In short… 5 African filmmakers were awarded $10,000 each by the Focus Features’ Africa First Program to produce short films.

Now in its year 2, last year’s winning filmmakers have completed their films, and are now touring with them; I know of at least one that got into the Sundance Film Festival, which I profiled about a week ago – a sci-fi short called Pumzi, written and directed by 29-year-old Kenyan filmmaker, Wanuri Kahiu. The other winning filmmakers from last year were Edouard Bamporiki (Rwanda) with Long Coat, a drama about a young Hutu coming to terms with Rwanda’s and his own family’s past; Jenna Bass (South Africa) with The Tunnel, a 1980s-set story centering around a 10-year-old girl’s quest; Jan-Hendrik Beetge (South Africa) with The Abyss Boys, a thriller about an illegal trade in a small fishing town; and Dyana Gaye (Senegal) with N’Dar (Saint Louis Blues), a public transportation musical.

I haven’t seen any of the films, but I’m sure Focus Features will make them available soon enough. However, check out this recently released video that documented a summit for last year’s winners, which just concluded. Meet the filmmakers and, about half-way through, you’ll see short clips of each of the films, which all look really good! I can’t wait to see them – especially Pumzi, the Kenyan sci-fi tale, and Saint Louis Blues, the public transportation musical set in Senegal – both got me quite excited as I watched the brief clips of each.

Kudos to Focus Features for creating this program!

Here ya go, and of course, once we have access to the films, you can guarantee they’ll be posted here: