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Africa United

"The extraordinary story of five [actually three] children and their bid to achieve their ultimate dream--they travel 3000 miles to the Soccer World Cup across to see the Football World Cup ... Without papers, money or a believable story, they are escorted to a children's refugee camp. But with considerable ingenuity and sass (and a World Cup wall chart for a map), our pint-sized protagonists escape the camp and set off in pursuit of their dream, picking up along the way a "dream team" of displaced kids, who help them negotiate a series of thrilling and hilarious adventures"--Container.

  • Debs Paterson
    Director
    Director
  • Eric Kabera
    Writer
    Writer
  • Rhidian Brook
    Writer
    Writer
  • Mike Gunn
    Producer
    Producer
  • Mark Blaney
    Producer
    Producer
  • Jackie Sheppard
    Producer
    Producer
  • Eriya Ndayambaje
    Key Cast
    "Dudu"
    Actor
  • Pathé
    Distributors
    Distributor
  • Warner Bros Pictures
    Distributors
    Distributor
  • Project Type:
    Documentary, Experimental, Short, Other
  • Genres:
    adventure Comedy Drama
  • Runtime:
    1 hour 24 minutes 18 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    October 22, 2010
  • Production Budget:
    4,000,000 USD
  • Country of Origin:
    Rwanda
  • Country of Filming:
    Burundi, Rwanda, South Africa, United Kingdom
  • Language:
    English
  • Shooting Format:
    Digital
  • Aspect Ratio:
    1:24:18
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
Distribution Information
  • Netflix, Warner Bros Picture, Pathé
    Distributor
    Country: Worldwide
    Rights: All Rights, Internet, Video on Demand, Pay Per View, Hotel, Airline, Ship, Theatrical, Video / Disc, Free TV, Paid TV, Console / Handheld Device
Director Biography - Debs Paterson

Debs is a narrative director & screenwriter in film & TV. She recently wrapped the lead block of HALO s2 for Amblin/Showtime/Paramount+ and has two shows freshly released: LucasFilm's new WILLOW series (episodes 3&4) and the finale block of Netflix and Imaginarium's HALF BAD: THE BASTARD SON & THE DEVIL HIMSELF.
Her work ranges from theatrical feature road movie AFRICA UNITED (Pathé/BBC Films) to high end network and cable TV including the action-heavy SKY/CINEMAX HBO headliner STRIKE BACK - where she was the first female director in 6 seasons.

Her work has played to festival acclaim globally, and in 2018 she was invited by JJ Abrams and Kathy Kennedy to document the making of STAR WARS EPISODE IX. The resulting feature doc THE SKYWALKER LEGACY was released to lovely reports in March 2020 - including an honorary mention alongside TENET, MANK and PROMISING YOUNG WOMAN on Slash Film's best of 2020 list.
Debs' first dramatic feature AFRICA UNITED had its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival and European premiere as a red carpet London Film Festival gala, receiving standing ovations at both before releasing theatrically worldwide. AFRICA UNITED earned Debs a best debut director BIFA nomination and recognition as a BAFTA ‘Brit to Watch’. She has served on juries for the BAFTA Awards, Royal Television Society, Women In Film & TV and the DGA.

Alongside her directing work, Debs collaborated with BAFTA to create ELEVATE - an initiative to facilitate diversity hiring in high end TV in the UK, which is now in its fifth cohort. She was a BAFTA talent ambassador in 2018 to Hong Kong for talent introductions with the Chinese industry. (Debs was born in Taiwan, where her fluent-Mandarin-speaking parents still live - she also completed high school in India after spending most of her childhood in Yorkshire, and co-presented Singapore's EPL/Serie A soccer highlights show TOTAL FOOTBALL after a gaining a Masters in Literature from Cambridge. She also holds a diploma in Meisner technique from the Cuba Film & Television School.)

Her commercial work includes brand launch music videos for NIKE's The Girl Effect in Rwanda and Malawi, and for COCA COLA in Indonesia.

Debs is a member of BAFTA, the DGA and Directors UK. She is represented by Ellen Jones & Wilhelmina Ross at CAA and her manager is Geoff Shaevitz at Entertainment 360.

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Director Statement

I think the people that you travel with are really important; and being prepared, learning how not to have a scarcity mindset, not being scared of helping other people get ahead of you and knowing that there will be enough space is a really important thing; figuring out what your special source is also matters. I call it Movie Maths. But whatever you call it, it’s true to say that people need to be able to spot a clear line between what they can see that you’ve done, and the next thing that you want to do. That’s just true and that ain’t gonna change!

It took me a really long time to figure out that people wouldn’t see Africa United, and then let me make the next film that I wrote, which was a historical drama about the Dutch art forger [who] hoodwinked Hermann Göring. There was no connection between those two things. The key is being able to offer proof in the pudding.

Whether that’s making a short that can illustrate the feature, so you can see that these ingredients are in here. Now we want to add this to it and make the next thing. I call it Movie Maths: a + b needs to be able to directly lead to c and that’s a real thing. That is the difference between people being willing to back you or not. I think the clue is going the extra mile and being willing to invest in relationships. People change jobs and turn up in different places.

Find a way to get time on set, ideally get paid work on other people’s sets so that you can learn from what they’re doing well, and what they’re doing badly. If I had my time again, I would work as a boom op because you’re right next to the action the whole time. Sound people always get paid, and you see absolutely everything. So yeah, try and figure out how to learn from other people’s mistakes rather than having to make all of them yourself.