SCI-CULTURA

The London African Film Festival hopes to disrupt old perceptions about Africa as well as offering visitors the opportunity to see the compelling stories that African film-makers are bringing to the cinema.

The film festival includes a number of African greats by legendary African directors, as well as recent films such as the Ugandan film Divizionz, which featured in the London Film Festival 2008 and the UK premiere of the South African film Jerusalema.

The Independent (UK newspaper) featured a worthy interview with the director of the festival, Keith Shiri. The article notes that Euro-American films about Africa have been made to suit their audiences and highlights amongst others, the 7-academy award winner Out of Africa in 1985. I clearly remember going to watch Out of Africa in the cinema in Nairobi and even at that tender age wondering, but not being quite able to verbalise my feelings about this seemingly romantic and exotic Africa that I watched on the large screen, where “contented Africans who have been dispossessed of their land happily serve their white masters. Elsewhere, great white hunters battle it out against vicious natives and beasts.” It’s incredible to look back now at the image of Africa that I was internalising back then.

The article pinpoints the late Senegalese film-maker Ousmane Sembène, invariably regarded as a pioneer and godfather of African film in post-independence sub-Saharan Africa for telling a story through African eyes, for an African audience, through his first short film, Borom Sarret. Sembène paved the way for a new wave of African film directors, including the Malian Abderrahmane Sissako and the Chadian Mahamat-Saleh Haroun. It is evident that the majority of these successful directors hail from Francophone countries and it is postulated that this is down to France, unlike Britain or Portugal, adopting interventionist political and cultural policies in its colonies. However, with the end of apartheid only a very recent and vivid 15 years ago, South Africa’s film industry has been dubbed the continent’s leading film location. In addition, no article about African film is complete without addressing Nollywood, the world’s 3rd largest film industry after Bollywood and Hollywood.

Last but not least, a mention of the most influential African films:

Forty years in African cinema: 10 post-colonial celluloid milestones

Xala - Senegal, 1974
Director: Ousmane Sembène
A businessman’s social standing slips when he takes a third wife and finds that he’s lost his touch in bed (“xala” means impotence).

Muna Moto – Cameroon, 1975
Director: Jean-Pierre Dikongue-Pipa
An unsparing view of village life that captures the fateful constrictions brought about by custom.

Karmen Gei – Senegal, 2001
Director: Joseph Gai Ramaka
An African take on the story that inspired the Bizet opera. ‘Karmen Gei’ deals with conflict, freedom, convention, desire, and the law. Prisoners use dance and music to resist authority and their prison’s dehumanising conditions.

Touki Bouki – Senegal, 1973
Director: Djibril Diop Mambety
Mory and Anta imagine freedom far from Dakar. Their dream city doesn’t seem so far away, and the lovers embark on an exhilarating picaresque adventure.

Yeelen – Mali, 1987
Director: Souleymane Cisse
An Oedipal story mixed with magic, ‘Yeelen’ is luminous and beautiful film. Set in the powerful Mali empire of the 13th century, the film tells the story of Niankoro, a young warrior who uses his own magical powers to battle his evil sorcerer father.

Bamako - Mali, 2006
Director: Abderrahmane Sissako
In a poor section of ‘Bamako’, a beautiful bar singer (right) and her jobless husband are having marriage difficulties. In the courtyard of their shared house a court has been set up. On trial are the world’s financial institutions,

Darrat – Chad, 2006
Director: Mahamat-Saleh Haroun
A radio broadcast announces an amnesty on civil war crimes. But a boy, armed with a shotgun, is sent to search for his father’s killer.

Soleil O – Mauritania, 1970
Director: Med Hondo
Black men line up before a white priest for baptism – the first step in a process that deracinates and subjugates them. In France, black people arrive to seek a better life.

Sarraounia – Mauritania, 1986
Director: Med Hondo
Sarraounia leads her people to victory against a neighbouring tribe. But her real trial of strength comes when the French army marches south to extend its colonial grip.

Mandabi – Senegal, 1968
Director: Ousmane Sembène
An elderly gentleman is well-served by his two wives. His life is turned upside down when he receives a money order from his nephew.

Full article.