Cameroon’s Netflix promoted the success of a few English-speaking people | Art and Culture

Yaounde, Cameroon – This month is another important part of a growing Cameroon film company, with two more movies to be shown on Netflix.

The Last Man of the Week, a romantic joke about a woman running errands for her partner to reunite with her family, is set to appear on the international stage on June 16. It will be followed by Broken, stories of a woman running away from a family while setting up her father’s company their, on June 22nd.

The discovery marks four times the amount of Cameroonian cinema in the United States, Therapy and The Fisherman’s Diary released earlier this year.

“I knew this time would come,” said Ndamo Damarise, who played Coach Bihbih in The Fisherman’s Diary, a popular drama about a 12-year-old boy named Ekah.

Inspired by Pakistani freedom fighter Malala Yousafzai, Ekah fails to attend a fishing school where the education of children and girls is prohibited.

“I am thrilled and excited to be in this internationally acclaimed group, but it has soared so many lives in the right way in solving the most difficult issues in our community,” Damarise said.

‘We believe in our own abilities’

Fisherman’s Diary, which was pre-selected in the 2021 Oscars, attracted a lot of interest in the world in the fight against academic rights.

She has won numerous awards around the world, including eight at the 2020 Golden Movie Awards Africa (GMAA) in Ghana and four at the International Film Festival of Ahmednagar in India, in addition to the 2021 best film.

“We never realized we were here,” said Kang Quintus, producer of The Fisherman’s Dairy. “It is so good for Cameroon, that everyone in Cameroon should be proud.”

Surprisingly, the film was shot in the coastal town of Limbe in 2019 at the peak of the war in Cameroon English problems, which has been held in the western and southwestern areas.

“It was very difficult to identify the project [in that context] because of insecurity – but we ended up, ”said Quintus. “We were able to stand firm and believe in our own talents.”

In fact, most Cameroonian films are produced in the Anglophone region of Cameroon, which is home to about 20% of the population in Francophone 26 million, and in Silicon Mountain, a name cited to represent the developed environment around Buea.

All four Netflix videos are made by English-speaking Cameroonians.

“I wanted to make a film that would be very moving – a film that people all over the world can see and express,” said Quintus, who received the document in 2014 but only started making it in 2019.

“I was not ready then [in 2014]. I had to take my time combining technology with a professional team, ”he said. “I was very confident when we first started filming – it was a very inspiring story.”

Therapy tells the story of a young couple who are trying to fix their marriage through a regular caregiver [Courtesy Anurin Nwunembom]

‘Preparing for a Meeting Opportunity’

The Netflix show is a great encouragement to English-language filmmakers who have long struggled to find a global platform to share and showcase their products.

Things started to change a few years ago when they started posting content on Amazon Prime and other airlines.

Agbor Gilbert, President of the Cameroon International Film Festival, who has been in the film business since 2005, is one of the participants who knocked on Netflix’s doors for Cameroonian films.

“Netflix has always refused to get sick [English-language] Cameroonian films because the Cameroonian films were under the French group OCAPAC, which operates under French law in Francophone Africa, “Gilbert said, noting that Anglophone people in Cameroon” did not establish legal rules (according to common law) to protect them. your distribution ”.

“As a result, I have met many Netflix executives several times to tell them that [English-speaking Cameroonians] we make films – we are Cameroonians but not Cameroonians and French – we have our own English language system, so we have to benefit from the Anglo-Saxon platforms around the world, “said Gilbert.

“We also told them that there are four million Cameroonians in the US, while three million are Anglophones,” he added.

“After discussions back and forth, Netflix said our claims were true. As a result, their purchase was just an opportunity to prepare for the meetings.”

Industrialists are optimistic about the future of Cameroonian cinema, showing, among others, the growing alliance with Nigerian actors from well-known Nollywood companies. However, some criticize the lack of government policies that contribute to the development of technology.

“We were filming and we need a court in Buea,” said Anurin Nwunembom, director of Therapy, who has been filming since 2001.

“We talked for two weeks and it failed. We went to Tychicus [a coastal town also in the Southwest region]; it failed, so we had to renovate the cultural landscape, ”he added.

“Many adults refuse to understand the art world. These people are educated enough to see what cultural and entertainment companies are doing in other countries. ”