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“The road to Agorkoli Annecy”

 There is certainly a lot of uncharted course ahead for AWA - an entity incorporated in Nigeria and the UK, founded by a young proactive mind who actually trained in Capetown, South Africa as a cg artist, now here is where it becomes more interesting, the whole initial support and backing to start up Animation West Africa came from Stuart Forrest the top man at triggerfish animation studio, Capetown and who actually founded Animation SA years back.

 We certainly have got the potentials and some top level skill set within the West Africa industry, skills that can compete on the highest level within Africa... for a start only, that we have an even better reason to speak highly of ourselves, as one of the biggest events within the global animation industry line up - Annecy International Festival (France: 5^th to 20^th June 2015) - has looked the direction of West Africa and it is the country Ghana to be precise (so much promise coming from that country)... a lot of gratitude goes to the French Embassy in Ghana for the support.

 Without further ado, here we present to you among the lined up shorts to be presented, endoresed and be screened to a selection of potential investors and funders from the bigger industry is the animated short, 'Agorkoli' by Francis Yushua Brown.

He was recently featured in the AWAmag where he made the cover, an emag on issuu.com http://issuu.com/sen-deboamovichade-brown/docs/awamag2_2 , here is what he had to say about the story he animated -
     
    ''Before embarking on the journey of “Agorkoli” I had two questions, the first being, why was Agorkoli considered to be such a wicked King? And two, what did the Ewe people do to inflict his wrath? A native Ghanaian, I had grown up hearing the story of “Agorkoli” but never fully understood what had transpired between the Ewe people and the infamous King prior to their imprisonment.
I am a film maker who specialize in animation film productions. I am always in search of a good story to bring to life, my search for authentic African stories began with my homeland Ghana, telling the neglected tales in a more appealing and interactive way has always been a dream passion and with the full story of Agorkoli being neither discussed nor honestly portrayed, I felt that it was my responsibility to depict the truth through the use of my chosen aesthetic. By first initiating my journey through portals as simplistic as the internet, I was fortunate to come into contact with such valuable resources as a former lecturer who also happened to be an Ewe King, and thorough in the history of the Ewe. Laying the story out for me in an honest and structured way, I was able to create a shell for what would later become “Agorkoli.” '' https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PjdkzzVF6h4

 According to the festival website, each year during the Mifa Pitch sessions, the International Animation Film Market tries to promote projects coming out of countries with limited production capacities. With this in mind, Annecy is opening a new Animation du Monde (World Animation), where a few countries will be put in the spotlight, this is the category that has afforded the rather unknown regions and country like Ghana have a chance to be heard as they also showcase the West Africa animation and cg industry, a region with rich original contents ans stories with an authentic creative intellectual property. Francis runs his studio team, AnimaxFYB based in Ghana.

 Much may not have been heard of West Africa in the global scheme of things within the animation industry before now, however that situation has just change and while South Africa may be on the front line currently (and thats something to be happy for them shocasing Africa), here now we herald the rediscovery of what West Africa have always had and actually owned and this is an undeniable fact, considering the man Moustapha Alassane (1942-2015); the Father of African  Animation is himself from West Africa.

 Having won a couple of awards over the years both as a student in NAFTI - the Ghana National Film and Television Institute, within Africa and on an international platform aswell within Europe, he continues to win more more awards and gain more relevant recognition by heads of agencies from foreign government, he is currently in the run for another awards in the UK, the GUBA awards 2015, with Agorkoli and other works.

We keep on the watch for more amazing things coming in from West Africa animators and animation studios over the next few years as they grow to maturity and get more notice world over and this is not far fetched, sometimes last summer the Korean Animation Magazine featured an interview with the Animation West Africa Community founder, this is an indication of the interest demonstrated by the bigger world for West Africa animation.

Francis has certainly pushed the stakes higher for the region and he has certainly made a name for himself here. We want to wish him the very best in it all and a big congratulations.



by - Sen-Deboh