The 8th edition of the International Week of the 1st Film – Yarha, starts on October 31, 2021 in Yaoundé. A few days before the start of activities, we take stock with the director of this festival, Sylvie Nwet.
It is in the new locals of the Yarha Festival located at Nkol-Eton in Yaoundé that the director of the international festival of the 1st film, Sylvie Nwet, received us to talk about the contours of the 8th edition of this event which starts in a few days.
AYILA : We are a few days away from the 8th edition of the Yarha – First Film Festival. What is the state of preparations?
Sylvie Nwet : Let’s say that the preparations are well underway as we already have our entire selection, whether for the official competitions in feature films or short films and also the selection out of competition. There will also be ancillary activities. We will have two days of conferences on the theme Cinema facing digital technology and we will also have the Woman Cine day. We decided to put the woman at the center of the stage, knowing that the woman has all the means and the assets to be a great director, a great producer or a great actress. Moreover, being myself a woman at the head of this organization, I can only give a great place to the woman in this field. So everything is going well in terms of organization. We are just waiting for D-Day to see if in terms of deployment we will be able to achieve our objectives. However, there is still the thorny problem of funding because without funding we cannot do anything. We have a huge charges and we do not have substantial financial support, whether from the state or from our private partners. So, at one month before the event, we are making a call, whether at the level of the government, our supervisory ministry, private partners, we need them to make the party a beautiful one.
Ayila : The theme for this year is ”Cinema in the face of digital technology, the cinema of tomorrow”. Why this choice ?
Sylvie Nwet : Quite simply because each year, we have a theme and also it happens that we are in the digital movement. We see a lot of people making movies with new digital tools, with phones… Now there are questions. Do these films reflect cinema films as we saw at the time? What is missing ? Do we have to start with real awareness and real training in digital technology in order to be able to better equip today’s directors? And when I say today, I mean those who use these new production tools or who only know that. So many questions that led us to choose this theme and we have professionals who will be there to discuss on it.
Ayila : As festival director, you have a global view of the production that has been going on for about 8 years already. Do you think that digital technology is an asset or a weakness? Weakness in quotes in terms of creativity because today, with digital, everything goes very quickly. Anyone takes a camera and does whatever they want.
S.N. : I will say both. An asset in that everyone can have fun using these tools. But why? For what end? Here again, we must ask ourselves questions. I have always said to myself that digital technology was like a brake on the real development of our cinema in terms of creativity. But maybe it’s also an advantage for these same people by giving them access to a new audience. But will it help our cinema to really advance in the whole world, to keep its letters of nobility? These are questions and once again I am speaking as an amateur. So, I will wait to understand what will be said during the exchanges during the festival.
Ayila : Speaking of the very backbone of the festival which is the first film, why did you choose the first film? And isn’t there some difficulty in keeping that line?
S.N. : For having made my debut in another festival (Festival Ecrans Noirs, Editor’s note) here in Yaoundé for 14 years, I saw that there was a strong demand among the young people who were around and also because it was absolutely necessary to find them a space which they did not have. Hence the first film. Second, we will always make the first films. It can’t end, we always will. The regret is that maybe there aren’t enough first films in my own country, which is Cameroon, or even in the Central African sub-region. Something that I deplore. But I must also admit that for seven years today, there has been a breakthrough. This year we have at least five Cameroonian films in official competition, it shows that people have understood that it is necessary to really work to be able to satisfy the public.
Ayila : This year there will be masterclasses like in previous years. What does it bring concretely? Is there a real impact on the field at the end of all these master classes?
S.N. : There is always an impact when you are in a professional space. In reality, it is not the fact that Yarha organizes masterclasses that is the problem, the problem is, do those who receive these masterclasses really come to learn something? Are they prepared for this? Because upstream, Yarha communicates on it. Whoever comes and finds something, so much the better for him. Yarha is creating a space which for the moment is free, whereas elsewhere it pays to register in professional spaces. This year, we decided that instead of doing the very long-term training workshops, we will do three-hour masterclasses every day. Every day, you will have a maestro, as the name suggests, who will come to do a masterclass in production, directing, directing, acting and even photography. Yarha can only want to bring something better to the world of cinema. Now, is the movie world ready to take it? I think it’s up to the actors of the cinema to answer these questions.
Ayila : Regarding the presence of the public during the screenings, what are your strategies to ensure that there is an attendance? Especially since we are coming out of a year marked by the Covid 19
S.N. : If yesterday, there was a large audience for the cinema and today we deplore the lack of audience. it’s simply because there was a lot that happened between the two eras. But currently, the cinephile exists, he is only asleep. You have to be able to wake him up because in the meantime there were bars, there was the economic crisis… I was still recently chatting with some students who claimed to have never set foot in a movie theater. What we are trying to do at Yarha level is precisely to talk with the schools. This is also why we have set up children’s cinema breakfasts mornings which allow us to get children used to going to dark cinemas. It is from there that we can train the cinephile of tomorrow and at the same time create future vocations. Anyway, for me, the first audience must first be the actors of the local cinema. If we try to make the ratio only in Yaoundé, how many are in the cinema professions? And when there is at a festival, they should be the first to come and see the films. We don’t even have to go get them. They come because there are films to watch and they have to be there. They come because there are masterclasses. They come because it’s a meeting place and you never know. They must come with their project in the bag. We don’t know who we meet. That’s what it’s about.
Ayila : Can we already know who are the members of the jury and what will be the opening film of the festival?
S.N. : So our jury is truly international because we really have to be able to evaluate the quality of the film of our young directors, so we went to get the cream of the crop. The president of the feature film jury will be Greg Germain. He is a leading figure in the world of cinema and theater. He is someone who will bring a lot because, apart from being president of the jury, he will also do masterclasses. Not only is he first and foremost a theater actor, but he directs. He also produces, so he’s multifaceted in what he does, but with incredible precision. I think we have something golden and I really call on everyone in the cinema to be there. In addition to that, we have great directors like Moussa Touré from Senegal who will be there. We will have the presence of Mweze Ngangura. Also, I think Covid has taught us a lot. I understood that at any time we could leave. And I realized that sometimes you don’t know how to thank someone for what they’ve done. I looked around and thought of someone who is now of a middle age, but who has done a lot for the cinema. It’s Gérard Essomba. He will be the godfather of this edition.
Ayila : The opening film …
S.N. : (Laughs) Yes, I still keep it to myself but it will be a documentary from Cameroon. A documentary made by a woman who talks about this difference that we thought we had when we are identical and that the difference just comes from an ethnic group that has found itself between two rivers … I promise you that I will communicate more details very soon so take your trouble patiently.
Interview by Rostand Wandja
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