The African, Caribbean and Pacific Group of States Secretariat (ACP Secretariat) has launched a Call for Proposals financed by the “ACP-EU cooperation support programme for the ACP cinema and audiovisual sectors.
 
Targeted to support projects in the ACP cinema and audiovisual fields, the Call aims to contribute to the development and structuring of the ACP States’ cinema and audiovisual industries so as to create and distribute their own images more effectively. The programme further initiates the promotion of cultural diversity, networking of ACP cultural identities and intercultural dialogue.

The call for proposals shall award grants to three categories of Actions in the cinema and audiovisual fields, namely;

-Production projects of cinema and audio-visual (television) works
-Promotion, distribution, dissemination and networking of the cinema and
audio-visual sector in the ACP States.
-Professional development and training in the cinema and audio-visual sector projects

The deadline for submission of proposals has been marked for the 5th of September 2008.
For full application guidelines view Programme website: www.acpfilms.eu.
ACP Secretariat website: http://www.acp.int
 On EuropeAids Calls for proposals and tenders visit: (http://ec.europa.eu/europeaid/work/funding-opportunities/index_fr.htm

The source is from a publication  of EuropeAid. Reference:/127212/D/ACT/MULTI

Chimango Kanyimbo
Projects Officer
Southern Africa Communication for Development (SACOD)

My T-shirt, "SACOD Forum, Zambia", was the wrong garment to be wearing. Four of us were in an informal settlement looking for a runaway. A car carrying four men stopped next to mine. They studied my T-shirt, then the number plate of my vehicle. Satisfied that I was not a makwerekere, they departed. We later came face-to-face with hundreds of refugees living in a tent at a police station. The shock was quite palpable, notwithstanding that I had been coordinating the donation of supplies via our local neighbourhood internet network.

From this "small media" - a T-shirt and street listservs - the issues debated in the big media have been sustained, extraordinarily in-depth, and self-reflective. Amongst the myths that have been shattered is that only whites can be racist. This nonsense was propagated in 1999 by the SA Human Rights Commission's Inquiry into racism and the media. For once, the media have not been blamed by the authorities. Media presented themselves as messengers providing an agenda for framing debates into the nature of the South African democratic project, now considered by most commentators to be in tatters.

"What crisis?" was President Mbeki's response to news crews regarding the delay of Zimbabwean election results. The "non-crisis" burst at home, taking the form of a violent xenophobia. This euphemism for racism was pointed out in a letter to a Durban newspaper. Jan van Eck in Daily News (June 2) compared the attacks to "ethnic cleansing". The usual suspects of a third force were invoked by state officials, but soon dropped in the face of sustained media scepticism.

At root, apart from the strain on social services, scarce resources, and lack of policy on immigration, a common narrative emerged from business columnists: refugees work harder, are better skilled, better educated and more reliable than South Africans, especially in sectors like construction. Other specialist columnists dealt with psychology, violence, and nationhood. The Times (May 19), a waffle rag if ever there was one, which communicated the horror of the burning Mozambican, broke with its policy by reporting "bad news". It's front page led with this photograph, now indelibly stamped on the global consciousness. Tabloids can also be serious. A single photograph of an appalling atrocity has the power to change policies.

Wealth is understood by those doing the attacking as a redistributive process ("taking ‘our' resources") rather than being created by entrepreneurial activity and hard work. This is the populist message reported on TV and press, often with screaming inflammatory headlines. The economy is understood to be like a cake. Once created, it can merely be sliced and distributed. If the cake stands for socialism, then the more people, the smaller the slices. But the refugees, like the media, know that economies grow, that the slices can get bigger, and more people can eat. SABC News (May 22) reported the affects on GDP due to mine workers stay aways, of whom one fifth are from neighbouring African countries

For the attackers, foreigners take jobs away from South Africans, compete for scarce resources and exhibit a culture of entitlement. Foreign blacks are only welcome if they bring investment capital to South Africa. Few do. Being at the mercy of the "foreigner", plays well into the notion of socialist rhetoric - "now it's our turn" (as a 1994 ANC election poster said). Entrepreneurial expertise imported by refugees to South Africa (without capital) is seen simply as another form of "exploitation".

South Africa is engaged in nation-building, at a time when other Africans nations are fragmenting. Identity creation requires the forging of a single South Africanism in the face of overwhelming domestic diversity. Indeed, some media are now questioning whether a national idea has been forged at all. Mondli Makhanya in The Times (May 28, 2007) discusses our lack of embracing diversity. He writes "If we want to nip xenophobia in the bud, we need to rethink our national identity." Press photos of the "Flaming Man" (Daily News, June 2), Ernesto Nhamauve, may have helped focus minds in South Africa, but it has been a terrible price to pay, for him, his family and for South Africa. This is the media message.

The Author,Keyan Tomaselli is Senior Professor, Culture, Communication and Media Studies, University of KwaZulu-Natal. He is co-editor of Media, Democracy and Renewal in Southern Africa (2001) and has published widely on the media. His most recent book is Encountering Modernity: 20th Century South African Cinemas (2006, UNISA Press).
 

Best- Documentary- Feature Oscar winner and SACOD member, Don Edkins, recently launched a book about one of his most distinctive film documentary projects.  The book titled“Steps by Steps” is co-authored by Iikka Vehkalahti, commissioning editor of the Finnish Broadcasting Company, YLE.

The book echoes from a personal note on how 38 films were produced and made from a documentary project “Steps for the Future”- in Southern Africa.   It narrates on how these particular films dealing with positive stories from positive people were produced, how they have been and still are utilized through out the Southern Africa region.

As recommendable apparatus for documentary filmmakers, film school/ media students and commissioning editors, the 240-paged-book offers answers on the three “musts” for every documentary film maker, how to create a global documentary film project that deals with HIV and AIDS, how a few number of telephone calls could get you $200,000 for a totally impossible project, and why the first five minutes of the film are of great importance.  It elaborates further on how they got an opportunity to travel to more than 180 film festivals around the world, with many of the films made by first-time directors and some broadcast in more than twenty five countries.  It also documents on how they worked together with the cream of the world’s filmmakers, clashes of culture, personalities, difficulties and mistakes.

Dubbed in eighteen local languages the book is also ideal for those who intend to comprehend more about North-South cooperation and the intricacy of HIV and AIDS in Southern Africa.

Inclusive with the book is a 220 minute DVD. It was published by Jacana Media in May 2008 and going for a retail price of R165.00.

Chimango Kanyimbo
Southern Africa Communications for Development (SACOD)

In the last few days South African and indeed African News has been littered by deplorable acts of inhuman violence targeting many immigrants, particularly from Zimbabwe, Mozambique and Malawi. The images emanating from the streets of Johannesburg and some outlying areas are horrendous and send a lot of chills for a country that is highly acclaimed for democratic practice in the sub-region. This is a very unfortunate development and is reminiscent of the very Apartheid era that the countries and nations' of the world deplored not long ago. For South Africa, this single act among many should be a re-awakening that things are not in the right perspective. For the poor, and sometimes desperate immigrants who have now fallen victims of violence from their once 'brothers' and 'sisters' in South Africa. Zimbabweans, and in particular, those that have sought refuge in many parts of South Africa have not done so by choice. They are victims of circumstances. They have had to live their homeland due to among other reasons, the degenerating economic and political situation in that country.

As an institution based in Zambia - a country and people, which shared the desires and supported the liberation struggles in Southern Africa - including that of both Zimbabwe and South Africa among others - it is dismaying to see such kind of anger and frustrations being directed to each other. Indeed, the circumstance leading to this are many but if we go by the kind of rationale for perpetuating this violence, the South African leadership especially the political leadership (both President Thabo Mbeki and Jacob Zuma) should play a central role in reminding South Africa itself on the neccessity to respect and tolerate the very people who kept them in their own countries in a quest to dismantle the apartheid regime. It is their morale and legal right to be at the fore-front of persuading and encourgaging tolerance in new South Africa. Suffice to say that this is a very unfortunate development that needs to be addressed. 

We join the families who have fallen victims of this violence and offer our compassionate thoughts. Notwithstanding, we also implore our own governments, politicians and citizens to rise and send an unequivocal message to South Africa condemning these acts of violence and dissipating of innocent lives due to internal problems in South Africa. The older generation of South Africa, need to rise to the occassion and stop this violence being perpetuated by the youths. In a similar vein, let us also try to address the circumstances leading to immigrants running away from their countries. We cannot allow Zimbabwe to channelling over 5million people away from their homes seeking livelihoods in neighbouring countries when only less than thirty years ago they were triumphantically taking black leadership and power away from the Ian Smith regime.

Abdon Yezi

Senior Partner - Yezi-Arts Promotions and Productions

Board Chairperson - Southern Africa Communication for Development