FROM RWANDA to CUBA, CONGO and ZANZIBAR
The Afrika Filmfestival (AFF) wants to be present in as many festivals as possible. And in all these countries we see low-budget cinema and quality.
The AFF received a warm welcome at the RWANDA FILM FESTIVAL (Kigali, Rwanda) from 20 -25 March 2008
Guido Convents and Guido Huysmans were invited to Kigali in order to present the new book IMAGES ET PAIX. This as part of their campaign to promote the Rwanda's films.
(see also UMUBANO, part in this website)
For more information, http://www.rwandafilmfestival.org/
GIBARA FESTIVAL DE CINE POBRE (Cuba)
14 – 21 april 2008
The 6th annual Low-budget filmfestival had place from 14-21 April in the fishermens town of Gibara, in the Cuban eastern province of Holguín. According to Humberto Solás, an outstanding Cuban filmmaker and the president of the organizing committee, low-budget cinema is not a dogma or a scheme, but a resource in its own means. "Therefore, the festivals main goal is to encourage a libertarian and highly creative cinema, far from the push of the mainstream market," he said.
A short Cuban-Belgian documentary about this festival
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jkeVWbMwceM
For more information http://www.cubacine.cu/cinepobre/catalogo2008/index.htm
RENCONTRES DE L'IMAGE DE LUBUMBASHI, PICHA
Guido Convents, president of the AFF, has just returned from the Image Encounters in Lubumbashi (DRC), called PICHA (means "image" in local swahili), organized by two associations (Vicanos-Club and Association Halle de l'Étoile) in June 2008 (13 - 22).
This new biennal event is organized for the first time in the Katanga Province in DRC:
- 50 films in schedule from whole Africa
- 15 photo exhibitions from Africa and Europe
- one competition of 30 local films
- 20 works of video art from Africa and Europe (and a special session with Robert Cahen)
- 25 artists invited from Africa and Europe
- a workshop of photography with Marie-Françoise Plissart
- a professional encounter about film distribution in DRC
For more information, www.rencontrespicha.org
And the Afrika Filmfestival was also invited to the ZANZIBAR INTERNATIONAL FILMFESTIVAL (ZIFF). From 11 to 20 july 2008.
For more information, http://www.ziff.or.tz/
CINEMA VENDOME - BRUSSELS
Chaussée de Wavre 18, 1050 Bruxelles (metro Porte de Namur)
Thursday 15 – Saturday 17 may
Thursday 15 may
7.30 pm
shortfilm ECHO (Frédéric Roullier-Gall)
MUNYURANGABO (Lee Isaac Chung)
in presence of Lee Isaac Chung
Friday 16 may
7.30pm
UN DIMANCHE A KIGALI (Robert Favreau)
Saturday 17 may
3 pm
A LOVE LETTER TO MY COUNTRY (Thierry Dushimirimana)
ALPHONSES BIKE (Eric Kabera)
CONFESSION (Daddy Ruhorahoza)
WE ARE ALL RWANDANS (Debs Gardner-Paterson)
5pm
RWANDA, A TRAVERS NOUS L’HUMANITE (Marie-France Collard)
7.30 pm
OPERATION TURQUOISE (Alain Tasma)
MUNYURANGABO
Lee Isaac Chung,Rwanda/US, 2007, 97 min
Subtitled french and dutch
Cast : Josef Rutagengwa, Eric Ndorunkundiye, Jean-Marie Vianney Nkurikiyinka, Jean-Pierre Harerimana, Edouard Uwayo Bamporiki
Rwanda, a couple of years after the genocide. Two adolescents, Ngabo and Sangwa, are trying to make a living on a market in Kigali. Ngabo steals a machete. They leave the capital and start a long journey. Ngabo is obsessed with the death of his father, who was killed in the genocide. He is seeking revenge. For Sangwa, on the other hand, the journey offers an occasion to visit his parents in the village he left out of the blue three years earlier. Whereas Ngabo wants to continue the trip, it’s not evident for Sangwa to leave his parents again at such short notice.
Beautiful film from the competition 'Un Certain Regard' in Cannes 2007. Also shown in Rotterdam, Toronto, Berlin, and many other festivals.
The AFRIKA FILMFESTIVAL LEUVEN ended in beauty with the screening of FARO, LA REINE DES EAUX (Salif Traoré, Mali.)
The festival's prizes were announced.
VETO PRIZE 2008
The student's jury prize was for SHAKE HANDS WITH THE DEVIL (Roger Spottiswoode).
When General Roméo Dallaire received the call to serve as force commander of the UN intervention in Rwanda in 1993, he thought he was heading off on a modest peacekeeping mission. Thirteen months later he flew home from Africa, broken, disillusioned and suicidal, having witnessed the slaughter of 800,000 Rwandans in only a 100 days. Shake Hands with the Devil, an adaptation of Dallaire’s autobiography, takes its audience into the hell of Rwanda, vividly recreating the events the international community turned its back on. It also explores the mental torture Dallaire endured, his repeated requests for more aid and a revision to the terms of engagement from the UN being ignored.
PUBLIC'S PRIZE PROVINCE OF FLEMISH BRABANT 2008.
The public's prize was for LA GRAINE ET LE MULLET (Abdellatif Kechiche).
Sete, a harbour town in the South of France. The heavy manual labour in and around the harbour gradually makes way for other activities. Service industries, tourism, catering. Slimane Beiji, divorced, in his sixties, and of Algerian origins, has worked for years on a shipping wharf, but has to accept redundancy. He wants to use his severance pay to convert an old fishing cutter into a North African speciality restaurant. That is more complicated than he thinks. Kechiche unfolds Slimane's complex family affairs mainly in apparently improvised conversations at the kitchen table of his ex-wife, Saoud. There the extended family turns up on Sundays for a delicious couscous with fish, the dish from the title.
Tella Kpomahou en Mariame Ndiaye op het AFF in Leuven.
Het Afrika Festival draait op volle toeren en wil tussendoor alle bezoekers van de eerste festivalweek bedanken. Ofschoon de opening in Leuven op vrijdag 11/04 in Kinepolis met de film ‘Ezra’ van Newton I. Aduaka (in aanwezigheid van de acteurs Emile Abossolo M’Bo en Mariame N’Diaye) het publieksrecord van vorig jaar wist te evenaren met 650 bezoekers, moeten we toch nog even wijzen op de geslaagde vooropening van het festival: een dag eerder, op 10 april, kreeg ‘Ezra’ ook een avant-première in de BOZAR in Brussel, gevolgd door een gesprek met de regisseur Newton Aduaka en Mariame N’Diaye, geleid door Guy Poppe. Emile Abossolo M’Bo gaf bij de opening niet alleen acte de présence als acteur uit de film, maar is ook een van de twee gezichten op de AFF-poster van dit jaar. Ook zijn ‘tegenspeelster’ op de poster, de actrice Tella Kpomahou (later op het festival nog te zien in ‘Il va pleuvoir sur Conakry’) bevond zich in ons midden.
Andere gasten op het openingsweekend waren de Congolese cineast Georges Kabongo die zaterdagmiddag de aftrap kwam geven van het programma in Cinema Zed met de voorstelling van de Congolese film ‘Papy’. ‘Papy’, dat speciaal voor de gelegenheid ook Nederlands werd ondertiteld, was meteen het sluitstuk van ‘Made in Congo’, het atelier dat zich de hele dag in de bibliotheek Tweebronnen had afgespeeld: met 70 deelnemers aan een workshop met een specialistisch en gericht programma werd een festivalrecord gevestigd. Niet zonder trots constateren we dat de Afrikaanse (film)gemeenschap zelf de weg gevonden heeft naar deze ateliers.
Dinsdag kwam de documentairemaker Abdoulaye Diallo uit Burkina Faso in Cinema ZED zijn documentaire ‘Sur les traces de Bembeya Jazz’ toelichten, over de legendarische muziekgroep uit Guinée.
De VETO-studentenjury doet vlijtig zijn werk, terwijl ondertussen het documentaireprogramma met debatten in het ACW-gebouw op woensdag 16/04 ook al van start ging met ‘The Agronomist’ van Jonathan Demme. Het AFF maakt zich op voor zijn tweede weekend, met de Europese première van ‘Shake Hands With the Devil’ van Roger Spottiswoode op vrijdagavond in Kinepolis, naar de autobiografie van Romeo Dallaire. Op zaterdag een tweede ateliersessie ‘Made in East Africa’ in de bibliotheek Tweebronnen.
Maar ook slaat het festival dit weekend zijn vleugels uit in Gent met een programma ism Africa Matters in Studio Skoop en zaal Joseph Plateau.
Emile Abossolo M'Bo en vrienden
13th edition AFRIKA FILMFESTIVAL LEUVEN - from 11th until 26th April 2008
It is with great pleasure that we announce the AFRIKA FILMFESTIVAL 2008: from the 11th until the 26th of April. This year, the AFF has its 13th edition. It began in Leuven in 1996 with 'Vierkant voor Afrika' (A squaredeal for Africa), and as always mainly takes place in Leuven, but furthermore in several towns and villages in Vlaams Brabant and in Brussels. What's new is that the AFF expands its activities/screenings to Ghent and Maasmechelen (Limburg province).
GUESTS OF THE FESTIVAL: TELLA KPOMAHOU and EMILE ABOSSOLO M'BO (photographer Kris Dewitte)
CENTRAL AFRICA IN BOOKS
For many years the AFF has been an important partner for the promotion of Central African films.It will continue to do so in 2008.
Two highlights are coming up.
On Saturday April 12th everything at 30CC is about CONGO. All day long Congolese films will be screened. Known speakers will give their expert comments.
The second highlight is the presentation of the new book by Guido Convents 'IMAGES ET PAIX' on Saturday April 19th at the Leuven Library. It's a bulky book of references, consisting of 600 pages about the history of film in Rwanda and Burundi.
Two years after 'IMAGES ET DEMOCRATIE', a book about the history of film in Congo, the Great Lakes areas have been mapped. Following the book presentation will be premiere screenings of MUNYURANGABO (Lee Isaac Chung) and SHAKE HANDS WITH THE DEVIL (Roger Spottiswoode).
OPENING AND CLOSING: 'Ezra' and 'Faro'
The AFF opens on April 11th in Leuven with EZRA by Nigerian Newton Aduaka, a spellbinding action drama, focusing on the issues of Child Soldiers. However, one day earlier, April 10th, we present this film at BOZAR in Brussels. This being a first for an African film.
The closing film on April 26th is FARO, LA REINE DES EAUX by Salif Traoré of Mali, a country drama in which the conflict between tradition and modern ways is being questioned.
Afrika Filmfestival 11 - 26 april Leuven
Kinepolis, Cinema Zed, ACW gebouw, Bibliotheek Tweebronnen
As well as in Aarschot, Begijnendijk, Diest, Dilbeek, Haacht, Halle, Lubbeek, Rillaar, Rotselaar, Tienen, tremelo, Zaventem, but also in Brussels, Ghent and Maasmechelen.
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