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The Arts Films


Film Africa, the 10-day, annual celebration of African Cinema at venues across London, kicks off on 3 November and runs until 13 November. This year’s festival is special, because it comes complete with other frills, writes Lindiwe Dovey, Film Africa 2011 co-director and programming director.


Film Africa 2011 Celebrating African cinema


T


here has never been greater in- terest in African film. A half- century after Africans started making their own films, sup- planting the patronising icon-


ographies evident in colonial cinema set in Africa, African Cinema is finally being recognised across the globe. Nollywood, Nigeria’s thriving video film industry, has revolutionised film production and dis- tribution on the continent, and is hugely popular throughout Africa as well as in Asia, the US, the Caribbean, and Europe. In 2010, UNESCO formally recognised


Nollywood, with its output of about 2,000 films a year, as the second largest film indus- try in the world, after Bollywood. And yet, there is still much work to be done to ensure that African films of all kinds are made visible and available to audiences globally. Taste is something that is acquired and


part of a process of socialisation, not in- herent. And if people simply do not have a chance to see and enjoy African films, they will not be aware of what they are missing out on. Film Africa (www.filmafrica.org.uk),


a 10-day, annual celebration of African Cinema at venues across London, seeks to redress this gap between African films and audiences. Hosted by the brand new Hackney Picturehouse, and also taking place at Te Ritzy in Brixton, Te Rich Mix in Shoreditch, Screen on the Green


96 | October 2011 | New African


in Islington, and Te Frontline Club in Paddington, Film Africa 2011 has been de- signed to be accessible to audiences across the British capital. We have hand-picked the best contem-


porary African feature, documentary, short, and experimental films for London audi- ences to sample, and have complemented the screenings with a line-up of exciting Q&As with filmmakers and actors, panel discussions with experts to contextualise issues presented in the films, live music to celebrate Africa’s diverse artistic talents, and educational workshops for young people. More than 50 films will be screened at


Film Africa 2011, which runs from 3-13 No- vember, providing a truly continent-wide vision from and of Africa. While we have focused on selecting films


from a diverse range of African contexts, and that represent the very best and most original work in African filmmaking (with 18 UK premieres), we have also tailored our programme along thematic lines, including Resistance and Cultural Memory, African Women Filmmakers, Everyday Heroines, African Music, Family Life, and Migra- tions and Returns. For our Resistance and Cultural Memo-


ry strand, we sought films that express the fervour of the resistance movements that have swept across the African continent in 2011, inspired by the revolutions in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya, and older films that give


historical depth to these revolutions. We are delighted to launch the festival


with the award-winning Egyptian film Microphone (directed by Ahmad Abdalla), which takes the pulse of contemporary Egypt better than any other recent film. Classic films such as Sarah Maldoror’s


Sambizanga (1972), shot while the Angolan war of liberation was still raging (and, nota- bly, the first feature film made in Africa by a woman), and veteran Ethiopian filmmaker Salem Mekuria’s Deluge (1997), which is a memorial to her brother who disappeared during the students’ revolution of the 1970s in Ethiopia, allow for a more profound consideration of instances of resistance in Africa, and are also examples of our focus on African Women Filmmakers. While Maldoror and Mekuria are among


the well-established women filmmakers whom Film Africa 2011 will honour, we will also feature the work of up-and-coming Af- rican women directors who are revolutionis-


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