Africa in Motion (AiM), the UK’s largest African film festival, is in its sixth year and takes place from 2 to 6 Nov 2011 at Filmhouse in Edinburgh. With Children and Youth in Africa as its overall theme, this year’s festival will showcase cinematic representations for, by and about children and young people both in the rural areas and the urban centres of Africa. The programme deals with many aspects relating to youth in Africa, such as education, entertainment, stories and myths, the future and social issues.
AiM opens on 2 November with Tunisian director Nacer Khemir’s dreamy fairytale Bab’Aziz: The Prince who contemplated his soul. Bab’Aziz, a blind dervish who intimately knows the desert, is travelling with his vivacious granddaughter Ishtar to a great reunion of dervishes which takes place every 30 years. As the tale unfolds amongst the beautiful desert landscapes of Tunisia, Bab’Aziz and Ishtar encounter extraordinary characters and stories.
Saturday, 5 Nov is dedicated to AiM’s younger audiences, starting with a free storytelling event by beloved Edinburgh-based Kenyan/Scottish storyteller Mara Menzies. A programme of African films for children includes entertaining and colourful stories and animations from all over the continent. The screenings will be followed by drumming and dancing workshops for children and families, where children will learn djembe drumming and African dance rhythms.
This year’s festival will also include screenings of a number of films especially for primary and secondary schools in and around Edinburgh, in collaboration with National Schools Film Week. Schools are invited to Filmhouse for screenings of fiction, animation and documentary films followed by fun and challenging workshops for Scottish children to really engage with the lives of their counterparts in Africa.
Three award-winning feature fiction films from the 2011 FESPACO film festival, the largest African film festival in the world held biennially in Burkina Faso, will be screened for the first time in the UK at this year’s Africa in Motion: Notre etrangere (The Place in Between)from Burkina Faso grapples with issues of belonging, identity and the relationship between a mother and a daughter; Moroccan film Pegase (Pegasus),a surreal coming-of-age drama, told through flashbacks and dreamscapes, winner of Best Film at FESPACO; and the closing film Un pas en avant, les dessous de la corruption (One Step Forward: The Inside of Corruption)from Benin ,which won the FESPACO award for best actor and humourously deals with corruption and politics in Africa.
As in previous years, AiM will host a number of seminars and documentary screenings at Edinburgh College of Art. Nigerian director Obi Emelonye will talk about Nollywood, the prolific low-budget Nigerian video-film industry, and his award-winning fiction film The Mirror Boy. African Social Documentarieswill address prominent social issues in contemporary African societies: disability and domestic abuse. African Documentaries about Childrenwill tackle serious children’s issues. In collaboration with the University of Edinburgh’s Centre for Theology and Public Issues’s (CTPI) Project on ‘Peace-building through Media Arts’, a series of documentaries will offer examples of peace-building through film, with screenings followed by discussions.
The annual Africa in Motion Short Film Competition returns with seven stunning short films from across Africa. Dealing with themes ranging from myths and folktales, families and relationships, to mysterious powers and the magic of storytelling the films are representative of the exciting young filmmaking talent in Africa. The winner will be announced immediately after the screenings with the audience getting a chance to vote for their favourite in the Audience Choice Award.
Festival founder and management team member Lizelle Bisschoff says:
“Africa in Motion 2011 is dedicated to children and youth. With a programme filled with stories and representations by, for and about the youth of Africa, we are looking towards the future of the continent with excitement and optimism. Not only are we celebrating the extraordinary filmmaking talent from Africa, but also the future of a continent from which we have much to learn.’
For full programme details please visit www.africa-in-motion.org.uk .
