SCI-CULTURA

::Photography::[Greg Constantine x UNHCR]

Kenya’s Nubians Then and Now is an advocacy campaign for basic rights, inclusion in Kenya’s census, and the issuance of Kenyan ID cards for Nubians.

The exhibition shall portray the statelessness and the denial of citizenship on Nubians in Kenya with rare historical photographs and documents from their personal collections.

This is particularly of interest as it explores migration, integration and identity issues by a community who are now naturalised and have children who are Kenyan by birth, and on the other hand acceptance of the “foreigners” by the then and present-day inhabitants, who themselves are likely immigrants from other parts. I hope this exhibition will draw parallels to other communities – there are Kenyan Somalis so why not Kenyan Nubians? – and perhaps other countries.

Until 14th August 2010 at the GoDown Arts Centre

Update August 2010:

This exhibition was incredibly educational and layered (just as I like them). It chronicled the Nubian community’s presence in pre-independence Kenya to present day. Ironially, the Nubians named the place where they settled: Kibra (present day Kibera) which means ‘land of forest’. They remain the only community that buries their dead in Kibera, their home. Relatedly, a quote that stood out for me was “To be from Kibera meant that you were Nubian. Now, to be from Kibera means you are from a slum.”

If you missed it, do check out the Nubians in Kenya website which has more details, as well as Greg Constatine’s slide show with accompanying interviews

::Video exhibition::[Congolese photographer and filmmaker Sammy Baloji]

Mémoire addresses colonial violence, shattered dreams of independence and the postcolonial political fallout that exists within the current Democratic Republic of Congo. Infused with provocative attention to detail and a depth of intellectual content, Baloji’s work casts a powerful spotlight on contemporary Congolese reality giving it a new reading of the present. The motives power, exploitation, memory and trauma and its marks on bodies and landscapes are recurrent in his work.

Until 7th August 2010 at the Goethe Institute
(ht Nairobi Now)

Stocktown Africa is a documentary portrait about the lively,creative and social contemporary culture blossoming in Africa’s big cities today. Stocktown Africa will bring you face to face with the new urban Africa, where fashion creators, mobile phone journalists, cultural entrepreneurs, music producers and guerilla filmmakers define what it is to be young, talented and passionate in Africas 21st century.

I’ve watched the trailer a few times already and can’t wait to see it in full. (ht @gkofiannan)

Check out their page on FB.

It’s that time of the year again. Now an annual delight, the London African Film Festival is soon upon us. This year focuses on the signifcance of digital technology and it’s irrevocable impact on African cinema, no doubt showcasing the ubiquitence of Nigerian films.

Feature films and documentaries include:

• UK Première of Tariq Teguia’s INLAND
• Abakar Chene Massar’s CAPTAIN MAJID – a metaphor of the disenchanted youth in Chad
• Ethiopian director Nega Tariku’s film ADERA – a story of an Ethiopian refugee’s struggle to survive in Johannesburg
• A selection of the best of AMAA (the African Movie Academy Awards) -  includes the Nigerian documentary filmmaker Sani Elhadj Magori’s seminal documentary FOR THE BEST AND FOR THE ONION, about one man’s determination to get the best onion harvest in order to marry the love of his life, Wanuri Kahiu’s FROM A WHISPER, a superb drama based on the bombing of the US embassy in Nairobi in 1998.

Central to the festival is a major conference entitled Producing and Distributing African Film in the Digital Era that will take place on Sunday 29 November in partnership with the University of Westminster Africa Media Centre (AMC) and in association with the Communication and Media Research Institute (CAMRI) and Communication Research in Arts and Media (CREAM).
This one-day interdisciplinary conference has invited academics, film and video producers, policy makers, film distributors, Africa specialists, and development practitioners to debate the role and future of African film and video.

Relatedly, M-NET recently launched the African Film Library, which is posed to be the largest digital collection of African feature films, shorts and documentaries. Whilst this is a move that on the surface at least, seeks to address the issue of distribution, which has been a thorn in the flesh for many film buffs, yours truly included, there is healthy scepticism about M-NET’s non-altruistic monopoly of African films. Therefore, whilst we celebrate and start flexing our fingers for cable TV decoder action and prepare to feast our eyes, hearts and minds on films by legends like Senegalese Ousmane Sembene and Djibril Mambety,  we do so with the awareness that it’s a start. The only one we have so far. Regardless, whoever is in charge of scouting films at M-NET is certainly a step ahead, with Haile Gerima’s TEZA already in the bag, even before it won best film at FESPACO.

Image credit: © placeinsun

Disclaimer: It is no secret that I am the number the one fan of the Chadian-French writer and film director Mahamat-Saleh Haroun. This man has inspired me to no end. It is therefore perhaps biased that for me, his recent (2008) film Sex, Okra and Salted Butter was my highlight at the Kenya International Film Festival. Having said that, it has received rave reviews, which is an affirmation of my opinion.

Having built a reputation for what I refer to as ‘conscious films’  in a filmography that lists gems such as Bye Bye Africa (1999), Daratt (Dry Season) (2006), Expectations [short film] (2008) and my all-time favourite, Abouna (Our Father) (2002), which is incredibly beautiful and poetic in many ways throughout the story-line and cinematography, this film marks Mahamat-Saleh’s stretching of boundaries with the venture into a new genre of film.

The title which I love, had stirred up much curiosity in me and having seen the film now, I can fully appreciate how it is an accurate reflection of the nature of the film. On face value, the film is about those 3 things, but when you start to tease the layers apart, they are also a representation of the themes explored in the film. Mahamat-Saleh has successfully merged conscious cinema with dishings of satire and comedy, and pulled it off remarkably well. Not having read the synopsis of the film beforehand, the surprise was a wonderful way to discover this.

Sex, Okra and Salted Butter explores issues Africans living in the Diaspora are faced with – in this case through the experience of francophone Africans living in Bordeaux -  the need to integrate for survival and the evolution of values, belief-systems, identity and culture, which can be painful when people are afraid to question what they know. What they left behind at home.  And tightly cling onto. On the other hand, these very systems (beliefs, values and practices) that we carry with us, give an invaluable grounding when plugged into a foreign system and help us wade our way through when creating a new, unique mental space in a foreign land and holistically, in our lives. In addition, the next generation born in Europe or elsewhere face legitimate issues as they are navigate their parents’/extended family’s world view and that of the society they grow up in. These are addressed through a story that traverses inter-racial relationships, sexuality, the clash between traditions and modernity, inter-generational conflict and reconciliation.

Admittedly, some issues are only subtly touched upon, which is entirely excusable given that the film addresses what it sets out to do well, as opposed to pretending to address the Diasporan experience in its entirety, which is frankly incredibly difficult, if not impossible. For instance, it doesn’t show the blatant racism and alienation as explored in the recent, excellent film Entre Les Murs (The Class) (2008), which is set in a school in a Parisian surburb (Writer & Screen play: François Bégaudeau; Director: Laurent Cantent). Having said that, I find when you read in between the lines, more meaning emerges from Sex, Okra and Salted Butter – both in the title of the film and the content, which I find to be incredibly clever. For instance, it depicts the desire to integrate and be accepted in a society where you would be better off with the name Ludovic instead of Abdou.

I coudn’t have put it better than the following truncated reviews which accurately verbalise my sentiments:

Mahamat-Saleh Haroun’s crisp, lighthearted satire Sex, Gumbo and Salted Butter reflects on the challenges posed by dislocation, estrangement, and cultural assimilation. As in Yameogo’s film, [Me and My White Pal] the comedy of errors in Sex, Gumbo and Salted Butter stems from misperceptions of identity – gender, familial, and racial roles that, rather than upholding culture, ends up distorting it in its rigidity and exclusion.

[Source: Film Fest Journal]

Reminiscent of the Stephen Frears/Hanif Kureishi collaborations of the 1980s, Sex, Okra and Salted Butter offers a marked contrast with Haroun’s earlier features.  An ensemble comedy set in France, Haroun’s latest film tells the story of a recently emigrated African family reeling from the mother’s sudden departure with her white lover – merely the fist in a series of shifts that shake the family—and especially its patriarch—to the core. Many of Haroun’s signature preoccupations are in full flower, however – absent parents, revenge versus reconciliation – all seen through his lucid visual style that gives this sharp-edged comedy of manners plenty of space to breathe onscreen.

[Source: Harvard Film Archive]

Not to ruin the film for you, but my favourite lines in the script that had me in stitches were in a quasi-romantic scene (and also the first reference to salted butter):

African man (Malik) (Marius Yelolo): Do you have shea butter?

(for those who don’t know, raw shea butter is widely used in the African community as a moisturiser & massage oil and is available in markets that carry African products)

White French woman (Myriam) (Lorella Cravotta): No. [pause]. But I have salted butter.

Um, you had to be there

© Photos courtesy Inspired Minority Pictures and One Pictures

In the world of film, 2009 certainly looks like the year of African Sci-Fi. Before the pomp and accolade from District 9’s release in the (northern hemisphere’s) summer has entirely dissipated, the Kenya International Film Festival kicked off to a refreshing start with the premiere of the first locally made sci-fi, Pumzi (Kiswahili for Breath). Incidentally, the film producers Focus Features also worked on District 9.

Film director Wanuri Kahiu is indeed visionary, as well as consciousness-raising, adding to her growing track record of her use of the power of film as a tool to express important topical issues in a manner that ignites reflection and hopefully spurs action. Pumzi is set in the East African region, 35 years after World War III, in a world with no water and toxic soils. The story is told through the eyes of the protagonist, Asha [South African actor Kudzani Moswela], who is living in an enclosed space in a community that relies on urine purification as the sole source of water.

Kahiu on Moswela

She breathed into the film unimaginable softness and courage. She became the heart of my heart. Her interpretation of Asha and the story was painfully tender and through it new, undiscovered layers of the film came alive.

Source

One thing I really love about Nairobi is that it is a place of possibilities. The excitement that this generation is creating and defining concepts, spaces and moments in our young history is palpable. A moment like this, a first, where a dream becomes a reality, paves the way for other dreamers, in that it feeds them the courage to continue dreaming. For we would be stagnant and stale without our dreamers. Congratulations Wanuri!

Update: Watch the Pumzi trailer

Wanuri Kahiu’s biography.

Wanuri Kahiu’s recent interviews on Daily Nation and Jamati.

Update: Apologies, I overlooked to mention that Pumzi is a short film (21 min)

Photo credit: Looking Glass on Flickr (CC)

Theme: Africa and the Diaspora

Dates: 21st to 31st October 2009

Location: Alliance Française (main venue & registration), National Museum, 20th Century Cinema, Silverbird Cinema, Italian Cultural Institute, Nairobi Safari Club and Chester House

Features: Screenings, Workshops, Forums, Music performances, Exhibition on African cinema and Mini-Festival within a Festival – Best of Amakula (Uganda), Rwanda and Zanzibar Film Festivals; Lola Kenya

Gertjan Zuilhof is a programmer for the Rotterdam International Film Festival, who like many others, recognises the paucity of African cinema on the world stage. With a view to do something about this, and bring Africa to the big screen in Rotterdam in early 2010, Zuilhof has proactively set off to a number of African countries (6 or 7). Over a time period spanning about 5 months, he and his travelling film makers will meet with African film makers to make films. He’s chronicling his experiences in his tongue-in-cheek travel diary blog with a title to match: Forget Africa. (h/t Wise Kwai)

In my quest for a local cinema that I do not yet know, I am accompanied by an international film maker to each country. To share our curiosity. To let film makers meet  film makers (as to catch thieves with thieves). I will describe more along the way, but this is the basic idea of Forget Africa. We will try forget a few preconceptions on Africa and will meet anybody who calls himself film maker.

I like Zuilhof’s openess, curiosity and not to mention his quirky sense of humour, which all convey, to my mind, a genuine desire to learn. It seems to me that in the larger scheme of things within the African cinema arena, this initiative is one of many practical steps in addressing a significant issue. There is also, of course, action from within the continent. So far, Zuilhof and his in-and-out contingent of film makers, notably majority from South-East Asia, have been to Yaoundé, Douala, Buea (Cameroon), Durban (South Africa), Kampala (Uganda), Blantyre (Malawi) and Tanzania (Dar-es-Salaam).

Malaysian filmmaker Tan Chui Mui’s shot in 58 on Albany bar in Durban © Forget Africa

Whilst I wholeheartedly commend their efforts, I must admit an initial nagging slither of reservation as I  was surprised not to see any photos with a local (African) film maker behind the camera amongst those posted on the blog. This was quickly extinguished by a write-up I stumbled upon.

[Rotterdam Film] Festival organisers say it will be the most extensive programme devoted to contemporary independent African film-making held at any Western film festival in recent years.

…

As part of the focus, there will also be a showcase called African Market Days, which will include storyteller’s cinema, innovative re-interpretations of soundtracks by African musicians, films by hidden masters and pioneers, rare films from archives and events and live performances. It will be organised Alice Smits and Lee Ellickson, co- directors of the Amakula Kampala International Film Festival in Uganda.

I remain curious about the stories that will be told by the film makers that Zuilhof et al encounter and interact with during their discoveries. After all, as I’m sure he’ll agree, bringing Africa to the big screen is more than about the location, actors, or ‘exotic’ source of inspiration.

As an avid fan of documentaries, I look forward to watching two recent productions that use the power of film to contribute to the evolution of Africa’s image on the world stage.

This is My Africa (Dir Zina Saro-Wiwa) is essentially a space for expression of what Africa means to different people, thus painting an image of diversity and richness of Africa that can not be confined to a singular view. After all, what is Africa and what does it mean to be African?

The documentary features well-known British personalities of African descent such as Chiwetel Ejiofor, Yinka Shonibare, Paul Boateng and others, as well as lovers of the continent such as Jon Snow and Colin Firth. I love that this documentary is more than 50 minutes of film as it embodies a broader vision: This is My Africa is a movement for any willing person to contribute to rebranding Africa, such that Africa’s problems do not define her as they have and continue to do so in the recent past.

The TIMA movement recognises the power of culture to engender self-respect and understanding and it supports and promotes African cultures (both on the continent and in the diaspora). It is open to all Africa lovers wherever you are from in the world.

Check out the This is My Africa fan page on Facebook for updates on screenings (hat tip Kabfabulous).
Contact details: africalab{at}gmail{dot}com

Senegalese musician Youssou N’dour’s documentary I Bring What I Love (Dir Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi) is an intimate portrait of N’dour’s life, whose production stemmed from his requirement of a platform to address the misperceptions of his latest album, ‘Egypt’. An enchanting, meditative album intended to portray a different side of Islam and counteract that which fills our TV screens. A reminder of the beauty of Islam. It seems like kismet that N’dour who comes from a family of Griots in Senegal uses his voice to inspire others, but unlike the traditional Griots, his voice traverses boundaries and continents, making him therefore an embodiment of the potent evolution of his culture.

Check out the interview with N’dour on The Fader.

Anyone who’s read the recent posts on this blog will know that I am enthralled, intrigued and besotted by the use of film as a medium to convey stories. This year has been good for raising the awareness of Kenya in the world of film. This time, not just as a location for big shot movies like Out of Africa, The Constant Gardener, etc., but more importantly for Kenyan creativity and talent in making films.

From a Whisper (Dir Wanuri Kahiu), based on the US Embassy bombing in Kenya on 7th August 1998 won Best Film at the Kalasha Film & TV Awards in Nairobi after scopping a bunch of awards at the recent African Academy Movie Awards in Nigeria, including Best Director, Best Screen Play and Best Picture – much to Nollywood’s surprise. Read more in the article by Art Matters.

Apparently they are working on a contract with a South African company to sort out the film distribution, which is great news as those who didn’t or couldn’t make the showing on the big screen in Nairobi last year will have a chance to actually watch it. It’s not rocket science, but as Mahamat-Saleh Haroun pointed out during a Q&A session at the London African Film Festival (2008), distribution of film is where we are lacking in Africa in the ability to spread our stories told from our unique perspective, noting the financial considerations.

The docu-film on albinism, In my Genes by Kenyan film maker/actor Lupita Nyong’o was one of a number of Kenyan films featured at the New York African Film Festival (2009). (Trailer) In a recent interview with Drum magazine, (July 2009) Lupita echoes my sentiments in that our drive should be telling our own unique stories and not necessarily emulating Holly-/Bolly-/Nolly- wood.

A bonus of the content of the afore-mentioned films is that they also raise socio-political and cultural awareness.

I chose this image by Paul Sika as it captures a sci-cultura moment: where science (in the form of health care) meets art.

Cote d’Ivoirian Paul Sika, whose digital photography work resists being confined to a singular definitional space and traverses concepts of photography, film and art stated:

I am a Film Director using a still photo camera.

What I love about this quote is that it challenges us to look beyond (self-imposed) boundaries and let creativity flow where it will.

Full interview over at Scarlett Lion.

Lastly, a wonderful resource on the critical analysis on African women in cinema (hat tip MyWretchedConsciousness) by the academic Center for the Study and Research of African Women in Cinema is their blog aptly named African Women in Cinema. I was impressed by the depth of its content and if you are into this subject, you could easily lose a few hours there.

I am a tad late with this, but not if you can get to the  Africa Dance Festival in Brooklyn (hat tip Sean Jacobs).

The New York  African Film Festival is currently underway. I spotted the Emerging Female Kenyan Directors and New Contemporary Works on the programme and wish this is a forum we could have right here in Nairobi.  I am still trying to get copies of the Kenyan films nominated at Kenya’s first Oscars, the Kalasha Awards. The ubiquitous bootleg DVDs on the streets are a representation of Hollywood, Bollywood and Nollywood. Sigh.

Good news for my fellow afro-film buffs though, is that the organisers, the African Film Festival Inc. have affordable African films on sale, including the pioneering film of African cinema -  Ousmane Sembène’s Borom Sarret.

In which case, I think it’s appropriate to end this post with a tribute to the undisputed godfather of African cinema, published 2 years ago, right after his death.