ISSN: 2354-3752, Vol. 1, No. 4, May 2015. A Publication of the Centre for Research, Communication and Development • Journal ofContemporaf} Commumcat1011 e tal ns nd :an SHORT FILM AND VIDEO PRODUCERS AND FILM POLICY ion - DEVELOPMENTS IN ANGLOPHONE SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA ing ti­ Dr Patrick Edem Okon ew Department of Mass Communication Covenant University Canaanland, Ogun State :ion ism In Abstract: ·ngs This paper examines the interventionist role of independent short film producers and alternative film foundations in film policy developments ofAnglophone Sub-Saharan Africa. The work is broadly located ?lzts within the framework ofthe debates about 'shapers' offilm policy developments and covers only the last two gets decades (1990-201 0). Empirical data are drawn from three countries: South Africa, Ghana, and Nigeria. The data are based on a study I conducted between 2011 and 2014. The study deploys mixed method approach (oral interviews, participant observation, documentary studies, and questionnaire) in a qualitative way, to ~ical enable data triangulation and comparative analysis. Jurgen Habermas and David SJzolle's configurations of )SU, the public spheres concept are used to aid interpretation and analysis. The overall ambition is to critically rian articulate and interpret the socio-political dynamics offilm policymaking, reconceptualise film policy along nual an 'ethical-political'framework to align with the vision ofalternative cultural producers, as well as ascertain the degree and platform ofparticipation ofshort filmmakers in the film policymaking processes. The paper for argues in favour ofgreater academic and public recognition ofthe crucial role of/ow-budget film producers ~E), as policy activists. sust, Key Words: Access, participation, reform, film policy, independent short filmmakers, and alternative film foundations. and port, New Introduction: the very processes of filmmaking, distributions, )shis Filmmaking of any kind, whether and consumptions across nation-states. But amateurish or professional, commercial or non­ more significant to that discourse is a critical commercial, remains an incredibly popular consideration of how the structuring of the urus. pastime and an expression of a wide range of processes and the socio-political platforms of creativity and artistry. Also, any study of film film policymaking across Africa encourages and filmmaking, regardles.s of the specific broader intellectual interventions and co­ research focus, should privilege among other regulation, especially by those at the margins of things policy considerations. The importance of society. policy discourse to filmmaking cannot, Over the years, the participation and the therefore, be over emphasised; that is because, interventions of alternative cultural producers outside the personal and controlling_ artistry of in national film policy development in Africa the film director and the occasional and elsewhere has remained an un-regarded requirements for division ·of labour, it is aspect in media policy debates. Mapping and proactive film policy, in its diversified forms, documenting their importance as policy that provides the inevitable mechanism for the activists, at least from theoretical and empirical ... effective organisation of cinema industries and perspectives, is the core concern of this chapter. Journal ofContemporary Communication. ISSN: 2354-3752, Vol. I, No.3, May 2014. Pp. 01- 14 Biannual Journal of Centre for Research, Communication and Development. 197 e Journal ofContemporary Communication • The work also attempts to respond to film policy developments of Anglophone Sub­ controversies within scholarship with regards to SaharanAfrica. the marginal or non-marginal role of civil The choice of this concept is essentially society groups in policy considerations informed by the following factors: It can (Chakravartty and Sarikakis, 2006). The issues provide a broad theoretical framework for raised in this paper are not 'final', they are thinking through and conceptualizing the moderate contributions meant to trigger further necessary links between alternative filmmaking discussions among academics and practitioners. and normative processes. The concept The issues at stake may, therefore, be tied recognizes democratic frameworks as the around the following questions: how can we necessary mechanisms for effective media reconceptualise film policy in a way that is normativity and the promotion of alternative sophisticated and acceptable to alternative film mode of communication that favours the producers? What is the contributive role ofshort participation of citizens in the construction of film producers in film policymaking? Is there social meanings within nation-states. It locates democratic deficit in the framework for film alternative filmmaking within the framework of policymaking in Angophone Sub-Saharan media activism and the global movements to Africa? transform communications, so that communications and representations can be less Framing the Key Theories: constrained by bureaucracy or commercial t In sync with the concerns of the field of interest and remain increasingly open to ( Media and Society in relation to how expressive positive social values. A reinterpretation of the popular cultures enable the evolution and public spheres concept, in line with the policy ( organization of human society, cultures, and vision of alternative media, will be effective for s democratic politics or promote inequality and understanding the need to integrate the critical­ 1: the stunting of cultural development of rational with the affective concerns of s economically and technologically citizenship, as well as practical productions of s disadvantaged communities is the concern of alternative meanings with practical strong n democratic-participatory communication policy interventions by low-budget cultural e. theory. Though-varied, this theory generally producers. f. advocates multiplicity of media forms, small­ The Habermasian bourgeoisie public Sl scale media practices, the deinstitutionalization spheres, those imaginary arenas where ordinary h and deprofessionalisation of media systems, citizens assemble to engage freely in critical­ If interactive media organization, and the rational debates about official policy positions dt participation of audiences in information as well as form and express opinions through pl productions and circulations (Enzensberger, print media (newspaper and periodicals), sr 1970; Okon, 2014). Democratic-participatory problematizes the democratic deficit that was tr. communication theory, in a nutshell, poses a the hallmark of most democratic capitalist m 'democratization' challenge to the ideology, societies of Western Europe in the sixteenth cc production, and regulatory requirements of through nineteenth centuries. This democratic media systems and industries. deficit was constituted primarily through the 1 dr Useful for articulating the core concerns deployment of top-bottom administrative co of this theory is Jiirgen Habermas' bourgeoisie strategy, one-way communication, and coercive es public spheres concept; particularly its concern political power by the ruling aristocrats in the pn with issues bordering on 'access', 'participation', organisation of State affairs and in decision­ pr. and the 'political economy' of media industries. making. The remote nature of noble political alt This work draws on these theoretical benefits of life and engagements and the increasing po the public spheres model of democratic­ placement of emphasis on · coercion as Sh participatory communication theory to give conditions for the legitimisation of political bet direction to the discourse on the role of organisation, social life, and power of social pre independent short filmmakers in contemporary control, in the view ofHabermas, were some of Kb (i.e • Short film and video producers and film policy developments in ... • 198 the factors that eventually brought about human being can become more of a subject and disillusionment and apathy among ordinary can build more autonomous and more citizens of Western European nation-states, comprehensive relationships to reality" - 1 informing the .evolution of the coffee houses, Sholle, 1995: 23) . and on the utopianism r salons, and table societies as alternative spheres advanced by Enzensberger and Brecht, who ofdeliberation and education. both critiqued the one-way functioning of J :> However, it was the contradictions in dominant media and see the potential of media t the very mode of operation of these bourgeoisie technology, not in terms of mechanisms for the public spheres, brought about by the existence distribution of commerce, but as tools for public of constellation of divergent interests that was communication and education. e not properly harmonized to strengthen broader Sholle's core arguments are, firstly, that e access and participation, as well as the gradual "alternative forms ofmedia can serve as models f placement of emphasize on the power of capital for more expanded strategies for developing s over and against continuing civic empowerment democratic modes of communication, but they f by the middle class business elites who cannot in themselves bring about the media 0 controlled the means of information distribution utopia they sometimes espouse" (1995: 34). t within the public spheres, which eventually led Secondly, alternative media groups will be able s to their final disintegrations and to transform public spheres activities if only tl transformations