A Sleeping Giant

Africa's history with documentary filmmaking is sketchy at best. As one Zimbabwe-based filmmaker describes it, documentaries in much of Africa traditionally meant 'underfunded programs for an NGO that built a toilet in some rural area and wanted a film about the achievement.' However, Chris Haws, special consultant to the Creative Industries Initiative within the World Bank, predicts the continent's riches - cultural, political and geographical - will eventually spur Africa to emerge as a strong base for documentary film.

August 1, 2002

Africa's history with documentary filmmaking is sketchy at best. As one Zimbabwe-based filmmaker describes it, documentaries in much of Africa traditionally meant 'underfunded programs for an NGO that built a toilet in some rural area and wanted a film about the achievement.' However, Chris Haws, special consultant to the Creative Industries Initiative within the World Bank, predicts the continent's riches - cultural, political and geographical - will eventually spur Africa to emerge as a strong base for documentary film.