New and returning participants make Kino Namibia 2019 fruitful.
The third edition of the Kino Namibia film festival has just concluded and the organisers say it was another one for the books. With 130 participants this year of which 80% are newcomers reflects the growth and essence of the festival to enhance local film enthusiasts.
“This year we tried to take in 200 participants but only managed to collect 130 participants, we also focused on branding our festival with wall banners, pull up banners and other promotional items which had a positive impact. 80% of our participants were newcomers with only a few participants from outside Windhoek,” says Andreas Elifas.
Having started in 2017, Kino Namibia, a platform for directors, actors and editors alike in the film industry is ready for this year’s event. The three-day festival is organized as part of an international movement called KinoKabaret and the main goal is to bring together talents out of the media field – professionals and amateurs – that form groups and produce short local stories within 48 hours. KinoNamibia is a film hub project under The Namibia Film Commission, for international filmmakers to share multiple ideas in a short time.
According to the organisers, this year’s quality of work was the same as that of last year’s.
“This year our participants struggled to create the films as they lacked the equipment to work with, we were however fortunate to have received two cameras from Namibia Film Commission, which were distributed to the more experienced filmmakers. The idea for the festival is to have participants come with their own equipment and share them with the rest of the teams, we also encourage our participants to use simple devices such as phones, because it’s not really about what you have, but what you can do with what you have,” he concluded.
