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“Huge potential, audience”: Catholic Charity Foundation Official on Filmmaking in Africa

Participants attending the filmmaking training in Nigeria with Archbishop Ignatius Kaigama. Credit: Courtesy Photo
Jude Atemanke

By Jude Atemanke

Jos, 30 June, 2023 / 9:23 pm (ACI Africa).

The filmmaking industry in Africa has “a huge potential” as well as audience, an official of the Catholic Pontifical and Charity Foundation, Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) International, has told ACI Africa in an interview.

In the Friday, June 30 interview, Poul Waligora, a filmmaker with ACN, spoke about the June 24-July 2 training in film making in Nigeria, which he said aims at empowering managers, editors and journalists of Catholic Television stations in Africa with skills to improve production.

“I see a huge potential here in Africa, a huge audience waiting for the content of these Catholic Media houses in Africa. They need to keep striving to improve on the quality of their productions and that is why we are here to help them,” Mr. Waligora said.

He added, “We are here in Nigeria working on our second filmmaking workshop for Catholic Television Stations in Africa.”

“We would like to share our experiences in filmmaking with the teams from many countries in Africa to let them grow in the quality of their productions,” the Polish-born filmmaker said in reference to the ongoing training at the office of the Catholic Television of Nigeria (CTV) in Abuja.

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He continued in reference to participants in the filmmaking training, “We are sharing with them our knowledge of storytelling and filmmaking to help them produce better stories, more engaging and more powerful stories and to reach as many viewers as possible.”

As part of the training, Mr. Waligora said that participants who have come from Cameroon, Ghana, Malawi, South Sudan, and Nigeria are expected to produce a “short documentary film about the plight of Africans who have been displaced by conflict or war.”

He said the five African countries were selected because they are currently going through violent conflicts that have resulted in the displacement of persons.

By producing good quality films, Catholic Television Stations in Africa can facilitate a wider outreach of information across the globe, Mr. Waligora said.

Also speaking to ACI Africa, the Director of CTV, Fr. Patrick Alumuku, said that the training, which ACN organized has the participants examine ways Catholic TV stations in Africa can share their respective productions.

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Participants in the training plan to establish “an association of Catholic television stations in Africa with the aim of exchanging programs and knowledge among Catholic Stations across the African continent,” Fr. Alumuku said.

The Nigerian Catholic Priest further said that the participants, who are drawn from Divine Mercy TV in Cameroon, Lumen Christi TV in Ghana, Lovetan TV in Malawi, CTV and a representative from the South Sudan Catholic TV project, are scheduled to pay a courtesy call on Archbishop Ignatius Ayau Kaigama of Abuja Archdiocese.

Jude Atemanke

Jude Atemanke is a Cameroonian journalist with a passion for Catholic Church communication. He holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Journalism and Mass Communication from the University of Buea in Cameroon. Currently, Jude serves as a journalist for ACI Africa.

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