Khartoum, Sudan – Aboudigin Films, Sudan Film Factory, and the Goethe-Institute Sudan today announced a new film collaboration and the inaugural Sudan Film Festival beginning December 20th and running through January 12th. The historic collaboration launched a Kickstarter campaign the same day to support the work.
On December 18th, 2013 a group of US artists, writers, and filmmakers will travel to Khartoum in partnership with the Goethe-Institute Sudan and Sudan Film Factory to lead a series of workshops with local students to produce a new short film, Odysseus. The events will culminate in the first annual Sudan International Film Festival beginning on January 11th.
“We hope through this collaboration to strengthen and reestablish independent cinema in Sudan.”
- Talal Afeefi, Sudan Film Factory
URL: http://kck.st/32523
Video: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1003327850/odysseus-a...
Emerging voices in global film
The Sudan Film Factory opened its doors in 2009 as a project of the Goethe-Institute Sudan with a series of workshops for aspiring filmmakers. The workshops spanned several weeks and guided students along their first-ever short films, from conception to completion.
The result was powerful—after a long absence, Sudanese films were suddenly making a regular presence at film festivals across several continents. Collaborations outside Sudan added to the momentum and contributed to transcending the negative images of war and political strife.
In the 2012 collaboration Faisal Goes West, over 30 artists from the US, Sudan, and elsewhere came together to tell the dramatic tale of a young man from Khartoum starting a new life at a chicken farm in Texas. CNN, the BBC, Al Jazeera, Alhurra and Ashurooq were all drawn toward the global "crowdfunding" story behind the film, in which 127 people from 16 countries gave over $28,000.
A new film traverses the desert
Fresh off the success of Faisal Goes West, Aboudigin Films is taking it the next level: a new film with an educational component meant to support a network of artists with a love for filmmaking across countries.
They designed the workshops for emerging filmmakers looking to build on their experience, with breakout sessions in sound design, screenwriting, translation, pitching, fundraising and marketing to audiences in and outside Sudan, and international distribution and festival exposure.
With the help of artists from Chad, Sudan, Iran, UK, UAE and USA, Aboudigin Films has spent almost a year preparing to shoot Odysseus. The story is based on a novella by Houston poet David Feil (http://www.davidafeil.com/), and speaks, in Arabic, to the poetry of life through the eyes of a woman journeying across Sudan's desert by bus.
Aboudigin Films (http://www.aboudigin.com)
We began in the early 2000's as a collective of theatre actors in the windswept town of Ati, Chad, on the Sahara desert's southern edge. We picked up a camcorder and suddenly had access to a new form of storytelling. Rainy season rains hit the dried Batha riverbed and as the river grew, so did the energy of a community driven by the power of the moving image to tell its stories, our stories.
Aboudigin Films is dedicated to the spread of filmmaking in cities and regions of emerging talent. We pursue stories that deeply engage the particularities of place and time, and intentionally eschew "global" and nationalistic discourses.
Sudan Film Factory (http://kck.st/1873Z5c)
The Sudan Film Factory (SFF) is a project of the Goethe-Institute Sudan that will be marking its start as an independent organization in January 2014. For four years, SFF has trained young Sudanese in theory and practice in the areas of screenwriting, directing, cinematography and editing--with productions highlighted in the "Made in Sudan" series. The cinema of the Sudan Film Factory depicts Sudan's daily lives and worlds, stories and thoughts, dreams, hopes, frustrations, and passions.
سودان فيلم فاكتوري" هو مشروع معهدجوتة ،يهدف لإتاحة الفرصة للشباب السوداني للتدريب على مهارات إنتاج الأفلام ورعاية المواهب في كيفية إنتاج الأفلام والتدريب عليها،حيث تتطرق الموضوعات لجوانب الحياة السودانية المختلفة من قصص وحكايات ومعاناة وايضا" في ظل الصعوبات التى تواجه السينما في السودان. الأحلام والإحباطات والطموحات. فمنذ ثلاثة أعوام يتدرب كثير من الشباب تدريب عملي ونظري في مجال كتابة السيناريو،الإخراج والتصوير والمونتاج. لتكون المحصلة أفلام تحمل علامة "صنع في السودان" لتكون شبكة مترابطة ومصنع حقيقي لإنتاج الأفلام .
Goethe-Institute Sudan (http://www.goethe.de/ins/su/kha/deindex.htm)
The Goethe-Institute Sudan is the Khartoum-based branch of the Federal Republic of Germany’s cultural institution operational worldwide. They promote the study of German abroad and encourage international cultural exchange. They also foster knowledge about Germany by providing information on its culture, society and politics. Their educational and training products enable mobility in an international learning community. With our network of Goethe-Institutes, Goethe Centers, cultural societies, reading rooms and exam and language learning centers they have played a central role in the cultural and educational policies of Germany for over 60 years.
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