How can we use the medium of film to tell sto­ries? How do we meet the unex­pect­ed in the process of film­mak­ing? How do we keep up with the com­plex­i­ties of real­i­ties?   

 If you want to become a sto­ry­teller using the medium of film, you have to firmly ask your­self two ques­tions: First­ly, “What do I want to talk about?” and sec­ond­ly, “how can I talk about it through images?”  

The film­mak­er Rafiki Far­i­ala will share his expe­ri­ences within the film­mak­ing process of NOUS, ÉTUDIANTS! the open­ing film of Freiburg­er Film­fo­rum 2023. In an extend­ed Q & A ses­sion the par­tic­i­pants will get a deeper insight into his film project and time to direct their ques­tions to the film­mak­er. 

Having stud­ied in the Ate­lier Veran, in this work­shop, Rafiki wants to intro­duce the par­tic­i­pants to their meth­ods and what is spe­cial about them. Rafiki will talk about his jour­ney into film­mak­ing with­out having stud­ied film and the art of find­ing a sub­ject for a doc­u­men­tary film. How do you find struc­tures to spin a red thread with your ideas and visu­al­ize them in order to present them to pos­si­ble pro­tag­o­nists, col­lab­o­ra­tors and in the end to a public audi­ence?  

Togeth­er we want to follow the idea: Every­body who wants to be a film­mak­er can become one. So, let’s get into prac­tice. 

Rafiki Far­i­ala, born in 1997 in Uvira, Congo, grew up in the Cen­tral African Repub­lic. In 2013 he pub­lished the piece WHY WAR, which made him known as a musi­cian. In 2017, he par­tic­i­pat­ed in the doc­u­men­tary work­shop of Ate­liers Varan in Bangui and real­ized his first short film Mbi na mo (You and Me) in this framework.

The Ate­lier Veran in Bangui, a cre­ative film­mak­ing ate­lier, is part of a series of exper­i­ments across the world to diver­si­fy forms of expres­sion and com­mu­ni­ca­tion through images. Varan is not a school in the clas­sic and aca­d­e­m­ic sense: the work­ing meth­ods strong­ly encour­age the prin­ci­ple of teach­ing through prac­tice and open­ing a learn­ing space with­out the neces­si­ty to be aca­d­e­m­i­cal­ly trained in film. 

The Work­shop will be held in French with Eng­lish translation.

Nestor, Aaron and Ben­jamin are Rafiki’s clos­est friends. They are all study­ing eco­nom­ics at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Bangui. But Rafiki wants to make films and starts doc­u­ment­ing their lives with his camera. After lec­tures, they hang out in front of the uni­ver­si­ty or in their stu­dent accom­mo­da­tion and exchange ideas: about the future of their Cen­tral African Repub­lic home­land, but also about things that imme­di­ate­ly pre­oc­cu­py them in their lives, such as dating and work. They ask them­selves how things are sup­posed to con­tin­ue. As young people with access to edu­ca­tion, they see them­selves as the ones who will shape the coun­try in the coming decades. But how can you manage to reshape a system when so much of your energy goes into your own needs and sur­vival? In his fea­ture-length debut, direc­tor Rafiki Far­i­ala takes us into the circle of his friends, pro­vid­ing an imme­di­ate, poetic and at the same time undis­guised look at the real­i­ty of mil­len­ni­als in Bangui. (Berli­nale) 

Rafiki Far­i­ala, born in 1997 in Uvira, Congo, grew up in the Cen­tral African Repub­lic. In 2013 he pub­lished the piece WHY WAR, which made him known as a musi­cian. In 2017, he par­tic­i­pat­ed in the doc­u­men­tary work­shop of Ate­liers Varan in Bangui and real­ized his first short film Mbi na mo (You and Me) in this framework.

*12.05. on-site, 20.05. via Zoom