The issue of telling the African story from the African perspective came under the spotlight on 6 May at Input, the global screening conference taking place at Johannesburg’s Sandton Convention Centre until 10 May. Top public service TV programming from all over the world is being screened and debated at the conference.

The SABC’s Group Executive Lulama Chakela gave an impassioned introduction into the Re-storying Africa session. “Black South Africans have come out of a history where many of us were treated like garbage. We need to recall stories that our grandmothers told us at night around the fire, stories that make us proud and which we can broadcast to the rest of the world. This continent needs to have its dignity restored and it is up to the delegates at Input [ie. filmmakers] to do this. However, we must not do it at the expense of our children or grandparents.

“I hope that the conversations at Input will foster new relationships between filmmakers of different countries around the world,” concluded Chakela. The panel at the session included five accomplished African filmmakers who are successfully ‘re-storying’ Africa, namely South Africa’s Teboho Mahlatsi (Meokgo and the Stick Fighter) and Junaid Ahmed (More Than Just A Game), Egypt’s Jihan El-Tahri (Cuba – An African Odyssey), Sudan’s Taghred Elsanhouri (All About Darfur) and Caribbean-born, UK-based Owen “Alik Shahadah (500 Years Later). See full story in June issue of Screen Africa.

For more information about Input log onto www.input2008.org.za.