Africa is a Country and
London’s Film Africa
2012 Festival
October 1, 2012 By
This year Africa is a Country is partnering with Film Africa, London’s only annual African film festival to review some of the films that will be screening 1-11 November. Perhaps this should also be filed partly under “Shameless Self-Promotion” since I’m a programmer at the festival. However, AIAC’s writers/bloggers will pre-review films going to London, many of them UK premieres. Some of the highlights of the programme are:
A screen seminar, which was born here on AIAC in the form of a 5 Alternative Film Collectives post. At this event at London’s Rich Mix, Film Africa will screen the best of the Slum TV film festival in Kibera, alongside videos from the Mosireen Collective. Also screening is ‘Upendo Hero’, a new film by Urban Mirror about the reclamation of public space in Nairobi:
The opening night screening is Nairobi Half Life, just announced as Kenya’s nomination for Best Foreign Film for this year’s Oscars. The film was produced by One Fine Day productions, an initiative by German super-director Tom Tykwer (soon to release ‘Cloud Atlas’) to unearth new Kenyan talent.
Also showing is the moving, disturbing documentary Call Me Kuchu, which follows the struggles of the LGBT community in Uganda, and its figurehead, David Kato, who was brutally killed last year.
Otelo Burning, Sara Blecher’s first fiction feature (her previous film was the documentary Surfing Soweto), a film about actual surfing and Apartheid:
And Sons of the Clouds: The Last Colony, about the continued domination and persecution of the Saharawi people of Western Sahara by Morocco (featuring famed Spanish actor Javier Bardem):
* For full film listings, visit www.filmafrica.org.uk, or watch this space for film reviews from the AIAC team.
Film Africa is also on Twitter: @FilmAfrica and #FilmAfrica2012.