Beyond the Festival: From Fiji to Cameroon, Alma and Signify TV Bring Independent Films to New Audiences

A dramatic moment from A Cry from the Forest, directed by Lynno Lovert and starring Laura Onyama.

Building on its debut festival in the Dominican Republic and its Ent-Tech (Innovation and Discovery Expo), Alma is putting its 42-country network to work, giving independent films and music videos a life beyond the festival circuit.

ATLANTA — Here is the quiet problem with most independent films: they premiere, they win applause, maybe an award or two, and then they go dormant, many of them left sitting on a hard drive for years. Too often, these filmmakers never reach the audiences most eager to see their work. The Alma Film Festival and Signify TV are taking steps to change that.

It’s a big problem, and no single partnership can solve it. But together, the two organizations are doing their part to connect more filmmakers with more audiences, one country, one creative community and one story at a time.

The partnership arrives during a breakout year for Alma. In March, the festival made its debut in the coastal community of Las Terrenas, Dominican Republic, bringing filmmakers, scholars and audiences together around storytelling from the Global South and its diaspora. Earlier this month, the Ent-Tech (Innovation and Discovery Expo) added to that momentum. The Expo explored innovation where technology and storytelling meet, and it also made room for new ideas and thought leadership on where the industry is headed.

Both events point in the same direction: toward a festival that does more than screen films. The Signify TV partnership is a next step, carrying that momentum forward and helping the films Alma champions reach new audiences long after the lights come up.

It started with Fiji. It has since moved to Lesotho. Next up is Cameroon.

The collections stream on Signify TV, the Atlanta-based nonprofit platform led by Emmy and Telly Award-winning producer-director Alahna Lark.

That matters. Filmmakers can always upload to YouTube or Vimeo, but on those crowded platforms, great work is easy to miss. Signify TV offers something different: careful curation and a dedicated push to get each film in front of the right audience.

Giovanna Varea, as Kaliti, battles an adversary in the Fijian film Daunitukutuku, directed by Meli Tuqota.

From Fiji to Lesotho

The first collection opened a window into Fiji’s emerging independent film scene, with works including Radini, Soli Bula, Jone Wise, You, The Choice of My Parents, Daunitukutuku and Takoso.

Then the focus shifted to Lesotho, and to the music video. Khotso Maphathe, a filmmaker, creative entrepreneur and Dandelion Institute fellow, curated a collection that makes a persuasive case for the form as serious cultural storytelling.

Featured works include Ntsu Skit by Benjamin Rali, Ho Ra Shoa Banna by Sannere and Wave Rhyder, Koababa by Morena Sway x DeLasoundz, and REAL by saveHXPE. Taken together, they capture a generation of Basotho artists who move easily across music, cinema, fashion, performance and visual culture, often in the same four minutes.

Cameroon Comes Next

On Oct. 28, the partnership turns to Cameroon.

Curated with the support of Between Takes Magazine, the Cameroonian collection features Lioness, A Cry from the Forest, Le Mystère de Waza and Duct-Tape, including several award-winning works previously recognized by the Alma Film Festival.

None of these collections tries to define a country through one filmmaker or one genre. Each is meant as an entry point, a curated look at the artists, ideas, and cultural energy shaping a place right now.

That approach comes straight from Alma’s Six Pillars of Purpose: Conversation, Connection, Community, Collaboration, Cultural Diplomacy and Collective Growth.

“In everything that we do, we want to spark conversation that leads to meaningful connection and gives us a greater sense of community,” said Anthony R. Page, festival director and cultural architect of the Alma Film Festival. “From that community, we organically will see cross-continental and cultural collaboration, which leads to more cultural diplomacy and collective harmony.”

Pictured at the screening of Je Suis Noires: Dr. Rashana Vikara Lydner, Assistant Professor of Africana Studies at Georgia State University; moderator Alahna Lark, Emmy Award-winning film producer; and guest speaker Tallulah Patricia, founder of Switzerland-based AfroSwissters.

More Than a Screening

Streaming is one piece of a larger effort. Alma is actively looking for new ways to add value to the films it curates, and to the filmmakers behind them.

A recent example: a screening of the Swiss film Je Suis Noires, sponsored by Georgia State University’s Honors College. After the film, Lark moderated a conversation with Tallulah Patricia, founder of Afro Swisters, who also appears in the film. The audience didn’t just watch the work. They heard directly from someone who lived it, and they talked through it, questioned it, and connected it to their own lives.

“Selecting a film is only the beginning of our commitment to it,” Page said. “We’re always asking what more we can do: who else needs to see this work, what conversation it should spark, which communities it belongs in. What we did with Alahna and Georgia State is exactly the model. We’ll keep finding ways to connect the films we believe in with the audiences and communities we’re connected to, because that’s how a film’s life grows, and how a filmmaker’s career does too.”

A Network of 42 Countries, and a Pipeline to Match

Fiji, Lesotho and Cameroon are only the start. Alma’s network of filmmakers, curators and cultural partners now reaches 42 countries, and the partnership is designed to draw on all of it.

Future Signify TV showcases are in development around work from Jamaica, Guyana, Nigeria, Kenya, Brazil, Colombia, the Dominican Republic and Haiti, among others, building a cultural bridge that runs across Africa, the Caribbean, Latin America, the Pacific and beyond. As the slate grows, the strategy stays the same: select fewer films and give each one more time, more resources and more attention.

The ambition is simple, and it matters: give exceptional work somewhere else to go.

A festival can introduce a film. Streaming lets it travel. And as these stories move, they bring their filmmakers, their cultures and their conversations along with them.

The Fiji and Lesotho collections are streaming now at www.Signify.TV. The Cameroon collection debuts Oct. 28. Learn more at www.AlmaFilmFestival.com.