DESCRIPTION

Sam French is the founding director of Development Pictures in Kabul, Afghanistan. He has been in Afghanistan since 2008 and has discovered a complex country full of stories. His goal is to foster the Afghan film industry. His company documents Afghans' everyday lives and jobs, and shows stories you don't necessary see in the media. They try to show another side of the country.

In this video, he also talks about a venture they have started called the Afghan Film Project in order to provide infrastructures and skills to people who are passionate by filmmaking, so they can restore the film industry in Afghanistan.

He explains that the mobile phone industry is the biggest industry in Afghanistan and that people get connected to the world through their phones. He believes that social media is a force for change and awareness.

He adds that film has the power to influence society and that he wants to give tools to Afghans to make videos, so they can start telling their stories and affect change. For him, the biggest problem in Afghanistan is the lack of business opportunities and that the fastest way to grow is to connect people with new ideas using social media.

More about Sam French:

A founding director of Development Pictures in Kabul, Afghanistan, Sam French is an award-winning filmmaker with over 14 years experience in film and television. He recently directed Buzkashi Boys, one of the first narrative fiction films to be shot entirely on location in Kabul with a mixed Western and Afghan crew. This film is the first project of the Afghan Film Project, a non-profit NGO which Sam co-founded in 2010.

Before moving to Afghanistan he wrote, produced, and directed short films, music videos, commercials, and documentaries. His 2006 short film Over the Line won multiple awards, including Best Director and Best Actor at the Beverly Hills Film Festival, and was rated as one of the best films of the year at USC’s 2006 First Look Festival. Sam graduated from USC film school with a Masters of Fine Arts in Film Production.

He has spent the last four years in Kabul, producing and directing documentaries for diverse clients including the UN, DFID, the EU, CARE International, Channel 4, CNN, PBS, and Current TV. For more information on Buzkashi Boys, please visit http://www.buzkashiboys.com

Visit the Afghan Development Initiative and the Afghan Development Web TV for more information.