M-Net’s African Film Library (AFL) currently houses 541 titles, making it the world’s largest contemporary African movie library.

AFL is headed up by Mike Dearham, head of the pan-African pay TV platform’s sales and library acquisitions, who had earlier attempted something similar through the now defunct Film Resource Unit (FRU).

Curated over the last three years, AFL includes African classics like Haile Gerima’s Teza, Ousmane Sembene’s Moolade, Djibril Diop Mambety’s Touki Bouki, Youssef Chahine’s Destiny and Raoul Peck’s Lumumba. Other big name directors involved include Idriss Ouedraogo, Flora Gomes and Kwaw Ansah. “We have 80% of the top African films ever made,” Mike estimates.

He adds, “The vast majority of African filmmakers have struggled to effectively engage the challenge of promotion and distribution of African films. M-Net promises regular television broadcast of these films, as well as distribution through other media platforms.”

In some ways, M-Net has created a new market for African content. “Previously old films that completed a commercial cycle - from theatrical window to sell through – gathered dust,” Mike explains. “We have redefined this and established a new source of revenue for old films, while breaking new ground through the delivery of this content through new media platforms.”

M-Net has digitised all the films they have acquired, which they plan to make available via M-Net’s soon-to-be-available African Film Classic video-on-demand (VOD) website. They have invested heavily in their digital library system, archive support and broadband delivery system.

At launch a wide variety of films will be available. Users will be able to search by director, genre or language, watch trailers and download the films of their choice. Through the imminent video-on-demand service, viewers will be able to easily pay for and download digitally remastered footage to watch in the comfort of their own homes.

“VOD may still be too early, but it has definite potential,” Mike says. “Mobi-TV also still has a long way to go, but provides fertile soil for experimentation. Each film has its own audiences in Africa and the Diaspora. Our role is to find those audiences and provide them with high-quality access, through whatever means available.”

M-Net is pioneering pan-African sales, a relatively unexplored market for South Africa. According to research released by Discop, the African TV mart, Africa houses just under one billion people, with one TV for every ten people. Internet use shot up by 1 100% between 2000 and 2008, while cellphone use increased by 48% annually during the last five years.Discop claims that Africa’s gross domestic product is growing by five percent, with Angola the most impressive at 16.7%.

“Overall, our experience of the African market has been positive, especially in Anglo-phone and Arabo- phone Africa,” says Mike. “Making African-produced film and documentaries accessible to Africans is a key driver of any strategy to grow the African film industry, so distribution is key.”

Pan-African sales have their challenges though, not least the thousands of ethnic groups and estimated 2 000 languages in Africa. English is spoken in 22 countries, French in 21, Arabic in 12 and Portuguese in five. “For each film we have acquired rights for all language versions,” says Mike. “Each film will eventually be available in all four of these languages.”

Mike believes that there is also a “keen demand for African content in the African diaspora. The advent of niche TV stations and IPTV networks, as well as the increased audience fragmentation, has proven to be an advantage. There is money to be made selling African content internationally. It may be modest returns, but it’s regular.”

Curating the African content had its own challenges, like the lack of export readiness. “We struggled to obtain the most basic elements, like pictures, dialogue sheets, and production agreements, which are critical in the process of selling/promoting a film,” says Mike.

The other major challenge was copyright. “Many African filmmakers are not the true owners of their films. Copyright normally rests with foreign producers, so establishing who really owns the film was challenging.” Copyright is also the area of MNet’s deal that has raised the most eyebrows. “The deals we finalized were either complete buy-outs or long-term license deals,” Mike says. Some concerns have been raised that the African filmmakers weren’t fully aware of how much their films could be worth over the next 100- odd years, but Mike points out that all agreements were based on willing-buyer, willing-seller.

“With each acquisition, M-Net is very clear on the nature and extent of rights we seek. Negotiations with producers are normally protracted - each clause in our contract is carefully examined by producers before we finally conclude a deal. These conditions were essential for establishing a commercially viable asset within M-Net.”

AFL is just one of M-Net’s initiatives aimed at promoting positive images of Africa. “The M-Net All Africa Film Awards and M-Net New Directions are key examples of our contribution to the development of African cinema,” says Mike. “We have only just begun; the best is yet to come.”

Click here for more information.
Kevin Kriedemann