Strengthening the Creative Industries for Development in ... - unctad

PART 4. SECTOR SPECIFIC OVERVIEW 47
Box 2. DOCKANEMA Festival
DOCKANEMA is a documentary film festival in Mozambique. Documentary film-making in
Mozambique reached a very high level in the past and it is essential to keep it alive, in the name of
collective memory and of individual cultural affirmation in the world at large. DOCKANEMA is
intended to be an opportunity for meetings, discussions and contacts and a reflection on the present
and the future. The festival shows dozens of films in various cinemas, and also takes them to other
cities in the country. This sample includes films that have won international prizes, some very
polemical, that have also been commercially successful. The documentaries come from every
continent and from a great variety of countries, which normally do not reach interested audiences,
most particularly film-makers in Mozambique. DOCKANEMA reaches a huge and growing
audience, with its showings in the townships around the Mozambican capital and in other cities in
the country. It wants to stir up a public that has become used to being passive when faced with the
commonplace and cultural sameness of television, offering alternative views of the world. Parallel
to the film shows, DOCKANEMA promotes formal and informal discussions around the situation
of the documentary in Mozambique, the resources available to film-makers and the role of the
various parties in this process (state television, backers and cooperation, writers, technicians, etc.).
For this reason, DOCKANEMA invites directors and others involved in the films in the programme
to interact with the Mozambican public.
Pedro Pimenta, Director of the Dockanema festival, 5th Edition, 2010 Maputo, Mozambique,
http://dockanema.wordpress.com
4.3 PUBLISHING AND “BOOK CHAIN”
Mozambique has a strong literary tradition with a population that tends to read. The INLD within the
MEC is actively working on implementing its national book policy. 113
Approximately 180–200 titles are published each year in Mozambique, mostly for national
consumption. According to some sources, up until 2000 there were about 70 publishers in the country
and now there is a maximum of about 15 publishers. Other sources suggest that these figures are
somewhat inflated.
The Ministry organizes book fairs in all the provinces, however many publishers do not have the funds
to participate. The Ministry also promotes a publishers’ association to establish the ISDN system.
They also have training programmes on desktop publishing. It is foreseen to start producing paper in
the country in 2011. Educational books are subsidised by the government. The government has
113 República de Moçambique. Ministério da Educação e Cultura (2008).