Realness Institute Welcomes Newest Member of the Team and Follows Progress on Alumni
The Realness Institute, which hosts the annual Realness African Screenwriters’ Residency aimed at developing feature film projects, welcomes Ethiopian filmmaker Mehret Mandefro (of A51 Films) as its newest force on the team.
Mehret is an award-winning producer and writer whose credits include the Sundance and Berlinale Audience Award winner Difret, the New York Times Critic’s Pick Little White Lie, and Sweetness in the Belly starring Dakota Fanning and Yahya Abdul-Mateen which recently premiered at TIFF. She co-founded the independent media production company Truth Aid in New York and is currently based in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia where she is senior producer at A51 Films, an independent production company dedicated to nurturing new voices in Ethiopian cinema and building the local industry through talent training and production. Mehret is currently the private sector liaison for Ethiopia Creates, a national effort led by Tourism Ethiopia to jumpstart the creative sector and is coming on as a co-founder of Realness Institute to do the same for the film sector across sub-Saharan Africa. She is an alumnus of the Sundance Institute’s New Voices Lab, Film Forward and American Film Showcase.
“Mehret comes to us with over a decade of experience in producing, broadcasting and social impact programming as well as public arts advocacy,” says Elias Ribeiro who founded Realness in 2015. “Mehret and I met co-mentoring labs across Africa addressing a scarcity of producers who understand international financing and have access to international networks. We look forward to the growth of this relationship which will afford a strong presence of our Institute in East Africa.”
Submissions for the 5th edition of Realness African Screenwriters’ Residency and the very first Creative Producer Indaba close on 31 January 2020. Since Realness’ inception, 22 scriptwriters have enjoyed the programme which includes a six month incubator, with a six-week residency at Nirox Foundation, followed by attendance at the annual Durban FilmMart where they are mentored and pitch their projects to film professionals. Mehret adds: “Indaba will equip producers with the skills, mentorship and much needed access in order to get film projects developed and financed. We are particularly looking for promising leaders ts who want to play a role in the creation of more financial instruments and better policies for films to be made on the continent”.
“We are truly delighted to report that the programme continues to grow from strength to strength as we see tangible progress of participants’ work,” explains Asanda Biyana, Program Manager.
From the 2019 intake of participants Fanyana Hlabangane (South Africa) has been selected to Sundance Screenwriters’ Lab 2020 for his project, The Spirit Guest.
The Realness - EAVE Producer’s Workshop scholarship award, funded by the CNC this year, went to Tamara Dawit (Ethiopia), the producer of Beza Hailu Lemma’s (Ethiopia, Realness 2019) Realness project, The Last Tears Of The Deceased.
Hiwot Admasu Getaneh’s A Fool God (Ethiopia, Realness 2016) has been selected for Berlinale’s Generations programme this year. It had its international premiere at TIFF in September 2019 and was produced by Deuxième Ligne in co-production with Urucu Media.
South Africa’s Sheetal Magan (Realness 2016) won The Creative Excellence Award for her project The Day And Night Of Brahma at International Film Festival and Awards - Macao (IFFAM).
Lemohang Jeremiah Mosese’s (Lesotho, Realness 2017) film This Is Not A Burial, It’s A Resurrection, has been selected to compete at Sundance Film Festival 2020 in the World Cinema Dramatic section. The film was produced through production company, Urucu Media’s Cait Pansegrouw and Elias Ribeiro, co-founders of Realness Institute. The film has also been selected to screen at International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) in the Bright Future programme after its world premiere at the Venice International Film Festival last September.
“We strive to develop and support unique talents in the African cinematic space and are proud that our track record reflects just that.” concludes Cait Pansegrouw “ Each year we have been fortunate to grow relationships with some our residents further as producers of their films. We are excited to be starting development on Fanyana Hlabangane’s 2019 Realness project ‘The Spirit Guest’ which will be produced by Urucu Media and Mmabatho Kau of Raindrop Media.”
For more information or to submit go to https://www.realness.institute/