Durban FilmMart 2021 Winners Announced

Cecil Moller

DIRECTOR

Cecil Moller is a writer/director, producer, and instructor with more than 25 years’ experience. His films have been screened in Cannes, Milan, Ismailia, Harare, Montreal, Lyon, Humboldt and New York, amongst others. His director/ writer credits include “Marvin, Stevie and God”, “Ants, Bees and Butterflies”, “Suburban Superheroes”, “House of Love”, “Village Square” – a six-part comedy/drama series – as well as long-form “Looking for Ou Pyp” and “The Naming” screened at Cannes International Film Festival. He served as producer on “The Mbunza of the Kavango” and “Broken Pencils”, co-producer on “The Unseen”, and executive producer on seven short films for the Namibian Film Commission and eight for the National Broadcaster. a Fulbright Scholar with a Masters in Directing emphasis from Chapman University.

Valcerine Mouton

PRODUCER

Valcerine Mouton is a first-time producer/writer with big budget accounting experience. A native of the southern town of Rehoboth, normally the person to assist foreign producers to navigate local tax laws. Valcerine worked on productions like Maize Runner – Death Cure, Oasis, The Mummy, Mad Max Fury Road, and Generation Kill.

Eat Bitter

Synopsis: Eat Bitter is a character-driven vérité style documentary about contemporary economic tensions in the Central African Republic. Long one of the poorest nations in the world, CAR is experiencing a development boom, with construction flourishing in the capital, Bangui. As in other African countries, skilled Chinese immigrants are guiding this modernization. But such economic activity and progress is all too often exploitative of people and the environment: workers sacrifice their dignity, endanger their physical well-being and spoil the environment in order to obtain sand, an essential construction material. But the scarcity of sand compels workers to take ever more risks to obtain it. Through a parallel consideration of a Chinese immigrant manager and a local laborer, the film examines the experience of two men, their communities and cultures, as they work jointly though not always in alignment on the construction of a building that symbolizes wealth and power: a bank.

Country: Central African Republic

Pascale Appora-Gnekindy

Director and Co-producer

Born in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Pascale Appora-Gnekindy is a citizen of the Central African Republic (CAR). She is the owner of Kea-Kwis Production, a video production company in Bangui, CAR. In 2017, she directed “My Eyes To Hear” (Mes Yeux Pour Entendre), a short documentary about a boy overcoming his disability in a land where the disabled are marginalized. In 2019, she directed “Two Sisters” (Les Deux Soeurs), the story of two sisters who struggle to find the right balance between their studies, their life at home and their femininity. Pascale came to film production when she was selected to participate, in 2016, in the documentary filmmaking workshops organized by the French Alliance of Bangui and the Ateliers Varan.

Ningyi Sun

Co-director and Co-producer

First-time filmmaker and stand-up comedian, Ningyi is a Chinese national. She has lived, worked and studied on three continents and is trilingual in English, French, and Chinese. Most recently she was the associate civil affairs officer for the United Nations mission in the Central African Republic. She earned a master’s degree from Tufts University’s Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy

Mathieu Faure

Producer and Writer

Mathieu Faure is an independent filmmaker and producer who won Gold at the 2018 Student Academy Awards in the Domestic Documentary category for his personal film called “An Edited Life”. Faure is currently filming the feature version of “An Edited Life” called “The Final Cut”. Three years ago he graduated from the News and Documentary Masters program at the L. Carter Journalism Institute at NYU. During his time at NYU, Faure reported with his classmates on Cambodia. Their reports were published on The New York Times and The Huffington Post, and aired on PBS NewsHour. Since then, Faure ha worked for the CNN Documentary unit, before joining Don Lemon’s team on CNN Tonight. Faure started his career as a reporter for M6 television. He graduated from La Sorbonne University with a degree in Political Science.

Orphé Zaza Emmanuel Bamoy

Director of photography and Co-Producer

Born in the Central African Republic, Orphé Zaza Emmanuel Bamoy is a cinematographer and producer and the co-founder of the video production company OAZ Picture Entertainment. Orphé has 12 years experience in film and video production, primarily short films, music videos, and industrials. Orphé was Assistant Director on the film “Combat ti Guigui” (2014) and Cinematographer on the films “Zokwezo” (2016) and “Guillaume,” a virtual-reality release from 2018. The next year, he was hired to shoot the environmental short film “Ani Wa Sa” (2018) in Congo and Uganda. He next served as Assistant Director for “Yembi,” working under director Eric Christian Sabe.

Steve Dorst

Executive Producer and Writer

A US national, Steve made his first documentary, the award-winning “Volcanic Sprint” (2007), in a rainforest in Africa. Since then, he has directed, produced, and written several feature documentaries, including “Jobs for G.I.s” (2015) and “Shattered Sky” (2012), which have aired on DirecTV, PBS, iTunes, Hulu, and Amazon. He is co-founder of Rad Angel Productions, whose mission is to tell real stories for real impact, to share difficult truths and right wrongs. Rad Angel provided seed funding for “EAT BITTER 吃苦.”