after deliberations and exchanges between the media and the reps, it finally came to an end at 1: 00 PM. Followed by the pool party at 4 PM, in the same vicinity.
You can watch the live broadcast of the press conference in full.
