Documentary film maker David Madié is on an unusual mission in Africa. He's following a young computer entrepreneur whose story, Madié believes, shows a different face of what condescendingly has been called the Dark Continent.

Based in Copenhagen, Madié runs his own company, Eighty Days Productions, which takes its name from the novel by Jules Verne. "The story was about this man who didn't know what he was doing, [who] went out and then thought he wouldn't make his round-the-world trip in 80 days.... I'm new to film-making, so I don't know what I'm doing.... But I hope I'll make it anyway," says Madié, who previously filmed in the mountains of Nepal.

Madié's current film is a character-driven film that focuses on some of the people involved in the Free/Libre and Open Source communities. "Therefore," Madié says, "as much as it's a film about FLOSS, it's also a film about fighting for your beliefs. This film will show the characters fighting for what they believe in. This happens to be Open Source, which I think is also an important agenda."

David Madié, filming at the Africa Source 2 Camp in Uganda, January 2006. Photo Frederick Noronha.

The phrase FLOSS, sometimes called FOSS, is an inclusive term designed to be neutral when referring to both free software and open-source software. Today, the FLOSS movement has become successful in building a wide range of alternative computing tools, including operating systems. More than that, it is the force behind a new way of creating and sharing not only software but knowledge, information and education.

Why did Madié choose this unusual, perhaps unglamorous and certainly technical subject for his next project? The film maker explains, "I used to be in the IT sector. I once ran a joint-venture company in Uganda and came to know [the country].... I was very ignorant about Africa, as many Europeans are, and I was surprised by the skills and the talent and all the modern science of a capital city like Kampala, that has skyscrapers taller than what we have in Copenhagen."

In short, Madié's experiences in Uganda were an eye-opener, and now he wants to share that information with people in many European countries who don't know what contemporary Africa is like. He wants to expand the audience's view of Africa beyond the images they see on television, images from rural areas that show only hunger, drought, war, AIDS and corruption .

"I want to make a film that shows the life of the young, urban generation in the cities. In this way I can show people [what] the reality of life is there. Because I think it's damaging to a country like Uganda if people perceive it as a place that is so far behind, when in fact there is a middle class, when in fact the country is progressing. I hope this film will make a lot of people say, 'Wow, we've never seen such a film before'," says Madié.

The film's main focus is a character sketch of James Wire, whom Madié believes is a role model in that he fights for his beliefs and is very "internationally oriented". In Uganda, Wire runs a firm called Linux Solutions in Africa and has been part of the East African Centre for Open Source Software. From mentoring young techies just out of their teens, to working on local translation projects, Wire has done it all. He's also quick to help spread FLOSS skills to other parts of the continent and has been closely involved with a number of initiatives do so.

Of Wire, Madié says, "I think he is also a role model in the sense that he combines doing business with doing social work. To him, these things are not opposites; these are things that can work together perfectly work. You can do business in a social manner", says Madié.

Madié met James when he started the joint venture in Uganda in 1999. Later, Madié started a Web development agency with local partners. "It was also a social business; we made money but we also started the Web industry business in Uganda. We were by far the biggest Web firm in Uganda. In one month, we hired 15 people, and there were no [other] Web agencies in the country at the time. And then we started to work for the multi-nationals, the donors and the big local companies. And we trained people", he says.

When he started the venture in Uganda, Madié had been in the IT industry for five years. "Nobody then had that experience (here). We put in our systems, procedures. Our employees (from Europe) went to Uganda and trained the local staff. While I was in the business, I met James, who was not doing Web sites but server stuff, which we didn't do", Madié recalls.

But life is full of changes, and Madié has since gone into films. "I sold my company after nine years. I continued to work there for three more years. Then, I felt it was time to do something new. I thought I had always been too busy to follow my more artistic inspirations, and by accident I came into film making", he says.

In the film world, Madié is a self-taught professional. He took two years to learn the trade, often attending short-term training courses. Each project evolves his thoughts and approaches to film making a bit more. He says, "When I started, I thought I was going to make the kind of documentaries [that have] talking heads on the screen. I soon realised that the interesting stories are about the characters. I'm surprised how much of the work is related to understanding the people you are focusing on. But that makes it even more interesting, especially if you can capture the essence of a character in a particular situation.

It also came as a surprise to Madié to learn how difficult it is for documentary film-makers to raise money for their films. "We are definitely running on a low-budget, and we have to put in hours ourselves where we don't get paid. This means that only those who actually make films are those who really want to make them. You can say it's those documentary film-makers who really fight for their beliefs that get through. Maybe that's why I'm so fascinated by James; because we have some of the same blood in one sense."

Madié has been tracking James Wire on and off for a couple of years. He says, "I've been filming on three occasions so far, and we expect another three. We'll have 60 hours of footage when we're done here. We're going to end up with around a hundred hours and will reduce that to 52 minutes. Only 1% of everything we do is going to be in the film. That's the only way to get an interesting story."

Madié is aware that two other films have been made about Free/Libre and Open Source Software, Revolution OS and The Code. He says his documentary will be a very different film: "First of all, because it's filmed out of Africa, with Africans. I frankly think this is one of the places where [Free/Libre and] Open Source is most relevant, due to many factors. But also it's different because it shows Africa and its capabilities in a different light."

As for when Madié's documentary on FLOSS in Africa will be released, he says, "It's always hard to say with a documentary. But I guess it will be released in Spring 2007. And it will go to documentary festivals, I hope, all over the world." He sees this as an "international story, with an international subject", as Free/Libre and Open Source Software is on the agenda in many countries.