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Press release 2013

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FESPACO
pays homage to the
THE AFRICAN TV SERIES
PRODUCING SERIES IN AFRICA
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Producing a television series in Africa is quite a feat. So how is it born?
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Whether it is counted in episodes or in seasons, the bet is however daring for these Directors and very often also Producers, who embark on this kind of adventure, stripped of everything: Lack of financial means, qualified technicians, equipment , broadcasters, actor training schools…
Then, the African scenario writer tinkers with the means of edge to manufacture this miracle which is called the televised series; when we know that it is particularly wear for its duration of manufacture.
If money is the nerve of the war, its insufficiency does not explain all the defeat of the production of the television series in Africa, since one notes that the stammerings of the cultural and audiovisual policy in almost all the countries of the continent are not yet conducive to growth.
The national model that African governments would like to promote on local television is unfortunately absent from their program schedules. In all African television, Western and Brazilian series replace what could have been the traditional local heroes. Faced with these difficulties, a handful of directors and independent producers, often encouraged by TV5MONDE AFRIQUE, CANAL+AFRIQUE, CANAL France INTERNATIONAL and the OIF, take unimaginable risks to produce these series.
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This is how were born:
The Immigrants(52 episodes), In the Heart of Love(24 episodes), Beyond All Suspicion(52 episodes), Sound of Drums(30 episodes), Class A(54 episodes), Dou(45 episodes), The Ace of High School(40 episodes), The Lawyer for Lost Causes(52 episodes x 3 seasons), The Story of a Life(26 episodes), The Villa Next Door(13 episodes), The Testament( 40 episodes), The Adventures of Wambi(300 episodes – 3 seasons), Cross Wedding(15 episodes), Little Sergeant(20 episodes), Sah Sandra(52 episodes), Signature(26 episodes), Teenager(52 episodes), Gohou Show(21 episodes), My family …
Popularity and Legitimacy.
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Born in pain, African television series have become popular in spite of themselves and bring real legitimacy to the small screen on the African continent.
Their expansion goes hand in hand with the proliferation of broadcasters whose theme is Africa. These include: TV5MOMDE AFRIQUE, CFI, CANAL+AFRIQUE, certain national and private African television channels and the webcasting of TV5MONDE PLUS AFRIQUE.
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For more than 10 years, their production has continued to grow with ambitious formats such as 52 x 26' and 26 x 26' and the multiplication of seasons.
Far ahead of the model of African cinema which is totally absent on the continent and elsewhere, the African Television Series is a popular genre which regularly meets its audience to the point of drugging it. A mother told me: "You can't send a child as soon as it starts".
Thanks to all this, the sector is becoming more and more professional and asserting itself with now scenarios with sustained rhythms and finely developed. Their selection in competition in major international festivals such as FESPACO in Ouagadougou, Vues d'Afriques in Montreal, largely testifies to this evolution.
Apart from some international institutional aid (Fonds Images Afrique, Francophone Audiovisual Production Fund of the South, ACP films),
these African television series are, for the most part, produced by private funds.

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FESPACO 2013
Inaugurated
THE 1st NIGHT OF THE AFRICAN SERIES

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This first edition of the African series night will take place during FESPACO 2013 and will follow all the other FESPACOs. It is the popular festival which, in the space of one night, will mark one of the highlights of FESPACO 2013 with the aim of honoring all the actors of African series.
Spend a whole night in the open air watching not the stars, but African series, everyone dreams of it and FESPACO will do it for you on Thursday night February 28, 2013 in Ouagadougou from 8 p.m. to 6 a.m.
An exceptional program of sometimes unpublished African Series will be presented to night owls

"seriephiles" punctuated by inter-acts, animations, coffee breaks, loaded breads...etc.