Charly Kodjo is the founder of the production company Instant2Vie. Created in 2014, the company initially specialized in photography, Charly Kodjo's first passion, then expanded to cover all aspects of the image industry.
Why did you choose to get into audiovisual production?
We wanted to tell stories, which is why we started with photography and then expanded into all aspects of image production. The company has therefore become a true audiovisual content production company, particularly for brands and international organizations.
We noticed that African content is not very well represented and is often told by people who are not on the continent, mainly due to a lack of quality. So we wanted to change that and give Africans a voice! With this development in mind, we created a label, "Conter l'Afrique" (Telling Africa's Story), with the idea of telling Africans and the whole world about the reality of the continent according to international standards.
To do this, we created a "Fiction" department for the production of popular TV series and feature films.
What are the major projects you are working on?
We have finished filming the series "Ici c'est Babi" (This is Babi), in partnership with TV5Monde and TRACE. Designed as a 41-episode, 13-minute series, the TV series aims to depict the "aestheticized" disorder of the city of Abidjan through chronicles of life. The broadcast date is still confidential.
At the same time, we recently acquired the film rights to "Les Frasques d'Ebinto," one of the most popular novels in French-speaking Africa. We are going to turn it into a feature film.
You also support a training project, the Creative Lab. Can you tell us more about it?
When we decided to get into fiction, we made an observation: in Côte d'Ivoire, there is a real problem in terms of human resources. Many young people are passionate but do not have access to training to become professionals. That's why we chose to launch Creative Lab, a training program for young talent in the film industry. It's a platform where we train young people in technical professions and invite them to participate in co-production projects. For a few months, these young people work on a short film or short series project, which is then broadcast on the internet or in theaters. At the end of the training process, we select the "best" candidates and the best projects. For the first edition, we selected five candidates who then worked on the production of our series "Ici c'est Babi" (This is Babi).
We have just officially launched the second edition of our Creative Lab. Through this new edition, we hope to train 50 young people, including 30 women from Cameroon, Ivory Coast, Togo, and Senegal. The training will take place in Ivory Coast and will end with an internship, in collaboration with our partners such as TV5Monde, the International Organization of La Francophonie, FOPICA, FONSIC, and others.
For four months, Abidjan will become a training platform for young people in the film industry, led by members of our team as well as professionals in the field.
We have a serious employment problem. Our young people cannot find their place in the job market, but before they can find a job, they need to be trained. Beyond training, we want to integrate them into a real creative process.
What is your vision of the audiovisual market in French-speaking Africa?
The audiovisual market is a rapidly growing market. Abidjan has become a hub for the audiovisual industry in West Africa, particularly in terms of fiction. But there is still work to be done to further structure the sector. Financing remains the key issue. Every player, whether broadcasters, producers, or even public authorities, must be able to propose concrete financing approaches. There are several avenues available today that will enable our industry to succeed and make its investments profitable. But we still need to think about finding new sources of funding and new ways of producing content in order to find a sustainable model for profitability.
We can see that things are moving in the right direction. I am delighted to see that our Prime Minister recently brought together all the players in the Ivorian audiovisual sector. This is a first! It shows that the government has a real desire to build a strong industry.
We face so many constraints in French-speaking Africa that we are forced to constantly reinvent ourselves and innovate in order to overcome them. This may be seen as a weakness, but in reality, it is what makes us strong, the strength of our industry and the strength of the stories we want to tell. This strength drives us to offer content that is relevant to our market and meets the expectations of our audiences.
How do you perceive the arrival on the continent of major global streaming players such as Netflix?
We live in a globalized world, that's the reality. Their arrival is a good thing for producers, particularly in terms of financing. The more financing there is, the better it is for producers, but also for actors, technicians, and others. It creates jobs. It is also beneficial for the public authorities because the state will be able to regulate their activities and tax these players. For the moment, players such as Netflix are still cautious. We are waiting for their full-scale arrival in French-speaking Africa. We must also prepare for this and protect our local players. The state must play its role and put safeguards in place.
We have launched an initiative alongside our label, which is a "Telling Africa" scholarship to provide financial assistance to young Ivorians with projects in film schools. Through this scholarship, we want to help young people and convince them that there are real opportunities in their country and that it is not necessary to go elsewhere for training.