THE GAMBIA, THE COUNTRY

The Gambia is the smallest country on mainland Africa, surrounded by Senegal except for a short coastline on the Atlantic Ocean in the west.

The country is situated around the Gambia River, the nation’s namesake, which flows through the country’s centre and empties into the Atlantic Ocean. Its area is 11,295 km2 with an estimated population of 1.7 million.

A variety of ethnic groups live in the Gambia, each preserving its own language and traditions. The Mandinka ethnicity is the largest, followed by the Fula, Wolof, Jola, Serahule, Serers and the Bianunkas. The Krio people, locally known as Akus, also constitute one of the smallest ethnic minorities in the Gambia.

Gambians are known for their excellent music, as well as their dancing. Although the Gambia is the smallest country on mainland Africa, its culture is the product of very diverse influences.

English is the official language of the Gambia. Other languages are Mandinka, Wolof, Fula, Serer, Krio and other indigenous vernaculars. Due to geographical setting French language knowledge is relatively wide spread.

HISTORY OF FILMMAKING IN THE GAMBIA

The origins of our film and cinema activity date back to the days of the Film Unit within the then government Ministry of Information, and as TV was not available, commercial viewing in open air cinema halls like Mahoney, Ritz and Odeon fuelled a lot of public interest in foreign films and provided social outing opportunities for people of all ages.

Film Unit started with Black and White 35 mm reel films containing material made by European producers for European audiences shown publicly at the McCarthy Square at night to huge Gambian crowds. After Independence, Film Unit continued to be a government body but was doing much more. It not only showed foreign material to Gambians, but also made and showed films tailored to our local needs. These productions were conceptualized, shot and edited by our own people — people like the late Ebrima Sagnia, a pioneer of production at the Film Unit.

At the time he was assisted by, among others, Alhaji Momodou Sanyang of GRTS on sound and Modou Saidy of State House and Sana Sisay of Family Planning on camera. As a small team they had a huge responsibility to document our nascent journey of independence and beyond. Apart from a few open air cinema shows at the square, the material they produced was stored for 30 years in different audio visual formats, as, unfortunately, television broadcast did not exist for the period after independence in the Gambia. Other specialised institutions with audio visual activity from the seventies include the Agriculture Communication Unit of the Department of Agriculture and the Member Education Programme of The Gambia Cooperative Union, where professional and on the job training in audio visual work was conducted. These two institutions used to produce films on agriculture, literacy and co-operation and were shown mostly to the farming community in the village at night from a mobile cinema van.

When in 1996 the new government decided to start national TV broadcasting, staff at Film Unit and some of their productions provided ready-made material to fill airtime as well as vacant positions at the first ever national TV broadcast outfit. Selected staff from Radio Gambia also got transferred to TV. Those of us with prior experience in production and a few others with TV knowledge acquired from outside the country also came on board, some voluntarily. Our immediate task following the complete installation of a brand new top quality control room and a makeshift studio, as well as the availability of professional television equipment, was to transform these into sensible images on people’s screens.

This coincided with an eventful period in the aftermath of a change of government in 1994. This represented a major challenge, as the demand for local TV production became more critical at a time when there were few that could make it happen. Thanks to a corps of young men and women who were quick to learn and ready to serve long and tedious hours, the situation soon improved. As others joined our ranks, confidence, talent and creativity soon became apparent among people who knew nothing about TV production a few weeks earlier. ‘’We never thought Gambians could do this’’ and “we are proud to be watching our own TV’’ were some of the comments from viewers as feedback came in. This motivated every one of us and led to more zeal and an increase in local production of various sorts. TV News production and reporting became one of the most urgent tasks to be developed as a regular feature. News Brief, as the first news programme was known, started by having its anchor recorded in the studio and later edited on tape along with the inserts and stories.

The material was then broadcast at 10 pm on Gambia Television and watched by everyone. Few people knew it was not live. After a few weeks of constant practice and a lot of on the job training, management decided it was time to go live with the news. This called for nonstop production to feed the demand for daily news and other cultural and magazine television programmes. The music performance industry became a readily available opportunity to put entertainment on the screen. The Gambian artist Musa Ngum became the first musician to have his music produced into a video. The video production of Banjul Banjulby, a producer at the station, opened a new possibility and led to a quick way to lift the struggling music industry out of obscurity.

Now, musicians could also be seen. Gambian artists of all music genres lined up for free video production of their music by the station, in return for repeated broadcast without paying royalties. After two years, it became obvious that the demand for new and tailor- made programmes on national TV could not be met by an overworked production staff which led to quality and deadlines being compromised. Independent production was born out of need when Jeggan Grey Johnson, a fellow producer at the TV, resigned as head of news to pursue independent production. Jeggan was soon followed by Nana Ofori Atta and Harona Drammeh who both set up independent production houses to make films and meet the audio visual production needs of clients. Mediamatic and Vinashasoon assumed the role of a private training ground for many young people.

Excerpt from: National Workshop on Copyright Develop- ment and the Economic Contribution and Performance of the Copyright Based Industries

– August 28 2012 at Dunes Resort and Hotel, KOTU.

 

THE FILM INDUSTRY IN THE GAMBIA

RESEARCH FINDINGS IN BRIEF

The film industry in the Gambia is virtually non- existent. There are no film schools, government or private, and no funding for filmmakers. Filmmaking is still in its infancy and Gambian films are uncommon. Documentary filmmaking is still a relatively unexplored area in the Gambia.

Mr. Baba Ceesay, the newly appointed Director General of National Center of Arts and Culture, an organisation under the Ministry of Culture and Tourism confirmed that there were indeed no structures in place in the Gambian film industries.

Regulatory bodies for film are just coming into the picture. This researcher witnessed the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) give a workshop on copyright development and the economic contribution and performance of the copyright-based industry.

This researcher also witnessed the Inauguration of the organisation of the Royalty Collecting Mechanism in the Gambia. This marked a milestone in the Gambian film industry because it activated the copyright law, which had been around since 2004 but was inactive because of the absence of the Royalty Collecting Organisation.

The film guilds were also inaugurated at the Alliance Franco, an event that was sponsored by the National Center for Arts and Culture.

Ebou Waggeh, the recently appointed president of the newly formed Film Producers association of the Gambia (FPAG) gave a speech that detailed the history of film industry in the Gambia.

Documentaries and documentary filmmaking are not popular in the Gambia. However, is a small group of documentary filmmakers in the Gambia made up of first generation filmmakers. Ebou Waggeh and Sina Sisay are some of the few.

DVDs of feature length films found in the Gambia are mainly of Senegalese, Nigerian, American and British origin. Gambian films are very hard to find. There are no cinemas in the Gambia. Those that used to exist are now burnt down and are in ruins.

Unlike other West African countries, hawkers selling DVDs on the street are not a common sight and there seems to be only one DVD distributor in the Gambia. There is only one television station the Gambia and it is owned by the government. Unfortunately, (and it is the same story in Sierra Leone and Nigeria), the broadcaster does not commission works/content and filmmakers have to pay for their content to be aired.

Mr. Sana Sisay, a first generation filmmaker and one of the few documentarists in the Gambia, is currently producing educational docu-dramas for the Gambia Family Planning Association on health issues, especially HIV/AIDS. They employ the use of mobile cinemas as a means of getting the message across to an audience. These docu-dramas are taken to villages and shown in open spaces to the villagers.

The GSM Company Africell plays an interesting role in the film industry in the Gambia. They have a production unit and young Gambians are hired to produce music videos, voice over’s, radio shows and create TV commercials for the company and for local artistes. Pa Abdul Waggeh and Mam Malen Njie are two young individuals who work in the creative department in Africell.

There are no film festivals that take place in the Gambia.

Challenges faced by filmmakers in The Gambia include:

• Training (there are no film schools).
• Unavailability of equipment (most filmmakers have to travel to Senegal to get cameras and other tools of their trade).
• Funding for the production of documentary

Funding, if made available, should concentrate on training and developing skills of filmmakers, training specifically in the area of documentary filmmaking, and support for the new guilds and organisations. This will help guide the emerging film industry in the Gambia.

QUALITATIVE STUDY

REGULATORY BODIES FOR FILM IN THE GAMBIA

There are no regulatory bodies for film in the Gambia. However recent activities in the film industry in the Gambia include the organisation of advocacy groups (Film Producers Association Gambia), artist’s organisations, and the launch of the Royalties Collecting Mechanism in the Gambia.

Excerpt from transcript of the speech the Minister of Tourism and Culture Gambia, Hon. Mrs. Fatou Mas Jobe- Njie gave at the opening ceremony of the inauguration of the film guilds at the Alliance Franco Gambia 

Minister: This morning’s set up can be called a milestone in Gambian arts and culture simply because for the first time you have come together, to be a full fledged organisation as required by the copyright act as enunciated by the chairman. This morning, we stand on the realisation of the long awaited dream of the Royalties Collecting Mechanism in the Gambia, which is enunciated in the Copyright Act. The road which has lead us here has been very challenging but interesting. I have been really pushing them and I do not have to apologise for it. The various stages of this journey include the enactment of the Copyright Law by the Gambian government in 2004, and also the setting up of a copyright office under the NCAC in 2008. Of course, this was followed by the various stakeholders meetings and workshops, such as this one, and lately the various stake holder meetings between the NCAC and the various artists groups and the facilitation by the NCAC of the establishment of the six artist associations in the past 7 weeks. Well done. For that, you have done very well. Thank you chairman.

This association should have membership on the collecting society board. Throughout this laborious work, we have counted on the support of you stake holders and thank you very much — the international stakeholders organisations like WIPO and indeed the Gambian government. Now that we have come this far, we should ask ourselves what’s next? Firstly, the various executive persons here should work towards strengthening their associations and making them more financially viable because we need money, administratively responsive and transparent. For too long artists have created associations only to allow them to die. We do not want this one to die. This must not happen to us. I think we’re very serious. We are are very focused and this association is not going to die.

We should also find out the various ways and means to raise funds, to organise programmes and to sensitise your memberships because it’s very important. We should also recruit more members and set up offices to make your associations accessible. If people want to see you, you have to be reachable. Above all, seek to build international contacts. The international contacts are what can make or break us and I am very glad that WIPO can see that we are really ready, we are organised and henceforth, I don’t want to be travelling on your behalf, you have to do the travelling yourself. In such, you can count on our support. You have the Ministry’s full support.

Secondly, the association should endeavor to educate their membership on copyright issues and I am very glad that I have seen this information pack from WIPO. It is very good. You should educate your membership on copyright issues and other matters relevant to the sector, such as contracts, which are key for artists, if artists are to harvest from their sweat and talent.

The other milestone you must reach is to schedule a date for the general congress of the associations soon. You will elect your president, and then you will have the Terms of Reference (TORs) and the qualifications of the executive secretary of the society and other necessary staff in complement.

If you look at these documents there is a guideline as to how to go about it. You have your WIPO team here, the consultants, they can guide us. We can make it September so that by November we know that we have a collective society. You can be invited to attend this programme and you can start making your networking and your contacts.

This board of course will now work with the NCAC and the secretariat of the society to formulate an outline or a blueprint that I can now use as a ministry to go to the government and say this is the type of support that is needed by the collecting society. We are looking at a situation whereby we will make sure that we will have a budget for you, because the startup is a problem. We can tell the government that we are ready and we are serious, and ask them for this amount of money for the collecting society for the period of two years. Just to give you time to settle, we are ready to do that but like I said two days ago, the ball is in your court. You have our support. If you want us to attend any meeting we will be ready to attend because the collecting society is not just good for you, but it is also good for the government of the Gambia and the people of this country, so you have our support on that.

With determination, these steps can be reached by the end of this year. By the end of this year we will set up the board. We have the guidelines, we will have the TOR, we know exactly what needs to be done, and we will know how to prepare the contracts between us and the radio stations, the Television stations etc. It is achievable. Once we are set, if you need office space, we can create office space at the ministry because we have some offices that are empty right now. We can create the space, we can get people to support us, furnish the office and you will have your office and you will be independent. You have that assurance and that support.

Now of course, you know your responsibility. You will be collecting royalties for Gambian creators and I think it’s high time we make some money. Anybody who uses our music or uses our products has to make sure that they pay us for it. The Collecting Society is key and that is why this meeting and the formation of the board is very timely.

To conclude, I wish to take this opportunity to once again thank the delegation from WIPO for coming to attend this great moment and to assure them of my ministry’s fervent desire to work with the associations, to realise the society, and to have the society set up. We can have it done and with the dedication and commitment of all of you it can be done for sure. I know all of you here are committed and dedicated people in whatever you do.

THE NATIONAL CENTRE FOR ARTS AND CULTURE (NCAC) THE GAMBIA

http://ncac.gm/welcome.htm

The National Centre for Arts and Culture (NCAC) is a semi-autonomous institution established by an Act of Parliament in December 1989 to promote and develop Gambian Culture. The 1989 Act is now superseded by the NCAC Act of December 2003. The eight member Board appointed by the Secretary of State for Tourism and Culture is the highest official decision making body on all matters relating to Arts and Culture in the country.

The functions of the Centre are;

1. To advise the Secretary of State on matters of policy relating to Arts and Culture and in particular on matters relating to national languages, the creative and performing arts, monuments and relics, research and documentation, science and indigenous technology, and sports and recreation;
2. Promote and develop Gambian arts and culture;
3. implement, monitor, co-ordinate and evaluate artistic and cultural programmes in the Gambia;
4. Promote artistic and cultural co-operation at regional and international levels;
5. Encourage, at the local level, the emergence of groups and institutions interested in the promotion of arts and culture;
6. Supervise the functioning of the committees that may be established under this Act;
7. Investigate and report on artistic and cultural matters relating to research, information processing, storage, documentation, retrieval, and dissemination;
8. Equip, maintain and manage the National Museums;
9. Establish, equip, maintain and manage such other museums as it thinks fit;
10. Preserve, repair or restore any ethnographical article which it considers to be of national importance;
11. When required by the Secretary of State, investigate and report on any matter relating to any ethnographic article;
12. Keep a register of all ethnographic articles which it acquires or which are brought to its notice;
13. List all monuments whose proclamation as National Monuments it considers desirable; ascertain their owners, before recommending to the Secretary of State to proclaim them as National Monuments;
14. Perform such functions as may be conferred on it under any law on copyright;
15. Perform such duties as are related to the research and development of arts and culture in the

The Institution is the professional arm of the Ministry of Tourism and Culture and executes its mandate through three technical Directorates, namely, The Directorate of Cultural Heritage, The Directorate of Literature, Performing and Fine Arts and The Directorate of Copyright.

1. The Office of the Director General

The Director General’s Office is the administrative and financial secretariat. Its functions are:

• To co-ordinate and monitor the day-to-day activities of the NCAC;
• To provide the necessary backstopping to the Technical Divisions in execution of their activities;
• To serve as the public relations arm of the NCAC;
• To evaluate policies relating to the activities of the Centre in particular, and matters relating to arts and culture in general;
• To monitor, evaluate the projects and activities of the Technical Departments;
• To provide information to the Board and to serve as the Secretariat for the
• To formulate budgets and project proposals for the Centre.

2. Directorate of Cultural Heritage (DCH)

The Directorate has two divisions namely:

2a. Museum and Monuments Division-MMD.

This unit is responsible for the material culture heritage, both movable and immovable. Its tasks are:

• Management of museums;
• Proclamation, inventorization, interpretation, protection, conservation and promotion of national monuments and sites of historical and cultural significance;
• Research into new archaeological sites;
• Organisation of exhibitions;
• Organisation of outreach programmes in relation to material and non-material heritage;
• Collection of historical

2b. Research and Documentation Division – RDD.

The Division is responsible for all research and documentation activities.

3. Directorate of Literature, Performing and Fine Arts – DLPFA

This Division is mandated to protect, preserve, develop, promote and celebrate Gambian arts and culture nationally and internationally.

Its Role Includes:

• Registration of artists and cultural troupes;
• Production of a national catalogue/directory of all registered artists and cultural troupes;
• Encourage and support  village, district, community and divisional cultural festivals;
• Creation and management of national dance, drama and musical troupes;

TECHNICAL, MORAL AND FINANCIAL SUPPORT TO GRAND MANIFESTATIONS ORGANISED BY ARTISTS AND CULTURAL TROUPES

Functions Include:

• Contributing to the biennial International Roots Festivals;
• Organising drama competitions and story-telling sessions;
• Organising modern,musical concerts;
• Organising literary competitions;
• Organising workshops for artists;
• Participating in international cultural events;
• Co-operation with international troupes and organisations;
• Organising national festivals of arts and culture;
• Establishment of national associations of dance, drama and music;
• Fundraising

GAMBIA RADIO AND TELEVISION SERVICE

About the GRTS

In December 1995 the Government commissioned the Gambia Radio and Television Service (GRTS) TV station. GRTS is the Gambia’s only public service broadcaster.

Under the umbrella of The Gambia Telecom- munications Company (Gamtel) it was to perform test transmissions from a 5KW transmitter situated at Abuko covering the Greater Banjul Area.

Later, a couple of transmitting stations were erected at the villages of Bansang and Soma inland to achieve national broadcasting coverage. Despite these earlier efforts, some areas of the Gambia, in particular the up- river regions, still remain outside the airing range.

Since the moment of its commissioning, GRTS has operated as a public service station in the tradition of the older, established Radio Gambia. The majority of the programmes are dedicated to news, public service announcements, education, entertainment and religious programmes. Broadcasts are made in all the 4 main languages as well as English and French. Some programmes from foreign sources like the BBC News of the UK, CNN of the USA, Deutsche Welle of Germany and CFI of France are also regularly shown within the GRTS station’s programme schedule.

As more and more television units become financially accessible to local families, GRTS has become an ever more vital and effective means of communication.

In 2002 the Government completed building the station’s headquarters to accommodate the GRTS’s administrative, technical, and operational needs.

ADVOCACY GROUP FOR FILMMAKERS IN THE GAMBIA

THE GAMBIA FILM PRODUCERS ASSOCIATION HOLDS FIRST CONGRESS

The Gambia Film Producers Association, on Saturday, held its first congress at the Alliance Francaise-Gambienne along the Kairaba Avenue in Kanifing. The forum afforded the opportunity to take stock of the achievements of the Association, and the challenges that continue to be grappled with.

Speaking at the occasion, the Chairman of the Board of Directors of the National Council for Arts and Culture, Tijan Kamara, told the film producers that according to the Copyright Act of the Gambia, it is the professional artistic associations that have to come together to constitute the collecting society.

He underscored the important role of the Association in developing the country’s artistic and cultural endowment, saying: “Your role must be such that it will generate interest in artistic creativity and film production as relevant to our developmental aspirations rather than heavily depending on foreign movies that will not help our society, especially the youth, to achieve their self-realisation”.

“Given the adverse effects of Western acculturation in our society”, according to Kamara, “the Association is naturally faced with the challenge of exploiting the creativity of our hidden or underutilized artistic potential, but at the same time choosing subject matter that is compatible with our cultural norms and values for general acceptance”.

The NCAC Board chair encouraged the Gambia Film Producers Association not to focus on film production for entertainment sake, stressing that their focus should rather be of an educator with the emphasis on “how do we do it” and not “how others do it, or have done it”. However, he noted that one of the canons of judging a nation is its artistic heritage that serves as the mirror through which its past and cotemporary lives are reflected.

Kamara further urged the Association to engage and share ideas with the Gambia Radio and Television Services (GRTS), the national television station in the country. In his view, collaborating with GRTS should be geared towards developing a movie repertoire and showcasing the Gambia’s very own stories that will promote its image and heritage.

Speaking earlier, the Director General of the National Council for Arts and Culture, Baba Ceesay, said the gathering is an offshoot of the consultative forums the new council’s management has been having with artistic groups, with a view to creating understanding on how best to work with the creative artistic community.

Ceesay reminded the film producers that the NCAC is the institution charged with the preservation, promotion and development of art and cultural affairs in the country, and as such, needs to encourage the actors in this industry to come together so that their concerns can be addressed collectively.

Source: http://allafrica.com/stories/201208060439.html

 

PERSONAL  INTERVIEWS  OF KEY PLAYERS IN THE INDUSTRY

Selected based on the relevance of their activities in the industry

Ebou Waggeh is a media and branding consultant with wide ranging local experience and proven expertise in the management of public information and matters of brand imaging. The name Ebou Waggeh is a media brand in itself renowned in all sectors of Gambian society. The company he manages, WAX Media, was founded in 2003 and provides branding, media production, public relations and product development services to corporate clients. He is the current president of Film Producers Association of the Gambia, (FPAG).

Mam Malen Njie is a Gambian TV presenter with her own show, called It’s Here, and a music promoter. She also works for the GSM Company AFRICELL in the media relations department, handling some of their radio and TV shows.

Sana Sisay is a first generation filmmaker in the Gambia. He was one of the few filmmakers that worked in the Government Television station when it was first established. He currently works as a producer at the Gambian Family Planning Association producing docu-dramas on health issues.

Pa ABDOU Waggeh is a video director and editor who studied editing at MEDIAMATIC media house. He currently works at AFRICELL, a GSM company in the Gambia, as a creative director and is in charge of TV commercials. He is also the manager of WAX MEDIA, headed by Ebou Waggeh.

Baba Ceesay is the newly appointed Director General of the National Council for Arts and Culture in the Gambia.

FOCUS GROUP

The event was organised by World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO), and it provided an opportunity for a gathering of all cultural sector practitioners in the Gambia. Stakeholders from different segments of the cultural sector, including producers, directors, actors, writers, and musicians were in attendance, and it was a platform for all of them to share ideas about their works and the creative industry.

At that time, there were no guilds, structures, nor laws in place for the creative industry. The industry was practically dominated by creative outputs from Senegal and Nigeria.

The event served as a great opportunity for a focus group meeting with all relevant stakeholders in the creative sector in attendance. The meeting lasted for over two hours and everyone in attendance had a chance to talk about their thoughts and frustrations with the creative sector. A lot of them also have actually been working abroad because there has been no opportunity, no structure, equipment, or resources to support the creative industry.

There has really not been a lot of originality in what they have been doing and they bemoan that too, as a lot of them made their names with old Gambian folklore stories. They are now under pressure from a new generation of practitioners who are looking for some kind of structural context for their own creativity.

The event was a prelude to the actual formal launch of the guilds, especially for the film sector.

PERSONAL INTERVIEWS OF KEY PLAYERS IN THE FILM INDUSTRY IN THE GAMBIA

INTERVIEW WITH EBOU WAGGEH

EW: My name is Ebou Wage. I am a journalist and a filmmaker in the Gambia and my career in journalism started when I became the editor of the newsletter that was run by the Gambian cooperative movement where I worked in the 80s. I used to work for a section of the cooperative movement called the Member Education Programme. This programme, which received assistance from the Norwegians, was meant to provide numerous literacy functional skills to the farming community in the Gambia who formed probably 75% of the population. If you look at literacy in the farming community, you will find out that it is less than 2%, so we have to make 98% of the farming community literate through this programme.

In the days we were doing this, there was no television in this country. I used to work in the material production of this Member Education Programme and my job was to design and use educational materials for numeracy and literacy. I received my professional training in Italy in 1988 on the adaptation of illustrations to local myths whether they were stills or whether they were video.

From this project I was able to use the technical equipment needed to design and print these usually paper-based educational materials like flash cards and items like that. Two years later, after my training in Italy, the Norwegians decided to buy us a video camera as well as a projector, so the idea was to move from using only flash cards to using audio-visual in our educational training programme. I had a camera which was a VHS and VHS was à la mode at time, so I would go upcountry, and go to a certain village and film because we used to also do education on farming techniques. In the past, it had been based on drawings and posters.

When we got the camera and the projector I went to village ‘A’ and then when we wanted to transfer knowledge on how to use a certain farming technique in village ‘A’ to village ‘B’, we filmed it and then went to village ‘B’ which was very far from village ‘A’. We used to have a van that we hired from the Agriculture and Communication sector, and when we’d go to the village, we’d announce during the day that there was going to be a film shown at night. We ended up having everyone in the village, from ages 1-99, come out to the see the film. What surprised me was that one technique that we had unsuccessfully spent a lot of time trying to transfer to a particular village all of sudden succeeded with the audio-visual because the next day when we went to assess and evaluate how much they knew about what they had seen, we saw that they could remember every detail of the film, from the beginning to the end.

The Norwegians saw that this was working, so we moved to audio visual. That’s how I ended up using audio visual on a film van until 1996 when television came. When the government body that was responsible for TV wanted to get staff for TV, they brought in a unit that government had called the film unit. The film unit was part of the ministry of information at the time. It was a leftover from colonialism because what the Europeans used to do was to bring a film meant for European audiences to us, and at night, because there was no television, they would invite everyone from the capital into a big square and then show the films. When the film unit took over, they had a lot of these films.

After independence, the film unit started filming things that were Gambian made and based on our own livelihood and then showed it later at the square. When television came, government decided to roll up this film unit and transfer the entire staff because that was the only place where government had a producer and a few cameramen and some editors. They moved them to the TV — whole stock and barrel and then they also moved some radio announcers from Radio Gambia to television.

There were a few of us who had prior knowledge and we had to prove that we could do the job. For myself, I had to prove I could do the job by showing a documentary I had already produced in 1990. That was how I got the job. I went in and I became a producer. I was probably the only one with experience on how to use that Betacam camera because Gambians didn’t know anything. They were in radio for about 18-20 years and didn’t know about television, cameras and things like that. They were just waiting for us to get them a script to read. So I and a colleague of mine decided that we could start a news programme, and the way we started the news was I would go out and interview people and come back and do a story and edit it. Then we would get the anchor in the studio and she would read the script. Later on we would edit the script on to the story and at ten o clock we would play the tape. We were actually recording the news. It wasn’t live, but people didn’t care because it was the first time they’d see in Gambian television with news on it.

It was big and we became very busy and I eventually lost my wife after four years because I didn’t have time for anything else. I would spend 18-19 hours at the station doing everything. I pioneered TV production for news, music videos, magazine programmes, documentaries, and religious programmes. There were few people who knew how to do it but everyone was willing to learn, so eventually they all learned. I realised after a couple of years that TV couldn’t do all the productions that were needed because there was a lot of demand. For me, the demand in news was about how to cope with the new change of government. All of a sudden there was a coup and there were some military boys at the state house instead of the traditional old jawara that we used to know. People wanted to know how things were panning out, so it was our duty to show people.

The new government introduced a TV station and they wanted to be seen and they used it to their advantage. We went there every day and got the opportunity to practice and got a lot of on the job training. I trained a lot of young boys and girls who came and they were quick to learn, but the fact is we also started experiencing changes. People started to move out because once you are on, especially the women — because TV as a lady and start doing well, somebody will offer you a job and pay you more and take you to their enterprise. That was how every one of the ladies moved and took their skills along with them.

I decided to leave after nine years because there was a need for independent production. I had been in TV and I had produced films while I was in TV. I had produced documentaries, features, and music videos and I’d write my own scripts, do script to screen, and edit my own work. I took care of the entire cycle. I depended on myself. When I started setting up my own media works, the first offer was a contract I won in a bid where the national TV also bid. I It was a World Bank project. They decided that they were building schools, and hospitals and roads and things like that and they wanted to have a visual image of how it was being done. I won the contract, and I did so well, that 2-3 contracts later, the agency decided that I was going to be the single source whenever they needed a video. I have stayed with them for more than 8 years and I am still with them now. I do documentaries for them for whatever they are doing. I have other clients with government projects that come in that need to have media presence and video as well. Mostly it’s video because that’s what people look at. They want people to see the things that are being done and so I am always involved.

Some of my works appear on TV outside the country, and some appear on TV here. There are some institutions where I am retained as a media consultant, not only for audio-visual works but for print media as well because I have been in print and I have also been in radio and I take care of all the media that the agency requires.

Recently, because of the fact that I have a specialization in documentary making, I get to take on most of the documentary contracts that are given out in this country by an institution because one institution will say, “you go to him, we were with him”. Most of my work appears on TV. I have a name in this country in terms of delivery and in terms of the area I am serving but recently, with new developments, things will probably become much bigger. It will involve other people apart from me, which is what I have always wanted. That is the formation of our association of filmmakers of which I am the president.

The reason we are forming this association presently is because of the copyright law that came into existence in 2004. It hasn’t been enforced until now because there hasn’t been a society which collects the royalties, so in the absence of all that, it hasn’t been possible to implement it. Now, The National Centre for Arts and Culture has been really put on the grill by their minister who was put on the grill by their president who was put on the grill by ECOWAS who said it was only the Gambia and Guinea Bissau that had not started having their copyright laws enhanced and functional.

Everybody is pushing and our audio-visual sector, will now start to work on its programme. Mostly our programme is going to be based on training.

The way I work with the TV as a media consultant, as a producer, and as an independent producer, is that I get commissioned work. I charge for production and also for air time, so when they pay me, I do the production and then go to the TV and I pay them to air it. That’s the arrangement I have with the TV. Just this morning I went and paid for some work I had for some clients. That’s where we are now but we would like to be a functional training ground for young people with the knowledge, or perhaps interest, or perhaps gift from God, in this creative art because we all know, as filmmakers, that creativity cannot be taught anywhere, in any school. You either have it or you don’t have it. So those who have it and don’t know that they have it need to be identified and brought to the field and those that don’t have it will be told what to do. There are so many functions in filmmaking that if you are not good in one aspect, you can be good in something else.

We want to identify all those areas where different skills can be harnessed so that we can train people and get Gambians to be more interested. Right now, 80% of the video consumers consume Nigerian films in this country, like most countries in Africa and around the world, because the industry in Nigeria is so versatile and resourceful. There are so many productions that come out of there and find their way to the Gambia that people are watching them every day. That is what we want. We want that kind of interest in Gambian films. One other area that has not been helpful to us in the film industry is the death of cinema halls. We used to have cinema halls but now I think only one cinema hall is left in the whole area and most of the time, what they show is premier league matches and not films. For us, the industry needs to really look at what we can do to survive the changing times — piracy and all that.

People also don’t invest in films. We don’t have executive producers here. You go to somebody and you tell him you have an idea for a film and it costs you a particular amount…it is not easy. I am working on a film and I am in the pre-production stage of the film and it is going to be based on a book written by the former president of this country. I have had discussions with him and he has given me the license and all that but I haven’t got the amount of money I need to make the film, so I have had to look for some partners. I am also looking at what to do — whether to do a docu-drama, or to do a documentary or whether to make a fiction film. We are looking at all those possibilities.

FO: Let’s try to be more specific about general overview. Give me the low down on the Gambia itself. How big is the Gambia and how many people are in the Gambia.

EW: The Gambia is the smallest country in terms of area in mainland Africa and the population is about. But I can tell you, .8 of that figure are non-Gambians. We are probably one of the most cosmopolitan nations in West Africa, and probably have half a million Senegalese living here. We have maybe two hundred to three hundred thousand Nigerians living here and I am not even including Sierra Leoneans. In fact, we have more Guineans than anything else in the Gambia. It could even be that there are one million people that are non-Gambians because when we had independence in 1965, we were 315,000 as a country. Between 1965 and 2012 we reached 1.8 million. Our density is very critical. We have only 11,000 square km of land and we have got one 1.8 million people living on it. Perhaps this is an opportunity to do films about family planning, about space planning and all those things to educate the public.

FO: And in terms of the public, the love of the creative industry… ?

EW: The creative industry in the Gambia is highly misunderstood, undervalued, and under harnessed. We have a problem of Gambians not appreciating painting or good books — most of the time it is the appreciation of a beautiful dress you are wearing. You hardly see a painting and say that is a nice painting, Gambians don’t look at things that way.

FO: Why is that?

EW: It’s a good question. I think it is because there is very little talk or even coverage about the arts anywhere, whether it is at home, on TV, or on radio, it doesn’t exist. We need to really talk about what art can contribute to the socio-economic development of the nation. That is lacking and that is why this WIPO study will examine the socio-economic benefit. We are also looking at other things — including tourism, which this country depends on for its foreign exchange. Over 16-18% of our GDP is from tourism. The other thing is that even though we have an 18% contribution to the GDP through tourism, the tourism attractions of this country are very limited and have not changed for forty years. The attractions are the beach, the night life, and the birds — the niche market for the sun, sea and sand, what they call SSS. We know there are people who are interested in theatre, in the arts, but we have never promoted this country as a place where you find the arts.

FO: Are you saying these indigenous African communities are losing their storytelling culture?

EW: Exactly, I used to work for the Sheraton when it opened in the Gambia here. I was the PR director at the Sheraton and I introduced things that were not being done in other hotels. I introduced a group that would come and talk, give oral tradition presentations like we used to have here and this would be translated into English for the audience to understand. There were some activities that were based on understanding what the Gambia is all about in terms of culture and arts. We, in the media, are responsible for a large part of the un-awareness of the population about certain issues, and art is one of them. Art is the one that has suffered most, but it’s true with music too because now nobody even spends a dime on music. You either get it through the internet or you listen to the radio. That is one area we need to work on.

FO: If you had to put a number on the media/creative community…how big is it? What is the number of people in the creative community who currently make a living?

EW: The creative community falls into categories. We have traditional entertainers who are people who entertain people at social events, and they are mostly drummers and dancers. We have the contemporary artists — those musicians using Western style music and changing and adapting it. That is the area that is getting bigger, the other area is actually dwindling. As someone was saying, when was the last time you saw somebody learn how to play a kora? We don’t have people learning to take over from traditional musicians but we have people coming into the contemporary music of the Gambia everyday and this is the mixture of African, Western, hip hop, and rap that is dominating everything now.

FO: In terms of television and film, how many producers, directors and all that? 

EW: That is what we are trying to really get to. We have formed our association and we are even finding it difficult to go by the definition of a producer to become eligible because if we go by what we call a producer, we make it more harmful to the whole country. What we say is anybody who ‘produces’. As I said, tourism is one of our main attractions,  and when tourists come, they do tours of the Gambia, go to villages and things like. A staff member of the tour company, who has a video camera, will video their movements and afterwards provide each of them a copy, so these are people who are taking images of the Gambia and giving it to others. We have a whole lot of them. This includes social events as well. If you go to a hundred social events, you will find a video cameraman shooting. Mostly these people are just filming, editing — cutting out the rough parts and giving it back to us.

FO: So, the association of filmmakers that you are beginning will be concentrating first and foremost on training?

EW: Exactly. Training people is what we need help in, because the true producers, like myself, are trained.

FO: How many people are there like you?

EW: Three to four, to be honest.

FO: And these three or four, do they all have production companies?

EW: Yes, I have my production company, I have my equipment, and I have somebody else. You are going to meet the three or four and find out where you can go to find equipment. They are producing and others are individual producers who will do something once in a while. They will come and hire your camera to shoot. Some have HD cameras but they are not very good using it.

FO: In terms of training, which area do you suspect is needed? Is it technical, artistic or production management?

EW: All! I am talking about the entire production cycle — how to manage it, what to look for, what to plan for, and also how to implement it.

FO: Are there people ready to take this kind of training?

EW: Oh yes! Yes, very young people. Since people started seeing others they know doing things on TV, they say, “Oh!, If you can do it I can do it”, and that is a very good thing. That is what generated a lot of interest.

FO: How come there are no training institutions at all?

EW: I think it is because if you are trained as a filmmaker or producer, you will have to go and look for the job yourself, and the space at GRTS, the only television station in the country, is limited. If you don’t have a job in the GRTS, you don’t have the chance to work anywhere because you have not been trained to work in radio, you haven’t been trained to work in the newspaper, you have been trained to work in the audio visual unit and it doesn’t exist. I have a lot of people asking to come and join me in my outfit but what I say is that I don’t have permanent employees. I call them, work with them for one week on a documentary perhaps, pay them and that’s it. I have a plan to open my own TV stations if I can get the license. For about four and half years now I’ve been trying but there is no decision yet to award any license to any individual private person in this country for television. Not yet.

FO: Let’s talk about the film industry. You are saying government is not going to be giving out any licenses soon?

EW: I don’t know, they have not said anything, because when I applied to open a TV station, they wrote back to me that they wanted to see how I was going to do it — my programmes, my financials and all that. I paid somebody to work out how I am going to make a profit, set up a business plan and I gave it to them.That was the last time I heard

from them, and that was three years ago. I do check every once in a while and what they are saying is there is this government agency called Public Utility Regulatory Authority (PURA), that has been given the mandate to work out the modalities to open up the market for television. The last time I checked they said there is no act to regulate that sector. We have to get the bill into parliament and pass the law. I followed through with this and I attached that act to my application. I said this is what government has done now, but that was the last time. They keep telling me that the Ministry of Information are the ones to give out the license. PURA is the technical body that has to work out the modalities, so it hasn’t yet left PURA to go to the Ministry of Information.

FO: For now, the only source for documentary, for the producers that are here, the only exposure point, access point to the audience is the government television?

EW: Yes, it is the government TV.

FO: Let’s talk about the film industry. How busy is the industry in terms of the Gambian indigenous films — the indigenous story of the Gambia, how busy is that? 

EW: Not so busy. I can tell you no more than ten films get made here every year.

FO: How are these films funded?

EW: Part of the funding comes from, for example, the national AIDS secretariat. They want a film that has a message on AIDS and then someone does films about that. There are one or two independently funded films that I know of in the Gambia. I have done a couple of films but they were funded by the National Assembly for Arts and Culture and the TV station. For independently funded films, nothing more than five or so in a year are funded.

FO: How are they distributed?

EW: Good question. Until recently, people used to do their own independent distribution. You give it to someone who can get it played — I know, I had some contract with BEN TV in UK in order to show a film. Recently, we had somebody come from MNET, a Nigerian lady who came to the Gambia to look for programmes for MNET from the Gambia and she invited producers to come and see whether they could use it. We went there and met her, and she looked at some of the films. Some could not even come with a copy of their films, but I did and she looked at mine, which were mainly documentary and she said that was alright. So, hopefully we will be working with that agency in terms of the airing of the films because the films you air on MNET will probably be seen by more Gambians than if you are on GRTS. That is the irony. The viewership is very low.

FO: MNET is the African cable giant and so basically…

EW: That’s the irony, exactly, and even in Senegal you get your film played on one of the channels, you get seen by more Gambians than even our own TV channel.

FO: So basically, the Senegalese broadcast television into the Gambia?

EW: Oh yes!

FO: How many stations come in?

EW: They’ve got twelve of them. We speak the same local language and most of their programmes are in the local language Wolof. We speak the same language in Senegal and the Gambia. Most of their programmes are in the local languages.

FO: So, they filter in here. Do they do drama?

IBU: Oh yes. They do many more films in Senegal, maybe a hundred times more in Senegal than in the Gambia. In fact the industry in Senegal is so developed that they have got some major filmmakers like Sembene Ousmane, Moussa Sene Absa and people like that.

FO: So, a lot of their films are what people consume here?

EW: Absolutely. All of their films are watched here. In fact before the TV arrived, their films used to be shown at the cinemas, and they used to be crowded with people in the days when TV was not here.

FO: In terms of people being able to afford to watch a film in cinema…

EW: Where? In cinemas it doesn’t exist. They are closed down and even those that are operating only show football.

FO: Do the people have to pay to watch football? 

EW: Yes, I am telling you football is the biggest way to pass time in this country.

FO: So basically, if the film industry were to get back into the cinemas, people would be interested?

EW: I think so.

FO: What parts of the filmmaking chain are most critical to succeed in commercially?

EW: Production! Pre-production — you need to plan. Even if you don’t plan, if somebody plans for you, but during the production period, you need to do things right. You need to have a good story line, a relevant storyline. We have a couple of films that were made in the Gambia here. The one that was made into a series on MNET and has been running is called BANJUL COPS which was done with quite a relatively good technical back up, but the story line was one they got from Hollywood and just brought here. Ithas nothing to do with our life style  or our culture. It was entertaining, but it wasn’t very useful. We need something that is useful and entertaining.

FO: What would you consider to be, for a filmmaker, the most important asset of the Gambia as a filmmaking country?

EW: The Gambia has some unique features. We have got a river that runs 400km right through the country and life on that river is completely unique. We have also got probably 8 or 9 major ethnic groups with among them, more than probably 25 different ethnic practices. I have done a documentary that looked at 16 different ethnic practices across 5 different ethnic groups. This is a docu-drama that is still in the rough cut stage. This is what I am trying to say — our culture is full of things we can use in films — our costumes, our location…. Look at our beach. It is one of the cleanest beaches in Africa and it goes for 40km on the coast line. If you look at the nature of Gambians you’ll see that we are practically a minority in our own country, so that alone can be a good thing in a film. There are so many things that we can show.

FO: In terms of support for the industry, I know that you are putting the structures together now. Let me just quickly ask you to talk about what the structures are in terms of the guilds that you are putting in place and is there a government regulation to put a statutory backing to this effort? 

EW: Yes, in fact this outfit we are working on now is going to be launched tomorrow and has been pushed mainly by the government. They are the ones giving out the funds so that many organisations can organise themselves. Once we have a collecting society, they will give total independence to the collecting society and they will say “you run the affair of artists in this country and their royalties, their interests, their advantages and all that”. We hope that once that has been done, the different sectors within the board — the film, the drama, the music, the producers, fine arts, painters, writers — that we are all going to try to make sure our sector develops and reaches Gambians in every corner. Right now we are talking about the urban area.  As you know, the Gambia is mainly an urbanized country. Apart from what you can see here, if you go up country, you can see places and houses, but you see less people. Everybody has moved to this side and maybe 70% of the Gambians live within the first hundred kilometers of Banjul, so all the activity is here — the cinema, the TV. At one time the TV station could not even be seen up country. There were only radio stations and most of the time most of them didn’t reach up country. So, what we want to do is to really take it further because we have people who are locally based, who probably have a creative mind and are doing creative things that we can expose.

FO: Do you think documentary has a place here?

EW: Oh yes! My gauging of Gambians’ perception of film is they hardly realise that this is fiction. They take it too seriously. Even if you act as a character in a film as a bad person and then you go on the street, people attack you and ask you all sort of questions. Even my wife does it. She watches a film and she gets so angry and I tell her that it’s only acting. That’s why documentaries, which are non-fiction, is good. In documentaries you cannot do anything that is not true. It has to be true. You have to interview people and see their opinion about things which is very important.

FO: What are the issues that you think documentaries will address that will be critical to development?

EW: For documentaries, most of the development areas are health, education, society and how we relate to each other and things like that. Right now I am working on the pre-production of a documentary which is going to look at Banjul which will be 200 years old in four years time. What has happened is that the port authority in Banjul has expanded in its third phase to buy out a lot of houses that are close to the port so that the port can open up and become bigger for containers. All the ships now bring big containers, so we have to have big areas for containers. The problem is that now they have been acquiring homes but these homes that they have been acquiring have been there for more than 150 years, so they are demolishing a lot of history. Before they started demolishing, I started filming and interviewing people about what was here and when their houses were built. What happens now is that I am working with the port authority. I have convinced them to spend money on the production of a documentary which will document the things they are demolishing, so it will be good for posterity and for the museum. They agreed with me and I am working with them on that.

FO: What is the name of the association you just formed. What other association is being formed and what is your role in it? What are the ambitions and objectives?

EW: Our association is called Film Producers Association of the Gambia with the acronym, FPAG. Our association is going to be the mouth piece for all audio visual workers in this country, and we will be the training ground for audio-visual work. We will also look at issues that are of interest to the audio visual sector and also help to develop the film industry because what we have now are only a few individuals doing our film work. You can’t call that an industry yet, so we are looking to form an industry whereby we will get people. I know that there are people who are non- traditional filmmakers, and because they think they have creative mind, they think they can come up with the idea for a film. We want to encourage these people and they can work with us. There are few of us who have been lucky enough to have invested in equipment. As you know in filmmaking, before you can show something, unlike the writers or the musicians where you can just go with your voice you need to have used a camera and edited and all that. What we want to do is to connect people with ideas with what we have so far as equipment so that we can help them to see that they can do it. Once we get them to see that they can do it, perhaps they will be interested in buying their own equipment and start doing it on their own.

FO: Now you are forming an association for filmmakers?

EW: There is also another one for music producers and a third one for drama actors and there is another one for fine prints, painters and there is another one for writers.

FO: And, there is going to be another inaugurated tomorrow? How old are they now?

EW: They were all formed within the past four months. Most of them didn’t exist before.

FO: How are you funding the structure of this association?

EW: We have come up with application forms which we are going to sell to people, and we are going to start with the registration of the association with the justice ministry and the GRA (The Gambia Revenue Authority). After we have done all that, we will look for space for small office somewhere and then we will start to do our linkages and see how best we can take it from there.

FO: So, you are the one starting this whole thing, you are the pro interim president?

EW: I am the president. The last time we had our first congress, we elected our executive board and we have a president, a vice president, a treasurer, a programmes coordinator, plus the executive secretary. These are the five in the executive board.

FO: Assuming a foundation was to come in here in terms of support for this industry, in your own opinion, what would be the key need areas and what would be the priority areas of support?

EW: The key need area would be training — training in the area of documentary making. You are looking at real documentary making which is going to be a whole new area for some people. Even those who are working in the TV station are not doing it right because in documentary you need to do a lot of filming of locations and places so that you can have evidence of what you are talking about, but most of the documentaries they do are just talking heads. It is nothing different from what you can hear on the radio.

What we need to look at is how to produce a documentary that it is a complete picture so that it doesn’t become a documentary where people just keep talking. That’s one area, and the other area is how to get people interested in it. The question is what to do to attract the interest of people, especially young people, and once that is done then we can have an initial training. For example, I was a judge in a talent competition which was funded by one of the major communication companies here called Africell.They called it, “Face of Africell”, so they called me and said they wanted to do a television talent show in which we would look for a lady’s face that they could put on a SIM card. They spent some money on it and they brought in a TV crew from Senegal. I was one of the judges and what we had to do was to come up with a subject close to their heart. I guided them in doing a 5 minute television piece on it. I did for each of them a crash course on how to go about your topic, what you should shoot, what to ask about and what to look for. Then I would be the cameraman and in 3-4 days they would all come back with all their pieces edited. Most people didn’t believe that these people didn’t know anything about how to do it. It was simply because I told them. They were so quick to learn and they remembered everything they had to ask when they went on location and when they met the person. You can say that my interest is in patriotism — people loving their country — it is just an example, but they all came with different things. So for me, with help from a foundation, to identify young people who we can turn into good documentary filmmakers is not a problem. Now that we have this association, it becomes much easier.

FO: How do you expect such support to be administered? Wll it be through this emerging association?

EW: Through the association because we already have a programmes coordinator and we have an executive board. If we have a programme there is somebody to coordinate the programme.Then we will all plan, and we will need to identify the people that will participate in it and we bring them in. Documentary is easier than film simply because in films you need to use a cast. In documentary perhaps you don’t need to use a cast, except if it is a docu-drama. Most of the time, it is easier to train someone on how to make a documentary than train him on how to do a ten minute film, because they need to go and get the actors, the cast, shoot several times and edit, so it is easier for us to start our training with documentary making.

FO: Where will the outlets be? We have the same problem in Nigeria. If you make a documentary, you have to pay the TV station to play it, which is upside down because the TV stations are actually supposed to commission these things or take them because they need content. What is likely to happen?

EW: I have an idea and I know because I have been in the business for a while. There are people out there who have the money to get something audio visually done for them but they don’t have people to do it. When it comes to training, if we have a training programme and we have ten guys to train, I can go to ten different institutions and say, “Look, we are having a training programme for documentary makers in this country. Do you have anything that you want us to do as a documentary? You can pay for and then air it at the end of the day”. If you write to 15 or 20, at least 10 will say yes.

FO: Is it a possibility that if there were many more documentaries being made through the support structure there would be a possibility that the government broadcast station would be convinced to give an hour on air?

EW: I am coming to that. It can happen, because we are trying to get the NCAC to put it in their act. They have to put it in their act for the music sector that 70% of music played on radio in the Gambia every day should be Gambian. They haven’t got the same thing for television, but now they are promising us that they will do the same thing with television. Once that happens we have an agreement with the television that we will give them a playlist. We will provide a play list to play 2 to 3 films for Gambians every week. We can make this agreement with the NCAC because the NCAC has airtime there which I am trying to convince them to use to play films that are made by Gambians. So, there is a possibility of things changing, but even before things change, I want us to have a small group — not so many but at least the first ten — well trained documentary filmmakers who will open up the market and make people stop and say, “Are these Gambians doing this?” That is what I want. We have the people and we have the creative minds here. The problem is that opportunities don’t exist. I didn’t have the opportunity when I was doing my audio visuals, and if a television neighbor hadn’t come, I never would have become the person I am today.

FO: How much work is done by NGOs?

EW: The actors in the Gambia are government, NGOs, and civil society, but the civil society is usually association. 80% of NGOs are financed by people abroad, 20% are local NGOs and the government is the biggest, so what we are looking at is tapping all the sectors. We tap the government, we tap the NGOs and we tap the private sectors as well. The private sector is actually the biggest funder right now for music development. For example, they are the ones giving the musicians money. The president also. He personally gives out a lot of money to musicians. The telephone companies help a lot of musicians pay for their recordings as well. Once we are settled in the audio visual sector, we will have the same support.

 

INTERVIEW WITH PA ABDUL WAGGEH

FO: Can you please introduce yourself?

PAW: My name is Pa Abdul Waggeh and I live in the Gambia, working as a video producer.

FO: Give me a sense of what you do, the different things you do and the process by which you do them? I also need you to tell me your age because it’s also about the generation of filmmakers in the Gambia.

PAW: I just turned 30 this month.

 

FO: Congratulations.

PAW: Thank you. We specialise in video production. Actually, I was introduced to film by my dad, Ebou Waggeh, who encouraged me and taught me everything that I know today. I studied video editing and I specialise in video editing. The software that I am familiar with is Adobe. We use this software to do music videos, documentaries, TV adverts, and mostly all video productions. This software also has versions that have a lot of elements inside such as Photoshop, Adobe After Effects and now we use all of these software packages. We use Photoshop to design and we use Adobe After Effects to do interesting things to add to our jobs.

FO: What do you see as a primary challenge as a young filmmaker in the Gambia and what do you see in terms of your opportunities and your challenges?

PAW: In terms of challenges I would start with equipment. I know I have the heart, the courage, the will to do anything I see on TV if I have the right equipment. Actually, if you see the machines we are using they are Windows PC’s, who uses Windows nowadays? Everybody has upgraded to Macintosh. You don’t have to worry about viruses, slow machines, slow work, rendering, and all of that, but we are still there. We are still using PC’s with less than 200G of hard drive. Can you imagine 2G of RAM? That is slow, so equipment is our main problem.

Secondly, I would say cameras — good cameras. Our cameras are ok, but common. They are 3CCD

Panasonic. You have to do your filming and come back to do the editing and then enhance your pictures. Now people are using HD and you don’t need to enhance anything. You just shoot, edit and you’re done, but

our cameras are weak. We are able to produce quality pictures because we believe in quality and so we work on our pictures to the best of our abilities.

FO: In terms of the industry itself, the performance of the young generation of the creative industry in the Gambia, what’s the scenario?

PAW: Right now, we have a lot of young people involved in the media and just recently for the first time in the Gambia, a school has been opened to teach young people about editing and about 3D software. I just heard about it a week ago. Can you imagine? For the first time in the Gambia a foreign body just comes to invest in production in the Gambia. I think that is something because young people here in the Gambia are really interested in media. Some are into music, others into acting, but I’m into directing and producing. That is what we are interested in.

Things are really changing in the Gambia. 10 years ago we didn’t have what we have here today. We have at more than 12 to 15 radio stations. Compared to other countries where they have up to 100 radio stations, we have at least 15. That was just in the last 2 or 3 years. Even though we still have one national TV through which we broadcast our videos and products, that’s the only TV we have in the Gambia, so that also is a challenge to us in broadcasting. Sometimes, or most of the time, if the TV can’t play our videos we just upload it to Facebook or YouTube and people can watch it there because the TV can’t play all the videos all the time. That is one of our challenges — that we only have one TV station.

 

FO: How active is this generation of young creatives in the Gambia in social media? How connected are they to the internet or social media?

 

PAW: Very, because right now that’s the only means we have. It’s the only way of showing our work without a problem or without having to go through difficulty. If you have your video clip ready and you need it to be played on GRTS, instead of them begging you to play it, you would be the one begging them to play it and once they play it one time you have to be calling them “when is my video going to be played again, is it going to be played on your next show or are you going to play it on the next interlude?” With social media like the internet you can just upload it within a day or two and thousands of people can see it because nowadays young people in the Gambia are very familiar with the internet, especially Facebook. Almost every kid has an account on Facebook, so if you upload your video, you are likely to be popular within a month.

 

FO: In terms of other forms of audio visual works do you think young people in the Gambia are interested at all in documentaries? And, are there people who would possibly want to work in that?

 

PAW: I would say yes. Young people are getting involved in a lot of things and I am surprised to see young graduates talking about documentaries. In my own personal experience, my dad encouraged us to do documentary and that’s where we started. That’s

where I started because he is a documentary guy and he does documentary all the time, so when I was learning editing, that’s where I learned it. It’s something I know very well and am really interested in — not just me, but a lot of young people nowadays are doing mini documentaries, like 5 to 10 minute documentaries, but most of them want to do videos. It’s more of a teenage thing, but as you grow older you tend to grow wiser and you can’t compare a documentary to a music video. I am glad I found that out early.

 

FO: In your opinion, how important are young people’s understanding of documentaries in relationship to their ability to begin to tell their own stories — to begin to integrate the history — to begin to define their experience as Gambians?

PAW: Personally, as I said earlier, we need more schools; and we need more lecturers to let the young people know the importance of documentary. I don’t think young people really know the importance of documentaries in the Gambia. Out of 10 young people who are involved in the media, 7 are more interested in music videos, so not many young people know the importance of documentaries.

 

FO: What do you see in terms of your evolution as a filmmaker in the industry in the future? What are your own dreams and your ambitions as you express yourself more?

 

PAW: I want to make movies. I mean, deep down in my heart I know I can do it. Just get me the equipment. I can express myself so deeply about how I am capable of doing production. I taught 4 people and took them from knowing nothing, to working at the national TV as editors. Now I have 3 that I am teaching because

I just can’t hold it all to myself and I just have to give out. As I told you before, we need equipment to be able to express ourselves. I shot a movie in 2 days with 1 camera. It was a short movie, a 20 minute movie, with good sound with just with 1 camera just to prove a point. Then I took my salary and paid those actors. I paid them a little money, but mostly to prove to somebody that I could do it.

 

FO: You work at Africell as well during the day and make movies and videos at night. I understand that Africell is also making content. Africell is a Telecoms operator. How did they get there and how are you involved in what they are doing?

 

PAW: Actually, I was working with my dad when they gave me a call, “Hello Mr. Waggeh. This is Africell. We would like to have an interview with you because we are really interested in what you do”. Africell is a mobile company, but Africell is a company that wants to be self-sufficient — self-sufficient in that they want to do everything for themselves. They want to do their carpentry, they want to have their own welding, they want to produce their own billboards, their own design, and use their own video editors. I can call it selfish, but it’s good. They don’t need to go out to get anything.

They have everything in-house.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

While other companies will have to hire other people to do adverts for them or to do billboards for them, Africell has it all. When they called me to say that they had an interest in what I did, I said, “Ok, cool”, and they gave me a job and an office and that was how I started about four years ago. I am there from 8 am until 5 or 6 pm and then come back home and continue working in the house office.

 

FO: They invest in equipment?

 

PAW: Yes, they do.

 

FO: What kind of equipment do you have to work with?

 

PAW: At Africell, they gave us PC computers with a huge capacity hard drive because they do a lot of

videos and everything has to be stored. They bought cameras including a Sony HD camera. Recently,

I told my boss to get a 7D Canon, which is ok for

filming, he’s right now in Lebanon and I asked him to buy the camera on his way back. I don’t know, but they are doing well. They buy equipment, especially when I am in need of it.

 

FO: What are the things you do there exactly?

 

PAW: I do TV commercials there. I do editing. When we have coverage or shows I get camera men to help me film and I come back and edit them and keep them. We have a library of everything that we do.

 

FO: How much has this helped you?

 

PAW: Definitely it has helped me a lot because it’s a company that doesn’t play with quality. They know that they have competitors. The Gambia is a country with four GSM operators and everybody wants to be the best, so Africell doesn’t take chances. They always

work with the best, so whenever I do a TV advert it has to be checked by four people before it goes out on TV and all of those people are not all in the Gambia. Two are in our office, one is in Sierra Leone and the other, in Lebanon. We have to email jobs to them so they can confirm that they are ok before they go out on TV.

 

Sometimes I’d do some TV adverts and have to make changes 25 times or so and I’d get terrible because

I was tired, but then it taught me to be patient and showed me that these people really know quality. They trust quality and they don’t take chances with their work. So, they’d just call me a million times a day and say, “Ok, just change the colors. Change the blue. No, make it green. I think the blue was better”. The first year I got frustrated. I really got frustrated, but my boss told me to get used to it. Finally, it taught me to be patient and to love quality. I just can’t stand non-quality products.

 

FO: What do you think, apart from yourself, is your assessment of the work being done by the emerging generation of filmmakers here?

 

PAW: Gambians are very ambitious people. I am the type of guy that appreciates other people’s good work. I can’t just hold it back and I can’t just hold it in. When I see somebody’s work and I appreciate, I will tell you. I pick the phone and call you and say, “Yo bro! That was a nice job”. We have some pretty cool editors here. I’m pretty sure in about two to three years time… oh my God! You will see marvelous jobs in the Gambia because I know in about three or four years people will see our interest in media and they will come to invest. They will come to open schools or bring cameras because our main problem here is finding a good camera. You can’t go out today or tomorrow or even next week because there are no shops that sell good cameras. We don’t have any in the whole country. Even

if you have the money, you can’t get it here. You have to travel to Senegal, England or Nigeria just to get a camera because you can’t just go to any shop in the Gambia to get a camera. There are none. That’s our problem, but we are ambitious people and we use what we have to do great things.

 

FO: Looking at Gambians, what are the things you would say for instance to a foreign filmmaker that wanted to collaborate with you? What are the strengths of the Gambia and what are the issues that you think filmmaking might make a difference with here?

 

PAW: Recently we had 10 people — outsiders from Nigeria and other countries — doing movies here and thought, “Why do those people just come here, make movies and go?” Something must be done.

That’s when our actors and producers came together and decided that we have been holding back for too

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

long. Let’s get something done. That’s how the whole association started and we have formed the association and everything has to be in order now. Before, foreign filmmakers just came and made their films and left to sell their movies. That was it.

 

The Gambia was just their location and it was a good one. They would take 1 or 2 of our actors or actresses, involve them as extras, and do their movies and leave. There was these time I had a chat with an actor and he told me, “They told me they would pay me when they got back”. I thought, “Yeah, they will pay you when they get back”. I think it’s changing now though. Since the association started we have had lots of meetings.

I think there is absolute change now, but before they would just come and do their movies and wave goodbye to us.

 

FO: You think training is a big issue, you think equipment is a big issue, what about funding? Where do people get money to make these things? A camera is not the only thing that makes a film, so is there funding? IHow do you find money to make the film in the first place? I want to talk about the little film you did, how do you distribute and do you make your money back?

 

PAW: Even now there are no big budget films in the Gambia. There are none.

 

FO: What is your average budget in the Gambia?

 

PAW: It’s like 100,000 Dalasi or 4,000 dollars for a whole movie. There is no big budget movie yet in the Gambia compared to Nigeria. Big investors have not realised the importance of movies yet here in the

Gambia. I can say because in Nigeria businessmen put a lot of their money into movies. They sponsor movies because they know the importance of the movie. They know what it can bring them. I think in the Gambia they have yet to find that out, so it’s not as if there is

a company waiting to sponsor movies. You have to be

knocking on their doors and pleading with them to convince them. In other countries you don’t need to convince them, you just show them your script and they give you the funding. It’s not like we have it here in the Gambia. We don’t have it, so producers like myself have to gather our salaries for 3 months in order to be able to buy tapes, pay some of the cast with a

few dollars and at the end of the day, no one buys the movie. We have to keep it in our company and watch it.

 

The movie that I did was a short movie. My intention was not to sell it. As I told you, I was proving a point because somebody wanted to see if I could do it. The movie had four characters and it was just a day’s movie from morning to night. It was just to prove that I could do it and the guy was impressed.

 

FO: Did you write the script?

 

PAW: Yes, I wrote the script. I shot the movie and I directed the movie. My brother did the lightning so we were like 2 crew and we had 4 characters. I was the camera man, director and the location manager and my little brother was the light man. We did it in a day and it was good and at least I proved a point. That was what I wanted.

 

FO: Distribution wise, I noticed there are no cinemas?

 

PAW: No, there is no cinema. There are no centers to sell DVD’s or movies. It’s just beginning, and the

Gambia is just beginning. I promise you that in about 5 years, when you come back, you will see something different because we are really ambitious people. We love what we do. I tell people that I could do this job for free because that’s how much I love it. As you can see,  just came from work and in my free time I am working and I don’t realise that I am working because it’s like a hobby to me. I don’t even realise it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

INTERVIEW WITH MAM MALEN NJIE

 

 

 

FO: I am in Africell, Banjul, Gambia interviewing Miss Njie. Talk to me about who you are and what you do?

 

MMJ: My name is Mam Malen Njie. I am Gambian, and I work in the media. I’m a media presenter and at the same time, a musical promoter. I also work at a GSM company in the media relations department, so I handle some of their radio shows and also shows on TV.

 

FO: How long have you been here?

 

MMJ: I have been working for Africell for 3 years now.

 

FO: How long have you been doing on-air work?

 

MMJ: I have been doing on-air work for about 5 years as a presenter and as a radio presenter.

 

FO: What is your ambition in the realm of audio-visual productions?

 

MMJ: I feel it’s my zone and so I have ambitions to further my education in Media Relations, Mass Communications, and then come back and build a media empire of my own — basically filmmaking,

shows — probably if I’m lucky enough, get my own TV station.

 

FO: Do you see a space for women in the media in the Gambia?

 

MMJ: Oh yes I do! There are a lot of women in the media here in the Gambia and some of them are doing pretty well. They have their own media companies and they have their talk shows that have been airing out for a couple of years. They are prominent people and very influential people in society. There is a lot of space for it. I think that it is even more welcoming for females in media than males.

 

FO: What kind of challenges do you think females face in the media here?

 

MMJ: I think the challenge is basically internal, such

as how bold, or how brave, or how far the woman in media wants to take herself. It is just a matter of

courage, a matter of how much challenge you would want to take up, but apart from that, if you really want to do it, it is pretty simple really. You just have to get into it.

 

FO: You look at the landscape for media now for young people — and by media I mean television, radio and social medias, the internet — what is the scenario from your point of view? How do you see it, how interested are young people in this landscape and what is the possibility of their being able to express themselves?

 

MMJ: Well as you know, here in the Gambia, media is still very young and our people are not very accustomed to being out there, being on TV, being in the media, or being heard, so some of them are pretty reserved.That is why it is so hard for a lot of people to be in media.

It takes a lot to be working in the media here in the Gambia, but that is changing right now. There are a lot of young people who are coming up and who feel like that they can do a thing or two in the media. It can be on the radio, it can be on TV, it could be on the internet or whatever, but they are coming up and they are growing, so I see a bright feature for media.

 

FO: What is your most important achievement to date as a female in the media?

 

MMJ: My talk show. I have a TV show called Fela*, which means “IT’S HERE” and it’s basically about the Gambia, the entertainment side of the Gambia and also the working side of the Gambia, entrepreneurship and just everything that shows everything happening in the Gambia and why we should be proud of who we are and the things that we have achieved. That is what

the show is about. The show has been on for three years now and it has been very consistent and very popular, so it is pretty much a success and it has been my greatest achievement.

 

FO: What is the impact of the show on young people, how is it changing anything? What is it changing?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

MMJ: It has changed a lot actually. It has changed the way a lot of young people look at the country,

because there was a time when they were more focused on what was happening in other countries and on what was happening in the West. They could tell you everything, word for word, about what was happening in Hollywood, what was happening in New York, what was happening in London, but they couldn’t tell you what was happening in Banjul, Serrekunda or who was the latest artist, what was the hottest song — all that is changing. Now there is standardized video on TV and people grow to love their own music and grow to love and respect the young artists that are coming up. They also see another side of the Gambia that was never portrayed on TV.

 

FO: What’s that side of the Gambia?

 

MMJ: Well, the side that shows there are people out there who can actually do well on TV, who can actually talk properly during interviews and who have a lot to show, those who are busy and active in their lives and are doing something very progressive. They were not featured much, so we created a show that allows people to speak their mind, and that really opens up people to media.

 

FO: What do you think you would look for to take you to your next level?

 

MMJ: More flexibility. I think if we had more stations and that if our media field was wider, it could help a lot of people expand. We are in a country with just one TV station and a whole lot of radio stations, and so expansions of the media and also more schools that

focus on mass communication would help. If you had a media school it would help a lot to broaden the media field of the Gambia and it would help a lot of people achieve what they want to achieve in media. Right now you can go really far, but you get to a point where you feel like you are getting to a dead end.

 

FO: How is your show funded, where is it broadcast?

 

MMJ: Right now it is broadcast on GRTS and is funded through sponsorship. We have companies who sponsor the show and they sponsor it on an annual basis or a bi-annual basis. We have two companies —

two very solid and strong companies right now who are sponsoring us — that is Banjul Breweries and Africell, and they have been with us for three years now.

 

FO: Your day job is in Africell?

 

MMJ: Yes, but my work at Africell and the fact that they sponsor my TV show are two totally different things.

 

FO: Let’s talk about filmmaking in the Gambia. When I go out there all I see are Indian films, Nigerian films, Senegalese films, but no Gambian films. We went to the guy in the market and he spent 30minutes, but couldn’t find one copy of one Gambian film. Why is that?

 

MMJ: When it comes to the Gambian film

industry it’s pretty slow still. We have a couple of filmmakers, and we have a lot of good actors, but filmmaking is really slow and it’s not something paid attention to that much in the country. That is why there is not much motivation for it. What

people usually do is they try to connect with other countries, they go to Ghana for example, or go to Nigeria and act in some of their movies.I think that is a good thing if you want expand yourself, but you also need to think in terms of home and start your own film industry here as well. I mean, they started

off somewhere so I think we can start somewhere as well. I just think they need more support and more motivation in order to achieve that and I think that is something that they are lacking.

 

FO: Support? What does that mean?

 

MMJ: Support means they need to be motivated more and they need to build organisations like an actor’s guild, like a director’s guild, the kinds of things that could help empower them into filmmaking and also help them come up with some movies. They come up with drama skits and things that they show on TV, but that is where it stops. When it comes to selling there is a problem because a lot of people will not buy it. They would rather buy a Nigerian movie or a Ghanaian movie or an Indian movie over a Gambian movie because they are not used to seeing it. There is not enough promotion for it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

FO: Let’s talk about the audience. The audience is not very large. What is the audience like? We are talking about 1.8 million the most, but how ready is the audience for what people of your generation are trying to do? I mean that culturally, politically…the space. How ready is the audience for what you are talking about?

 

MMJ: Personally I don’t think they are ready. We still have a lot of preparation to deal with. We still have to spoon feed a lot of it to them before they can actually get used to it. We were born into a generation where we grew up watching different things and nothing that belonged to us. We grew up with other people’s music, we grew up with other people’s movies, and we grew up with other people’s shows. There was a time we didn’t even have a TV of our own, so we were always

dependent on other people such as the Senegalese, the Americans, the British, the Nigerians, etc., so we lived their culture, their musical industry, their movie industry, etc. All of this is really young at this moment for us and we are still trying to grow, and so while we are growing, we need to spoon feed it to them so that they can prepare themselves for what we have in store for them. We need to give them a reason to believe in us.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

INTERVIEW WITH BABA CEESAY

 

 

 

BC: I am Baba Ceesay, the Director General of the National Center of Arts and Culture (NCAC). The NCAC has a basic mandate to preserve, promote and develop arts and culture in the Gambia and to do this, we are structured in such a way that we have three main departments: the department of Museums and Monuments takes care of the material heritage, the department of Literature, Performing and Fine Arts under whose purview the area of film falls, and our third department is that of Copyright.

 

With regard to film, actually for a long time there has not being any type of focal point or government institutions that are responsible for film affairs, so by virtue of a mandate to promote and develop the arts,

our ministry, the Ministry of Tourism and Culture, felt that we could take some initiatives by virtue of some of the provisions within our reach.

 

The situation was such that there was no focal point for gaining permission for filming and the like, and we have been recently inundated with requests for permission to shoot films. We realised there was a vacuum as to which institution was responsible for it and so our Ministry set up what they call a “standing committee” to advise on the next steps, the procedures to be adopted and things like that. The standing committee is basically responsible film and beauty pageants. It was headed by one of our doyens of the film industry, but unfortunately he passed on.

 

We started our work by conducting a survey on the film industry in the Gambia. The survey is yet to be

completed, but more recently, in our efforts to establish a copyright regime, we found it necessary to facilitate the establishment of an association of film producers which hitherto was absent, but is very vital for full representation in the board of the collecting society for copyright in the Gambia. This association has effectively been formed and you met with the duly elected president, Ebou Waggeh, who is also a renowned producer with vast experience, so he is a valuable resource person. He is joining the standing committee to replace Mr. Salia who passed.

As of now, our chairman is not specialised in film, so for the formation of the association of film producers, we felt he certainly has a place in the standing committee.

 

What we are going to do is to write a report to government, spelling out what needs to be done to move the industry forward. Ultimately we will

recommend the establishment of a one-stop shop where all matters dealing with film can be dealt with. As of now, this is the situation.

 

FO: In terms of statutory regulations and law, there are really no laws or anything specifically debarring

filmmakers or particularly prescribing anyway in which film can be done, distributed or funded?

 

BC: Certainly there is not, at this stage. I think this is the vacuum that has been exploited by Gambians who are really flocking here in droves, because they see the country as a kind of location, and there are so many incentives in terms of the cheapness of the destination and like that. However, we are very concerned about the industry that is not representative of what the Gambia is all about and that is why we are guarding ourselves so much against this invasion. We know it has its positive sides because definitely talent or expertise is lacking, and we have a lot to learn from the success of industries in their countries and the like, but certainly, we want at the end of the day, to have films that are representative of Gambian novels and traditions.

 

FO: Just one more question…is there, in your estimation, anything that would right now be a problem for an outside organization that wishes to invest in the Gambian film industry? Then, what areas do you think would be critical in that funding or that intervention?

 

BC: I think one of our most acute needs is in the area of training. We do not have any institute or educational facilities for film, so really investment in training is a priority for this industry to grow.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

FO: In facilitating that kind of support, would you, in your position, be able to be a point of contact as someone who could support that?

 

BC: Yes, as of now, the ball has been kind of trusted to us by virtue of our very broad mandate. Even

when people go to the Ministry of Communications and the like, they are ultimately referred back to

1. Certainly we are in the position to facilitate

this kind of thing. I would advise anybody who is coming in to give us sufficient time so that things can be built up within our plan of activities. My main problem is that people just keep coming

in impromptu and want us to work together, when actually, we are under the umbrella of a

whole ministry who always wants to be informed beforehand and in sufficient time.

FO: Are there any other thoughts you would like to express with regards to your hopes and aspirations for the Gambian film industry, especially in the area of documentaries?

 

BC: I think Ebou Waggeh is in a better position to speak about this because he has been living it and he is one of the few people who has actually produced documentary. I see a big gap, whether it is production skills or creativity, in the production of documentaries. That really needs to be filled because I have not seen any interesting things apart from his works. In other words, he is in a better position to tell you. My area of

specialisation is in material culture, even though I have a coordinating role for all these affairs.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

INTERVIEW WITH ISANA SISAY

 

Producer at The Gambian Family Planning Association

 

 

 

FO: TI am at the Planned Parenthood Association Offices in Banjul, Gambia. I am going to be speaking to the TV producer here. Please introduce yourself and give me a back story of your work as a film producer and television person, what you do, how long you have been doing it and basically, the history of your work up until now in film.

 

SS: Ok, my name is Sana Sisay and we started the film industry in this country which was called the film production unit. Being an arm of the then information department, we were charged with producing films, mainly educational films in agriculture and health, using the 16 millimeter film reel. Then came the low

band pneumatic camera. After a change of government in 1994, we had a television station and we were the first to operate that TV station. I was fortunate to

be among the first batch to go to Ghana for training for 6 weeks before we started operating this modern equipment. I worked at the GRTS as a camera man for a while and then in 2001 I decided to move out of GRTS to work with the The Gambia Family Planning Association’s media unit. Here I double as a camera man and a director, and right now I am doing almost everything: I do camera, direct and write scripts. I have been in this business for over 20 years.

 

FO: How many films do you make here in a year, both fiction and non-fiction?

 

SS: Basically our work is mainly on mini dramas dealing with health issues. The advent of HIV/AIDS has increased our work in sensitising people on prevention, care and support. Working for family planning we

really do a lot of advocacy, especially for youth on modern contraceptives, so we have made films on family planning, about spacing. When we say family planning we are not saying don’t give birth, but we want space.

 

We have also produced films on entertainment such as film opera in Creole, which was aired on GRTS, and we have also produced documentaries for government

as well. We made a documentary for GRA on how they operate since they came into existence and we partner with other organisations who need our services as well. The only way to show our work is through GRTS, but since we are health oriented, we decided to get a Road Show van which we imported from the UK. It is a van built-in with everything, so we can send our driver

and operator up country where they cannot access the GRTS television station to show films on health.

 

FO: So you basically put a projector in a van and you take it to open village areas and you show these films which are basically about health awareness or health oriented?

 

SS: Yes.

 

FO: How much money do you spend in making the films that you make at the Planned Parenthood Foundation?

 

SS: As of the advent of HIV, we have funds from Global Funds. They have supported almost all our productions and we are not only into film, but we do audio as well.

We use radio stations and we have contracts with radio stations, through which our field officers up country are in collaboration with the health department officials

around the area and speak on health issues. It is interactive, because the telephone line is open for questions and answers.

 

FO: What’s the average budget of your films, these films that you make on health?

 

SS: Actually I don’t know because our finance department submits our proposals to the donors. I am informed about the availability of funds.

 

FO: So what is the average amount that you get to use?

 

SS: Well, it is at times very huge because we need to pay our drama groups and we need to buy all the

necessary things we need for production. So, it is huge. I just can’t tell you how much exactly to be honest.

 

 

 

 

 

FO: We are trying to understand what the average cost of making a film in the Gambia is. For instance, even if it is not from your own experience, based on your

understanding of the industry, what is the average cost of making a film here?

 

SS: It is very expensive at times. I have already written a drama script and my budget is almost a million Dalasi.

 

FO: How much is a million dalasi in dollars? It is about three hundred thousand dollars,.

 

SS: It is around that or less than that.

 

FO: About three hundred thousand dollars?

 

SS: Yes, but still I can’t get a sponsor because it’s difficult to get sponsors around here. The script is here. I did my auditioning, but I am still waiting for funds.

 

FO: You have been here twenty years. In terms of the film industry, what’s the state of the industry in your opinion? How many films are being made and what are the difficulties or challenges of a filmmaker in the Gambia?

 

SS: The numbers of films being made are many and basically the film industry has advanced very quickly. When we started the film production, there was only one unit, then came the Agricultural unit, and then the cooperative. Now there is a vast improvement insofar as the film industry is concerned in this country.

 

We have problems at times. We have restrictions when doing some outside shots.

 

FO: What do you mean by restrictions?

 

SS: For instance, if you want to go to the airport to shoot a plane landing, they will have so many

“bureaucratic procedures” that you will have to write to get permission. There are so many things.

 

FO: You have to get a film permit in every country.

 

SS: Yes.

 

FO: If you have to get a film permit in every country, it is the same, so it is not unique here. Is there any particular

 

thing that makes production a challenge apart from funding, in terms of equipment or in terms of training? Do you think the industry is in a good place?

 

SS: Well in terms of training, we really need to be trained. Equipment is also a problem because it is very expensive. It’s not easy for an individual to get his own equipment. It costs a lot. You can work through

organisations because the equipment is very expensive. There might be some tax levies so a tax holiday should be considered for those who want to import such materials.

 

FO: What kind of equipment, what type of cameras do you use here and what type of software do you use in your post-production?

 

SS: I have an Apple Macintosh editing system and also I have this machine which uses CS4 for editing purposes. I have two Sony playback machines and at the moment I am using a Sony DV camera as well, but quality cassettes are also a problem in this country. We used to order quality DVCAM cassettes from the UK but now it’s too expensive so we resort to using these mini DV tapes, which are plentful here but are of a lesser quality.

 

FO: So do you basically use HDV cameras?

 

SS: No. I don’t use HDV cameras.

 

FO: What kind of cameras do you use?

 

SS: I use a DV cam camera because using HDV, you end up using it as a camera and play back machine which easily damages the recording head of your camera. Having these machines where I can easily play back my tapes from the camera saves my camera. I like working with HDV but the problem is we do not have the playback machines.

 

FO: Talk to me about the new generation of filmmakers. What kind of opportunities do you think can be created for them to tell their stories?

 

SS: In this modern age of technology people can produce films without physically going to some places. They have a brighter opportunity than when we started

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

and the only thing they need is to exploit it to the fullest. With that, I think the industry will reach the heights we desire.

 

FO: In terms of government support in the industry, if there was an intervention, what areas do you think would be most important to help the industry grow?

 

SS: As I was just saying, if there were no import taxes levied at all on these machines. In the Gambia, productions by an independent producer are taken to GRTS for airing and instead of them paying you a

royalty, you pay for the air time. These are some of the things government should consider changing so as to encourage us to produce more films.

 

FO: Again, if there was a foreign foundation wanting to support filmmaking in the Gambia, in what areas do you think they should consider investing that support?

 

SS: Equipment and training. If they can help us with equipment and training and all those things necessary to make a film production easy, we would be very grateful.

 

FO: Training in what specific area?

 

SS: In different areas. Some would like to do editing; some would like to do graphics or camera work — all the disciplines in the production.

 

FO: Based on your exposure to international work through the Planned Parenthood Foundation, how do you assess the quality of work being done now?

 

SS: Well as far as it is within the Gambia it is good. We are learning a lot from watching the international TV stations. We are learning a lot from the style of productions,

editing and all those things. We are really trying and we are doing fine, but there is still room for improvement. In production, the producer is only as good as his last production. That is the saying; you can always gauge a producer by his last production.

 

FO: I wonder is there any training institution here that trains people for film and television?

 

SS: Well there is one that is just trying to set up. It’s just around here. The guy is from Senegal, he has an office in Senegal, but he is trying to set up a new training institute here just by my place.

 

FO: So it’s just beginning?

 

SS: Yes, it is just beginning. In fact they have not started yet. They are just trying to set up their office and they have brought in equipment. I went to visit them once, but it has not started in earnest yet. They might be sending out application forms.

 

FO: How many films have you done through here, how many films does Planned Parenthood do, say in a year?

 

SS: As I said, because we are working with so many agencies it is difficult to tell. It depends on the proposal we send and if it is approved by the agencies.

 

FO: Based on the last 5 years, how many have you done per year?

 

SS: Per year? It is more than 20 per year. FO: You make more than 20 films, dramas? SS: Dramas, yes.

FO: What about documentaries?

 

SS: Documentaries might be one or two.

 

FO: Are those dramas docu-dramas really, because they demonstrate health issues?

 

SS: Yes, they do. Of course if you go to our archives there is a mini drama about almost all the ailments that people do suffer from here.

ANALYSIS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

 

The Gambia is a very small country. It is actually the smallest country on mainland Africa. It is not surprising, therefore, that it has absolutely no history

of any kind of filmmaking that I consider remarkable. However, the Gambia has a small core of documentary filmmakers who I find very interesting and believe can be extremely encouraged on two levels.

 

The first level of encouragement that can bring any meaningful impact is training. It is very important to immediately design training programmes that can

effectively take filmmakers in the Gambia through the fundamental rudiments of filmmaking as an art form and a narrative art, and it should be structured across the board to accommodate filmmakers of all genres.

Currently, the Gambia has no training school of any kind that can provide aspiring and practicing filmmakers with any valuable knowledge of the film art, so the kind of media school that I have suggested for Sierra Leone will be the kind of media school that I think can do

very well in the Gambia. I think that any such training institution established in the Gambia must seamlessly incorporate both the performative or creative arts and technical skills development that can groom students on essential camera work, post-production, and other relevant technical areas involved in filmmaking.

 

Film production and consumption in the Gambia is practically influenced and dominated by films from Nigeria, Senegal, and Britain. Sadly, filmmaking in the Gambia is nowhere near becoming an industry as most of the filmmaking activities in the country are largely below average standards in other parts of the world, and this is repeatedly attributed to the poor level of film literacy in the country. Everyone who is of note that I interviewed on this subject unanimously agreed that there is an urgent need for a formal training institution which can serve as a beacon for film development in the country. Filmmakers in the Gambia are now trying to organise themselves

into professional association(s) or guilds that can help to consciously foster the development of filmmaking in the country. One such association is the Film Producers Association of the Gambia (FPAG). The emergence

of more of these kinds of professional associations for filmmaking in the Gambia will ultimately bring about a concentrated and speedy effort towards film development

 

 

 

in the country and I believe that this is another area where filmmaking in the Gambia needs support.

 

Support for the guilds and associations that are emerging would be a critical and well appreciated intervention in the Gambia. Provision of filmmaking equipment is an intervention that can effectively support the new guilds that are emerging, especially in broadening their scope and imagination of the possibilities of their own creativity. However, I think that the more pressing intervention will be to create a proper media school that can provide the right kind of training for those who want to be in the media, and it

seems like all the young people in the Gambia want to be in the media.

 

I think the country is going through a cultural transformation now because the older generation of Gambians do not tend towards the performance arts or to speak out politically, but the upcoming generation of young people are beginning to make a different kind of music, dress in a different kind of way, and they are beginning to question common assumptions in ways that the older generation would never have. In this kind of environment, giving voice to the upcoming generation would be less about providing them access to the audience, but more about empowering the youth to be able to create their own works. Right now there seem to be a lot of activities of Gambian youths on the internet and I think access to the international market will also be important for them in some form.

 

The Gambia does not currently have any form of funding for filmmaking, as such, creating opportunities for filmmakers in the Gambia to get funding for

their stories through the Guilds will be a remarkable intervention. In doing so, however, it would be of utmost importance to coordinate with the government. The country runs a very closed political environment and it is one that would need to be carefully treaded in terms of making sure that the proposed interventions are done with reassurances that they have no political or religious intention of any kind.

 

— Femi Odugbemi

ANALYSIS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

 

I think Ghana is, in all respects, second only to Nigeria in terms of the volume of activity, structure and potentials, among the Anglophone countries of West Africa. Almost everything going on in Nigeria seems to be replicated or mirrored in Ghana. The video film industry was born out of their broadcast industry, and there is a very large mass of creatives both in Accra and

up north, and a distribution channel that connects them to a local audience willing to consume Ghanaian movies.

 

The documentary genre is also something that they are very familiar with because the British who

colonized Ghana left a legacy whereby documentary was essentially used as a mass platform for government propaganda. An altogether new documentary genre which serves a much different purpose is now emerging.

 

There is training for filmmakers, even though it is via only one major film school that is called the National Film and Television Institute (NAFTI). The numbers are not impressive and I think that is due to the cost of the training, but they have a very solid curriculum that has done well in producing filmmakers within our African context who can do works that are interesting. However, the commitment of the school to documentary production is weak at best. New York

University started a documentary film festival in Ghana called the Real Life Documentary Festival, that did

a lot to begin to build the awareness of documentary as a multi-dimensional form of filmmaking that is connected to culture, human empowerment and that can give filmmakers a voice in a challenging socio- economic environment like Ghana. What is clear

is that the training institution for filmmakers for documentary is not affordable to most of the students.

 

1. What I think might be a good intervention is to provide support for the National Film and Television Institute (NAFTI) with a specific focus on their documentary I would imagine also that a scholarship package for students who might wish to specialise in documentary production may be a good idea for a limited period, if just to encourage enrolment in the curriculum. Collaboration with the school to expand that documentary curriculum would be a very positive

 

 

 

contribution in terms of documentary filmmaking.

 

2. I also think that perhaps some collaboration with some of the locally-based Film Festivals is also a good channel to promote the awareness and encourage careers in issue-based cinema especially for emergent filmmakers who form the core of Ghana’s film practitioners today. I think it will do a lot to create the right kind of awareness and to bring into Ghana international quality documentary filmmakers and to show a variety of documentary films which have the kind of quality to inspire younger

 

3. The other area of opportunity is perhaps the broadcast Currently, as in many other African Television broadcast environments, the Government is a dominant player in the control and access to

air-time. Unlike other environments where the TV stations commission programming from Independent producers, the stations here monetize the air-time and demand that content producers pay for air-time. It is a really critical area of intervention that filmmakers and documentarists from all over this region desire a change of policy and or approach. Even if they have managed to taise enough to produce their works,

the prospect of finding the huge cash necessary to secure access to an audience kills any initiative and/or enterprise for documentary-making. Could engaging the broadcast industries and authorities in the region be the way forward so that at least a guaranteed percentage of air-time is invested in documentary work on local development issues, even if only by emergent filmmakers? Definitely there needs to

be a documentary channel that connects African audiences without impoverishing African storytellers and filmmakers. The idea of a Regional or Africa wide documentary channel devoted to the issues of Africa was well discussed most recently at the 2011 Conference of the Documentary Network Africa (DNA) in Johannesburg. It may be a solution worthy of support and exploration; and in that, wise Ghana would provide perhaps the most ideal environment, politically and socially, to situate such an enterprise.

 

— Femi Odugbemi