Unstoppable Philippino filmmaker Khavn and programmer Gertjan Zuilhof making a detour to meet up with the filmmakers of the neglected South-West region of Cameroon.
The trip to Buea was not really planned. But since it is not that far from Douala and Khavn's contact, the young filmmaker Achille Brice, was very keen on having us, we decided to take the bus. The driver who hang out in the hotel in Douala however made us a good deal we could not refuse. So we went by car. Only later we were to experience, on our way out of Buea, how uncomfortable those small fully packed busses can be.
Achille gave us a very warm welcome and introduced us to his friends and the next day also to his parents and siblings. Achille made it to the Berlin Talent Campus (where he met Khavn) and has in Buea now the status of an internationally seasoned filmmaker.The filmmakers of Buea are Anglophone and part of a minority in Francophone Cameroon. So like the Chinese in Malaysia they have to stick together in a group and create all the infrastructure themselves. Nothing nicer than a group of real friends determined to make movies any way possible.
Most of the young filmmakers are not trying to become the next Djibril Diop Mambety. Hip hop is the great influence and most of them try to make hip hop music videos that can compete with the American examples. Well, for me they do, but that was not what I was looking for. I was maybe also not looking for an expressionistic movie that shows an intens re-enactment of the Crucifixion of Christ as passioned as a Pasolini, but I found it. Within the Buea filmmakers group Yibain Emile-Aime Chah, also called Ancestor, is like an outsider. They speak with great respect about him, but also add that they can not follow his way of thinking. That can be good or bad, but I took the risk and asked Ancestor to speed up his planning and have his film finished for Rotterdam.
