25-year-old Fisehatsion Nibret from Ethiopia dreams of being a cinematographer among the likes of the great Roger Deakins, Gregg Toland and Vittorio Storaro. He is well on his way, as he studied Video and Photography at the Tom Videography and Photography Training Center in his hometown of Addis Ababa and already works as a filmmaker.
Fisehatsion enjoys reading Moviemakers’ Master Class penned by Laurent Tirard. “The book talks about various filmmakers’ experiences and teaches the many ways there are to make a good film. There is no right path.
“The era of substandard filmmaking is gradually fading and coming to an end. A new reign of filmmakers – telling stories in creative and innovative ways and making the most of the new technologies and collaborations available – is set to take over,” says Cissy Nalumansi. “Soon more film distribution companies and multiple channels of accessing content will emerge, some of which are already here.”
The 24-year-old website developer has a flair for entrepreneurship and hopes that MTF will set her in the direction of becoming a director, scriptwriter and actress.
Working as an editor has given Casey Lugada of Uganda a taste of Africa’s burgeoning film and TV industry. It has inspired the 18-year-old to pursue a career in film directing, though he is looking forward to learning new skills as part of MTF that will strengthen his future opportunities and experience.
“There are a lot of opportunities and untold stories within Africa. It is a content-rich continent,” he explained
At just 18 years old, Adala Nyamoita Makhulo, is one of the youngest MTF interns. Though she was born in Nairobi, Kenya she completed high school in India. She says it helped her step out of her comfort zone and become an open-minded global citizen, “I was exposed to people from 70 different nationalities (25 of which were African nationalities) that were not only diverse in terms of geographical location, but also in terms of opinions, religions and beliefs.”
“What’s the best thing about Africa?” That’s an easy question for 24-year-old Aaron Joseph Tamale from Uganda. “Our stories, rich diversity, culture and heritage. We have so much rich history that if we created and shared more of our stories then the world would start looking at Africans differently. And we would appreciate ourselves more, rather than trying to copy norms and traditions whose genesis we do not even know.” And his dream career is to do just that.