Event Preview: Wild Talk Africa

March 28 to 31
Spier, Cape Town, South Africa

Next week, wildlife film professionals from across the globe will gather at Spier, just outside of Cape Town, for the fourth edition of Wild Talk Africa. An initiative of NHU Africa, the international film festival and conference will feature a number of panel discussions, seminars and workshops focusing on new developments in the industry; screenings of ROSCAR Award finalists and a gala event to celebrate the winners; and, an interactive exhibition area that gives companies the opportunity to show off their latest products to a targeted audience.

The Wild Talk Africa initiative has grown considerably since its inception in 2005, when 30 wildlife film professionals assembled in South Africa with the goal of shaping the industry’s future. According to Sophie Vartan, the festival director and NHU’s commissioning editor, the small group of experts decided that it was time to promote South Africa as “the center of excellence in the wildlife filmmaking genre” and “to reposition [the country] as a primary destination for discussions on wildlife filmmaking.” In its last incarnation in 2009, Wild Talk Africa hosted some 350 delegates from 22 countries and received 253 film entries. Still a central theme of the four-day event is the promotion of Africa as a place of high-caliber production and locally based post-production facilities.

The 2011 festival highlights include a panel discussion titled “This is Africa: A local guide to filming in Africa,” during which local and international filmmakers and producers will discuss what needs to be known about filming in Africa, and the red tape and obstacles filmmakers may encounter in the process. In the discussion “Beyond TV: Distribution and Broadcasting,” industry pioneers will focus on cross-platform distribution from public access websites, digital magazines, mobile TV, IPTV and VOD sites. One of the highly topical workshops in which Vartan expects much interest is “Shooting for 3D,” which will focus on teaching festival delegates what it takes to shoot 3D wildlife in the field and informing them of the best technical options for wildlife filmmakers.

Wild Talk attendees can also look forward to an open pitching session, where participants have five minutes to pitch their ideas to a panel of professional commissioning editors, as well as another pitch-focused panel where delegates receive advice on how to tailor their pitches to a specific market or broadcaster. Festival goers interested in one-on-one face time with commissioning editors are invited to attend a “speed dating” panel, during which a series of three-minute dates are arranged between delegates and editors.

The ROSCAR Awards gala event is another Wild Talk highlight and will be held on March 30 at the African-themed Moyo restaurant at Spier. Host Dave Salmoni, the presenter of Animal Planet’s Rogue Nature series and Into the Pride, will be presenting the film awards.

Local and international companies wishing to showcase their latest products and services to the wildlife filmmaking audience may do so by securing an interactive exhibition stand for a fee. According to Vartan, the exclusive area, which can accommodate 16 exhibitors, is highly conducive to securing business deals and creating brand awareness throughout the four-day event.

This will be the first time the festival is held in Spier and, according to Vartan, the move is an ideal relocation. “From the last festival held in Durban, South Africa, it was requested by most of the delegates to move the festival to Cape Town,” says Vartan. “We were most fortunate to find the perfect venue for the festival at Spier. It provides the ideal conference venue, set in the heart of the winelands, and is surrounded by the Helderberg Mountains.”  

Vartan says that Wild Talk is similar to the U.K.’s Wildscreen and the U.S.’s Jackson Hole wildlife film festivals, in that it attracts the global wildlife filmmaking industry by offering a forum for networking, debating and negotiating with commissioning editors, distributors and producers. However, it has the added benefits of incorporating local South African filmmakers on their own turf as well as being accessible to wildlife encounters. “The well-known wildlife industry professionals that attend the festivals in the U.K. and the U.S. also attend Wild Talk Africa,” says Vartan, “and it gives South African delegates and international delegates the opportunity to meet and network with international broadcasters on African soil.”

Vartan adds, “There is no doubt that Africa is one of the most important continents for the production of wildlife films, for the obvious reason of our wildlife populations and breathtaking landscapes. But we can only truly call it ‘a hub for wildlife filmmaking’ if the making of these productions is inclusive of the people of Africa.”