The Making of a President

Documentary Production with focus on the 2014 Presisdential Elections

Background:

In a young democracy, such as Malawi in 2004, with a strong dictatorial past, freedom of expression has many challenges. Also, in an electoral process, different stakeholders have different interests. The country witnesses its’ third general elections. This time with a stronger opposition. While the international community observes the process ,ordinary citizens struggle to get themselves informed. The population is bombarded by the government controlled media with biased information.

Activities:

• Recording over 65 hours of raw footage;
• Interview with main stakeholders, from candidates to international experts;
• Production of a DVD with subtitles in English and in Chichewa;
• Distribution of 500 VHS/DVD-copies to various Civil Society organisations, Malawian society, international community & researchers via the Malawian based NGO Civil Liberty Committee (Cilic)

Results:

• Production of an one hour documentary called “The Making of a President”, about the electoral process in Malawi, available in English and in the local language Chichewa.
• Facilitate media-competence to two Malawian volunteers in the area of camera-work and video-editing
• More than 2.000 local Malawians were able to watch the movie and discussed about the electoral process via civic education activities promoted locally by the Malawian-based NGO Cilic and its partners. 500 copies of the documentary were distributed in the country.
• The film was selected within the Document Filmfestival in Glasgow, at the International Documentary Festival Amsterdam (IDFA)as well as awarded with the special Acknowledgement price at the Black International Cinema-Festival in Berlin.