CALL FOR FILMS – AFRIKA FILMFESTIVAL
Date: in Leuven from 24 march to 2 April 2011
We are very pleased to welcome your film during the 16th Afrika Filmfestival.
The Afrika Filmfestival in Leuven is the most important annual showcase for African films in the Benelux. The festival tries to promote African cinema supporting distribution and national release of features, (co-)organizing conferences, publishing books on African cinema and consulting other festivals and institutions. And… obviously screening African films…
The main aims of its politics and programming can be summarized as follows:
1) To provide an alternative for filmmakers and producers to have screening opportunities which mainstream distribution does not grant them, and thus generating some income for them that, in turn, provides them with the opportunities and means to continue filming and producing.
2) To create a stage in which films by Africans and African culture can be visible and present in Benelux media on a permanent basis.
Therefore, the festival establishes many collaborations with film professionals in Benelux, in the rest of Europe and all over Africa.
From March 24th to April 2nd 2011 the festival will screen 100+ films, including world and Belgian premieres, african classics and more experimental works at the Kinepolis Theater, Cinema Zed and Museum M. In addition to ten days of screenings, many public and VIP events including panel discussions, receptions and networking round-tables will be organized.
Place Festival: Leuven and 20 other cities
Date in Leuven: from 24 march to 2 April 2011
The call for entries for the AFF 2010 is open to short and long fiction, animation, documentary films. DVD (PAL) accepted for preview.
Deadline for submissions to pre-selection: December 31 2010.
Competitions: Audience Award, Student Award.
Contact :
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Afrika Filmfestival
Leuvensebaan 323
3220 Holsbeek
Belgium AWARDS OF THE 15th AFRIKA FILMFESTIVAL
The PUBLIC AWARD went to LONDON RIVER (Rachid Bouchareb)
STUDENT AWARD went to SOUL BOY (Hawa Essuman) IMAGES OF THE 15th AFRIKA FILMFESTIVAL CLAIRE DENIS, presents her new film WHITE MATERIAL -
28 april SYBILLE CISHAHAYO sings beautiful songs from Burundi - 30 april A great concert of BALOJI - 30 april
The South African Embassy was present at the screening of SHIRLEY ADAMS
Mr Louis TOBBACK of the city of Leuven happy to invite officially Mme KIE PAULINE LUMUMBA. SHIRLEY ADAMS (Oliver Hermanus, South-Africa) - OPENINGSFILM OF THE 15th AFRIKA FILMFESTIVAL - 16 april
SHIRLEY ADAMS Oliver Hermanus
South-Africa, 2009, 91 min
With this socially realistic portrait, Oliver Hermanus shines a light on the violence and poverty that has dominated South Africa since apartheid. ‘Shirley Adams’, which has already been screened at international film festivals including Toronto and Locarno, is Hermanus's first full-length feature.
Ruth Nirere, bett
er known in Rwanda as Shanel. Actress from the film 'THE DAY GOD WALKED AWAY' (Philippe Van Leeuw). 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:
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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
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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,
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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
The PUBLIC AWARD went to LONDON RIVER (Rachid Bouchareb)
STUDENT AWARD went to SOUL BOY (Hawa Essuman)
CLAIRE DENIS, presents her new film WHITE MATERIAL -
28 april 
SYBILLE CISHAHAYO sings beautiful songs from Burundi - 30 april
A great concert of BALOJI - 30 april
The South African Embassy was present at the screening of SHIRLEY ADAMS
Ruth NIRERE better know as SHANEL
ZIONS's YOUTH
Sybille CISHAHAYO (Burundi) and SHANEL (Rwanda)
Ben NGABO (Rwanda)
'LUMUMBA' from Raoul Peck
