IGF 2020 WS #269 The Challenges of Producing Sustainable Local content

Description:

This workshop will provide an insider’s perspective on how sustainable local content can be developed by having filmmakers from different regions of the world (Africa, Latin America and Europe) share their own experiences with producing culturally relevant local content expressing or dramatizing local narratives, concerns and aspirations. The goal of our panel is to demonstrate, through different case studies, how local content is developed and supported in different regions of the world and the importance of local broadband Internet development as a technology that can be harnessed to support effective, affordable access to such content and contribute to making local content creators and producers economically sustainable. Over the past few years at IGF, the International Federation of Film Producers Associations (FIAPF) has showcased how locally relevant content can facilitate Internet adoption and digital inclusion by creating meaningful online spaces for communities. FIAPF has held successful discussions with policymakers, multilateral organizations, and filmmakers about how locally relevant content and the creative entrepreneurs that develop and produce it, can best be supported through a wide array of various creative programmes, initiatives, and incentives. These discussions helped impart important knowledge of the parameters under which sustainable local content production can thrive and what type of policy environment is needed to best support such content and encourage the integration of sustainable local content strategies with those regarding the development of Internet services. This year’s session will build on the learning that local content often thrives in enabling environments that have the appropriate policy measures and services in place and where the increasing dynamism of the local audiovisual community is creating the demand for such measures. The session will explore the concrete reality of local content creation, its challenges and its social and economic impact, via a panel made up of with filmmakers and content producers who have successfully created local content for their communities and markets and are increasingly partnering Internet services as an integral part of their distribution strategies. The panelists will highlight how they are contributing to the local content ecosystems in their respective regions/countries by showcasing specific productions that they have created and walking audience members through the development journey of their works across the complex and risk-intensive stages of creative development, production funding, and pathways to markets, both offline and online. Additionally, the panelists will share their insights and suggestions regarding the forms of Internet regulation that can best help deliver a diverse, affordable, and sustainable availability of local content which in turn will boost local citizens and consumers’ demand for affordable Internet connection. Through specific local case studies, our panel speakers,from different regions of the world will articulate why they believe local content is important and take participants through the complex creative, legal and economic process they go through in local content creation. They will each show short excerpts of their creative works and take participants through the narratives of how those came to be developed, funded, produced and disseminated to audiences, including through legitimate Internet services. The case studies we plan to present during the panel include: - From Latin America: One of the panelists will be one of the young producers of Enchufe TV, an Ecuadorian success story. Enchufe TV was created in 2011 by local Ecuadorian youth who began by uploading short comedic skits for direct-to-internet consumption . The sketches were full of practical jokes and a light satirical take on everyday life in Ecuador. By 2019, the young creative team had aggregated 18 million views on hosting sites . Having built their brand in this original way, they were also licensing the shows successful to local broadcast channels, with good schedule positioning. Additionally, in 2019, they produced a theatrical feature film which attracted record audiences in the cinemas in Ecuador, an all too-rare phenomenon. The creators of Enchufe TV will discuss how they used broadband Internet technology to leverage access to a local and regional youth audience and to create audiovisual content under professional standards Additionally, they will explore how having effective intellectual property protection and other appropriate regulatory constructs can encourage the development of local talent and creative enterprise , which will in turn contribute to the growth of local creative industries. - From Africa: Ms Nana Kagga is a prominent TV producer, show-runner and screen actress from Uganda, whose first career was as an engineer. Amongst other, Nana wrote and executive-produced Mela, a TV series about being young and a woman in contemporary urban Uganda and her struggles for identity in the tension between family tradition and modernity. The show achieves professional broadcast quality and seriousness in a market where locally-made content is not prevalent and is often displaced by discounted foreign imports. Nana Kagga founded the company Savannah Moon, which she runs with sister Meme Kagga and an exclusively female core creative and managerial team. Savannah Moon makes content for both the web and broadcasters in Uganda and the East African region with an appeal to the Diaspora and international audiences. Nana will share with workshop participants the significant economic and technical challenges of developing and successfully marketing local content for various platforms in a developing country brimming with talent and in need of appropriate training and other incentives to help achieve local creative sectors’ sustainability and growth. Nana is Director and Executive Director for Savannah MOON’s latest offering, a feature film called Empaabi (The Turning Point.) - Europe: Since the IGF is being hosted in Poland, the panel will also include a film producer who will talk about the Polish film and TV as a dynamic vehicle reflecting Polish society, culture and history, and the importance of cooperation between creative producers and film talent to sustain quality, culturally-relevant production in Eastern Europe. Director Pawel Pawlikowski can use his films Ida (2013) and Cold War (2018) to exemplify the complexities involved in European co-productions to produce a film that is entirely Polish in its content and cultural tenor, yet with an international appeal. Additionally, he can discuss the value of the value of IP rights as development assets that can be used to raise finance through pre-sales. From Europe also, the panel will hear the fledgling young choreographer and film director Malaolu, whose short film The Circle was awarded one of the top prizes for the UK's nationwide competition Film The House. Lanre will describe his progression as a young artist and film director committed to finding the financial means to make cutting edge local content about the experience of youth in London and other British urban millieus. From the case studies, attendees will learn through concrete examples about the complexities and economic challenges involved in the production of quality content of cultural and social relevance to local or regional (or diasporic) audiences. Amongst other topics, they will discuss how they go about discovering and nurturing local talent, promoting skills, developing local stories (or locally relevant educational content), and making use of their country’s or region’s locations. The panelists will also engage in substantive policy discussions by highlighting the ways in which a “virtuous cycle” can be engineered to make local content production socially and economically sustainable, i.e., increasing locally relevant content of a good quality standard in turn leads to increased investment in the local creative economy as a whole, which also drives investment in the Internet delivery infrastructure and services. A moderator will facilitate discussions during the panel and will ensure that all speakers share their case studies and diverse experiences, and give specific recommendations that the audience can learn from regarding creative programmes and policies that support the local creative economy. There will be a 30-minute Q&A session following the hour-long panel and the presentation of local case studies.