{"id":200467,"date":"2025-01-09T14:22:02","date_gmt":"2025-01-09T13:22:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/iffr.com\/en\/?p=200467"},"modified":"2025-01-09T14:23:33","modified_gmt":"2025-01-09T13:23:33","slug":"blog-indaba-in-focus-with-maeva-ranaivojaona-plunge-into-something-you-dont-know","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/iffr.com\/en\/blog-indaba-in-focus-with-maeva-ranaivojaona-plunge-into-something-you-dont-know","title":{"rendered":"Indaba In Focus with Ma\u00e9va Ranaivojaona: \u201cplunge into something you don\u2019t know\u201d\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In celebration of the fourth edition of IFFR Pro\u2019s talent programme Creative Producer Indaba, a partnership with Realness Institute, EAVE and the Atlas Workshops, IFFR takes on a mission to paint an authentic portrait of the realities, power and diversity of independent African cinema.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Ma\u00e9va Ranaivojaona (left) with Billy Woodburry and Georg Tiller<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Indaba In Focus compiles a series of interviews between IFFR Pro and three film professionals with African backgrounds, starting with a wide-ranging conversation with Ma\u00e9va Ranaivojaona, French-Malagasy filmmaker, producer at Subobscura Films and participant in the fourth edition of the Creative Producer Indaba. Ma\u00e9va talks about her beginnings in the world of filmmaking and producing, the role IFFR played in her professional upbringing, painting a realistic and comprehensive picture of today\u2019s market for co-productions and the challenges faced by African film professionals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cI was born as a filmmaker in the light of IFFR\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Ma\u00e9va encountered her passion for cinema and filmmaking during art school, in France. Throughout her studies, she struggled, unallowed to mix her passion for painting, photography, and video, and obtained her diploma, but experienced it as \u201ca very painful process\u201d. After working on a first short film as assistant director, she realised \u201cit was in cinema\u201d that she could blend all those passions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The beginnings of her career as a director brought her to Rotterdam, where, in 2012, her first short film, Domicile<\/strong>, was screened. \u201cI was born as a filmmaker in the light of IFFR. My unconditional commitment to working in cinema was sparked by watching Bel\u00e0 Tarr’s movies and experiencing my first film set. However, it was in Rotterdam that I discovered the world of cinema, its industry, and received the very first official recognition and acknowledgment of my life.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Film still: Domicile<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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\u201c<\/strong>Enlighten what was obscured\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Very early on, Ma\u00e9va noticed the reluctance of producers and distributors to engage with challenging films \u2013 those created by young, emerging, and vulnerable filmmakers like herself, as well as films originating from marginalised Black communities and diasporas. These films often introduced new content, innovative grammar, and required reimagined audience concepts. Determined to address this gap, she committed to producing such works and to \u201cenlighten what was obscured,\u201d a mission that inspired the name of her company, Subobscura Films.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Together with Georg Tiller, who founded Subobscura Films in 2014 in Austria, Ma\u00e9va expanded the production company to France in 2017. Since then, Subobscura has grown into a production house committed to amplifying the voices and perspectives of displaced communities and their descendants. It aims to bring African-centric and non-European-centric perspectives to the forefront, alongside daring cinematographic grammar, within a global context. In doing so, it examines and seeks to redefine interpretations of European history and its contemporary narratives, enriching the cinematic landscape and paving the way for new creative paths.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cStart existing in the shared memory of people<\/strong>\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI have been confronted with a cinematic culture that fails to acknowledge identities beyond its comfort zones \u2013 neither African in a victimised view nor white European, but instead Afropean and mixed-race cultures,\u201d Ma\u00e9va explains. \u201cI started to identify myself as an Afropean very recently, after reading Leonora Miano’s Afropea<\/em>. Identity for the second generation of immigrants in France is a long and complex quest that lacks visibility, tools, and acknowledgement,\u201d she adds. This realisation partly inspired her to dedicate her career to creating, through her company, platforms for African descendants and diaspora filmmakers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMy choice stems from a deep need for the Afropean community to define themselves in cinema, to start existing in the shared memory of people.\u201d While these identities and stories are beginning to break through, Ma\u00e9va acknowledges, \u201cthere is still a lot of work to be done.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cI was waiting for something like this. It\u2019s really a moral support community\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

The challenges of independent production \u2013 championing daring, unforeseen content, navigating potential co-production opportunities across the globe, requiring nuanced geopolitical understanding, adapting to shifting fundraising techniques, and tackling increasingly elusive distribution channels \u2013 drove Ma\u00e9va to partake in Creative Producer Indaba. \u201cWhat convinced me the most,\u201d she explains, \u201cwas the fact that it wasn\u2019t just workshops but think tanks for our new generation of creative producers to gather and explore new ways of producing our very particular content. The solutions we don\u2019t yet have need to be found, created, and solidified.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ma\u00e9va underscores her need for a collaborative thinking and working process, along with the importance of connecting with producers who face similar challenges in different parts of the world. Though she is well-acquainted with IFFR, Ma\u00e9va sees CPI as her first real opportunity to access a global community of producers. She highlights the value of such a network, stating, \u201cwe could have a community to call on, ask for advice, or share the challenges we face, while remembering that we\u2019re not the only ones encountering these kinds of problems. It\u2019s truly a community of moral support and advisors who have likely faced the same issues.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cYou have filmmakers burning to release their words\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

The discrepancy between the time a feature film takes to produce, especially when new countries join the process, and the drive and resources a filmmaker needs to sustain \u201csuch a rageful need\u201d to share their message is a huge problem of the system of co-productions. \u201cYou have filmmakers who drop out, not foreseeing when and if [the film] will be done at the end of a process that exhausts their energy.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The market problems equally protrude into the content of African-centric films, with filmmakers not knowing how to reach their audiences with a content they don\u2019t know exists thus don\u2019t demand. \u201cSelling such a film is really difficult\u201d. Contact with the distributors is not the sole solution to the problem, further explains the producer. \u201cYou need to have decision-makers that can convince people to not only use the market they know but invest in the creation of a new market. It\u2019s a huge risk and it\u2019s really necessary on a political level\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cThere is a kind of fashion phenomenon\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

In conversation about the dire sociopolitical context of countries in the MENA region and the market challenges faced by African filmmakers, IFFR Pro asks the producer whether she has noticed growing interest from Western countries to propel stories of marginalised and oppressed communities. Cautiously, she identifies a \u201ckind of fashion phenomenon\u201d. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

If used as a scarce and superficial tool, Western interest in these stories can create the impression of caring, even if, on a political level, there could be so much more done. She approaches this as an interesting phenomenon because even though it might raise awareness and prepare [Western] audiences to face demanding content, \u201cit doesn\u2019t really address the core of the problem. Neither does it make it sustainable because every fashion passes\u201d. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

She gives the example of Billy Woodberry\u2019s latest film, M\u00e1rio<\/strong> <\/em>(IFFR 2024), which tells the story of M\u00e1rio de Andrade, a pan-African intellectual, activist, diplomat, and poet who dedicated his life to the fight against colonialism and the building of African nations: \u201cit\u2019s a film that digs very deep into the matter, but it\u2019s a demanding film, an educational film where you reflect on what happened for the decolonisation of African countries\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Film still: M\u00e1rio<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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\u201cWe are a marginalised community\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

She adds that distributors\u2019 interest is scarce for this kind of challenging films, and that during a time when people \u201cneed comedy\u201d rather than authentic and difficult stories, as soon as [African] films are not \u201ca comforting idea that Black people are poor and sad\u201d, but invite you to \u201cplunge into something you don\u2019t know, it can be very uncomfortable. When it\u2019s a discourse about: we are a marginalised community \u2013 we are cancelled completely.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cThere is a wave of warmth coming from the people from the previous Indaba programmes\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Paving the path of her participation to this year\u2019s edition of CPI, the French-African producer states to have been already in contact with former participants for which \u201cit was a game changer\u201d. Asked whether she thinks the Indaba programme could help bridge some of the gaps of the market for co-productions and solve the challenges faced by African filmmakers, Ma\u00e9va calls the programme a \u201cprecious first seed\u201d and can only hope that it will continue and keep growing, possibly giving birth to other Indabas. \u201cFor now, it\u2019s a very important promise that we need to foster\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

About Creative Producer Indaba: \u201cthink tanks for our new generation of creative producers to gather and explore new ways of producing<\/strong>\u201d<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Through Creative Produce Indaba, IFFR Pro in collaboration with Festival International du Film de Marrakech, Realness Institute, EAVE and Atlas Workshops brings together 15 participants united by their commitment to authentic African storytelling and looking to hone their leadership and creative skills together with like-minded individuals. This year\u2019s edition includes a first workshop at the Festival International du Film de Marrakech, followed by sessions in Rotterdam during the IFFR Pro Days at IFFR 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\t

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A list with articles<\/h2>\n\t\t\n\t\t
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