The future of Afghan cinema is looking very bright indeed due to organizations such as the Afghan Film Project, a nonprofit foundation dedicated to supporting and building capacity in Afghanistan’s growing film industry. Read on to learn more about how the Afghan Film Project got started and where it’s headed next.
What is the Afghan Film Project?
Based in Kabul and Los Angeles, the Afghan Film Project (AFP) is a nonprofit, non-governmental organization that aims to empower Afghan filmmakers to tell Afghan stories. AFP aims to connect local filmmakers with the resources, experience, and opportunities they need to help bring their unique stories to the screen. At the same time, AFP focuses on building local industry capacity by providing practical training and education to producers, directors, and crews (including positions such as grips, electricians, and cinematographers). Through workshops, skills development classes, and mentorship opportunities offered by AFP, the next generation of Afghan filmmakers will gain the vital tools they need to produce films of the highest standard for both domestic and international audiences. AFP also helps to connect filmmakers and film professionals with grants and other funding opportunities.
The team behind AFP is comprised of internationally recognized film professionals who are passionate about Afghanistan and dedicated to sharing their skills and knowledge with emerging filmmakers. Board members include the Afghan-Canadian filmmaker and visual artist Ariel Nasr, who has directed the award-winning documentaries Good Morning Kandahar and The Boxing Girls of Kabul; Academy and Emmy Award-nominated filmmaker and photographer Leslie Knott, whose films include Out of the Ashes; and Academy Award-nominated filmmaker Samuel French, whose work has been presented by a number of broadcast outlets including HBO, National Geographic, and Al Jazeera.
How did the Afghan Film Project start?
In 2008, AFP co-founder and board member Samuel French moved to Kabul. With almost no previous knowledge of Afghanistan and little idea of what to expect from his time in the country, French found himself in the middle of a culturally complex nation full of unique stories waiting to be told. Inspired by the fascinating people and places around him, French began to write the script for the short film Buzkashi Boys in collaboration with England-born, Los Angeles-based filmmaker Martin Roe. In order to facilitate the development and production process for the film, AFP was founded in 2009.
Buzkashi Boys
As the AFP’s inaugural project, Buzkashi Boys was an important step forward for Afghanistan’s burgeoning film industry and served to usher in a new era of Afghan cinema to the world stage. Filmed entirely on location in Kabul during the winter of 2011, the 30-minute narrative film tells the story of two best friends striving to forge their own future as they grow to manhood under challenging circumstances. An official selection at numerous international film festivals, Buzkashi Boys received extensive critical praise for its emotionally captivating portrait of life in contemporary Afghanistan and its stunning cinematography. In 2013, the film received an Academy Award nomination in the category of Live Action Short.
For the AFP, the international recognition that Buzkashi Boys received was a fitting conclusion to what had been a passionate and challenging experiment in cross-border collaborative filmmaking. Armed with a $200,000 grant from the US State Department, which comprised the majority of the funding for the film, AFP brought more than a dozen young Afghan filmmakers on board to work with the international crew that assembled to make Buzkashi Boys, giving many of them their first taste of the ins and outs of working on a high-caliber film. Due to the support and skills from these mentor-trainee relationships, these filmmakers have since gone on to make and produce their own projects, exactly as the AFP intended.
Upcoming and related projects
As a follow-up to Buzkashi Boys, AFP formed a partnership in 2012 with the Tiziano Project, an organization that helps to provide community members from developing regions that have been impacted by conflict with the tools and training they need to tell their stories and improve lives. The fruit of this partnership was Stories from: Kabul, a collaborative project between high school students in Kabul and Philadelphia. The students received training in video journalism skills and prepared reports on cultural, political, and economic themes to compare and contrast the concept of community and civic engagement in both cities. Philadelphia’s National Constitution Center was an additional partner on the project.
Today, fueled by the success of its early endeavors, AFP continues to move ahead with a variety of initiatives designed to support its goal of empowering Afghan filmmakers. Plans are underway for an ongoing workshop series to teach filmmaking basics to emerging Afghan artists and storytellers. In addition, Development Pictures, a production company established by AFP co-founder Samuel French, is working to locate distribution opportunities for a number of new Afghan-made projects, including the television series Kabul at Work, which examines the extraordinary lives of ordinary Afghans.