The Somali Film Agency (SFA) was a film

regulatory body A regulatory agency (regulatory body, regulator) or independent agency (independent regulatory agency) is a government authority that is responsible for exercising autonomous jurisdiction over some area of human activity in a licensing and regu ...

based in

Mogadishu Mogadishu, locally known as Xamar or Hamar, is the capital and List of cities in Somalia by population, most populous city of Somalia. The city has served as an important port connecting traders across the Indian Ocean for millennia and has ...

Somalia Somalia, officially the Federal Republic of Somalia, is the easternmost country in continental Africa. The country is located in the Horn of Africa and is bordered by Ethiopia to the west, Djibouti to the northwest, Kenya to the southwest, th ...

History

Following a bloodless military

coup d'état A coup d'état (; ; ), or simply a coup , is typically an illegal and overt attempt by a military organization or other government elites to unseat an incumbent leadership. A self-coup is said to take place when a leader, having come to powe ...

in 1969, the production, distribution and importation of films in the country were

nationalized Nationalization (nationalisation in British English) is the process of transforming privately owned assets into public assets by bringing them under the public ownership of a national government or state. Nationalization contrasts with priv ...

by the new-established Supreme Revolutionary Council. Privately owned movie theaters were subsequently replaced with government-controlled film houses, and about 500 films were projected annually. The Somali Film Agency (SFA) was established in 1975 as an adjunct to the federal Ministry of Information and National Guidance, growing out of the Ministry's visual aids arm. The SFA's duties included overseeing the importation, distribution and censorship of movies in the country. It later also oversaw the production of both long and short films.Farīd, p.43.Legum, p.48 Most of the imported films were brought in from

Egypt Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to northe ...

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

, the

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

and

East Germany East Germany, officially known as the German Democratic Republic (GDR), was a country in Central Europe from Foundation of East Germany, its formation on 7 October 1949 until German reunification, its reunification with West Germany (FRG) on ...

. To facilitate processing and post-production, the SFA also forged a working partnership with British Films LTD, a British movie company.History of Cinema in Somalia
/ref> Between 1979 and 1983, the Somali filmmaker Ali Said Hassan served as a representative of the Somali Film Agency in

Rome Rome (Italian language, Italian and , ) is the capital city and most populated (municipality) of Italy. It is also the administrative centre of the Lazio Regions of Italy, region and of the Metropolitan City of Rome. A special named with 2, ...

. The Somali Film Agency also annually organized the Mogadishu Pan-African and Arab Film Symposium (Mogpaafis) in

. The film festival brought together an array of prominent filmmakers and movie experts from across the globe, including other parts of Northeast Africa and the

Arab world The Arab world ( '), formally the Arab homeland ( '), also known as the Arab nation ( '), the Arabsphere, or the Arab states, comprises a large group of countries, mainly located in West Asia and North Africa. While the majority of people in ...

, as well as

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and

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Notes

References

* * * *{{cite book , last = Ministry of Information and National Guidance , title = Somalia: five years of revolutionary progress , publisher = Ministry of Information and National Guidance , year = 1974 , url = https://books.google.com/books?id=zWsMAQAAIAAJ Cinema of Somalia

History

See also

Notes

References