The festival has started a group on facebook where you can see the actors with whom the AFF has many contacts.
AFRICAN CAST
By the time we reach the tenth edition of the Africa Film Festival (2005), we might as well admit it: we’re not short on human weaknesses. By way of a jubilee celebration the AFF figured that for once it could treat itself to a little present. Vanity perhaps. Just a little. That present should not, of course, be a fatuous one, but express the raison d’être of the festival. Since 1996 the festival has consistently set itself the goal of hauling the African film continent out of obscurity. Africa, not as a continent where it always comes to blows, but as a multifaceted collection of regions offering high quality cultural products that withstand the test of time. These products must be shown, because what you don’t see doesn’t exist. The condition of the Invisible Man described by African-American writer Ralph Ellison is more acute now than ever before. In his classic Bildungsroman of 1952, Ellison’s (black) main character explained his invisibility as follows: he was no ghost or ectoplasm, he was invisible simply because people refused to see him. Although vulnerability accompanies all things of value, the AFF will not be resigning itself to blindness.
You deal with blindness by putting a face, in the literal sense, to that which is invisible. This is why the festival has always had a thing for actors (more particularly actresses, as the odd detractor will allege). Given that actors lend weight to the recognisability of a film culture, it has become firmly established that an actress should adorn the poster every year. It is she, therefore, who bears the task of carrying not just the festival, but the film culture of an entire continent. Some of these posters are so collectable that you would be forgiven for thinking they adorn more walls in this country than the sum total of people who have ever seen an African film. When it comes to deciding which edition’s poster is the most sought after, we are more than happy to leave it to your imagination. A few years ago we had the idea of allowing a number of Belgian-African or Afro-Belgian actors, who had made their way to the festival, to present a photo and curriculum vitae in an appendix to the catalogue. No longer an appendage now, it has become a permanent feature. Whereas the cultural sector loves to congratulate itself on its self-ascribed openness, it pales in fright when faced with its own record of service: the through flow of artistic talent of a different hue is abnormally slow and difficult. Les excuses ne sont plus pour s’en servir. To spare everyone involved their excuses for inertia, the AFF has for the second time now, by way of a practical tool (besides this magnificent book by Kris Dewitte), designed a casting book entitled AFRICAN CAST. The aim is to tackle not blindness, but colour blindness. But before we can achieve that state of grace, actors of a different colour must first of all be visible. It was obvious that in this vein the jubilee present should have something to do with photos of actors. And so it fell to photographer Kris Dewitte to discover what lies behind the faces of twenty actors from a guest book covering ten years of the film festival. Make no mistake about it: actors have every confidence in a picture that moves at the rate of twenty-four images a second. A single click of the lens is, well, unfair. Unless the photographer is Kris Dewitte.
Kris Dewitte
Born in Veurne, Belgium, in 1967.
Studied graphic design and photography in Ghent.
Published 5 books:
‘Facts of Emotions’ in 1999,
‘Jong’ in 2001,
(filmmakers) ‘Uit de Schaduw’ in 2002
‘Oorsprong’ in 2003
‘Lux’ in 2004
Has had more than 20 solo exhibitions in cities including Brussels, New York and Amsterdam.
Was officially selected for the exhibition celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Cannes Film Festival, 1997.
And in 2002 was guest photographer along with Erwin Olaf at the Knokke Photo Festival, Belgium.
Also works as a still photographer on international film sets.
