The Dreams Of Peace Film Festival is the brainchild of founder Khaliph Young. The competition invited creators from the African diaspora to share stories about their identity with one-minute mobile phone films. The call went out in 2020 after the world saw the George Floyd death at the hands of the police which was captured on a mobile device. Young’s reaction to Floyd and the kind of race-splitting dialogue coming from then-president Trump inspired him to use the festival as a way to create a vision of harmony. The filmmakers presented their views of Black life with the moxie and brilliance of new auteurs determined to be heard in a world mired in white supremacy. In the following interview Young explains the origins of the festival and how the films will stream on the Volume channel via the Vskit and Ayoba mobile apps.
What can you tell me about your company ZenZenMobile?
We are a digital entertainment company creating lifestyle content on different platforms like mobile apps, Smart TVs and things of that nature.
Is the Dreams Of Peace Film Festival all about making people familiar with the Volume TV channel and the Vskit app?
No it’s really just all about bridging the continents acting as a bridge between African-Americans and Africans by creating films during a time when it’s a lot of racial injustice going on in America everything with the Trump administration, the killings and just the George Floyd thing so a lot of those struggles are different in Africa. We’re all African throughout the whole diaspora so even though they’re there and we’re here they’re still Black, we’re still Black so there’s a common ground. We just wanted to create an outlet for filmmakers to be able to share their stories with the stories abroad.
You said in your press release that independent storytelling is a pivotal tool in developing critical dialogues. Are there any films in the festival that are an example of that?
Yeah, I would think the film by Tony Strickland the smart social awareness art film. I think that kind of says it all and then there’s the film about S.U.N. the recording artist S.U.N. who we shine all the time it shows a lot of Black pride, Black connectivity, crossing the bridge, where we originated from and that sort of thing. So I think those two films kind of show that.
I see the competition requires content that deals with Black identity and it’s a competition, what is the prize?
The films were selected by our panel and then the film that has the most views on the different platforms will be selected as the winner. That filmmaker will receive an Adobe Creative Suite. That will be their prize.
I saw where the Vskit app has over 15 million users in Africa?
Vskit is like Africa’s TikTok type of app. They feature a lot of comedy but because we have a verified media channel our lifestyle content gets a lot of views. The Ayoba app has about 10.5 million users and our channel ranked 11th on that platform out of a hundred something other channels and we’ve had over a million and a half views we have about 200,000 active users for our channel. So that platform is like Africa’s Whatsapp. It’s a Whatsapp communication platform then it has entertainment. feature a lot of
I saw the films will start to stream on March 12th how long after before the winner is picked?
We thought we’d leave them up there for a week and then select the winners at that point.
Where will the films post?
They will post in the Vskit app and they will post on the Ayoba app. The apps have to be downloaded you register then search for Volume TV.
How can people keep up with you?
They can go to zenzenmobile.com everything we are doing is there.
Is there anything you want to mention?
Just that we’re excited to do our first mobile film festival. It’s been done but this is our first one and we’ve done film festivals on a variety of different platforms. First internet film festival in ’99, then we went on to PBS, onto films on Palm Pilots and pocket PCs then on to Roku. So now back to mobile since mobile is really driving everything.
You said you’ve been doing this since ’99 do you think there is a common theme connecting these mediums over this past 20 plus years?
I think the common theme is that there is such a demand for content. That demand is just continuing to increase and it’s created a whole creator economy. Social media and all these platforms but going back through screen sizes is the demand for content and everybody loves lifestyle content. And now accessing that content on your mobile phone just propelled it even further because now right in your pocket you got music, You got video, you got stories you got everything.
For more information about the festival go to www.zenzenmobile.com.
