Martin Endjala
The European Union continues to play a pivotal role in the lives of young aspiring talents across the globe, as it embraces itself for another EU Film Festival in Namibia partnering with its continental member states as they will showcase their ingenuity skills in the film industry which is aimed at telling their real live stories.
The EU film festival is slated for next month starting on 5th October till the 30th of November 2022 at the opera house, The Village in Windhoek, with a line-up of European and Namibian films, during which a total of 18 films will be screened of which nine are feature films, while are are local short films.
Speaking at the launch today was the EU ambassador to Namibia Sinikka Antila who said that given the success of the EU film festival industry, she is proud for the event to be hosted this year in Namibia again.
Antila stressed that as they celebrate the European year for the youth, lessons drawn from the impact of Covid-19 must inspire the industry to adapt to the forever evolving technology in the world, to ensure that story telling continues to be the heartbeat of social lives.
As this year’s theme alludes too, Youth in Diversity, Our shared Roots for a Better Tomorrow, she believes that the EU film Festival provides a good platform for raising interest about Namibia and European films as well as strengthening cooperation between EU and the Namibian audiences.
To add the cherry on the cake, the best videos received for the love and respect of the campaign, supported by the EU delegation, will be screened.
Four Namibian musicians namely Big Ben, Riaan Smit, Patrick Zikiliza and DikBones, have compiled and produced a stunner, reminding people how positive contribution of men is to a harmonious society.
The Executive Director of the Namibia Film Commission, Florence Haifene applauded the initiative, saying that any event that supports Namibian content is highly welcomed.
She further added that the films produced speaks to the Namibian society, while highlighting the negative impact the industry had to endure during the pandemic, which forced them to reduce and change their budgets in order preserve the industry.
With partnerships such as this, she said, will add value to the filming production as well as reviving the industry, and that the EU initiative couldn’t have come at a timely moment.
Haifene went on to encourage content producers to up their game to produce quality and relatable
films and to never give up on what they are pasionate about. Apart from film screening, the festival will present a four-day video production workshop in Keetmanshoop, from the 11-14 November, which will focus on educating the fundamentals of filming, script writing and film editing, with the aim of empowering participants on how to capture and tell their own stories from their perspective.
The workshop is funded by the Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany in partnership with the
University of Namibia, Southern Campus.
