The third version of JBX, or Joburg Xchange, an business confab working from March 12 – 14 parallel to the Joburg Movie Competition, appears to be like to highlight Africa’s position in shaping the way forward for movie, tv and digital storytelling.
With a give attention to tales “made in Joburg for Africa and the world,” this 12 months’s occasion “displays the rising demand for African tales, progressive enterprise fashions and stronger business infrastructure,” based on Joburg Movie Competition govt director Timothy Mangwedi.
The spotlight is the JBX Talks program, which gathers business professionals from throughout the continent and the globe for a collection of talks, workshops, panel discussions and masterclasses curated with a watch towards “equip[ping] professionals with the instruments wanted to navigate a quickly evolving media panorama,” says Mangwedi.
This 12 months’s occasion facilities on six key themes. Firstly, it’s going to have a look at methods to develop African storytelling on world platforms by inspecting how creators can place their content material for mainstream and area of interest markets. Second is an emphasis on monetization, digital disruption and rising enterprise fashions, exploring income alternatives by means of direct-to-consumer platforms, branded content material, AI-driven storytelling and sports activities content material monetization.
One other key thread will give attention to bolstering co-productions and bettering market entry for underserved communities, unlocking the potential of current co-production treaties and securing financing by means of worldwide partnerships. Additionally, JBX will look at how festivals, movie markets and business alliances assist African filmmakers construct sustainable careers and develop their viewers attain.
Subsequent up is a highlight on business ethics, staff’ rights and illustration, addressing systemic challenges similar to honest pay, moral manufacturing practices and the evolving position of girls within the business. Lastly, the occasion will highlight what it describes as “inventive mastery from pioneering filmmakers,” providing masterclasses from acclaimed administrators and producers exploring storytelling, historic narratives and the intersection of movie and activism.
Business company embrace Jennifer Okafor-Iwuchukwu, a literary and expertise supervisor, previously of CAA; Peabody Award-winning supervisor and producer Steven Adams, a founding associate of Alta World Media; and Academy Award-nominated filmmaker Raoul Peck (“I Am Not Your Negro”), whose newest movie, “Ernest Cole: Misplaced and Discovered,” opens the Joburg Movie Competition on March 11, and who will ship a masterclass through the occasion.
In the meantime, a full-day program devoted to the position of African girls in driving the continent’s display industries will embrace a collaboration with business physique SWIFT (Sisters Working in Movie and Tv) for a panel dialogue centered on systemic challenges and the established order in conventional energy constructions. One other panel will highlight a number of Black feminine filmmakers working within the documentary discipline, together with Eloïse King (“The Shadow Students”), Andy Mundy-Fort (“Shoot the Folks: Protest and Progress”), Sara Chitambo-Hatira (“Black Folks Don’t Get Depressed”) and Naledi Bogacwi (“Banned”).
In its third 12 months, JBX appears to be like to construct on its earlier editions by serving to African filmmakers faucet into the potential for world success that, for a lot of, stays frustratingly out of attain.
“One of many greatest takeaways from final 12 months’s version was the huge problem African producers face in monetizing their content material — each regionally and internationally,” says Mangwedi. “Whereas there may be plain demand for African tales, many producers wrestle with distribution entry, financing and aligning their tasks with purchaser expectations.
“Our response this 12 months is to supply concrete options to those challenges,” he continues. “We’ve expanded business intelligence efforts, providing deeper insights into which international locations, platforms and broadcasters are actively investing in African content material. As a substitute of broad conversations, we are actually taking a focused strategy, serving to filmmakers perceive the right way to interact with particular markets and set up long-term partnerships, one nation at a time.”
A method through which the occasion goals to do this is by specializing in co-productions and emphasizing the pathways for collaboration with international locations which have already solid formal audiovisual ties with South Africa, together with Italy, Nigeria, Canada, the U.Ok., France and Germany.
“Our purpose is to revive and activate these agreements by pairing promising movie and TV tasks with South African co-production companions, studio amenities, broadcasters, platforms and different key stakeholders,” says Mangwedi. “To make sure these collaborations transfer ahead, we’ll present post-JBX help to fast-track deal-making.”
The JBX staff, he provides, has additionally expanded its outreach to worldwide gross sales firms who haven’t beforehand engaged with the continent, hoping to function a “gateway for these firms to find and purchase Africa’s greatest tasks, bridging the hole between African filmmakers and the worldwide market.”
African narratives, Mangwedi insists, “stay underrepresented on the worldwide stage,” and JBX “goals to alter that by elevating Africa’s storytelling legacy and connecting content material creators with worldwide consumers and distributors who acknowledge this momentum.”
“JBX is uniquely positioned to speed up this development, making certain that African filmmakers, studios and content material homeowners take the lead in shaping how these tales attain worldwide markets,” he provides. “By making JBX a vital hub for each inventive growth and business deal-making, we goal to solidify Africa’s place as a world pressure in movie and tv.”
The JBX content material market runs March 12 – 14 in Johannesburg, South Africa.
