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Connecting Storytellers From Africa to Hollywood

By
Penny Christodoulou
on
April 27, 2023

From East to West Africa,  International Writer's Lab aims to create a bridge for collaboration between African and Hollywood-based storytellers across the Diaspora.

Pauline Fischer is an industry leader with a proven track record of driving creative, building strong and diverse global states. Through PMF Media Group, Pauline Fischer provides creative strategy consulting services, develops and produces projects focused on global, multicultural protagonists across film and television. 

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  1. Please tell us a bit more about the International Writer’s Lab. Who is behind the creation of this program? 

The International Writer’s Lab was founded in 2021 by my colleague Wilmot Allen, founder of Venture Lift Africa, myself and The Blackhouse Foundation, a non-profit organization that is committed to support African-American storytellers in the United States.

We came together based on our shared goal of helping to increase the number of storytellers coming from Africa. Our desire was to support storytellers and create a bridge between Hollywood and Africa. We saw a real opportunity to support writers.

We partnered with the Kenya Film Commission , the Africa Digital Media Institute and we were lucky enough to meet David and Laure with the StoryBoard Collective. Additional partners who came onboard include The Africa Channel, Colour Entertainment, and Safaricom. 

The idea of the programme is to support up to five experienced writers from Africa in each of the territories that we enter. We started in Kenya in 2021 with five really incredible projects that we were excited to introduce to partners in the United States. 

The programme is designed to be action oriented. During the first half of the programme the writers worked closely with Matty Rich, an instructor from the American Film Institute. The second-half of the Lab is designed to be network oriented. We bring in speakers and have panel discussions about things that would be helpful for the writers’ careers. Our aim is to take the fellows to a Film Festival in the United States at the end of the programme.

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  1. What was your motivation to design the IWL? 

I personally spent a lot of my career trying to uplift the voices of different storytellers, to open doors for people who may not have access either because of their location or the lack of breadth of their network.

That's part of what I've always done during my career! 

When I think about the business, especially the film business which at the time was not international, I started to look at international markets and see where there were opportunities to help uplift voices that hadn't had opportunities in the past. 

I think that's what was driving the creation of IWL.

A lot of the stories coming out of Africa are about pain and strife. However, there is a full range of stories that can be told. Our goal is to help balance that and tell stories about the love and the happiness that is there as well. 

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  1. How do you connect African and Hollywood-based African-American storytellers?

What we did in Kenya was to invite Africans, African-Americans, who are part of the Diaspora, and other industry supporters to participate in the programme. They were invited to the pitch fest at the end of the programme, as well as, to a panel discussion. That is part of what drove the desire to go to the American Black Film Festival. It is an opportunity to interact with other Africans across the diaspora in a very unique way but also an opportunity for the participants to meet the industry executives in person and to discuss the projects themselves.

The projects from the Kenyan cohort in 2022 were presented to production companies owned by African Americans, other Africans from the Diaspora, and production and distribution companies looking for local content. 

We are trying to find different touchpoints where we can engage people everywhere to help support that ecosystem. That's one of the scopes of the programme; to create more networking opportunities and links among people.



  1. What are the existing links between Hollywood & African storytellers and how do you see them strengthening in the upcoming years? 

The United States hasn't done as much as other regions in reaching out to African storytellers. For example, France with Canal + and UK with BBC and BFI are working more closely with storytellers in Africa. 

We are just beginning to see some linkages from the US. A lot of work is coming from non-profits but even more from studios themselves. For instance, Netflix has been very active in the region, working with USC Cinematic Arts  and they are running different programmes throughout sub-Saharan African regions to upscale current and up-and-coming storytellers. Netflix has also a partnership with Realness Institute with an Episodic Lab for television writers. Their areas of focus are Kenya, Nigeria and South-Africa. 

What's next? I think that Africa is seen as a growth opportunity in the international market. I believe that in the United States we are still in the beginning stages but in the years to come we should expect more engagement. 

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