Ruth Nirere, bett
er known in Rwanda as Shanel. Actres from the film 'LE JOUR OU DIEU EST PARTI EN VOYAGE' http://www.shanel.rw/
Intellect are delighted to announce the launch of the Journal of African Cinemas at the African Film in the Digital Era Conference, on Sunday 29 November at the University of Westminster.
The inaugural issue of the Journal of African Cinemas explores African film from an African and international perspective. The articles examine cinemas in countries including Nigeria, Cameroon, Senegal, Rwanda and Congo, exploring a range of genres and media including videos, documentaries and musicals.
Articles focus on African-made films for African audiences, while also examining the colonial legacy of sensationalist representations of Africa and Africans made by western directors for western consumption (still a feature of many western-made films about Africa). In his article, ‘Beyond colonial stereotypes: reflections on postcolonial cinema in the African Great Lakes region’, Obed Nkunzimana refers to the number of films made about the Rwandan genocide, observing that ‘never before had Rwanda’s five-century-long history attracted so much attention from European and North American film-makers’. Nkunzimana argues that ‘the problem is that some western funding agencies, which remain the major and often only African cinema sponsors, still impose topics which are to be treated in the films they financially support’. Nkunzimana expounds the need for political, financial and technical support for African cinemas which is not dependent on western tastes for sensationalist cinema, and the usual depictions of misery, poverty and violence, but rather on providing support for films which show characters and situations African audiences can identify with.
This first issue also shows that specific genres are not limited to particular themes. Genres like popular video or musicals, which are usually associated with entertainment, may serve political purposes such as combating corruption or exposing gender inequality.
Other articles address the difficulties of distribution and reception of films in Africa, given lack of funding, the vast number of languages in Africa and the difficulties of subtitling in areas with low literacy rates as well as the scarcity of movie theatres.
Explore the first issue FREE online on:
http://www.atypon-link.com/INT/toc/jac/1/1
The Journal of African Cinemas
Editors: Keyan G. Tomaselli, University of KwaZulu-Natal and Martin Mhando, Murdoch University
Guest Editor: Blandine Stefanson, University of Adelaide
For further information, please contact Nicola Reisner on:
This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it
DISCOP AFRICA
The planning of DISCOP AFRICA 3 meetings has already begun ! More than 200 participants are already registered out of the 350 expected to join us in Dakar from 22 to 26 February. If you are NOT yet registered, please send an email to
This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it
and one of us will be in touch right away to assist you immediately.
For more information on DISCOP AFRICA 3, please visit www.discop.com
LOLA KENYA SCREEN 2010 CALL FOR FILM ENTRY
After a successful 2009 edition where 315 films in 33 languages were submitted out of which more than 250 were shown to 3023 people, the annual Lola Kenya Screen film festival for children and youth is calling upon interested participants to submit quality films to the fifth edition of the annual event that will take place in August 2010.
Lola Kenya Screen, that recognises that unless adults are sensitised into creating for and with children and youth, has held the festival since 2006 and has until August 15, 2009 showcased 1,450 films from the six continents of the world.
While the festival does not only showcase films but also places the audiovisual media production tools in the hands of children and youth, Lola Kenya Screen has equipped 47 children with basic skills in filmmaking, 19 others in creative journalism, nine in events organization and presentation and 17others in the critical appreciation of films. Through the annual film production workshops, Lola Kenya Screen has realised 20 short animations and eight documentaries.
Lola Kenya Screen accepts films made by children, youth, amateurs, students, and professionals that focus on children, youth and family.
Experimental films, television series, video games and even creatively packaged music videos tackling issues related to children, youth and family and that provide strong role models to children and youth while speaking positively to children of diverse backgrounds are accepted.
Selected films are showcased under various categories with those starring children between ages of 6-13 competing for the prestigious Lola Kenya Screen Golden Mboni award for the best children’s film and those featuring children above 14 years competing for the Lola Kenya Screen 14-Plus Prize for the best youth film.
The 2009 Golden Mboni prize went to IO PARLO of Italian Marco Gianfreda, the Silver Mboni to THE HAPPY DUCKLING by Gili Dolev of Scotland/Israel and the Bronze Mboni to PAMELA
The 14-Plus award for the second and third best youth films went to Norway’s A BEAUTIFUL TRAGEDY by David Kinsella and Kenya’s FROM A WHISPER by Wanuri Kahiu, respectively.
All entries submitted must be suitable for children ages 13 and under, youth aged 14-25 years, or family (25+).
Downloadable film entry details—submission form and regulation in PDF format—are already online. by James Kanja of Kenya.
Films are received between December 1, 2009 and April 15, 2010. Entries must reach the Lola Kenya Screen on or before April 15, 2010. SENEGALESE FILM DIRECTOR, SAMBA FELIX NDIAYE, DIES
The Senegalese film director, Samba Félix Ndiaye, died Friday in Dakar, the Senegalese capital, of neuromalaria, the Association of Senegalese film directors (CINESEAS) told PANA.
Announcing the death, CINESEAS chairman, Cheikh Ngaédo Ba, described the late Ndiaye as 'a great loss to the Senegalese cinema'.
Ndiaye, born on 6 March 1945 in Dakar, had a passion for cinema as an adolescence and led the film club of his high school.
After law and economics studies at the Cheikh Anta Diop University in Dakar, he studied cinema in Paris (University of Paris VIII and Louis-Lumière School), and ethno-psychiatry at 'Ecole des hautes etudes' where he directed his first film, entitled, 'Pérantal' in 1974.
Ndiaye, who was a film director, producer, comic actor, an editor and a scriptwr iter, had more than 20 film productions to his credit. T.I.A. - THIS IS AFRICA
Special Programme on
Contemporary African Documentary Films |
A continent, of which we do not know anything,
leaving aside the clichés of exotic national parks and the misery of civil war.
Screened for the first time as observed from this angle: exclusively African directors are looking at
their own life’s reality.
Survival and everyday life, the magic universe of images and spiritual depths,
football and art, the traditional economy and music – all in search of an
identity of its own.
DOK Summit - Reflections:
Africa and Europe in the Perception Trap
DOK Summit on the Special
Programme "T.I.A. - This is Africa"
Debate 31 octobre at 11 am
Do we in Europe genuinely
appreciate and recognize the changes taking place in sub-Saharan Africa? And
does the African view of Europe concur with our social realities?
Key-Note: Guido Convents - historian, director Africa Filmfestival
Leuven
Host: Matthias Heeder – filmmaker, author, curator "T.I.A. - This
is Africa" / Hamburg
Panel:
Dr. Marie-Hélène Gutberlet – Institute for Theater, Film and Media Science,
Goethe-University/ Frankfurt a. Main
Pedro Pimenta - director DOCKANEMA-Festival do filme documentário/ Maputo
Jean-Marie Teno – filmmaker/ France, Cameroon
Angèle Diabang - filmmaker/ Senegal
Monique Mbeka Phoba - filmmaker/ Congo, Belgium
THE SOUTH AFRICAN FILM
INDUSTRY HAS NEVER BEEN AS STRONG AS IT IS TODAY
9 October, 2009
The South African film industry has never been as strong as it is today
and one of the fastest-growing sectors of the nation's economy, it employs some
25,000 people and contributes roughly $800 million a year to the nation's gross
domestic product.
For most people, though, South Africa is merely the source of fleeting
images from the past two decades: the release of political prisoner Nelson
Mandela, who had spent the preceding 27 years in jail, in 1990; the fall of
Apartheid, the system of government-imposed racial segregation that had reigned
for 46 years, in 1991; the presentation of the Nobel Peace Prize to Mandela and
F.W. de Klerk, his partner in ending Apartheid and the last white South African
president.
In 1993, there were the seemingly endless lines of people patiently
waiting to participate in the nation's first free and fair elections, for which
86% of the nation turned out over the course of three days, in 1994; and the
subsequent inauguration of Mandela, with political opponents by his side, as
the president of a new "rainbow nation."
A lot has happened in South Africa over the years since, but most people
tuned out long ago. I expect, however, that they'll be tuning back in very
soon. Why? Largely because South Africa will be hosting the 2010 World Cup next
summer, but also for another reason: over the next few months, South Africa
will present a compelling argument that it is a rising superpower in the world
of film.
Indeed, no fewer than five of this year's most-talked-about fall films
-- all the subject of awards chatter, to varying degrees - have come out of
South Africa:
-- Neill Blomkamp's "District 9," a science-fiction allegory
of Apartheid starring Sharlto Copley;
-- Steve Jacobs's "Disgrace," an adaptation of J.M. Coetzee's
Nobel Prize-winning novel, starring John Malkovich and newcomer Jessica Haines;
-- Anthony Fabian's "Skin," the true story of Sandra Laing, a
black girl born to white parents, which stars Sophie Okonedo and Sam Neill;
-- Pete Travis's "Endgame," a thriller about covert
negotiations that helped to end Apartheid, featuring William Hurt and Chiwetel
Ejiofor;
-- and Clint Eastwood's "Invictus," which chronicles the
unlikely bond that developed during the runup to the 1995 Rugby World Cup in
South Africa between its black president and white rugby team captain -- played
by Morgan Freeman and Matt Damon -- which helped to unite the nation.
5 pm
Presentation of the book IMAGES ET PAIX by Guido
CONVENTS (AFF)
short films from RWANDA
WARAMUTSEHO! (Bonjour !) -
CONFESSION - CHARCOAL
8 pm
concert ZION’S YOUTH - Ben NGABO - SHANEL
PRODUCE LOCAL FILMS, ZIMBA TELLS PRODUCERS
Lusaka – Government has called on artists in the
country to be more proactive and produce local films that would depict the
local culture in Zambia.
Minister of
Information and Broadcasting Services, Newstead Zimba, said today that the
local talented actors should work and defeat all forms of hindrances in their
quest to produce films.
Mr. Zimba said
that it was time Zambians developed the film industry to avoid the national
television be flooded with foreign soaps and movies, which have languages that
could not be understood by many Zambians. "I also
realise that you must have had a lot of problems during the festival, but I
wish to encourage you not to lose direction, but to soldier on until the
industry develops to international levels," he said.
He challenged
the Zambia International Film Festival to devise ways of improving the film
industry in the country and present them to his ministry for scrutiny before
government begun to sponsor films.
He further
urged the actors to make use of film producing equipment that were available at
the Zambia Information Service (ZIS).
Mr. Zimba noted
that qualitative film producing equipment was lying idle at ZIS adding that if
these were used, Zambia would not have lagged behind in production of movies.
He pledged
government support in film production, but posed the challenge to actors to
convincingly show the nation that they are really pioneers of the development
of film industry in Zambia.
The minister
also directed the Zambia international festival to ensure that the scrip of
actress, Catherine Kaseketi be developed into a film.
Catherine
Kaseketi is a local playwright, whose script was voted among the best two out
of 70 scripts.
Earlier, Zambia
International Film Festival Board Chairman, Ben Kangwa appealed to government
to play a larger role in supporting local film production in Zambia.
Mr. Kangwa said
it was saddening to note that 70 per cent of the films aired on the local
television were foreign and wondered why Zambia could not dominate the show.
And Director
for Foundation for Development of Cinematography in Russia, Mikhail Alekseev
pledged his country’s support in developing the film industry in Zambia.
http://www.zana.gov.zm/news/viewnews.cgi?category=4&id=1039272251
http://www.filmzambia.com/
NIGERIA,
INDIA PLAN JOINT FILM FESTIVAL
Indian and
Nigerian governments have concluded plans to host a joint film festival for
Bollywood and Nollywood to commemorate the 60th and 50th independence
anniversaries of both countries respectively.
The festival, which is scheduled to take place in Nigeria by January 2010, is
expected to serve as a vehicle for strengthening the cultural and economic ties
that have existed between the two countries over the years.
Indian High Commissioner to Nigeria, Mahesh Sachdev, disclosed yesterday in
Abuja during a visit to the Minister of Information and Communications, Prof.
Dora Akunyili, that the two countries were the largest film producers in the
world, adding that the result of the partnership would benefit 1.1 billion
people in India and 140 million Nigerians.
He said that apart from collaborating with the audio-visual media in Nigeria,
the Indian government has concluded plans to train about 100 top management
employees of the Nigeria Postal Service (NIPOST) on current methods of sorting
and delivering mails.
The envoy observed that the Indian government through its technical and
cooperation programme recently trained some Nigerians on information and
communications technology and suggested that the training be extended to the
postal sector.
Responding, the minister commended the effort of the Indian government in
building the capacity of Nigerians on information technology, adding that the
training of NIPOST staff would be a major boost to government's efforts at
repositioning the postal sector to make it the highest employer of labour in
the country in line with the seven-point agenda of the existing administration.
Akunyili, who observed that the two countries had had long-standing cordial
economic and cultural relationship, commended the Indian government for the
successful conduct of the recent election in the country.
Nigeria was recently rated the second largest film producer in the world after India.
http://www.nigeriafilms.com 'LUMUMBA' from Raoul Peck
CFP: DIRECTORY OF WORLD CINEMA: AFRICA
Intellect Books (Bristol) is launching the Directory of World Cinema, which aims to
bring a new, accessible dimension to the academic study of film. African cinema
is often contested as a reality or a concept: ‘Does it exist?’, ‘What is it
about?’ ‘How do productions from Egypt to South Africa fit in under the African label?’ Yet African films are
the focus of many festivals within Africa (Ouagadougou, Cairo, Carthage,
Marrakech, Kigali, Goma, Bukavu, Bujumbura, Zanzibar, Durban) and abroad
(Amiens, Nantes, Milano, Verona, Montreal, Brussels, Leuven (Louvain), Namur,
Amsterdam, London). The Directory of
World Cinema: Africa will provide an insight into the cinema of many
African countries through reviews of significant titles and case studies of
leading directors, alongside explorations of the cultural and industrial
motivations of key themes and genres.
Contributions
will be first posted on a website and later collated into a hard copy version. The
volume will attempt to apprehend African reality in self-representation.
Chapter headings will address the changing public sphere, Africans at work
(including the rapport to money and the economic and political role of women),
multiple aspects of migration (rural exodus, economic migration, refugees,
diasporas), culture and religion, magic (belief in supernatural forces),
representation of children, the use of music, the choice of languages, symbolic
representation. The films from the different regions that are usually defined
by their official languages (anglophone, francophone, lusophone) will be
entered under the themes or genres subheadings in order to avoid the partition
between the linguistic regions. New genres, such a TV films and series, African
made documentaries, musicals, videos and independently produced films and other
suggested items, are welcome. Entries en English or French are welcome.
Interested people can contribute film reviews
(500 words or more) or longer introductory essays to a theme or genre. For general
information, consult
www.worldcinemadirectory.org,
in particular item ‘How to contribute’.
To contribute to the African volume, please
contact Blandine Stefanson,
This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it
SKIN - Public Award 2009
South African movies awarded at the Afrika Filmfestival
This years' Public Award at the Afrika FilmFestival went to the South
African movie "Skin".
The price is awarded to an African movie which is newly brought into local
distribution by a Belgian distributor.
"Skin" is a movie by Anthony Fabian about a young woman struggling
with her identity and her place in society under apartheid because of the colour
of her skin.
The jury of the student's weekly newspaper Veto awarded its price
to the South African thriller "Jerusalema" by
Ralph Ziman, screened at the festival. The students chose a recent
African movie which are not yet into distribution in Belgium.
IMAGES OF THE FESTIVAL 2009 l
Assy MELAKU and Haile GERIMA
prof. Marc VERVENNE, rector of the University (right)
Thierry MICHEL and friends
Katy Léna NDIAYE after presenting 'WAITING FOR MEN'
Meiji UTUM'SI, Alex OGOU and Mariame NDIAYE
Bert ANCIAUX, Ministre of Culture
Dorine RURASHITSE, Sandra SHIBURA, Guido HUYSMANS
MARTIN BOTHA, ACP-conference about Southern-Africa - 22 april 2009
Ruth NIRERE better know as SHANEL
ZIONS's YOUTH
Sybille CISHAHAYO (Burundi) and SHANEL (Rwanda)
Ben NGABO (Rwanda)
'LUMUMBA' from Raoul Peck
