Although filmmaking in French-speaking Africa seems to be buoyed by the current momentum, training future talent in the film industry remains a real challenge for local production.
Indeed, it is time to reflect on the capacity of French-speaking African countries to professionalize their industry in order to keep pace with the new film and audiovisual landscape. To this end, knowledge transfer and training are crucial for the development of cinema, local production, and the emergence of new talent.
Governments must establish film and audiovisual training in Africa itself. According to Alexandre Rideau, director of Keewu Production, "No matter how talented and proactive you are,
training is essential, especially when it comes to technical skills
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Training is a challenge, but several players are beginning to tackle the problem: training centers exist and others are being created.
Teaching film professions
A new generation is increasingly interested in careers in film and audiovisual production, driven by the ambition to create content designed by and for Africans, from fiction to documentaries, while conveying an image of today's Africa that is far from clichés.
To train them in the various professions in the sector and meet the challenges of its professionalization, several schools and training centers have opened their doors in the major cities of French-speaking Africa.
Like the Institut Supérieur des Métiers de l'Audiovisuel in Benin, the Institut Imagine founded by Burkinabe director Gaston Kaboré in 2003, dedicated to initial training in the film industry, and the ISIS in Ouagadougou, centers exist and are being created to train young people in the techniques of the 7th art. However, funding is also an issue for these infrastructures.
Training in the field
The challenge is to continue training more and more of the young professionals of tomorrow who will help the sector grow. Beyond schools, training in the film and audiovisual professions also takes place in the field. This can be self-taught, guided by new digital technologies, or within production companies that offer internal or external training courses. These training programs are supported in particular by private actors such as CANAL+, which is committed to the production of African content and wishes to contribute to the development of the audiovisual and film industries. The Togolese production company YoBo Studio, renowned for the series Zem and Hospital IT and soon to produce feature films, has initiated training workshops in studio acting and screenwriting.
Ouaga Film Lab
Ouaga Film Lab is a laboratory for the development and co-production of film projects that promotes encounters between experts and young talent from the African continent and the networking of African talent with professional networks from the rest of the world. It is a vast network created to strengthen the capacities of young start-ups through training and coaching in the film industry.
The digital future
The digital revolution sweeping the continent is changing the game and transforming the landscape of professional training. Taking advantage of digital technology to develop training in film professions appears to be a promising alternative. In this sense, the Franco-Anglophone Academy of Audiovisual Arts and Cinema offers an online training platform that aims to cover all audiovisual professions in French-speaking Africa. For Olivier Pascal, Director General of LAFAAAC: "Of all the digital revolutions, e-learning is undoubtedly one of the most transformative for Africa. Online education will make it possible to train the millions of film and audiovisual professionals the continent needs to take charge of its development."