New African Film Fest in Scotland
So we hope you got your entries in ‘coz African film is taking over Scotland in late October!
NEW AFRICAN FILM FESTIVAL TO CELEBRATE THE DIVERSE TALENTS OF THE VERY BEST IN AFRICAN FILMMAKING FROM ACROSS THE CONTINENT !
Africa in Motion (AiM)
African Film Festival
Friday 20th-Sunday 29th October 2006
Filmhouse…
Cinema, Edinburgh
Feature films, documentaries, shorts and a ‘Lost Classics’ series – Screenings of 25 films from South Africa, Zimbabwe, Tanzania, Egypt, Chad, Senegal, Burkina Faso, Mauritania, and other African countries
Despite the depth and breadth of filmmaking on the African continent, African cinema remains one of the most underrepresented cinemas worldwide. Opportunities to see African films in Britain are very rare, yet some of the most evocative and imaginatively original films have been created on the African continent since the 1950s. Now AiM will offer audiences in Scotland the chance to view some of the best and most hard-to-find of African films. The extensive programme includes some of the most significant African classics, unearths a number of “lost classics”, as well as showcases contemporary groundbreaking films. “Africa in Motion is, quite simply, one of the best programmes of films ever to be shown in Scotland” – film critic Mark Cousins, Sept 06.
African Classics will form a central focus of Africa in Motion 2006, including a number of ‘lost classics’. The Lost Classics programme will feature films from the early work of pioneering African filmmakers – for some of these films there is only one print still in existence and original English subtitles have been created especially for the screenings at AiM. Many of the films featuring at AiM have never been seen in Scotland, or indeed the UK before, and the festival will be unprecedented in its scope and diversity.
Directors whose work will be featured include veteran Senegalese filmmaker Ousmane Sembene, widely regarded as the “father of African cinema”; Egyptian filmmaker Youssef Chahine, who received a lifetime achievement award at Cannes in 1997; Senegalese filmmaker Safe Faye, the first sub-Saharan African women to direct a feature-length film, Kaddu Beykat in 1975 (which will be screened at AiM); and Malian director Souleymane Cissý, who won the Prix du Jury at Cannes in 1987 for his stunning film Yeelen, AiM’s opening film.
Drawing on the prevalence of Africa and African issues highlighted in the last year, following events such as the G8 Summit at Gleneagles, AiM gives Scottish audiences unprecedented access to artistic representations of the complexities and diversities of African life through the eyes of Africa’s best directors. Film screenings are accompanied by a range of free complementary events including panel discussions, workshops and a symposium, presented by high-profile critics, theorists and filmmakers, as well as events for secondary school children. Throughout the festival African musicians, poets and artists will perform and exhibit their work in the Filmhouse cafý. Books, art work and CDs will be on display and for sale in the Filmhouse foyer.
Film critic Mark Cousins has said of AiM: “At a time when mainstream American cinema is underperforming and undernourishing, and when so much film programming seems stuck in a loop, repeating the same “classics” over and over, Africa in Motion is a brilliant and long overdue window onto a world of auteurs, masterpieces, passionate polemics and gorgeous vistas. Move over Scorsese – Sembene, Ouedraogo and Mambety are the filmmakers who are belatedly exciting us.”
Go to the website for more info here.
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May 2006
The first ever African Film Festival “Africa in Motion” will be held in Edinburgh, Scotland this October. We are still waiting for update on the call for entries, but you can click here to go to the website which has contact details on it. They are also looking for any African artists performing at the Edinburgh festival to potentially piggy-back onto this African festival. Email Lizelle here. Congrats to Lizelle. Thanks for Representing Africa. SHARPILE!
According to an article published in the New Scotsman, the festival is organised by a South African Lizelle Bisschoff, “a South African currently studying for a PhD in African cinema at Stirling University.” Lizelle was quoted as saying: “The first festival will have a wide range of films as we want it to be a general introduction to African cinema.”
Here’s more from the New Scotland:
EDINBURGH’S first African Film Festival is set to show many movies never seen in Scotland before when it comes to the Filmhouse in October.
Africa in Motion will show fiction, documentaries, features and shorts from all over the continent, including some of the earliest films made by Africans.
Film screenings will be accompanied by panel discussions, seminars and workshops presented by high-profile film theorists, critics and filmmakers.
The programme will also include a section consisting of lost African classics – films from the early work of pioneering African filmmakers, for which perhaps only one film print is still in existence.
And from the website:
The inaugural festival of AiM will take place from 20-29 October 2006 at Filmhouse Cinema in Edinburgh, and we believe that the success of the first season will establish AiM as an annual Edinburgh-based event. AiM will consist of screenings of African films from all over the continent – fiction and documentary, features and shorts – including classic African films from the beginnings of filmmaking on the continent, right up to the contemporary era. The programme will also include a section consisting of “lost African classics” – films from the early work of pioneering African filmmakers, for which maybe only one film print is still in existence and which are not screened at film festivals or in cinemas any longer.
We will screen films by veteran Senegalese filmmaker Ousmane Sembene, widely regarded as the “father of African cinema”; Egyptian filmmaker Youssef Chahine, who made his first film in 1950 and received a lifetime achievement award at Cannes in 1997; Malian director Souleymane Cissý, who won the Prix du Jury at Cannes in 1987 for his stunning film Yeelen; Burkinabe director Idrissa Ouedraogo, who won the Grand Prix for Yaaba at Cannes in 1989; as well as films from Tanzania, South Africa, Tunisia, Zimbabwe, Nigeria, Mauritania&in short, we will screen as wide a selection and as many films as the schedule allows. Many of these films will never have been seen in Scotland before, and the festival will be unprecedented in the range and scope of African films that will be screened.
Film screenings will be accompanied by panel discussions, seminars and workshops presented by high-profile film theorists, critics and filmmakers. These complementary events will give audiences the opportunity to engage in discussions on African cinema and to learn more about filmmaking and film aesthetics on the continent as well as talk about the themes and genres employed in the films.
AiM is geared towards the wide cinema-going public, including students and school pupils. If you are interested not only in cinema, but also in African history, arts and cultures, this festival is for you!
We are also exploring possibilities to link AiM with other African cultural events – including dance, music, theatre, visual arts and photography – taking place in or near Edinburgh at the time. Please contact us if you are interested in this opportunity.
Please watch this space for further information about festival dates, film screenings, speakers and other events.
