SLUM FILM FESTIVAL

Slum Film Festival is the first ever film platform-featuring stories from slums, about slum realities and made by filmmakers from the slums in Africa - and beyond. It is a celebration of the creativity of filmmakers living and working in slums. It is also an opportunity to show a range of films within slum communities who have limited or no access to cinema. The first pilot edition of the festival was celebrated with success in August 2011. This program has now been extended and expanded in subsequent 4 editions between 2012 and 2014. The festival has reached out for submissions from across Africa and indeed the world. It has gathered audiences from thousands of slum dwellers and urba... read more Slum Film Festival is the first ever film platform-featuring stories from slums, about slum realities and made by filmmakers from the slums in Africa - and beyond. It is a celebration of the creativity of filmmakers living and working in slums. It is also an opportunity to show a range of films within slum communities who have limited or no access to cinema. The first pilot edition of the festival was celebrated with success in August 2011. This program has now been extended and expanded in subsequent 4 editions between 2012 and 2014. The festival has reached out for submissions from across Africa and indeed the world. It has gathered audiences from thousands of slum dwellers and urban culture enthusiasts. There are numerous international film festivals around the world, but the Slum Film Festival is exceptional in its mission to be celebrated within slums, and it is dedication to sharing slum stories. More than just a festival, it is aiming to become an international film platform for young independent voices and upcoming and established filmmakers from across the universe. 2 The Organisation The Slum Film Festival is an independent organization, whose goal is to develop a network of partnerships with media production groups, organize film awards, facilitate and organise film screenings and conduct other film and arts related events across Africa's informal settlements, promoting and sharing slum stories from across the world, and becoming a key network for the distribution of films made by and about slum communities. Having run as a project of 2 media organisations [Slum TV and Hotsun Foundation] for 3 years, Slum Film Festival is now registered as an independent Community Based Organisation. 3 Our Objectives and Aims The Slum Film Festival does not aim to legitimise the existence of informal human settlements, but to raise public attention to pertinent issues here, while promoting and celebrating the creativity of the people who live in these communities. The aims of the Slum Film Festival are: To offer a platform for films from slum communities to reach broader audiences, and facilitate disenfranchised filmmakers in joining the international film circuit. To promote dialogue about life in slums that goes beyond stereotyping, using stories from slum communities to promote deeper perceptions about life in the slums. The Slum Film Festival demonstrates that slums are also a home for the very talented, creative and culturally active artists. For the festival event to become a magnet for media attention, while changing media discourses about slum realities. This media presence can also allow mainstream media to acknowledge the presence of smaller slum-based media content producers, and promote new partnerships. To support the expansion of the festival into new slum locations, eventually becoming a networked festival for celebrating the diversity of Pan-African and global creativity.