Creative Africa Storytelling for the Screen Incubator (CASSI)

The Creative Africa Storytelling for the Screen Incubator (CASSI) is a comprehensive programm to elevate African filmmaking.

Creative Africa Storytelling for the Screen Incubator Workshop 3, Lagos, October/November 2023

Through a series of capacity building initiatives paired with production over six years, CASSI creates a critical mass of internationally competitive film practitioners on the African continent, who collaborate to develop and produce globally marketable content. CASSI builds African capacity in the following content areas: live action, animation, documentary, television series, and multimedia.

CASSI focuses on empowering African women in front of and behind the camera. A homegrown initiative, CASSI gives Zimbabwe a competitive edge in Africa’s increasingly economically significant content creation sector.

CASSI International Team

Tsitsi Dangarembga ZW - Founder and Southern African Representative

A graduate of the German Film & Television Academy Berlin with a B.Sc (Hons) in Psychology from the University of Zimbabwe, Tsitsi Dangarembga has credits on many of Zimbabwe's feature film classics such as NERIA (1991, story writer) and EVERYONE’S CHILD (1996, writer, director). In addition to a range of documentaries and short films, her filmography includes the award winning short musical KARE KARE ZVAKO (MOTHER’S DAY, 2005) which was a finalist at the Sundance Film Festival. She founded the International Images Film Festival for Women in 2023 and the Institute of Creative Arts for Progress in Africa (ICAPA) Trust in 2009. She has served on the grand juries of major festivals, including Durban, Carthage, FESPACO, and the Berlinale.

Souad Houssein (FR/DJ) – Diaspora and Horn of Africa Representative

Souad Houssein (France-Djibouti) worked for nearly 25 years in the cinema of southern and Francophone countries, most particularly of French-speaking African countries during her career at the International Organization of la Francophonie (OIF), where she managed a film fund, Fonds image de la Francophonie, which supported capacity building amongst film professionals and contributed to improving the visibility of funded films. Today, Ms Houssein is the founder of the Pan-African Audiovisual and Cinema Observatory (l'Observatoire Panafricain de l’Audiovisuel et du Cinéma, OPAC), which is currently in development.

 

Wanjiru Kinyanjui (KE) – East African Representative

Wanjiru Kinyanjui studied filmmaking at the German Film & Television Academy, Berlin and graduated as a screenwriter and director with the award-winning long feature film THE BATTLE OF THE SACRED TREE. Her filmography includes four children’s films for ZDF German Television. On returning to Kenya, Wanjiru worked as a freelance filmmaker and as lecturer at Kenyatta University before joining the Multimedia University in 2012 to teach screenwriting, directing and production. She initiated several film festivals and facilitated several screenwriting and directing workshops in Kenya. Two of her films have been screened at the Berlin International Film Festival.

 

Edwige Dro (CI) – West African Representative

Edwige Renée Dro is a writer and a literary translator.

In 2020 she founded 1949, a library of women's writings from Africa and the black world, in Abidjan. The library hosts a book-store and a residency for women writers. Through its programming, 1949 aims at unearthing and amplifying the contributions of African and black women.

 

 

Mariëtte Rissenbeck (NL/DE) – Fundraising and Networking

Mariëtte Rissenbeek became Managing Director of the Berlin International Film Festival in 2019. She announced she would not prolong her contract in 2023. Born in the Netherlands in 1956, Mariëtte studied German language and literature, theater studies and sociology at the Rijksuniversiteit Utrecht and the Freie Universität Berlin. In 2003, following positions in advertising, film distribution and sales and film production, Mariëtte took over responsibility for international festival relations and public relations at German Films, the German institution for the international promotion of German cinema. She was appointed Deputy Managing Director of German Films in 2006 and Managing Director in 2011.

 

Daniel Cattier Maseko (BE/ZM) – Animation and Multi-media Expert

Daniel Cattier Maseko holds a BA in International Politics and African History from the London School of African and Oriental Studies, and a MSc in Marketing Communication, AI Technologies and Digital Media from the Catholic University of Leuven. He is a film-maker with 20 years of professional experience in directing (Pan) African related social impact entertainment (prime-time television documentaries and immersive storytelling). Daniel has recently created a creative agency company in Lusaka-Zambia dedicated to storytelling video games and animated films. He comes from a mixed Zambian and Belgian cultural and linguistic background and his lineage can be traced by back to Ngoni-Malawi, and Zulu-South Africa.

Download the CASSI Flyer here