13 Jun 2023

Collaborations from different stakeholders can provide the much needed boost for the film and television production industry to thrive.

The call was made by policy specialist; Arts and Culture from the ministry of Youth, Gender, Sports and Culture Dean Molebatsi during a creative summit on film industry capacity building exercise in Maun Lodge on Monday June 12.

He said industry practitioners most of whom were young people had high expectations about the contribution of stakeholders towards the growth of the industry.

“As we constantly probe the industry, everyone has to come on board and see what needs to be done, what role they can play to promote the industry so that eventually the nation can prosper,” he added.

The purpose of the summit was to create stakeholder awareness regarding the mandate of the Botswana film office including the film and video industry. The meeting also focused on up-skilling of the film and video practitioners on various skill gaps identified.

Molebatsi was hopeful that once reviewed, the new Cinematograph Act would allow the film and television industry to contribute to the growth of the national economy and improve the lives of Batswana creative.

Chairperson of Botswana Film Association Prince Monna appreciated that the summit provided an opportunity to discuss the power of collaboration and networking.

He conceded that the film industry in the country was still largely unexploited despite government efforts to provide conducive environment and called on stakeholders to work together to unlock the value chain valves of content creation.

He said while government was keen on enabling players in the sector to maximise the available potential, the situational analysis showed that South African and American content dominated the broadcast media.

Local content, he said was an effective tool for the promotion of culture and national identity and urged stakeholders to legislations that could be improved to suit the present day needs of film practitioners.

“We want production that can stimulate the local economy and ensure skills transfer as well. We should be having a booming film and television industry supported by a functional regulatory and legislative regime,” he added.

Monna said the National Policy on Culture was also short on addressing how promotion of culture would be used to boost local content production for broadcasting.

He said locals should also be capacitated to be able to document their unique culture which in turn would be aired on television. He said film makers could also incorporate wildlife documentaries in their production.

Monna further acknowledged that other countries such as South Africa played a key role in developing the film and television industry citing the South African Emerging Black Filmmakers Incentive that assists local emerging black filmmakers to take up big productions and thus contribute towards employment creation.

“At implementation level, there should be deliberate efforts to attract international co-productions with funds and incentives made available to develop the local industry,” he added. Ends