Event
Iraq, 15 - 26 February, training course on “reinforcing media coverage of elections”
Catering to some sixty journalists working for the press, TV and radio, this training course has been organised at the request of UNESCO Baghdad which put up most of the funding. It has been scheduled to take place a few days before the Iraqi parliamentary elections on 7 March. This is CFI’s first ever operation in this country. The four experts will be giving priority to the impartial handling of information. They will also insist on the role of Iraqi institutions and respect for these as well as on the representation of women and young people within the electoral process. The training course will be divided into two sections: from 15 to 22 February, targeting 20 Iraqi journalists and 20 Kurd journalists. 20 other journalists will be attending the second part, from 22 to 26 February.
On the field
Africa
Democratic Republic of Congo, 4 January - 11 March, Part 3 of the training course on economic and investigative journalism
The course began with two workshops, one in Kinshasa in October and the other in Lubumbashi in December 2009. Part 3 of the course, devoted to economic and investigative journalism and designed for a group of ten Congolese journalists, got under way in January in DRC. The ten journalists are currently shooting their subjects prior to editing. Their 13-minute reports are to be screened in mid-March.
Mediterranean region and Asia
Georgia, 14 - 19 February, project for a parliamentary channel
GPB (Georgian Public Broadcasting) is planning to turn its second state channel into a parliamentary channel. To this end, it hopes to examine the various formats and programmes of the two French parliamentary channels and use French experience of management and the organisation of an institutional channel as a springboard. Alain Valentini, Chief Editor at France TV conducted an initial audit in Tbilissi in December 2009. For the second operation scheduled for 14 to 19 February, CFI will be playing host in Paris to GPB’s Vice-President and the second channel’s Head Producer. On the agenda: a series of meetings and work sessions with the CSA (the French audiovisual regulatory body) and French TV channels LCP An, Public Sénat, TV5 Monde etc. as well as the viewing of French political programmes. The last phase of the operation consists in assisting the GPB project managers in drawing up the specifications of the new channel.
Sultanate of Oman, 5 - 16 February, workshop on documentary writing skills
This training assignment for the Sultanate of Oman’s state television was designed to reinforce its teams’ skills in writing and making documentaries. Programme viewing and writing exercises were part of the course led for CFI by Guillaume Hecht, producer at Films du Scribe. This was CFI’s first mission for Oman television and provided a great opportunity to strengthen ties and open perspectives for a more extensive training programme.
Syria, 12 - 19 February, organisation of the production of a cartoon series
CFI is helping Syrian television organise the production of a series of fifteen 12-minute cartoons. Corinne Destombes, Production Director at Folimage, a French cartoon animation studio, will spend a week at the studio in Damascus coaching the team of twenty. This will be CFI’s first consulting mission for Syrian television and will lay the foundations of a future partnership agreement with the channel.
Programmes
Special “International Women’s Day” programming
CFI is getting involved in International Women’s Day on 8 March offering its African TV partners a series of three documentaries and one fiction, produced in Africa as from 11 February :
En quête d’équité is a documentary from Burkina Faso, directed by Jean-Claude Frisque. Based on true accounts of life in Burkina Faso, Benin and Guinea Bissau, it relates women’s day-to-day involvement in the management of natural resources and puts the spotlight on their role, crucial yet fragile. It also underlines the importance of sexual equality, which offers the opportunity to make our societies fairer, driven more by solidarity and more effective in the preservation of the environment.
Râ, la réparatrice, a Malian documentary by Mamadou Cissé, portrays the everyday life of a young girl from Bamako, Râ, working in a sphere usually dominated by men: repairing generators.
Le Monologue de la muette, Senegalese documentary by Khady Sylla, depicting the life of Amy, a maid in service since the age of 12, with no contract or pay slip. Short listed for the Cinéma du Réel 2008.
Une femme pas comme les autres, a feature from Burkina Faso directed by Aboulaye Dao, casting a playful eye on polygamy as viewed by women and experienced by men. Best TV feature award at Fespaco 2009.
Cameroon and Democratic Republic of Congo: support for the directing of sports reports
In November 2009, the programme selection committee meeting in Cotonou highlighted the expectations of CFI’s TV partners with respect to sports reports, for inclusion in their magazines. In response, CFI sent two experts from ISP production, specialised in this field, to teams of journalists and cameramen at Cameroon Radio & Television (CRTV) and the Democratic Republic of Congo state-run channel RTNC 1, from end January to mid-February. They have been helping the students to select, choose locations for and shoot 4-minute subjects, which will then be offered to CFI’s TV partners.
Sports
Champions League Matches for CFI TV partners in Africa :
Tuesday 16 February: AC Milan vs. Manchester United, live, with commentary in English
Tuesday 16 February: Olympique Lyonnais vs. Real Madrid CF, live, with commentary in French and Portuguese
Broadcast simultaneously on Pro 1 and Pro 2.
NB: only AC Milan vs. Manchester United will be available online on www.cfi.fr .
Wednesday 17 February: FC Porto vs. Arsenal FC, live, with commentary in French, English and Portuguese
Wednesday 17 February: FC Bayern München vs. ACF Fiorentina, recorded, with commentary in French, English and Portuguese
Tuesday 23 February: VfB Stuttgart vs. FC Barcelona live
Tuesday 23 February: Olympiacos FC vs. FC Girondins de Bordeaux recorded
Wednesday 24 February: FC Internazionale Milano vs. Chelsea FC live
Wednesday 24 February: PFC CSKA Moskva vs. Sevilla FC recorded