Kizazi Moto. Africa Roars!, the panel on the state of African animation, concluded today 10th October 2023 during the second day of MIA | Mercato Internazionale Audiovisivo.
During the event, founder and president of the Mounia Aram Company Mounia Aram moderated the talk between Stuart Forrest, CEO of Triggerfish, Lesego Vorster, director and Co-Founder of The Hidden Hand Studios and Raymond Malinga, director and CEO of Creatures Animation Studio.
The main theme was the development of the animation industry in Africa, fostered not only by government support but also by the African people’s urgency to feel their own specificities represented.
During the panel and as an example of the speeches, the anthology series Kizazi Moto, directed by Lesego Vorster and Raymond Valinga, was presented, and which has reached the Disney+ streaming platform through Stuart Forrest
Opening the panel was Mounia Aram, who emphasised how flourishing the African audiovisual sector is: “What is not widely perceived in the rest of the world is that Africa is a continent and not a country; African cinema and productions are active in several African states. Today we are pleased to present Kizazi moto, a Disney+ series set in different African locations.”
Stuart Forrest, CEO of Triggerfish, then joined the conversation, adding: “This is a very exciting time for Africa. We’ve been developing content for a long time and it’s been difficult to raise the same funds that productions in other countries would get. (…) The aim is to bring all production stages to Africa, at the moment it is 50/50 sometimes 70/30, but the desire is to make the African audiovisual industry autonomous without the need to rely on foreign countries.”
The floor was then passed to Lesego Vorster, director and Co-Founder of The Hidden Hand Studios dwelt on the challenges still encountered in African audiovisual productions: “In Africa, certain steps were unknown, we focused a lot on training. (…) The level of production we wanted was not achievable in Africa at the time; the goal was still to maintain an African aesthetic even though part of the production took place in Canada.”
Raymond Malinga, director and CEO of Creatures Animation Studio, went on to explain his experience with Kizazi Moto: “My greatest satisfaction was not so much being a director for Disney, but bringing stories about Uganda to Disney. I was a kind of trailblazer, we are still trying to understand how African animation is seen.”
In the last few bars of the event Mounia Aram expressed her happiness at bringing this panel to MIA 2023: “Last year we did a panel here at MIA Market that talked about the future of animation in Africa. Today we can talk about the present of animation and this fills me with joy.”
