(Re)Discover Amina Barakat, Moroccan journalist and film critic

(Re)Discover Amina Barakat, Moroccan journalist and film critic

En Français (Source & Image): http://africine.org/personne/amina-barakat/16734

Amina Barakat, Moroccan film critic and journalist, received her training from the Higher Institute of Journalism in Rabat, audio-visual press program in 1984. From 1985 to 2003, she was a journalist for the daily Al Anbaa, the portal and magazine al Machhad from 2003 to 2005, and responsible for the internal bulletin of the Ministry of Communication from 2006 to 2008. In addition, she was consultant of communication to UNESCO, a permanent correspondent of the International Press Agency (IPS), and contributor to the rubric in Arabic, “Al Yaoum Athamen" for the Alam. 

Amina Barakat also collaborates with the Moroccan television production services, the French-language magazine Femmes du Maroc (Women of Morocco), the Nissae Al Maghreb magazine in Arabic. She collaborates with the Arabic-language daily Assahra Al Maghribiya, the francophone daily newspaper Aujourd'hui le Maroc, the Women's feature service. She is a member of the editorial staff of the website cinemagroupe.ps, an active member of the Arab-language website Cinémac, the African film critic website Africiné, among numerous other associative activities.

Several articles by Amina Barakat translated from French appear in the African Women in Cinema Blog:

Amina Barakat speaks with Azza El Hosseiny at the Khouribga Film Festival in Morocco (Africine) https://africanwomenincinema.blogspot.com/2023/11/amina-barakat-speaks-with-azza-el-hosseiny.html

Amina Barakat speaks with Marwa El Sharkawy at the Khouribga Film Festival in Morocco (Africine) https://africanwomenincinema.blogspot.com/2023/11/amina-barakat-speaks-with-marwa-el.html

Amina Barakat: Naissance de la Fédération panafricaine des festivals de cinéma et de l'audiovisuel | The Birth of the Pan-African Federation of Film and Audiovisual Festivals https://africanwomenincinema.blogspot.com/2023/08/federation-panafricaine-festivals-cinema-audiovisuel.html

Aida Bouya: une réalisatrice sur les traces de ses aïeuls hassanis | a filmmaker in the footsteps of her Hassani ancestors par/by Amina Barakat

https://africanwomenincinema.blogspot.com/2022/12/aida-bouya-une-realisatrice-sur-les-aieuls-hassanis.html

Compte-rendu de la 6ème édition du Festival International du Film de Femmes de Salé par Amina Barakat (Rabat)

http://africanwomenincinema.blogspot.com/2012/09/report-on-6th-edition-of-international.html

Asmae El Moudir: Filmmaking has been my dream since a child

https://africanwomenincinema.blogspot.com/2012/12/asmae-el-moudir-filmmaking-has-been-my.html

Aida Bouya, une réalisatrice sur les traces de ses aïeuls hassanis | a filmmaker in the footsteps of her Hassani ancestors par/by Amina Barakat (Africine.org)

Aida Bouya

une réalisatrice sur les traces de ses aïeuls hassanis

a filmmaker in the footsteps of her Hassani ancestors

par/by Amina Barakat

(Africine.org)

Aida Bouya, une réalisatrice sur les traces de ses aïeuls hassanis 

"Le cinéma est un mode d'expression qu'il faut exploiter dans le bon sens"

rédigé par Amina Barakat

publié le 14/12/2022

Aida Bouya, a filmmaker in the footsteps of her Hassani ancestors

"Cinema is a mode of expression that must be guided by common sense”

Interview by Amina Barakat

Published 14/12/2022

Translation from French by Beti Ellerson. African Women in Cinema Blog in collaboration with Africine.org. Image: africine.org

En Français: http://africine.org/entretien/aida-bouya-une-realisatrice-sur-les-traces-de-ses-aieuls-hassanis/15512

Filmmaker Aida Bouya is a born-and-bred Sahrwai from the regions of southern Morocco. On the strength of her deep-rooted expectations, she breaks the chains that confines her to the rites of a conservative society—to explore other universes. In so doing, she chooses a domain that takes her elsewhere. This universe is none other than the 7th art. Her first step towards this glimmering space was her participation in the 1st edition of the festival du patrimoine arabe (Arab heritage festival) which took place in 2020, in Cairo, Egypt.

Her objective of course, is to win the prize for the 1st oeuvre. A captivating documentary, informative and well developed, drawing from the specificities of the region of the Sahara of southern Morocco. From a selection of sixty-three films from several Arab countries, celebrating an Arab heritage that protects its identity and safeguards its history, her work was noteworthy.

Aida is one of the few Sahrawi women who has dared to go behind the camera, watching out for opportune moments to capture images specific to the Sahara, with all that distinguishes it. Employing her 3rd eye, she operates with sensitivity; at a time when the presence of women in the media space was still very reticent because of the mentality of a patriarchal society, which still believed in the difference between men and women, based on a sexist segregation. 

Le coussin de massage, her first documentary, attracted several festivals, which was a motivating factor that pushed her to continue to pursue a career in this area. 

To find out more about this filmmaker with the famous piece of colored fabric, a symbol of the clothing of the desert, Africiné asked her these few questions.

Why did you choose to go behind the camera, in a rather male-dominated profession, especially in a society such as the Sahara?

My choice is the result of an experience I had working in the media and my participation in various training sessions at the International Center for Journalists in Washington, DC. Afterwards, I received a prize concerning street children and single mothers, in an investigative survey program which deals with these kinds of situations that are only getting worse in the many societies weakened by poverty. Hence, my relationship with the camera has become a passion. Giving a sense of place to the ideas that germinate and circulate in my mind, I became increasingly interested in cinema, evolving into this wonderful magical space and decided to make it my profession.

Armed with a very strong personality which allows her to manage her life according to her own wishes, the image of the Sahrawi woman is unique. Do you have any red lines that should not be crossed when dealing with these subjects?

First, the Sahrawi woman is like all Moroccan women, except that she has a charisma that is particular to her, that sets her apart. She is highly respected and always has her say in the matter. She enjoys notoriety; she has a privileged place in the society where she lives and evolves as a mother, wife and active member. Hence, it is present in all areas, so why not cinema, even if it has only been recently adopted by the Sahrawis of the region. Moreover, I am impressed by its presence which prods me to go beyond the actual events in order to highlight its relationship with the sacred of the still conservative Sahrawi society, and to ensure respect for life and safeguard it from the reverberations that may come when dealing with taboo subjects.

Everywhere there are topics that attract the attention of social media, such as the circumcision of little girls, force-feeding [the practice of making women eat a lot of food, editor's note], divorce which makes women increasingly desirable. Do these subjects concern you, as a filmmaker, as a woman?

On the contrary, I think that to have the audacity to deal with these themes shows strength and credibility which gives a lot of importance and interest to the subject. Also, I prefer to have the freedom to deal with all that characterizes a society, whether positive or negative. Therefore, I believe that cinema is a mode of expression that must be guided by common sense.

What film genre are most attracted to most: fiction, documentary?

Currently what interests me the most is documentary filmmaking. Because I like the inspiration that I get from reality and the environment in which I evolve. In addition, it is a space very rich in materials and which helps me to enrich my creative capacities. The universe of the documentary is very vast and open, without the limitations of time or space. This allows me to work beyond the constraints that are imposed when having to comply with a rigid script and a well-defined cast.

How do you feel having received the award for the first oeuvre for your documentary Le coussin de massage?

It is an honor for me to receive this award. Especially since there was very strong competition. It gives me more energy to continue to create.

Do you think that international festivals contribute to the promotion of women's cinema?

Today, we notice that women's cinema is very present in festivals and very appreciated by stakeholders in the industry. The filmmakers benefit from meetings with professionals and can exchange their experiences. It is also a chance to show their work, discuss their ideas and alleviate any perceived difference between them and their colleagues in the field.

As a filmmaker do you believe in the notion of a woman’s cinema?

The important thing is that the woman is behind the camera, that she works in such a manner that she is able to defend her cause and be heard. So a woman’s cinema is there. I can only be optimistic on this point. And to be clear: I would say that a film cannot be released without the presence of the woman, whether in front of or behind the camera. 

Le coussin de massage | Leather Board

12’ - Morocco - 2017 - Documentary

Synopsis

Leather Board highlights the experiences of Salka, mother, widow, leather board maker. Which shares a day in her life, touching on many of the private and personal aspects that characterize Moroccan Saharan women.

Source and image: http://africine.org/film/leather-board-le-coussin-de-massage/23984

Watch Leather Board on Vimeo

Sahara Lab: Leather Board (Aida Bouya) from cohenimages on Vimeo.

https://vimeo.com/230022534

The graduation film Leather Board was produced by the Sahara Lab: a Moroccan educational and media NGO whose mission is to identify, encourage and train emerging film and media makers to tell their own stories about Morocco’s diverse, desert culture and its people from Ouarzazate to Dakhla, from Guelmim to Smara.

Artemisa Ferreira, interview with Cape Verdean filmmaker by Bassirou Niang (Africiné)

Artemisa Ferreira, young Cape Verdean filmmaker

"In Cape Verde, companies still do not have confidence in film projects"

Interview by Bassirou Niang, journalist at Africiné Magazine

Source: africine.org. Publ: 14/12/2022

Translated from French by Beti Ellerson, an African Women in Cinema Blog collaboration with Africine.org. 

Photo © Josiana Cardoso

En Français : http://africine.org/entretien/artemisa-ferreira-jeune-realisatrice-cap-verdienne/15513?

Artemisa Ferreira a young filmmaker who lives and works in Praia, Cape Verde, holds a Masters in Film and Television Directing. When she walked through the gates of the university her goal was not to fall into the world of cinema. However, that was her destiny. In retrospect, for her it was the best decision she could have made in her life. "I loved watching films, discussing them, reflecting on the how the scenes are put together. “On the first day of class I realized that I was where I needed to be.”

Talk about you film projects so far.

For my graduation project, I presented a short documentary called Identidade Repartida [in 2013]. It was more specifically a reportage that talks about the identity of the descendants of Cape Verdeans who were born in Portugal in order to better understand their experiences around identity and their true nationality. The majority of descendants of Cape Verdeans suffer from an identity problem. This led me to delve into the issue and carry out my final project for the Masters on the subject.

Identidade Repartida from artemisa ferreira on Vimeo

In addition, I made the 1-minute short, Oji (" Today ") [directed in 2015, receiving multi-awards], presented during the Oia festival in 2022. The inspiration for the film developed from the phenomenon of fake love relationships on Facebook. We say "I love you!" on Facebook, but once face to face, we ignore each other. In family relationships, there is distance, and strangely enough, it's like on social media where we can't create a real human connection.

And finally, I have just completed my first feature documentary [Os 47's - Depoimentos que ficaram] which relates the problems of drought and famine in Cape Verde in 1940. Drawing from the testimonies, it recounts the hardships that the people endured. Cape Verde lost around 40% of its population to famine in the 1940s. On 14 October 2022, the film premiered in Praia.

Film projects in progress? 

I'm working on my next documentary which focuses on the singer and diplomat Renato Cardoso. He contributed to the ascendancy of Cape Verdean music, but he died in circumstances that have never been elucidated. Currently, I am in the process of looking for funding.

I am also writing a screenplay for a fiction with a strong psychological dimension, since it addresses the duality with the intimate. In addition to directing, screenwriting is another passion.

Do you work in partnership with other directors from foreign countries?

Not yet, but I plan to do so in the near future.

Do you have difficulties in carrying out your profession as a filmmaker?

Not at all ! I love being a filmmaker, and when you love something, the difficulties are just details for you. Filmmaking allows one to duplicate oneself, but also create a new world, denounce what is not right, to educate, to raise awareness, and I like that a lot. The difficulty I may have is not being able to get the funding needed in time to complete my work. In Cape Verde, at the moment, we cannot live from cinema. You have to find additional activities to earn a living.

Exactly, how are you able to obtain funding?

I send requests everywhere, including to sponsors. All the films I've made so far, I've made with my salary. I have even accumulated debt that I must repay. Now, the Ministry of Culture and Creative Industry has created the NuNac (The National Center for Cinema of Cape Verde) which will be able to give financial assistance to projects. For the production of my documentary Os 47's - Depoimentos que ficaram (" 1940s, the testimonies that remained "), my friends assisted me as best they could. As I had no funding, I did all the production work (sound, image, post-production); which can be the cause of technical shortcomings, especially in sound quality.

What is you view of cinema in Cape Verde?

In Cape Verde, we are at the beginning stages of our cinema and we do not have the technical conditions that allow us to do exactly what we want to do.

The biggest problem for cinema in Cape Verde is to find funding. Companies still don't have confidence in film projects. They still don't see the value of cinema or what can be gained from it. On the other hand, we have the physical and nature settings for filming. Many young university graduates are beginning to take their first steps in cinema. But, the conditions for professional fulfillment must also be there.

There is some consolation in that we do have some international film festivals in our country, which help to draw attention to local production. Also, many of our colleagues have already started working on international co-productions. And all this demonstrates the value of the work that is done on site. I think the production and financing conditions will be met soon and this will have a positive impact on the quality of the films.

Interview conducted by Bassirou Niang

Association des Femmes du Cinéma et de l'Audiovisuel au Togo (Afeciat) - Rencontre de partage des femmes cinéastes | A sharing space for women filmmakers 23 Dec 2022

Association des Femmes du Cinéma et de l'Audiovisuel au Togo (Afeciat)

Women's Association of Cinema and Audiovisual of Togo.

 Rencontre de partage des femmes cinéastes

A sharing space for women filmmakers

23 Dec 2022

Plate-forme des actualités de l'Association des Femmes du Cinéma et de l'Audiovisuel au Togo. C'est un creuset de talents, rêves et visions afin de affirmer dans l'industrie cinématographique naissante du pays.

A platform of current events of the Women's Association of Cinema and Audiovisual of Togo. It's a melting pot of talent, dreams and visions affirming the country's evolving film industry.

Women Digital Resilience Training - Association of Media Women in Kenya

Women Digital Resilience Training

in conjunction with Association of Media Women in Kenya, DW Akademie, German Cooperation

13-15 December 2022

DW Akademie has kickstarted a three-day training for journalists, human rights defenders, and women leaders in advancing the resilience of women in online spaces under the @WomenAtWebEA project.

Panel members:
Lorna Sempele, Moderator, Communications Consultant
Patience Nyange, Executive Director, Association of Media Women in Kenya (AMWIK)
Josephine Mirembe, Communications Consultant
Robi Koki, Communications and Media Expert

In Kenya, DW Akademie works with local partners to combat hate speech, promote accurate and independent reporting, and help make media house financially sustainable - especially in times of the pandemic.

Olive Nwosu: Egúngún (Masquerade) Dakar Court 2022

Olive Nwosu: Egúngún (Masquerade) Dakar Court 2022

Nigeria/United Kingdom - Fiction - 15 minutes - 2021

Synopsis
In search of healing, a young woman returns to Nigeria, to her ancestral village. To bury her mother. There she finds a woman, an old love—that is rekindled.

Olive Nwosu, about Egúngún in her own words:
Egúngún came from my need to examine my own feelings about the concept of “home”. When traveling, I lived under myriad identities, and I am tormented by this recurrent question: this perception of different lives lived, and the possibilities of lives. How fate leads us on a single path, excluding other versions of ourselves: there is undeniably, the injustice, the randomness, and the beauty of it all. It corresponds to the disguise of the Egúngún, when the ancestors return into a subconscious space to remind us of their existence, and in so doing we come face to face with a great deal of subliminal things, which we don't really know—the wounds of the past, the fractures of the present—so that we can confront them. In this sense, I would say that the film is a meditation on memory, identity, duty. About the many versions of ourselves that haunt us and heal us. And I hope, that by some sort of acceptance—of the Past, of the Self, of the Ego—after so much time spent in camouflage, that one can now feel. [Translation from French. https://clermont-filmfest.org/egungun/]

JOURNEY(S): A docupoem anthology by Saaret E. Yoseph

JOURNEY(S)

A docupoem anthology by Saaret E. Yoseph

https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_JlHoRLwqRwav5oVBzyRx5A

JOURNEY(S) is a narrative trip between distant sister cities—Addis Ababa, Ethiopia & Washington, DC. The experimental docupoem anthology combines interview excerpts of oral history with original poetry to explore identity, migration, memory and the meaning of “home.” 

Inspired by poet Ntozake Shange’s acclaimed choreopoem For Colored Girls, director/producer Saaret E. Yoseph sifts through her own cultural biography, creating a short-form audio series that follows the stories of Ethiopian women, who arrived in the District prior to or during the 1980s. 

An eclectic collage of language and movement, each episode of JOURNEY(S) will be roughly 5-8 minutes long and paired with a video portrait dedicated to the Black feminine gaze. Visual source materials will be spliced and reimagined, including advertisements, newspaper headlines and pictorials from the 60s, 70s and 80s, ripped from the pages of history and transformed for the anthology, in order to speak to the collective experiences of Black transnational women across the African diaspora.

Source: Zoom

Irène Tassembédo: La Traversée (The Crossing) Prix Clément Tapsoba 2022 (Burkina Faso)

Irène Tassembédo

La Traversée (The Crossing)

Prix Clément Tapsoba 2022 (Burkina Faso)

Irène Tassembédo is the laureate of the Prix Clément Tapsoba 2022, presented on 23 November in Burkina Faso, for her film La Traversée (The Crossing).  It received the Special Jury Mention, in the Perspectives Selection at the 27th edition of FESPACO in 2021.

Irène Tassembédo
La Traversée (The Crossing)
Burkina Faso
Feature - 111min - 2021

Synopsis
Djibi returns to Burkina Faso after working for ten years in Italy—with pockets full and a heavy secret. Having contacted a group of young people from his neighborhood in Ouaga, whose only intention is to emigrate to Europe, he designs a secret project to prepare them for the voyage, which he himself has undertaken. A physically and mentally intensive preparation, quasi-military. Those who enroll in the program, whose profiles and backgrounds portray the social and cultural realities of the current generation of African youth, will see their lives take a new turn as a result of this very unique coaching. Djibi's objective is, in fact, to take each of them on an initiatory journey leading to personal fulfillment, and ultimately reversing the emigration project.

Irène Tassembédo is a choreographer and filmmaker.

Conference de/by Pascale Obolo - cinéaste, directrice de la foire (fair) de l’Edition Africaine de Dakar

Conference de Pascale Obolo, cinéaste,
directrice de la foire de l’Edition Africaine de Dakar

See English translation below

- Mercredi 30 novembre 2022 – 18h
- Auditorium de l’EESAB-site de Rennes
- Conférence ouverte à toustes, sans réservation, dans la limite des places disponibles

https://www.eesab.fr/blog/pascale-obolo/

Pascale Obolo est cinéaste, rédactrice en chef de la revue Afrikadaa et commissaire indépendante. Née à Yaoundé, Cameroun, elle étudie au conservatoire Libre du cinéma Français en section réalisation, puis obtient un master de cinéma à l’université de Paris VIII, section cinéma expérimental. Ses premiers films documentent le début du mouvement Hip Hop et la scène parisienne graffiti.

Cinéaste féministe, elle a également porté son regard sur la place de la femme dans les milieux artistiques. Ses films ont été montrés et primés dans de nombreux festivals. Sa démarche artistique de cinéaste est souvent issue des arts plastiques et numériques, rompant délibérément avec les codes narratifs traditionnels; les codes visuels ou clichés que l’on a de l’Afrique et de sa culture.

Activiste son travail interroge les mémoires, l’identité, l’exil, l’invisibilité. Dans la construction de ses objets filmique, elle expérimente différentes formes où le réel s’entremêle à la fiction.

Passionnée par les arts visuels, Pascale Obolo produit et réalise « des objets filmiques » car elle refuse d’être cataloguée dans un genre cinématographique. Dans mes récits, j’interroge les mémoires et les répercussions qu’elles ont dans nos sociétés contemporaines : “Réfléchir sur le devenir de héritage des mémoires pour mieux appréhender notre société et l’avenir.”

Certains de ses travaux ont été exposés au Musée du Montparnasse, au Musée du Quai Branly, au Musée du Centre Pompidou, Manège de Dakar, au Mac Val, la fondation Kadist, la fondation David Roberts…

Son film Calypso Rose the lioness of the jungle a remporté le prix Yennega d’argent en mars 2013 au FESPACO (Festival panafricain du cinéma et de la télévision de Ouagadougou) dans la section documentaire.

Ses derniers travaux questionnent les archives à travers la construction de récits historiques dans une perspective postcoloniale, autour des représentations visuelles et culturelles de l’histoire politique et économique, à travers la photographie, la vidéo, et la performance. Ses oeuvres s’appuient sur un processus de recherche interdisciplinaire, aussi diverses que la danse, la musique, littérature, le film, et les sciences humaines.

Pascale Obolo est à l’origine de la structure d’Afrikadaa Lab : une revue d’art contemporain, un laboratoire intellectuel et artistique qui a pour vocation de créer une dynamique de création à Paris et dans les territoires africains et diasporiques. Afrikadaa est aussi un outil-média pour une meilleure visibilité des oeuvres, offrant la possibilité d’un processus curatorial et d’un espace de visibilité, ouvert sur les expériences qui renforcent la place des artistes issues de la diaspora dans l’agenda artistique mondial.

Elle dirige aussi l’African Art Book Fair (AABF) / une foire d’édition indépendante mettant l’accent sur les pratiques éditoriales et soutenant les pratiques de publications qualitatives et uniques. 

***

Lecture by Pascale Obolo, cineaste, director of the Edition Africaine de Dakar fair

- Wednesday 30 November, 2022 – 18h
- The auditorium of the EESAB-Rennes site
- Conference is open to all,  no reservation necessary, within the limit of available space

Pascale Obolo is a filmmaker, independent curator and editor-in-chief of Afrikadaa magazine. Born in Yaoundé, Cameroon, she studied directing at the conservatoire Libre du cinéma Français, after which she obtained a master's in cinema at the Université de Paris VIII specializing in experimental cinema. Her early films document the beginning of the Hip Hop movement and the Parisian graffiti scene.

As a feminist cineaste, she has a particular focus on women’s place with artistic space. Her films have been shown and received awards at numerous festivals. Her artistic approach as a filmmaker often draws from the plastic and digital arts, deliberately breaking with traditional narrative codes; the visual codes or clichés that are often attributed to Africa and its culture.

As activist, her work problematizes issues around memory, identity, exile, invisibility. In the construction of her filmic objects, she experiments with different forms where reality intermixes with fiction.

Passionate about the visual arts, Pascale Obolo produces and directs “film objects”, refusing to be categorized within a cinematographic genre. “In my stories, I interrogate practices of memory and the repercussions it has in our contemporary societies: hence, reflecting on the evolution of the heritage of memory in order to better understand our society and the future.”

Some of her works have been exhibited at the Musée du Montparnasse, the Musée du Quai Branly, the Musée du Center Pompidou, Manège de Dakar, the Mac Val, the Kadist foundation, the David Roberts foundation…

In 2013, her film Calypso Rose, the Lioness of the Jungle won the silver Yennenga prize for documentary at FESPACO (The Panafrican Film and Television Festival of Ouagadougou).

Her latest works problematize the archive through the construction of historical narratives from a postcolonial perspective, around visual and cultural representations of political and economic history, through photography, video, and performance. Her works are informed by an interdisciplinary research process, encompassing dance, music, literature, film, and the humanities.

Pascale Obolo is the creator of the Afrikadaa Lab: a contemporary art magazine, an intellectual and artistic laboratory which aims to create a creative dynamic in Paris and African and diasporic spaces. Afrikadaa is also a media tool to enhance the visibility of works of art. Hence, offering the possibility of a curatorial process and a visible space, allowing access to experiences that reinforce the place of artists from the diaspora within the global artistic agenda. 

She also operates the African Art Book Fair (AABF) / an independent publishing fair which puts a spotlight on editorial practices while supporting qualitative and distinctive publishing practices.

Nosipho Dumisa-Ngoasheng : "Blood & Water" series released on Netflix 25 November

Nosipho Dumisa-Ngoasheng

Blood & Water

series released on Netflix

25 November

As another year begins at Parkhurst, Puleng and Fiks search for a lost loved one — but their perseverance could be putting them in grave danger.

A dark new force has entered the lives of our Parkhurst faves and their lives will never be the same again. Friendships will be pushed, lovers tested and not everyone will make it out alive. #BloodAndWater season 3 premieres November 25, only on Netflix.

Nosipho Dumisa-Ngoasheng of South Africa is a writer and director and co-founder of Gambit Films  

International Images Film Festival for Women (IIFF) - Women at Crossroads 24 - 27 November 2022

International Images Film Festival for Women (IIFF)

Women at Crossroads

24 - 27 November 2022

http://www.icapatrust.org/iiff_harare/

IIFF 2022 CATALOGUE 

http://www.icapatrust.org/IIFF2022Catalogue.pdf

Founded in 2002, IIFF is an annual festival held in Harare that is an exhibition platform for films that portray a woman in at least one major role, thus providing role modelling for African women to observe other women in film being active, displaying agency and impacting positively on their own lives and communities. The festival is hosted each year by the Institute of Creative Arts for Progress in Africa (ICAPA) Trust.

ANNOUNCEMENT
ICAPA Trust's African Women Filmmaker's Hub is excited to announce the 19th edition of the International Images Film Festival for Women (IIFF). For this event, IIFF has partnered with the German women's film festival, IFFF, held annually in Dortmund and Cologne. IFFF is interested to cultivate contacts on the African continent and to activate these contacts through concrete projects. IIFF in Zimbabwe and IFFF in Germany recognize the many artistic, content-related, and political intersections between the two festivals.

Ayana O'Shun: Le mythe de la femme noire | The Myth of the Black Woman - Rencontres internationales du documentaire de Montreal

Ayana O'Shun

Le mythe de la femme noire

The Myth of the Black Woman

Rencontres internationales du documentaire de Montreal 

Panorama - États du monde

22 et 25 novembre, 2022

https://ridm.ca/fr/films/le-mythe-de-la-femme-noire

Afin de mieux déconstruire les stéréotypes associés à l’image de la femme noire, la cinéaste Ayana O’Shun a passé en entrevue de nombreuses femmes afin qu’elles racontent l’historique de ces stéréotypes et partagent les incidences frustrantes et souffrantes qu’ils ont occasionné dans leur vie. L’imagerie ayant contribué à l’omniprésence nuisible de ces stéréotypes proviendrait de l’époque de l’esclavage et s’immiscerait encore dans la représentation médiatique actuelle de la femme noire contribuant ainsi à la banalisation révoltante de comportements racistes et sexistes. Le mythe de la femme noire prend la forme d’une enquête grâce à ces multiples témoignages et diverses images d’archives, tout en offrant un portrait de femmes attachantes, passionnées et révoltées.

***

In order to better deconstruct the stereotypes associated with the image of the black woman, filmmaker Ayana O'Shun interviewed many women thus tracing the evolution of these stereotypes. They share the frustrating and painful experiences that they have endured as a result. The imagery that has contributed to the damaging effects resulting from the ubiquity of these stereotypes dates back to the period of slavery continuing to the present day media representation of black women, thus contributing to the reprehensible trivialization of racist and sexist behavior. Drawing from multiple testimonies and diverse archival images, the exploration into the myth of the black woman takes the form of an investigation, while offering a portrait of engaging, passionate and rebellious women. — Editorial team (Translation from French)