A conversation with Shariffa Ali and Yetunde Dada, the co-directors of VR/360 piece ATOMU, featuring the French Institute of South Africa’s Erika Denis and Antoine Cayrol, the producer of ATOMU and co-founder of France’s leading VR company AtlasV.
The panel discussion Atomu: A Case Study is made possible courtesy of the French Institute of South Africa.
Steven Markovitz has over 20 years’ experience on feature films, documentaries, short films, distribution and festivals. He has an extensive production and distribution network across Africa. Steven co-founded the production company Big World Cinema in 1994 as well as Encounters South African International Documentary Festival in 1999.
After completing a master’s degree in Communication and Media at Assas (France) and a master’s degree in Literary and Artistic Property at the Sorbonne, he founded his own production company, Fatcat Films in 2005. He has produced four short films distinguished with a host of international prizes, dozens of video clips and digital advertising in the realm of luxury and entertainment as well as three transmedia documentaries (web/TV/cinema/radio). In November 2013, Fatcat Films joined the audio-visual group Première Heure, and became a digital production label. In January 2014, he founded a second audio-visual production company specialised in the production of virtual reality content, Okio-Studio, joining forces with Pierre Zandrowicz. Since then, he has produced films for many brands in addition to two fictional works, I, Philip et Altération which have been awarded many prizes at the international level.
Shariffa Ali Born is half Kenyan, half Ethiopian considers herself as an Afropolitan. Shariffa served as asisstant Director to award winner Cynthia Nixon and is currently a freelance and very successful theater director. Yetude Dada is a photographer, product manager. She is half Zambian, half Nigerian and spent her childhood in South Africa. She has showcased work at the Sheclix Exhibition (2016) and Adidas Originals Young Creatives Exhibitions (2013) and has been published in the Dead Town Zine (2018).
During the last 20 years, I have been developing my career in the television, film industry and digital media markets in both private and public sector. I have undertaken the positions of producer, line producer, international development executive, audiovisual senior manager and consultant, targeting the international sector with a particular focus on Africa, Europe and Canada. I have built an extensive network of strong relationships with broadcasters, platforms, accelerator, clusters, financiers, festivals, markets, producers, funding bodies, studios, talents, schools and governments representatives.
