Africa in Motion Film Festival (Edinburgh)

As the fifth edition of the Africa in Motion Film Festival (21 Oct to 5 Nov) goes into full swing, it is a great occasion to profile its founder and director, Lizelle Bisschoff of South Africa.

Lizelle founded the festival in 2006 while studying for her doctorate in African cinema. She earned her PhD in 2009 from the University of Stirling (Edinburgh), her dissertation entitled: Women in African Cinema: An aesthetic and thematic analysis of filmmaking by women in Francophone West Africa and Lusophone and Anglophone Southern Africa. At the same time scholar, she is also activist and advocate, wanting to “do something more practical to increase accessibility”.

In addition to a host of Internet venues to promote the festival, a short conversation with Lizelle on video is indicative of her intention to maximize the visibility of the festival and by extension African cinema. Lizelle talks about her passion for African cinema and scholarship and her commitment to promote African experiences through film.

The aim of the festival is to overcome “the under-representation and marginalisation of African Cinema, we believe that the best way to learn about Africa is to listen to African voices and to view representations created by Africans themselves.”

Links:

http://www.africa-in-motion.org.uk/