African filmmaking organisation Realness Institute has revealed the four participants who have been selected for the AuthenticA Series Lab course slated to start at the end of this month.
The Series Lab is presented by Realness Institute in partnership with Geneva-based philanthropic outfit The Storyboard Collective and French drama event Series Mania.
It is aimed at supporting and mentoring each participant into delivering a pilot script, a pitch deck and a professional pitch that they will present at Series Mania Forum 2023.
The young African screenwriters are film editor Angela Wamai (Kenya), director and screenwriter Chantel Clark (South Africa), Ghanaian-British writer Jessica Hagan and France-based Nigerian filmmaker and photographer Tony Sebastian Ukpo.
They will undergo the six-month Series Lab to develop their stories, under the mentorship of story expert Selina Ukwuoma and creative producer Mehret Mandefro.
They will begin the programme with an eight-day residency in South Africa this month followed by a few months of online mentorship, meetings and support, leading up to a 10-week residency in Switzerland next year.
Realness executive director Elias Ribeiro said: “The four selected participants all have a range of ideas and approaches to their episodic series, which will make for a creatively dynamic lab. The programme also offers opportunities to engage with a host of industry experts.”
David Rimer, founder of StoryBoard Collective, said: “StoryBoard seeks to promote independent African episodic content. We seek to support powerful, authentic and unapologetic voices. We understand that these narratives must start with good stories; these four scriptwriters have most definitely achieved that.
“Now, it is up to AuthenticA to support them throughout the residency and, ultimately, at Series Mania to do our utmost to get these brilliant stories on national, regional, and international screens.”
“We have been amazed by the quality and the diversity of the applications, which prove again the creativity of the talents coming from all over Africa. We selected four compelling projects, with a strong market potential that for sure will raise interest among our professional attendees. This partnership with AuthenticA Series Lab reinforces Series Mania’s position as the best place to discover new voices from all over the world,” added Laurence Herszberg, general director of Series Mania.
tagged in: Angela Wamai, AuthenticA Series Lab, Chantel Clark, David Rimer, Jessica Hagan, Laurence Herszberg, Series Mania, StoryBoard Collective, Tony Sebastian Ukpo