South African woman wins international award for ICT

Hajra Cassim

Cassim, a trainee director on the Film Industry Learner Mentorship (F.I.L.M.) MICT SETA-funded Sallywood Project, won 8500 Swiss Francs (roughly R75 000) for pitching the mobile-content-generation showmemobi model to an international investment panel, global leaders in technology, and a large international audience via the internet.

"Our pitch fortuitously captured the essence of the entire conference, that captivating content essentially drives the uptake of technology, as the channel attracts more and more users," says Cassim, a former Bandwidth Barn graduate. "I love ICT and I love making movies, so it's the perfect way to marry my passions."

Empowering young media entrepreneurs

Launching at the end of November 2011, showmemobi is the Sallywood Project's own mobile content channel on the Bozza mobile content platform or mobihood (mobile neighbourhood), where five-minute mobi-sodes of edutainment are written and produced by Sallywood Project trainees. The project was created to empower young media entrepreneurs.

In South Africa, there is over 50% youth unemployment. "Six months ago, I was part of that statistic," says Cassim, a single mother of a four-year-old boy. "Through showmemobi, we want to empower people who are marginalised to tell and sell stories through film electronic and digital media; stories that touch and transform lives and in the process, create employment for emerging micro-entrepreneurs who generate the content."

The average feature film costs R5 million in South Africa. "Mobile jumps the traditional barriers to entry and allows us to make films, reach an audience and interact with them in an ongoing way via mobile," she adds. "It would take me forever to direct a feature, but now in six months I can direct my own mobile series."

Local content key

Using Nollywood's $2 billion annual industry as an example, she believes the key is to make proudly local content in the local vernacular. "We have 11 official languages in South Africa. I'm Indian, so mobile allows me to make films in Hindu or Urdu, which - depending on your content - can be hyper-localized and very niche, or totally generic."

She is currently developing her first series for showmemobi: Cape Town in Joburg, which follows the journey of a rural woman who inherits the Joburg Bar on Long Street. She plans to shoot the five-minute mobi-sodes on her new Blackberry. "It's mobile for mobi."

F.I.L.M. project director, Seton Bailey, accompanied Cassim to Geneva. He says the prize money is going to buy production equipment for F.I.L.M. and showmemobi. He adds that meeting and working with heads of state and other world leaders was life changing. "Apart from the contacts, we now have a far clearer understanding of how to pitch the benefits of our not-for-profit showmemobi mobile-content-generation project to venture capitalists, angel investors and the world. Special thanks to the MICT Seta and ITU for laying the foundations for our future."

Reshaping the world

At the awards, Dr Hamadoun I Touré, ITU secretary-general, said, "I have no doubt that many of the young innovators will go on to big things and help further reshape our digital world in ways my generation cannot even imagine."

For more, go to www.filmsa.co.za or www.bozzaworldwide.com.