#EC10, an Eastern Cape Film Festival legacy project, aims to unearth and nurture emerging filmmakers and to empower them with skills and resources to deliver quality profit-making locally produced films.
The festival is a developmental initiative seeking to promote the film production value chain as a key sector in the province and is hosted with funding from the Eastern Cape Provincial Arts and Culture Council (ECPACC).
Nceba Mqolomba, founder and director of the Eastern Cape Film Festival and chairperson of the Eastern Cape Film Forum said, “Ha-ving attracted funding partnership from ECPACC, support and goodwill from other sector players in government and the private sector, the festival seeks to sustain its legacy through various activities that comprise empowerment of filmmakers, improved quality of productions and widespread exhibitions, among others.”
Encounters International Documentary Festival, one of the oldest film festivals on the continent, has partnered with the Eastern Cape Film Festival to host the #EC10 empowerment programme for emerging filmmakers.
“#EC10 also is a fitting follow-up to a 2019 project, EC100 which aimed at screening 100 locally produced films in communities across the Eastern Cape,” said Mqoloma who hails from Uitenhage.
“What campaigns like EC100 have revealed is that the quality of local productions is lacking. Therefore we seek to strengthen skills and capabilities of local filmmakers yielding improved superior quality productions.”
According to Mqolomba the objectives of the Eastern Cape Film Festival #EC10 legacy project include to support 10 filmmakers to develop ideas into credible productions.
“Given the three building blocks of a viable film economy namely production, distribution and resourcing, the Eastern Cape Film Festival seeks to incrementally impact on them to make the necessary impact.
“#EC10 is proposed as a solution to address the first building block, quality of productions. Bringing various skilled individuals, the initiative would train and incubate filmmakers to be capable motion picture producers and sector entrepreneurs,” said Mqolomba.
#EC10 calls out to filmmakers in the province to submit their story ideas. Ten original and creative projects will be selected and those filmmakers will attend the Encounters online festival and a mentor will be assigned to each project,” said Mqolomba.
- Filmmakers are invited to submit entries to submissions@ecfilmfestival.co.za or for more infomation contact Nceba Mqolomba at 083 580 9875.
