Stu­dent web series “TALES FROM THE BLUE BUS” now online at ARTE

TALES FROM THE BLUE BUS — GESCHICHTEN AUS ACCRA tells of the trag­ic jour­ney of sev­en strangers trav­el­ling in an old blue bus that has been cursed by a venge­ful god­dess. The African-Euro­pean web series was joint­ly devel­oped and pro­duced by stu­dents of the DFFB, the Nation­al Film and Tele­vi­sion Insti­tute (Ghana), and the Maisha Film Lab (Ugan­da).

 

This film explores the process­es of change in soci­ety and the asso­ci­at­ed per­son­al chal­lenges that young peo­ple in West Africa face. The themes of iso­la­tion and respon­si­bil­i­ty bind all the episodes togeth­er. But the film lan­guage is fresh and vis­cer­al and cre­ates an extra­or­di­nary view­ing expe­ri­ence far away from the con­ven­tions of estab­lished reportage and glossy pro­duc­tions.

Entwick­elt wurde die Serie von 15 stu­den­tis­chen Filmemacher*innen aus Deutsch­land, Ghana und Ostafri­ka. In mehreren Devel­op­ment-Work­shops in Ghana und Ugan­da hat das Team – beste­hend aus jun­gen Filmemacher*innen aus Accra, Kam­pala und Berlin – zusam­men die Geschicht­en weit­er­en­twick­elt. Für die Umset­zung war ein Showrun­ner aus Ugan­da zuständig; die Regie ver­ant­worteten Studierende aus Ghana und Berlin. Das Filmteam vor Ort umfasste ca. 50 Studierende des NAFTI. Unter­stützt und gefördert wurde die Gruppe vom Bun­desmin­is­teri­um für wirtschaftliche Zusam­me­nar­beit und Entwick­lung und der Deutschen Welle Akademie.

The series was devel­oped by 15 stu­dent film­mak­ers from Ger­many, Ghana, and East Africa. In sev­er­al devel­op­ment work­shops in Ghana and Ugan­da, the team—comprising young film­mak­ers from Accra, Kam­pala, and Berlin—developed the sto­ries togeth­er. The showrun­ner is from Ugan­da; the direc­tors are stu­dents from Ghana and Berlin. The film team on loca­tion con­sist­ed of about 50 NAFTI stu­dents. The group was sup­port­ed and fund­ed by the Ger­man Fed­er­al Min­istry for Eco­nom­ic Coop­er­a­tion and Devel­op­ment and the Deutsche Welle Acad­e­my.

Click here to view the series. Enjoy!