Film-maker hunts for an unusual technology film... in Africa
FILM-MAKER HUNTS FOR AN UNUSUAL TECHNOLOGY FILM... IN AFRICA
David Madie is from Copenhagen, and he's on an unusual
mission in Africa. Following a young computer entrepreneur,
whose story, he believes, would show quite another face of
what has been condescendingly called the Dark Continent.
Documentary film-maker Madie runs his own company called
Eighty Days Productions. Its name is inspired by the novel of
Jules Verne. "The story was about this man who didn't know
what he was doing, went out and then thought he wouldn't make
his round-the-world trip in 80 days. He makes it anyway,
because thought he thought he was a day late, he had not
counted the international date line (and the extra day that
gave him)," explains Madie.
"I'm new to film-making, so I don't know what I'm doing.
Sometimes I think I won't make it. But I hope I'll make it
anyway," says the Dane, who's 37, and earlier did filming
in the mountainous Asian kingdom of Nepal.
But his current film is different.
It's a character-driven film, more than an issue-driven film.
The film is about Free/Libre and Open Source Software. But
the focus of the story is on the characters. The characters
that fight for FLOSS.
"Therefore," says Madie, "as much as it's a film about FLOSS,
it's also a film about fighting for your beliefs. This film
will show the characters fighting for what they believe in.
This happens to be Open Source, which I think is also an
important agenda."
[The phrase FLOSS, sometimes called FOSS, is an inclusive
term designed to be neutral when referring to both free
software and open source software. Software and code was
often freely traded among hackers but in the 1980s owners
starting asserting copyright over their code effectively
closing off this free exchange. Today, the FLOSS movement has
become successful in building a wide range of alternative
computing tools, including operating systems. More than that,
it is influencing a whole new way of creating and sharing not
just software but also knowledge, information and education.)
Why this unusual, maybe unglamorous and certainly technical,
subject?
Explains Madie: "That's because I used to be in the IT
sector. I once ran a joint-venture company in Uganda and came
to know about an African country like Uganda. I was very
ignorant about Africa -- as many Europeans are -- and I was
surprised by the skills and the talent, and all the modern
science of a capital city like Kampala, that has skyscrapers
taller than what we have in Copenhagen."
So, that was the eye-opener.
But Madie believes that people in many European countries
don't know about this. Because, the only images they see on
television are those from the rural areas. Images of hunger,
drought, war, AIDS, corruption and all these things that are
on the news and mainstream TV.
"I want to make a film that shows the life of the young,
urban generation in the cities. In this way I can show people
how the reality of life is here also. Because I think it's
damaging to a country like Uganda if people perceive it as a
place that is so far behind, when in fact there is a middle
class, when in fact the country is progressing. I hope this
film will make a lot of people say, 'Wow, we've never seen
such a film before'," says Madie.
His focus is around the character-sketch of James Wire, whom
he thinks of as a role model for Africans. Someone who fights
for his beliefs, and someone who is very
"internationally-oriented".
Wire Lunghabo James from Uganda runs a firm call Linux
Solutions in Africa, and has been part of the East African
Centre for Open Source Software. From mentoring young techies
just out of their teens, to working on local translation
projects, Wire has done it all. He's also quick to help
spread FLOSS skills in other parts of the continent, and has
been closely involved with a number of initiatives to spread
FLOSS in the continent. [1]
"I think he is also a role model in the sense that he
combines doing a business, with doing social work. To him
these things are not opposites; these are things that can
perfectly work well together. You can do business in a social
manner," says Madie.
Madie met James when he started the joint venture in Uganda
in 1999. Later, Madie started a web-development agency with
local partners. "It was also a social business; we made money
but we also started the web industry business in Uganda. We
were by far the biggest web firm in Uganda. In one month, we
hired 15 people and there were no web agencies in the country
at the time. And then we started to work for the
multinationals, the donors and the big local companies. And
we trained people," he says.
Madie had already been in the industry for five years.
"Nobody then had that experience (here). We put in our
systems, procedures. Our employees (from Europe) went to
Uganda and trained the local staff. While I was in the
business, I met James who was not doing websites, but server
stuff, which we didn't do," he recalls.
But, life involved drastic changes, and Madie since went into
films.
"Then, I sold my company after nine years. I continued to
work there for three more years. Then I felt it was time to
do something new. I thought I had always been too busy to
follow my more artistic inspirations, and by accident I came
into film making," he says.
And yes, he's a self-taught professional. He took two years
to learn the trade. Often attending short-term training
courses.
When is his film expected? "It's always hard to say with a
documentary. But I guess it will be released in Spring 2007.
And it will go to documentary festivals, I hope, all over the
world," says Madie.
He sees this as an "international story, with an
international subject". Free/Libre and Open Source Software
is on the agenda in many countries. "I don't think such a
film has been made before. We hope to sell it to
broadcasters; but it's important to get it around to film
festivals, to an audience that really cares about documentary
films," says he.
Did his work go down the expected route?
Says he: "When I started, I thought I was going to make the
kind of documentaries with talking heads on the screen. I soon
realised that the interesting stories are about the
characters. I'm surprised how much of the work is related to
understanding the people you are focussing on. But that makes
it even more interesting, specially if you can capture the
essence of a character in a particular situation."
It also came as a surprise for Madie to realise how difficult
it is for documentary film-makers to raise money for their
films. "We are definitely running on a low-budget, and we
have to put in hours ourselves where we don't get paid. This
only means that those who really make the film are those who
really want to make it. You can say it's those documentary
film-makers who really fight for their beliefs (that get
through). Maybe that's why I'm so fascinated by James;
because we have some of the same blood in one sense," he adds.
Madie has been tracking James Wire for nearly a couple of
years, on and off. Says he: "I've been filming on three
occasions so far, we expect another three. We'll have got 60
hours of footage, when we're done here. We're going to end up
with around a hundred hours, and will reduce it to 52
minutes. Only one per cent of everything we do is going to be
in the film. That's the only way (to get an interesting
story)."
Two other films on Free/Libre and Open Source Software have
also been made in the past -- 'Revolution OS' and 'The Code'.
"This is a very different film. First of all, because it's
filmed out of Africa, with Africans. I frankly think this is
one of the places where [Free/Libre and] Open Source is most
relevant. Due to many factors, as you know. But also it's
different because it shows Africa (and its capabilities) in a
different light."
Would it echo the colour and sounds of Africa?
Yes and no. "We point the camera to the modern side. We want
to challenge people's prejudice about sub-Saharan Africa.
Many people will see the film and won't believe this is
modern Uganda, because they haven't seen those images below,"
predicts Madie.
Email contact: david at eightydays.dk
[1] http://www.tacticaltech.org/node/218
David Madie is from Copenhagen, and he's on an unusual
mission in Africa. Following a young computer entrepreneur,
whose story, he believes, would show quite another face of
what has been condescendingly called the Dark Continent.
Documentary film-maker Madie runs his own company called
Eighty Days Productions. Its name is inspired by the novel of
Jules Verne. "The story was about this man who didn't know
what he was doing, went out and then thought he wouldn't make
his round-the-world trip in 80 days. He makes it anyway,
because thought he thought he was a day late, he had not
counted the international date line (and the extra day that
gave him)," explains Madie.
"I'm new to film-making, so I don't know what I'm doing.
Sometimes I think I won't make it. But I hope I'll make it
anyway," says the Dane, who's 37, and earlier did filming
in the mountainous Asian kingdom of Nepal.
But his current film is different.
It's a character-driven film, more than an issue-driven film.
The film is about Free/Libre and Open Source Software. But
the focus of the story is on the characters. The characters
that fight for FLOSS.
"Therefore," says Madie, "as much as it's a film about FLOSS,
it's also a film about fighting for your beliefs. This film
will show the characters fighting for what they believe in.
This happens to be Open Source, which I think is also an
important agenda."
[The phrase FLOSS, sometimes called FOSS, is an inclusive
term designed to be neutral when referring to both free
software and open source software. Software and code was
often freely traded among hackers but in the 1980s owners
starting asserting copyright over their code effectively
closing off this free exchange. Today, the FLOSS movement has
become successful in building a wide range of alternative
computing tools, including operating systems. More than that,
it is influencing a whole new way of creating and sharing not
just software but also knowledge, information and education.)
Why this unusual, maybe unglamorous and certainly technical,
subject?
Explains Madie: "That's because I used to be in the IT
sector. I once ran a joint-venture company in Uganda and came
to know about an African country like Uganda. I was very
ignorant about Africa -- as many Europeans are -- and I was
surprised by the skills and the talent, and all the modern
science of a capital city like Kampala, that has skyscrapers
taller than what we have in Copenhagen."
So, that was the eye-opener.
But Madie believes that people in many European countries
don't know about this. Because, the only images they see on
television are those from the rural areas. Images of hunger,
drought, war, AIDS, corruption and all these things that are
on the news and mainstream TV.
"I want to make a film that shows the life of the young,
urban generation in the cities. In this way I can show people
how the reality of life is here also. Because I think it's
damaging to a country like Uganda if people perceive it as a
place that is so far behind, when in fact there is a middle
class, when in fact the country is progressing. I hope this
film will make a lot of people say, 'Wow, we've never seen
such a film before'," says Madie.
His focus is around the character-sketch of James Wire, whom
he thinks of as a role model for Africans. Someone who fights
for his beliefs, and someone who is very
"internationally-oriented".
Wire Lunghabo James from Uganda runs a firm call Linux
Solutions in Africa, and has been part of the East African
Centre for Open Source Software. From mentoring young techies
just out of their teens, to working on local translation
projects, Wire has done it all. He's also quick to help
spread FLOSS skills in other parts of the continent, and has
been closely involved with a number of initiatives to spread
FLOSS in the continent. [1]
"I think he is also a role model in the sense that he
combines doing a business, with doing social work. To him
these things are not opposites; these are things that can
perfectly work well together. You can do business in a social
manner," says Madie.
Madie met James when he started the joint venture in Uganda
in 1999. Later, Madie started a web-development agency with
local partners. "It was also a social business; we made money
but we also started the web industry business in Uganda. We
were by far the biggest web firm in Uganda. In one month, we
hired 15 people and there were no web agencies in the country
at the time. And then we started to work for the
multinationals, the donors and the big local companies. And
we trained people," he says.
Madie had already been in the industry for five years.
"Nobody then had that experience (here). We put in our
systems, procedures. Our employees (from Europe) went to
Uganda and trained the local staff. While I was in the
business, I met James who was not doing websites, but server
stuff, which we didn't do," he recalls.
But, life involved drastic changes, and Madie since went into
films.
"Then, I sold my company after nine years. I continued to
work there for three more years. Then I felt it was time to
do something new. I thought I had always been too busy to
follow my more artistic inspirations, and by accident I came
into film making," he says.
And yes, he's a self-taught professional. He took two years
to learn the trade. Often attending short-term training
courses.
When is his film expected? "It's always hard to say with a
documentary. But I guess it will be released in Spring 2007.
And it will go to documentary festivals, I hope, all over the
world," says Madie.
He sees this as an "international story, with an
international subject". Free/Libre and Open Source Software
is on the agenda in many countries. "I don't think such a
film has been made before. We hope to sell it to
broadcasters; but it's important to get it around to film
festivals, to an audience that really cares about documentary
films," says he.
Did his work go down the expected route?
Says he: "When I started, I thought I was going to make the
kind of documentaries with talking heads on the screen. I soon
realised that the interesting stories are about the
characters. I'm surprised how much of the work is related to
understanding the people you are focussing on. But that makes
it even more interesting, specially if you can capture the
essence of a character in a particular situation."
It also came as a surprise for Madie to realise how difficult
it is for documentary film-makers to raise money for their
films. "We are definitely running on a low-budget, and we
have to put in hours ourselves where we don't get paid. This
only means that those who really make the film are those who
really want to make it. You can say it's those documentary
film-makers who really fight for their beliefs (that get
through). Maybe that's why I'm so fascinated by James;
because we have some of the same blood in one sense," he adds.
Madie has been tracking James Wire for nearly a couple of
years, on and off. Says he: "I've been filming on three
occasions so far, we expect another three. We'll have got 60
hours of footage, when we're done here. We're going to end up
with around a hundred hours, and will reduce it to 52
minutes. Only one per cent of everything we do is going to be
in the film. That's the only way (to get an interesting
story)."
Two other films on Free/Libre and Open Source Software have
also been made in the past -- 'Revolution OS' and 'The Code'.
"This is a very different film. First of all, because it's
filmed out of Africa, with Africans. I frankly think this is
one of the places where [Free/Libre and] Open Source is most
relevant. Due to many factors, as you know. But also it's
different because it shows Africa (and its capabilities) in a
different light."
Would it echo the colour and sounds of Africa?
Yes and no. "We point the camera to the modern side. We want
to challenge people's prejudice about sub-Saharan Africa.
Many people will see the film and won't believe this is
modern Uganda, because they haven't seen those images below,"
predicts Madie.
Email contact: david at eightydays.dk
[1] http://www.tacticaltech.org/node/218
