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Namibia on the wide screen

Bringing Namibia to the world, the film makers that will attend the African Diaspora Film Festival in New York are Joel Haikaili, Tim Huebschle, Vickson Hangula, Krishcka Stoffels and Oshosheni Hivelua. They are representing Namibia at one of the world’s oldest Diaspora film festivals.(Photographed by Melba Chipepo)

Bringing Namibia to the world, the film makers that will attend the African Diaspora Film Festival in New York are Joel Haikaili, Tim Huebschle, Vickson Hangula, Krishcka Stoffels and Oshosheni Hivelua. They are representing Namibia at one of the world’s oldest Diaspora film festivals.(Photographed by Melba Chipepo)

The Namibia Film Commission (NFC)  announced that it is sending six Namibian filmmakers to New York to attend the African Diaspora International Film Festival (ADIFF). Seven films were screened and six were chosen to participate in the festival which shows an appreciation of the continent’s film-making endeavours.

The Namibia Film Commission has sponsored the six filmmakers with approximately N$400 000 to travel to the film festival. It was also announced at the event that the Namibia Film Commission has  invested close to N$1 million in the development of the local film industry over the past two months alone.
Among the beneficiaries of the funding are the Filmmakers Association of Namibia (FAN) who received a sum of N$160,000. The funding will assist the association to run their operation more efficiently and set up offices to operate from. The NFC also gave a sum of N$110,000 to the National Theatre of Namibia and FAN to host this year’s Film and Theatre Awards.
Speaking at the event, Namibia Film Commission Board member, Obed Emvula said that he was proud that Namibia is taking part in the festival, “the festival presents an eclectic mix of urban, classic, independent and foreign films that depict the richness and diversity of the life experience of people of African descent and indigenous people all over the world. The NFC chose this particular festival as a special symbol to promote the development of our film industry in the context of the twentieth anniversary of the African Diaspora International Film Festival”.
The six filmmakers set to travel to the ‘big apple’ are Tim Huebschle, Oshosheni Hivelua, Joel Haikali, Errol Geingob, Vickson Hangula and Krishcka Stoffels. The chosen filmmakers leave on 29 November to attend the two week film festival which run until 11 December.
Emvula also said that two main events will take place during the film festival. ‘A Night in Namibia Special Event’ and ‘A panel of discussion focusing on Namibia’s film industry’. ‘A Night in Namibia entails the screening of a selection of short films and a questions & answers session after the screenings, while the panel discussions focusing on Namibia’s fim industry will have two main focuses. The first panel discussion will focus on Namibian filmmakers while the second panel will talk about developments in the Namibian film industry.
The NFC also contributed a sum of N$126,000 to host an eight week pilot programe that will be held at the Polytechnic of Namibia for film writers.

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