RUNDU – The film commission under the Ministry of Information and Communication Technology (MICT), this week visited the Kavango East and West regions to scout for workable spaces to setup their regional offices.

Deputy director Florence Haifene said the commission, through the ministry, is burning the midnight oil to ensure its functions are decentralised to the regions to allow talented Namibians access to studios and equipment to participate in the creative industry.

“We are in the two regions, and our mission is to look at filming activities in the region, we are required to decentralise our  services and you will also notice that the creative industry is quite high up in the agenda of our president, so we are looking at infrastructure in the regions and the MICT through the film commission, can provide access to regional film makers,’’ Haifene said on Monday.

While engaging MICT staff at Rundu, she said the culture and creative industry is placed prominently in the Swapo manifesto and in the national agenda.

 “So emphasis is on creating employment especially for the youths through the creative industry of which film is one of them and the creative industry is broad, visual arts, dance, theatre, advertising, crafts and so many things and we are one opponent and we have not successfully decentralised our services to the regions,’’ she said, adding that one reason for not decentralising in the past was capacity because the regional offices were stretched, there’s so much to do, they produced for television, wrote for print and created regional profiles and there was just no space for the commission.

“But now we have been directed by the presidency to make it work and I’m here to hear from you how we can create spaces for local filmmakers to have access to equipment, to come and edit their content, and record at the regional MICT office as well as hire equipment like cameras to create content. Filmmakers don’t only need an editing suite but they need a green room, they need spaces were they can brainstorm ideas, we are busy looking into what is needed at these facilities,’’ she added.

Haifene said the commission also intends bringing amateur filmmakers’ project Kino Namibia to the regions next year to provide script to screen training and then capacitate film makers to create content which they hope ultimately can be monetised.

Kino Namibia is the Namibian rendition of the KinoKabaret non-commercial film movement that brings together budding film-makers, actors, musicians and creatives, to create a short film in 48 hours. 

“So we expect the regional offices to look for spaces to setup infrastructure. We would also like to visit our rural ICT centres to look at spaces in those areas where we could have infrastructures for our filmmakers. I think it’s good news, we have been here before and we saw there’s a lot of film activities taking place in Kavango. We had training here and we produced three low budget films, and the interest was quite high, its just that people don’t have the tools, the infrastructure and funds to come together, network and create content,’’ she said.