he Festival of the Dhow Countries, East Africa's largest cultural event is located in Zanzibar around the magnificent, historical venues along the waterfront of Stone Town. The festival celebrates the unique cultural heritage of Africa and the Dhow countries of the Indian Ocean region and their global diaspora.

The theme, Celebration: Of Waters and Dreams proposes to reflect on the rituals of celebration recognizing the many ways in which all cultures value water and creativity symbolized in the nature of dreams. The journey, communication and the various types of celebrations and how they affect communities are also envisaged in the theme. We can of course also celebrate the film festival itself since it is the 10th Festival of the Dhow countries, which are linked by water, trade, communication and the desire for world peace.

Programs

Screenings
Scenic Old Fort Amphitheatre - seating capacity 1500
Majestic cinema / SUZA Hall- 200 seats
Pemba Island - Chake and Wete: 2 cinema halls - 500 seats each
Mobile outdoor screen - village settings
3 private screening facilities for 3 Juries
New World Cinema - Dar es Salaam

Special events and sections
Launch
Opening Ceremony
Awards Ceremony
Competition films
Sites of Memory-Slave Route Project
Festivals of Festivals
ZIFF Retrospective
Focus on Tanzania
Celebration

Workshops and Master classes
Film acting
Drama Filmmaking
Documentary filmmaking masterclass
Film criticism
The Festival Management
Children's animation (in conjunction with the Children's Panorama)

Forums
African co-production forum
EAFF (East African Film Makers Forum)
UNESCO - Slave Route Project
Conversations of Alternatives

Other activities
Soko- Filam
ZIFF-FRU Film Outreach program (yearlong)
Scouting for films and networking (yearlong)
Mini-Festivals (seasonal)
Media production unit (yearlong)
Music production Equipment (yearlong)

FESTIVAL LAUNCH: DAR ES SALAAM
Recognising that our festival has a large following in Dar es Salaam, and appreciating that not all those who would like to come to Zanzibar can do so, we would therefore like to offer them a special opportunity to savour film samples of our upcoming festival, by bringing these through our launch.
The Festival Launch will take place at Dar es Salaam's Holiday Inn, in the week preceding the Opening Gala, giving the local and international media a peek preview of the festival programme.
Also discussions will be undertaken to ask New World Cinema proprietors to allow ZIFF to show African films one night a week at reduced fees in the months preceding the festival thus using the African film shows to foreground the festivals publicity.
Alternatively we plan to discuss with the proprietors of the Slipway Hotel to use their Cinema Complex for the same purposes. We are also considering partnering either PSI or some other organisation to the showing of some of our festival films at the Mnazi Mmoja Grounds for free during the Festival to have a permanent presence of ZIFF in Dar during the festival.
A Dhow carrying journalists will leave Dar Es Salaam and travel to Bagamoyo and thence to Zanzibar in time for the opening of the festival to celebrate the use of this mode for communication.
A consideration of requesting some world maritime cultures to bring to Zanzibar their Sea vessels that plied the seas many years ago is still on the table.

OPENING & AWARDS GALAS & RETROSPECTIVE
The opening night ceremony at the fort to be a night of reverie in the style of a Rio carnival- A carnival specialist to be invited to spend time with Zanzibari theatre groups to develop an opening night extravaganza.

The Following Day will be marked by a spectacular and colourful concentration of assorted Dhows and Ngalawa's in front of Zanzibar's historical waterfront. This will be a rare event recalling the days when the sails governed supreme over the Indian Ocean.

Our very special Chief Guests are Winners of the last 9 festival. Their films will be presented in a special programme in Zanzibar and possibly in Dar Es Salaam New World cinema

The ZIFF-UNESCO Sites of Memories Project- The Slave Route Forum- This one day event will involve organised tours of specific slave route sites by the guests culminating into a 3 hour discussion on issues of slavery and a presentation of 1 major film shown in the Amphitheatre and the final night of a carnival atmosphere and Cuban and Latin American music.

The Award Night Ceremony-

THE FILM PROGRAMME
The film program has been watered down over the years due to our dependence on only one venue for proper screening of films- the Old Fort. The African House venue was a very poor cousin to this venue! We need and intend to change the venues and have begun the process of getting permission and renovation of the Majestic Cinema venue for next year. Failure to that we are looking at using the either the State University Hall or Palace Museum which we can re-equip for digital film projections. We are also looking at using the University's Hall for theatre performances. We are also going to introduce a special technical team attached to the film program having recognised its necessity.

The Call for Films for ZIFF 2007 will be made in the last of September and the deadline for all films will be April 1st 2007. We also intend to reintroduce the Peoples' Choice Award at the festival in order to enhance the participatory nature of ZIFF.

JURIES
Just as last year, we are going to have 3 Jury's: ZIFF Jury, SIGNIS Jury and a FIPRESCI Jury. However we are also going to set up a new Jury which will be made up of only 3 members to be nominated by UNESCO, ZIFF and any other partner to the new Award for the Best Film on the Theme of Slavery and its Outcomes

Running 4 juries is a complicated logistical affair in its own right. To solve what has been a nightmare for ZIFF we shall from now on make 3 copies of all the films to be shown at the festival. We shall ask for permission from all film makers and suppliers to either bring us 3 extra copies or allow us to make copies. On arrival the juries will be supplied with their package of films and we shall only need to worry about their projection but not whether the videos will be available or not!

CELEBRATION!
The theme Celebration: Of Waters and Dreams proposes to reflect on the rituals of celebration recognising the many ways in which all cultures value water and creativity symbolised in the nature of dreams. Travel, communication and the various types of celebrations and how they affect communities are also envisaged in the theme. We can of course also celebrate the film festival itself since it is of the Dhow countries linked by water, trade, communication and the desire for world expansion. The Island of dreams that is Zanzibar proposes to harness all cultural aspects including language in celebrating the ways of thinking and communicating about cultures and waters.

THE SITES OF MEMORIES- SLAVE ROUTE PROJECT
As we noted during the one-day symposium of the Slave Route project at ZIFF 2006, the presence of many sites of memory in Zanzibar and Tanzania in general with regard to slave trade and slavery in general would be an important aspect to include in our Festival in 2007.

ZIFF is joining UNESCO in its Slave Route Project. The festival will screen at least 4 new feature length and short films on this subject. For this festival ZIFF will be opening up a new section of the festival which will make the Slave Route Project a permanent feature of ZIFF acknowledging the importance of the subject to Zanzibaris and Africa in general The ZIFF-UNESCO Sites of Memories Project- will also hold The Slave Route Day- This one day event will involve organised tours of specific slave route sites in Zanzibar by festival guests culminating into a 3 hour discussion on issues of slavery and a presentation of one major slave theme film shown in the Amphitheatre. The final event for the day is to include a carnival atmosphere and Cuban and Latin American music extravaganza!

EAST AFRICAN FILMMAKERS FORUM: Focus On Tanzania Film Production
Ten years into the festival and what has ZIFF done to support the development of film production in the Zanzibar? This is a major issue of contention that will be discussed all through the year culminating into this focal program. The program will involve ZIFF supporting the production of at least one full length film in Zanzibar. This film will be shown in the amphitheatre and a discussion held the following day involving Tanzanian and East African filmmakers, policy makers, government officials and other invited international guests. A fully fledged program of Tanzanian films will be collated and projections of the films will be undertaken at Forodhani and other venues during the evenings. Up to two screens will be built to project what will be a veritable crop of Tanzanian and Swahili films to celebrate the coming of age of Tanzanian film making.

NEW FILM SECTION: THE CINEMA OF DIFFICULT DIALOGUES
Indeed the setting up of the new ZIFF-UNESCO Award for the Best Film on the Theme of Slavery and its Outcomes for films that discuss issues of intercultural dialogues requires this size of celebration. This is only a way of conceptualising the thematic drive we wish our partners to bring to the 10th ZIFF and we believe that the relations between ZIFF and UNESCO will go a long way towards supporting world cultures, peace and understanding.

Pain has a long history of being hidden from public view, and when it is presented, this is done with a sense of shyness and perceptible uneasiness. Through a selection of films, we intend to pry open this world for our audiences.

CONVERSATIONS OF ALTERNATIVES
Women filmmakers continue to create spaces in many creative ways. Through inviting films from women to be coordinated by the Women panorama coordinators we intend to provide a venue to discuss the new alternative voices that women provide to society.

THE WOMEX MUSIC FORUM
East African artists face numerous barriers to local and global market participation including poor production, poor market organization, poor market information, lack of production facilities, inadequate rules and regulation, limited understanding of global markets, the problem of language, and lack of bargaining power and commercial relationships.

Our 2007-2010 Business Plan has at its core the objective of creating a viable and mutually beneficient environment through ZIFF's organs and enhance relations within the cultural sector of East Africa.

Through our relations with WOMEX or WOMAD we intend to assist these musical entrepreneurs to achieve success on a global scale. Through a program that will be run during the year of first developing specific talents of specially chosen music artists and then auditioning for their presence at ZIFF 2007 we intend to make ZIFF the one place that world music producers will come to source for new talents and acts. In order to do that we propose to outsource the MPA department to a capable organisation that will work in liaison with ZIFF to program the MPA section.

FILM WORKSHOPS
This year we plan to hold a number of Workshops on film. In a change to the norm we plan to hold only one day Master Classes by top of the range trainers to allow many more people to avail themselves the opportunity to attend these workshops. The one day workshops will include:
A documentary Film production
A music production Workshop
Acting for the Camera
Video Clips editing

FILM CRITICS WORKSHOP: FIPRESCI, SIGNIS and ZIFF
As in ZIFF 2006 this year we shall also conduct a film criticism workshop but learning from this year's experience we want a better planned and more involving workshop. With the support of SIGNIS, ZIFF and FIPRESCI juries we intend to hold a three tier workshop. In the first place trained journalists who have some experience in writing film analyses will be identified to be given an upgraded master class. This will be followed by a programme of writing for a ZIFF daily paper on the festival program. The third tier will involve attending a final Meet the Jury workshop/ press conference at which a discussion of the parameters used by the jury will be held. The juries will also take advantage of this meeting to discuss what has already been written by the journalists in the ZIFF Daily or in their own newspapers.

CHILDREN'S FILMS: DANISH FILM INSTITUTE & BUFF (Sweden)
Developing an audience requires that the process is begun at an early stage - with children. This means that from an early age we have to provide the best quality programming for children, treating them as discerning viewers and believing that just as adults, the require the very best. The reality is that children in our region are constantly bombarded with substandard films and programmes that often act as an impediment to their imaginations and development. ZIFF has decided to take a leaf from the highly developed Scandinavian approach of providing top quality films for the youngest audience. Supported by the Salaam DK Film Festival in Copenhagen, we shall present a program of Children film analysis at which the children writers will be competing for their own awards at the end of the festival. An award evening for children involving activities undertaken throughout the year will be held to a media consort.

SCOUTING FOR FILMS
Some of the major festivals relevant to us are: Cannes (May), Berlinale (February), IDFA (November), Rotterdam (January), FESPACO, (February) Carthage, Sithengi, Goa, Jakarta, Dubai, Mumbai,

The search and scouting for films will begin earnestly with Sithengi 2006 in November and FESPACO 2007 the on to European Festivals in February, April and May. The American circuit will be visited in February beginning with Palm Springs International Film Festival where we can source for nominated foreign film academy nominees. This will ensure us getting some of the newer and more prominent films from the whole world and all discussions need to be concluded within weeks of the festival.. One other theme that we shall be scouting for will be films dealing with slavery and issues of intercultural dialogues. This is due to the inception of the new Awards at ZIFF in collaboration with UNESCO.

OUTSOURCING PROGRAMMING
From 2007 we propose to begin a new concept of programming by identified programmers. The process entails identifying well positioned, capable and well profiled artists or activists to programme for us specific programs. In that way we can take advantage of having a program by an experienced programmer for "free" while also getting the profile that having that person on our contributors will bring. This can be undertaken through all the departments- Literary, Exhibition and MPA. We have ample networks that could help us achieve this in time and at low cost. The nominated Ambassadors are also a viable tool for achieving similar results. To that end we have commissioned both Angele Etoundi (Photographer Extraordinaire from Cameroon) to curate the Exhibition Section while Dr David Slocum will work with Prof Abdul Sherriff to organise the 2007 ZIFF Conference that aims at maintaining a balance between the scholars and film makers so that there could be cross-fertilisation.

ZIFF-THE FESTIVAL OF FESTIVALS
Throughout the year ZIFF endeavours to bring film culture to Zanzibar. Over the last 12 months ZIFF has hosted 4 such events (Afro - American History Month Film Festival, Franco-German Film Festival, American Music History Film Festival and the Spanish Day of Book Film Festival). In the last quarter of this year, we have already held a very successful Franco-German Film Festival. It is our aim to make sure that the significant creative, administrative and logistical resource that ZIFF possesses, should be constantly at work developing the strength and viability of the film environment.

Alternatively over the years we have developed good sisterly relations with other festival whose themes and approaches endear us. Festivals like Film By the Sea, Amakula, Sithengi, FESPACO, The International Film Festival of India at Goa, and the Japan Africa Film Festival will be approached to provide us with a selection of their best films to cover an afternoon of films presentations which will culminate into a discussion of their programs with audiences. This initiative would allow ZIFF to be able to also present its "mini festival" at these festivals as part of its year-long program.

SOKO-FILAM INITIATIVE
ZIFF's 2007-2010 Strategic Plan also aims to create another new and important addition in the 10th festival to reflect this important endeavour. This is the Zanzibar Soko-filam Film Markets or Soko-filam. The Soko-filam principle objective aims at the promotion, marketing and distribution of the regional films. This event will present to the local, regional and eventually to the world-wide entertainment industry the opportunities, financial benefits and technical expertise in cultural industries available not only in East Africa but in Africa as a whole.

Soko-filam would be a market where the invited leading independent sales companies, producers and distributors and international film financers from around the world would meet with representatives of African film industry and network sell or otherwise engage in cultural contact. ZIFF's Soko-filam initiative's rationale is a response to the region's needs for a film maket. To initiate the market, in the first year, we shall invite TV station managers and commissioning editors to a panel discussion where they shall meet producers where networking can begin. Further we intend to.invite Nigerian film producers and distributors to discuss their own experiences in order to spur the regional industry members to action.

EQUIPMENT:
After this year's improvised solution to the old projector for the Amphitheatre we need to come up with a new resolve that would solve this niggling problem. In many ways this is an issue that is based on venues and resources. Not having enough and appropriate film projection venues has meant our dependence on showing films at Africa House during the day (with poor sound) and can only show the best films in the amphitheatre. To solve this problem we have decided to pull all stops out to ensure that we get permission and are able to refurbish what is the best film venue in town-The Majestic cinema. When, and not if, we get the permit we shall need to refurbish the cinema and our plan is to use the venue not only to show films during the festival but to be able to provide Zanzibar residents with a cinema venue during weekends all through the year. We shall be applying for funds to do just that once the government has given us the go ahead to negotiate with the State University of Zanzibar to use the venue.

There is need to purchase two new top of the range projectors or failure to that to begin negotiations with our sister festivals of Amakula and Rwanda for the loan of their better projectors during the festival while a reciprocal action will be taken by us during their festivals.


MUSIC AND PERFORMING ARTS

Over the years music has become a major component of the ZIFF experience. At every festival music envelopes Zanzibar's historic waterfront, where a stage set up in the Forodhani Garden becomes a jubilant carnival for thousands of Zanzibar's and guests, during the day. At night, the Mambo Club stage, located in the Old Fort's second courtyard, takes over, with sounds drifting across its weathered walls and into the narrow maze of streets.

In this year of celebration of waters and dreams we want to take the people of this Island to countries far away from whose boundaries return the musical sounds of old- Latin America! From Cuba and Brazil come the old African rhythms and with the Africando sounds are relieved the dreams of old African and the new Latin experience. We shall welcome musical groups from Cuba and Brazil and with them to share the old and new dreams will be invited groups of musicians from India, Oman, South Africa, the US Black experience and of course from East and West Africa.

Venues
Mambo Club
Forodhani Gardens
Livingstone Ocean Beach
Starehe Club

Concerts
Africando- Cuba and Group from Brazil
South Africa and Uganda
Oman, Mauritius /Comoros and Egypt
6 groups from Zanzibar and 6 groups from Tanzania mainland

Theatre
EATI Perfomers (The Theatre Company)
Parapanda Theatre group
Bagamoyo Dance Group
Black roots Theatre Group Zanzibar
Dance group from West Africa

Special Events
The Carnival Experience- Street Performances
Sites of Memory- The Slave Route Day
Retrospective: The 9 winners of the Golden Dhows at ZIFF

CHILDREN'S AND YOUTH PANORAMA
As part of the growing culture of highlights the place and needs of children's in Zanzibari communities we shall continue to deliver ever exciting programs for children. However in keeping with the resolve to develop a more concrete and outcome based festival we shall develop a new approach for the Children Panorama based on a seasonal programming. The program will now be called Children and Youth Panorama On-going Activities 2006-2007.The holiday programs will ensure that ZIFF becomes part of the growing up of children in Zanzibar and the Festival of the Dhow countries is only one of the culminating items in their busy calendar of cultural events supported and managed by ZIFF.
New initiatives are being considered including new initiatives by UNICEF as well as by the PSI.
The full program for the year and the smaller but more exciting Festival program will be developed in the next few months. Key items to be considered for programming include:

Promotion of Reading culture in Zanzibar Schools
IT Workshops and Children Newsletter
Raising Awareness Against Drugs and HIV/AIDS
Establishing a Permanent Children's Cultural Centre

VILLAGE PANORAMA

INTRODUCTION:

As with the Children Panorama a new approach has been devised for the Village panorama. The programming for this Panorama for both Zanzibar and Pemba will be based on identifying groups that have been supported in the previous festival and following some of the more successful and supporting them even further. These are groups that have continued with their programs and just need further encouragement. To them the festival event in June/July becomes a celebration of what is already a living program in their daily lives.

The Village Panorama is an integral part of the Zanzibar International Film Festival (ZIFF) that involves different villages on the islands of Unguja and Pemba in cultural and artistic activities. A total of fifteen villages will participate in the festival and contribute to the cultural performances and activities. Two to three villages form, what we refer to as a 'cluster,' and five such clusters will promote community interaction and friendly artistic competitions. The local ngoma troupes and film shows will be showcased in all clusters, but the festival music will be performed in selected clusters. Partners who work closely with communities e.g. ZANGOC, Medicos del Mundo, PSI and others who have outreach activities, are expected to participate in the panorama and in some activities that will extend beyond the festival. The village team works closely with the Children's Panorama teams in order to achieve greater coordination and efficiency of these activities.

WOMEN'S PANORAMA
The Women's Panorama's main objective is to provide a real and dynamic space for women to display their artistic work and raise and discuss their concerns. The activities in the programme are deliberately selected to establish the visibility of women in cinema, media and the arts in a positive light. The Women's Panorama activities, which take place in selected places on the islands of Unguja and Pemba, are integrated into the main Panorama and Village Programmes.

To do that effectively beginning January 2007 we plan to schedule the program into a monthly program undertaken throughout Zanzibar at various forums and occasions. The groups' interests, the occasion for having the activity, the need that will be focussed on and the expected positive outcomes will be the criteria for which the program will be developed and managed.

THE LITERARY FORUM
This newer addition to ZIFF's artistic offering attempts to capture what is the growing field of readers of both Swahili and other language written literature. Ably managed by the versatile Walter Bgoya we hope to also welcome Kwani? to the ZIFF fold. Kwani? is arguably Africa's most exciting and varied literary initiative of recent years. Describing itself as 'a magazine of ideas, [that] seeks to entertain, provoke and create', Kwani? Will be welcome to provide ZIFF with a sterling crop of writers, discussants and a wide array of publications. With Kwani? On board ZIFF will have arrived on the literary scene.

SWAHILI POETRY
Swahili poetry, also known as 'Ushairi' has been now established for well over 300 years. This is a key cultural link that identifies the Dhow Culture countries. A search of practices of Swahili poetry as they evolve and develop in the Indian Ocean basin will be undertaken and the outcome presented in the form of Swahili poets young and old who will be meeting and will "lumbana" (contest) in public.

STORYTELLING TECHNIQUES
Nisar Sheraly will again conduct workshops for primary school teachers on techniques for teaching literature to Children. The Objective of this year's Workshops as a follow up of last year's most successful workshop are:
To promote the use of folktales in the classroom for character building
To record and perpetuate folktales
To write and publish oral traditions in English for posterity

The Processes will include:
Holding teachers' workshops in Stone Town
Conducting storytelling techniques workshops
Contact and liaise with publishers and organisations that forster folktales

VISUAL ARTS AND EXHIBITIONS

NOIR: ANGELE ETOUNDI ESSAMBA
Having arrived on the Island but not able to present her astounding work in 2006, we bring back Angele Etoundi to our shores. Angele is one of Africa's most celebrated photographers. Although she draws upon her Cameroonian reminiscences, she has opened herself to the broader context of our continent. Her photographs have a deceptively minimalist approach that at closer inspection are highly complex, loaded with discourse and executed with a thoroughness verging on obsessive perfection. Almost all her photos are studio based as she uses controlled lighting to sculpt the portraits of her subjects. Then, for a split second, she allows for motion to set in so that preparedness can intertwine with chance. And the principal theme of her work is the exploration of the African image, a reclaiming of its power and sensitivity. All of her crisply contrasting black and white photographs unmask Africa's visual heritage, its patterns, and its sculptures.

LARGER THAN LIFE: THE UNKNOWN NYERERE by ADARSH NAYAR
As part of the World Social Forum the Chief Photographer of the Daily News and the Late President Nyerere's official photographer Adarsh Nayar will present an exhibition of never before seen images of Mwalimu. The Unknown Mwalimu is an exhibition of photographs that will not only be exhibited in a gallery but it will feature on huge posters around the environs of Zanzibar city as part of the celebration of the activism, philosophy and humanity of the Mwalimu

ZIFF CONFERENCE
An attempt will be made to link certain topics of the Conference with films on the theme of celebrations, rituals, festivities of waters and dreams! This would assist in bringing the conference closer to film enthusiast who would normally feel intimated by academic discussions.