As we approach Africa Day on 25 May, it’s critical to see the importance of educating an Africa fit for the 21st century.

At our MultiChoice Talent Factory (MTF) Academy, we have seen first-hand the impact of war and neo-colonial upheaval on the lives of Africa’s people. Some of our students have themselves been refugees from conflicts, making almost superhuman sacrifices, travelling vast distances with few resources to be able to attend courses at MTF.

These are incredible achievements, but our young people should not be required to go through such hardships to access the knowledge they require.

We work to empower young creatives to share their experiences, touch audiences and achieve long-term change. This is firmly in line of the African Union vision for Africa Day, “an Integrated, Prosperous and Peaceful Africa.”

In full agreement with these values, MTF trains aspiring young African filmmakers to create content that will reflect the tastes and the culture of Africa.

Photo: MTF East Africa Academy Director Victoria Goro.

Mentorship

Mentorship is a critical component of our programme, nurturing young people to reach their full potential and become fully rounded creatives.

For example, the MTF East Africa Academy has a strong mentorship ecosystem linking students and alumni with respected industry leaders as well as professional associations. These include guilds for producers, scriptwriters and actors.

The mentorship initiative exists within a regional programme called Film Without Borders. Cross-border engagement between students from the four countries in our region – Ethiopia, Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania allows them to work with classmates in different countries within East Africa.

More and more, young creators are seeking career paths within East Africa. These career paths can also be aligned with film professionals in similar fields across the region.

An example is our production-management facilitator Appie Matere who has taken many spirited young creatives under her wing, including four formidable young female producers, who are now able to pitch for work to many of the most established clients in the region.

Industry

A separate masterclass initiative targets working professionals, to make sure skills are developed across industry and academia. Masterclasses are held in East African capitals every quarter, sharing new technology trends, emerging concerns or new developments.

Internationally acclaimed film-training institutions such as the New York Film Academy, Kenyatta University and Strathmore University support these masterclasses, as do equipment manufacturers, broadcasters and content platforms.

Such partnerships ensure film training never happens in isolation, but is always aligned with industry needs.

It has recently become accepted that the film industry is a key economic sector, and an important frontier for job creation. In our colonial past, film was marginalised. Now there is an understanding that creative industries can change lives. In Kenya today, those sectors contribute to 3% of GDP.

The creative sector now receives close state attention, with film agencies and government ministries dedicated to growing the industry. There is greater collaboration between government and the private sector, and several multilateral agencies are now residents here in Kenya, providing grants, training and production opportunities.

Audience

Our mentorship approach also helps to ensure that the content we create reflects customer tastes. Our three academies have strong ties to the MultiChoice channels, with channel executives also functioning as mentors to young filmmakers.

In East Africa, the process of students producing their graduation films – from scripting to production – is carefully curated with the channels. Our students learn first-hand what African audiences want and need – down to the granular level of themes and plot twists.

An example is the student film Deadbeat, about an absent father – extremely popular on Showmax and Maisha Magic East. In 2022, in response to a MultiChoice request, our students produced East Africa's first musical comedy, Cheza, which won a Kalasha award.

Today, film workers need to be agile and innovative. There is a wide range of film applications, including social media, corporate communications and film services.

Recent graduates already run businesses like a lighting-supply company out of Addis Ababa, a sound-rental business in Uganda, and film-fixer operation in Uganda.

For certain young MTF graduates, the academy has been able to offer life-changing opportunities, empowering them to tell impactful stories of African resilience.

Creators

The Canvas, another MTF production, tells such stories of migration, displacement, and the hardship that families suffer. The story is also one of resilience, and gives others hope that they might overcome such adversities.

Our MTF programmes have taught us the transformative power of art. Where it can be deployed to improve the lives of African people, we are proud to do so.

Achieving justice for Africa is about asserting our right to self-expression, and correcting historical inequalities. Helping our people to express the pain of those injustices is part of our work to build greater fairness and equity in our industry.

At MTF, we believe in winning together, building and mentoring successful, pan-African teams of people from across the continent. Our mission is to equip African storytellers to tell authentic African stories with the world.

Furthermore, audiences across Africa can look forward to upcoming films created by our talented MTF alumni from East, West, and Southern Africa Academies on Zee World:

• The Canvas • Dangerous Affair • Iran Ajo • Isekonu • NNE

art and culture

Mentoring the next generation of African filmmakers