From left (clockwise): Nollywood stars Mercy Johnson and Nkem Owoh (aka Osuofia); and Mahamat-Saleh Haroun, director of Screaming Man
Chaabi musicians and friends who are reu- nited after more than 50 years of separation through war and exile. Tree of the eight short films that will
compete in Te Silver Baobab Award for Best Short African Film – a £2,000 prize sponsored by Ecobank – are by women who are making a mark on the interna- tional film scene: Kenyan directors Wanuri Kahiu (Pumzi) and Zipporah Nyaruri (Zebu and the Photo Fish), and Zambian di- rector Rungano Nyoni (Mwansa the Great). Te work of two further young African
women filmmakers will be highlighted in our “Experimental Africa” programme: US- born Ghanaian filmmaker Akosua Adoma Owusu, and Nigerian-British director Zina Saro-Wiwa. We are particularly excited about our
“Experimental Africa” programme, given the lack of attention paid to experimental African film and video at film festivals, in spite of an increasing body of such work. At Film Africa 2011, and on the 25th
ing the gender imbalance that has existed in African filmmaking since the 1960s. French-Burkinabé director Sarah
Bouyain’s debut feature film, Te Place in Between (2010), explores questions of motherhood, migration, and mixed- race identity through its moving story of four women and the ways in which their lives interweave, and lead actress Dorylia Calmel will be present for a post-screening Q&A. Cameroonian director Ariane Astrid
Atodji will also be at the festival, speaking to audiences about her multi-award win- ning documentary Koundi and National Tursday (2010), which focuses on the peo- ple of a small Cameroonian village who are addressing their own poverty without the help of outsiders. Algerian director Safinez Bousbia’s up-
lifting film El Gusto beautifully expresses our African Music theme, telling the story of a group of Algerian Arab and Jewish
anniversary of the making of the British- Ghanaian director John Akomfrah’s classic experimental documentary, Handsworth Songs (1986), we are screening nine of the most important experimental films made about black and African identity and his- tory. Handsworth Songs will also set the stage
for discussion with leading African cultural figures about the 2011 “riots” in the UK, and their historical precedents. We are delighted that Zina Saro-Wiwa, recently named one of the top 25 Africans leading the continent’s renaissance by Te Times, will be present to talk about experimental cinema in Africa and the diaspora. With the rise in availability of new dig-
ital media formats across Africa, it has be- come more and more difficult to make easy distinctions between African “art cinema” and “popular film”. Many of the films that will be screened at Film Africa 2011 can be considered “crossovers” – beautifully-shot films with high production values but also entertaining in the vein of “genre” films. Pegasus (directed by Mohamed Mouf- takir, Morocco, 2010) – winner of the 2011
Fespaco film festival Grand Prize – and Te Figurine (directed by Kunle Afolayan, Nigeria, 2009) – winner of multiple 2009 African Movie Academy Awards – are nail- biting thrillers that will have audiences on the edge of their seats. Te Athlete, a film that is as entertaining
as it is artistic, is a fitting lead-up to the 2012 London Olympics in its tale of the remarkable true story of the great Ethiopian marathon champion Abebe Bikila. Te Kenyan film Dreams of Elibidi (a
UK premiere) reinvents the “message” film, turning NGO filmmaking on its head; a collaboration between well-known British actor Nick Reding (Te Constant Gardener, Blood Diamond) and Kenyan actor Kamau Wa Ndung’u, who grew up in the Math- are slum in Nairobi and who we hope to welcome to the festival. Dreams of Elibidi has entertained spectators from Kenya to Spain to Sweden. Te idea of European “arthouse” cinema
and African popular culture are brought into direct confrontation in Swedish video artist Markus Öhrn’s project “Bergman in Uganda”, in which Öhrn has had all of the films by acclaimed Swedish director Ingmar Bergman interpreted by Ugandan “veejays” – video jockeys who are highly valued in Uganda for translating foreign (mostly Hollywood and Bollywood) films for local consumption – with startling cross-cultural results. More than an annual, 10-day film festi-
val of African films and events in London, Film Africa is a platform and springboard for African film and African filmmakers, and a meeting point for networking and an exchange of knowledge by and about Africa’s communities within and outside London. We will welcome 20 guests to the festival
for Q&As and discussions with audiences, and will hold seven African music nights following screenings, as part of our Film Africa LIVE programme. We are honoured that Africa’s leading
filmmaker, Chadian director Mahamat Saleh-Haroun, who won the 2010 Cannes Jury Prize for A Screaming Man, will be present for post-screening discussions.
Film Africa 2011 (3-13 November) is com-
missioned by the Royal African Society and SOAS. Visit
www.filmafrica.org.uk for the full festival programme.
New African | October 2011 | 97
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100