Transcript for iCommons on Film-Heather Ford

[background talking] All right. We're here. At iCommons Summit.

In Dubrovnik.

Stephen Lee, Star Wreck Studios

And with us is—Heather.

I'm sorry— I'm not supposed to do that. [laughs]

>>You're not supposed to look at the camera? >> No.

>>Please introduce yourself.

>>My name is Heather Ford.

>>I hear you're very important.

Heather Ford, Executive Director of iCommons

>> I'm very important. >> What do you do?

>>I'm critical. I am the executive director of iCommons.

>> And I hear that you're doing some things with film in South Africa.

>>Yeah, we're doing a lot of research.

And we're seeing how important it is for people to do great things like you guys have done.

And the interesting thing, actually, is in the mobile space.

So film in the mobile space in South Africa is really exciting at the moment.

>> How many films do you see that are actually

coming into Creative Commons these days in South Africa?

>>Not a lot at all. In fact—

>> Is there some sort of— How are you helping people to get there?

What kinds of things are you doing with them?

>> Well, at the moment we're working in the video space quite a lot.

So in the last few months about three major sites have opened up

that allow people to upload video in South Africa.

And so we're trying to work in the video space, and with students,

so we're trying to get them to license their work on the Creative Commons,

and these video portals.

You say, okay, well, the creators of this video should keep their copyrights

through Creative Commons licensing.

>> Well, I've heard that South Africa is a developing country.

That there's not maybe all these HD cameras and things like that.

Is that true or not?

I mean, what kind of technology do they have in South Africa

compared to Western Europe or the United States?

>>So the thing about South Africa—and if you go there you'll see this in everything—

but you'll have the base technology, for a very few number of people,

and then you'll have kind of nothing for the rest.

So what we're really trying to do is say to people, you don't actually have to have all the equipment,

the best equipment in the world.

You can actually make do with what you have, and create really great stuff,

and even make that sustainable.

And that's why we tell stories like your story.

Another story in South Africa at the moment is—

They say it's the first feature film that was shot on a mobile phone.

And they're making it available on cinema screens, on television,

on DVD and mobile phones all at once.

>> Can you tell me more about that film? What's the name of it?

>>It's called SMS Sugar Man, directed by Aryan Kaganof,

and yeah, it's a great model, because they're basically saying—

the directors and producers are saying, you know, this is the kind of film that Africans need to be making.

It's shot with no money, and the filmmakers have absolute independence

to do whatever they want, because they don't have to rely on billion dollar budgets,

so it works really well, and they're trying to get students and young filmmakers

to start saying, okay, no, we don't want to just make Hollywood blockbusters,

because we can do that, we won the Academy Award last year—

we want to make a lot more films using video technology and the Internet, and, yeah.

>>How--What kind of film do you think that you're going to make,

now that you're all into the film site, are you going to make your own film?

>> Wow! What a great idea. I think I should make a film.

>> What would you make your film about?

>> I'd make a documentary—about filmmakers.

>> In South Africa? >> Yeah. About filmmakers in South Africa.

Because I think this is a really amazing issue, and the thing is,

the technology is right there. It's at our fingertips; it's just the mindset.

Like, saying, you know what, we should just make films for our people, you know?

Like the Nigerians do it so well. Enough Hollywood multibillion-dollar things.

Let's just make real films about everyday things,

and let's experiment as much as we can, and make a lot of films,

and work that way. So I'd do that. I'd make a documentary.

>> Thank you very much, Heather.

>>Lovely to meet you. Thanks a lot.

Great!