Adura Onashile: Girl (Sundance Film Festival 2023 World Cinema Dramatic Competition)

Adura Onashile

Girl

Sundance Film Festival 2023

World Cinema Dramatic Competition

United Kingdom - 87 min - Fiction

British-Nigerian filmmaker Adura Onashile lives and works in Glasgow, Scotland

Making the film Girl

“For me, it's very political because Black characters are not often afforded reality like that. It's [usually] like, What's happening? Where's the drama? Where's the trauma? And it was so lovely to be able to go let's just linger as much as we can. Because that in itself, just asking people to look at these people, to look at this mother and daughter in a 360-degree way, felt like really political but life-enhancing act.”

Casting the actor Déborah Lukumuena

“I was absolutely in awe of the way she was able to hold all of this complexity in stillness. I think she's a phenomenal, phenomenal actor. But what she also is, is an artist. She's always looking at the work in terms of the deeper aspect of what it's trying to say, and that was really important.”

(Interview with Adura Onashile by Nadia Neophytou: https://www.okayafrica.com/sundance-2023-adura-onashile/)

Description

Mother-daughter duo Grace and Ama have established a deep bond that’s protected them from outsiders, but as they start anew in Glasgow, things begin to change. Ama’s burgeoning puberty and curiosity set off reminders of a past that 24-year-old Grace has been running from. The comforting fairytale-like origin story that Grace has been telling Ama for years is interrupted by flashbacks of her painful past — their sheltered world begins to erode from the inside.

Adura Onashile’s debut feature is an impressively delicate story about trauma and coming-of-age. Where Grace is stunned and paralyzed outside of their safe nest, Ama blossoms, exploring the world with new friend Fiona. Onashile’s compassionate handling of Grace’s trauma takes an impressionist approach, deftly revealing just enough details. Déborah Lukumuena’s portrayal of Grace is sensitive and arresting, while an intimate camera and choral score heighten the evocative experience of the pair’s dueling realities. Onashile has crafted a poignant story about healing and the painful sacrifices that are sometimes needed to love ourselves and those closest to us.

Image and Text Sundance

https://festival.sundance.org/program/film/638a1f8877dd3d6410806d8f

Theresa Traore Dahlberg: The Life of an Ambassador’s Wife - New York Times - OPDocs -

Theresa Traore Dahlberg

The Life of an Ambassador’s Wife

Theresa Traore Dahlberg is a visual artist and filmmaker

Theresa Traore Dahlberg

The Life of an Ambassador’s Wife

Documentary - 2018 - 16'20min

New York Times - OPDocs

24 January 2023

Follow the link to view the film: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/24/opinion/burkina-faso-the-ambassadors-wife.html

Description

The wife of the French ambassador in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso is bored. Once in a while she’ll play a game of tennis, or maybe swim a few lengths in her private pool. She used to dream of being a famous opera singer, but now she practices her repertoire knowing she’ll never perform for a large audience. A career isn't even an option, because the wives of ambassadors aren’t allowed to work.

In powerful, measured and beautifully styled scenes, director Theresa Traore Dahlberg—who spent part of her childhood in Burkina Faso—exposes the pitfalls of a privileged life. This discreet, short portrait of an ambassador’s wife also offers a witty and critical perspective on neocolonial relations, power structures, class differences and gender disparities. While the ambassador’s wife tries to relax in her luxurious surroundings, she’s surrounded by staff and servants who are busy working and making noise.

Text Source: https://www.idfa.nl/en/film/2b0f5599-fea8-4d09-9660-0619fbf1330a/the-ambassadors-wife

Also see:

(Re)Discover Theresa Traore Dahlberg
https://africanwomenincinema.blogspot.com/2018/07/re-discover-theresa-traore-dahlberg.html

Netflix docuseries African Queens: Njinga, executive produced by Jada Pinkett Smith

Netflix docuseries African Queens: Njinga

The Netflix docuseries African Queens: Njinga executive produced by Jada Pinkett Smith, who narrates the docuseries, was written by Peres Owino and NneNne Iwuji.

The documentary series explores the lives of prominent and iconic African Queens. The first season will cover the life of Njinga, the complex, captivating, and fearless 17th century warrior queen of Ndongo and Matamba, in modern day Angola. The nation’s first female ruler, Njinga earned a reputation for her blend of political and diplomatic skill with military prowess and became an icon of resistance.

Source:

Text Netflix YouTube

Image: Netflix website

Sandulela Asanda: Mirror Mirror - Berlinale 2023 - Generation 14plus

Sandulela Asanda

Mirror Mirror

Berlinale 2023 Generation 14plus

Sandulela Asanda

Mirror Mirror

South Africa - 2022 - Short film

with Luhle Macanda, Buhle Ngaba, Mpumi Sizani

https://www.berlinale.de/en/2023/programme/202304905.html

Description

Luthando is determined to explore her body sensually. However, her voyage of discovery threatens to fail between internet research, magazine tips and FaceTime. A coming-of-age comedy about female sensuality and self-determination.

MIRROR MIRROR_TRAILER_.mp4 from Sandulela Asanda on Vimeo.

Nancy Mac Granaky-Quaye: Homeshoppers’ Paradise - Afrika Film Festival de Cologne 2023

Nancy Mac Granaky-Quaye

Homeshoppers’ Paradise

Afrika Film Festival de Cologne

11.2.  19h30 / Film Forum Museum Ludwig

Germany - 2022 - Fiction - 89 min

https://www.afrikafilmfestivalkoeln.de/

Synopsis
Lisa, a rebellious Black punk, lives with her gang in a construction trailer on an occupied lot. The friends are united in the fight against the bourgeoisie, capitalism – and the power of the state. When Lisa learns of the impending eviction of the site, she must take the initiative to guard a long-kept secret. Behind the others’ backs, she accepts a job offer at the epicenter of capitalist consumer society: as a presenter alongside her hated father on the home shopping network HSP.

Bio
Nancy Mac Granaky-Quaye is a director, author and vision mixer for cinema/TV/online. She has shot multiple short films, a mid-length documentary film, advertisements for cinema, and magazine reports, and has worked as programme planner for the Afrika Film Festival Köln (AFFK) for two years. Her personal highlights as a vision mixer include working on the MTV Unplugged concert by Sportfreunde Stiller. Her graduation film at Cologne’s International Film School, Beento (2007), ran for six months in movie theaters (as part of the compilation Am Ende Kommt die Wende) and was shown at the Max Ophüls Festival in Saarbrücken and at the AFFK. It received the Best Student Film Award at the Short Cuts Cologne festival, where her short film Gehenlassen also won the Audience Award. Her documentary I Have a Dream about the Black Lives Matter protests in Cologne was among those featured on the Black History Month 2021 programme. Nancy’s debut feature Homeshoppers’ Paradise (SWR, ARTE) was recently completed and will be shown in 2023 on ARTE and by ARD. 

Women in Film Botswana

Women in Film Botswana

From the Women in Film Botswana YouTube Page

Introducing: Women in Film Botswana

The Women in Film Guild of Botswana is a society that assists, educates and empowers women in the film and television spaces of Botswana. Our journey has only just begun, so do visit us @wifbotswana on our social media platforms to keep up with us and support. Let's tell our stories, ourselves.
wifbotswana@gmail.com

Published: 09 January 2023

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pmxa41EjSHs

 

***

Serena and Nikita - are currently raising funds for an incredible opportunity that they’ve worked so very hard
for, and are working even harder to make a reality: Attending the 2023 Cannes Film Festival on behalf of a guild they founded, Women in Film Botswana (WIF Botswana). They are the beneficiaries of this campaign, and here is their story.

Serena and Nikita, Chair and Vice-Chair of WIF Botswana, founded the guild in 2021 and have been working non-stop to build a strong foundation for it to grow. From around mid-2022, their efforts were noted and Serena was elected onto the Board of Directors for Women in Film & Television International (WIFTI), an incredible achievement and a first for Botswana. Shortly after, Pavillon Afriques approached her and invited her to speak at their roundtable during the Cannes Film Festival! Serena will speak, and Nikita will accompany her to assist with networking for the guild. They could hardly believe it and immediately began seeking help and advice on how best to raise funds and prepare for this trip.

https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-serena-and-nikita-go-to-cannes 

Brenda Akele Jorde: The Homes We Carry - Black History Month Köln 2023

Brenda Akele Jorde

The Homes We Carry

Black History Month Köln 2023

Documentary - Germany - 2022 - 89 Minute

Description

The Homes We Carry portraits a family torn apart by the turmoil of world history between Germany, Mozambique and South Africa. At the center is Sarah, a young Afro-German mother. She wants her daughter to have the relationships she herself lacked as a child. Therefore, she travels with her to Africa, where her own father and the child's father are waiting for them. But meeting Luana's father, who suddenly has to grow up when Sarah shows up at the door with his daughter, presents both of them with great challenges. Meanwhile, Sarah's father Eulidio recalls the almost forgotten and unjust history of the Mozambican contract workers in the former GDR. In his nostalgic daydreams, he returns to the origins of his European family and their sudden separation - a fate he shares with many other German-Mozambican families. (Text source: YouTube)

Excerpted from the article by Jürgen Bürgin: avisualzine.com

https://avisualzine.com/2022/10/13/the-homes-we-carry-beim-dok-leipzig/

“During the research for the film, I met many broken and traumatized Afro-German family members who were affected by the end of the GDR. Like many others, Sarah also understands at some point that being Afro-German is not a contradiction, not wrong and unwanted, but an enrichment and a wonderful gift. Showing the story of Sarah’s family means making Afro-German identity visible and emotionally comprehensible across generations.”

With this important film, Brenda Akele Jorde succeeds in a wonderful way in pointing out an almost forgotten chapter of German-African history – and this with a personal, emotional and touching story. "As the daughter of an Afro-German couple, I’m interested in the stories and origins of other Afro-German families," says the director. “These are largely unknown or invisible in Germany. As a result, we are seen less as part of German society and are less able to feel part of it.”