11 October | Octobre : International Day of the Girl Child | Journée internationale de la fille : A Focus on Related Films by African Women

UN : International Day of the Girl Child | Journée internationale de la fille 

The day aims to highlight and address the needs and challenges girls face, while promoting girls' empowerment and the fulfillment of their human rights.

Cette Journée vise à mettre en lumière les besoins des filles et à répondre aux défis auxquels elles font face. Cette Journée promeut également l'autonomisation des filles et l'exercice de leurs droits fondamentaux.

The girl-child as main protagonist in a selection of recent films by African women  

La petite fille comme protagoniste principale dans une sélection de films récents par les réalisatrices africaines

Source: African Women in Cinema Blog 

[English]

The filmmakers' message of tolerance and universal humanism comes through the children…child characters are represented as the hope for the desirable gender relations. (Sr. Dr. Dominica Dipio)

In the selection of films that follow, the girl-child plays the main protagonist. This representation of the girl character is an empowering practice as she deals with complex issues regarding her family and the world around her: Five-year-old Nadia lives in the slums of Casablanca where she is surrounded by a wall that separates her from the rest of the city; Elikia, is a five-year old with albinism, which is considered a stereotype by her neighbors; nine-year-old Zeinab opposes moving to Canada because she hates the snow; ten-year-old Mouna who copes with the death of her mother, almost never separates from her doll Ashia; ten-year-old Godelive attends a Catholic convent school in the Congo. However, the strict western education collides with her own memories of the traditions of her grandmother; eight-year-old Aida attempts to ease the suffering of her mother after her father brings a second wife into the household; after being accused of being a witch and placed in a "witches camp", 9-year-old Shula longs for freedom. Seven-year-old Aya lives with her Salafist parents, Mariem and Youssef. For fear of being banished by his Salafist community, Youssef is obliged to impose the wearing of Niqab on his wife. One day, Aya commits an act that will disrupt forever the fate of her family. Casablanca of the late 1970s. Eleven-year-old Hiba is fascinated with the cinema at a time in the history of Morocco where this space is still closed to women. Despite her mother’s interdiction, in order to enter the movie house, Hiba is ready to sell the object of her other passion, her books. Eleven-year-old pre-teen Amy discovers in her new elementary school a group of dancers called: “Les Mignonnes”. Fascinated, she begins a sexy dance, the twerk, hoping to join their band and escape a family upheaval.

[Français]

Le message de tolérance et d'humanisme universel des cinéastes passe par les enfants ... les personnages d'enfants sont représentés comme l'espoir des relations de genre souhaitables. (Sr. Dr. Dominica Dipio)

Dans une sélection de films récents ci-dessous, la petite fille joue le rôle principal. Cette représentation cinématographique nous montre une image forte et valorisante de la petite fille, lorsqu’elle confronte des questions complexes concernant sa famille et le monde qui l’entoure : Mouna, 10 ans, qui fait face à la mort de sa mère, ne se sépare presque jamais de sa poupée Aisha ; Elikia, 5 ans, est atteinte d’albinisme que son voisinage considère comme un stéréotype ; Nadia, 5 ans, vit dans les bidonvilles de Casablanca où elle est entourée d'un mur qui la sépare du reste de la ville ; Godelive, 10 ans, vit dans un pensionnat catholique en Congo y recevant une éducation occidentale. Mais le souvenir de sa grand-mère s’interpose ; Zeinab, qui a neuf ans, ne veux pas vivre au Canada parce qu’elle n’aime pas la neige; Aida, 8 ans, tente de soulager la souffrance de sa mère après que le père amène une seconde femme à la maison; Shula, qui a neuf ans, accusée de sorcellerie et mise dans un camp de sorcières, rêve de liberté. Aya, 7 ans, vit avec ses parents salafistes, Mariem et Youssef. Par peur d'être banni par sa communauté salafiste, Youssef est contraint d'imposer le port du Niqab à sa femme. Un jour, Aya commet un acte qui bouleversera à jamais le destin de sa famille. Casablanca, fin des années 70. Hiba, âgée de 11 ans, est fascinée par le cinéma à un moment de l'histoire du Maroc où ce lieu est encore fermé à la gente féminine. Malgré l'interdiction de sa mère, elle est prête à revendre l'objet de son autre passion, ses livres, pour y entrer. Amy, 11 ans, rencontre un groupe de danseuses appelé : « Les Mignonnes ». Fascinée, elle s’initie à une danse sensuelle, dans l’espoir d’intégrer leur bande et de fuir un bouleversement familial.

 

Maïmouna Doucouré: « Mignonnes » selected at | sélectionné à Sundance 2020

Ashia by/de Françoise Ellong Cameroon |Cameroun)

A Place for Myself | Une place pour moi by/de Marie Clémentine Dusabejambo (Rwanda)

 

Aya by/de Moufida Fedhila (Tunisia | Tunisie)

Behind the Wall | Derrière le mur by/de Karima Zoubir (Morocco | Maroc)

I am not a witch | Je ne suis pas une sorcière by/de Rungano Nyoni (Zambia | Zambie)

 

Les Mignonnes | Cuties by/de Maïmouna Doucouré (France-Senegal)

Maman(s) by/de Maïmouna Doucouré (France-Senegal)

Riad de mes rêves | Riad of my dreams by/de Zineb Tamourt (Morocco | Maroc)

Soeur Oyo | Sister Oyo by/de Monique Mbeka Phoba (Belgium-DRC)

Zaineb Hates the Snow | Zaineb n’aime pas la neige by/de Kaouther Ben Hania (Tunisia |Tunisie)

Festival féministe sénégalais - Jotaay Ji - au Musée de la Femme Henriette Bathily - 27-29 septembre 2024 avec une soirée ciné

Festival féministe sénégalais

Jotaay Ji

au Musée de la Femme Henriette Bathily

27-29 septembre 2024

avec une soirée ciné

https://www.facebook.com/CollectifJama

Waxtaan, des panels, des ateliers créatifs, des projections de films, des activités centrées sur le bien-être, etc.

Aux habituels espaces non mixtes réservés aux femmes s’ajouteront, cette année, des espaces réservés aux adolescentes pour discuter de préoccupations qui les concernent plus directement.

Des espaces innovants seront également dédiés à des discussions féministes sur la construction sociale des masculinités."

Les membres du Collectif JAMA
 

Soirée ciné: La boxeuse de Iman Djionne; Grace de Johanna Makabi; Laundry Day de Johanna Makabi

Focus: Nadia El Fani - Programa de Cortos Nadia El Fani - Mostra de València Cinema del Mediterrani - 24 oct - 3 nov 2024

Focus: Nadia El Fani
Programa de Cortos Nadia El Fani

Mostra de València
Cinema del Mediterrani
24 oct - 3 nov 2024
https://lamostradevalencia.com/edicion-2024/focus-2024/

Selección de trabajos de Nadia El Fani en formato cortometraje.

 

Incluye
«Pour le plaisir»
«Du côté des femmes leaders»
«Tanitez-moi»
«Tant qu’il y aura de la pelloche»
«Unissez-vous, il n’est jamais trop tard!»

Seuls en Scène 2024 presents Voyage of the Sable Venus by Robin Coste Lewis read by Alice Diop

Seuls en Scène 2024 presents Voyage of the Sable Venus by Robin Coste Lewis read by Alice Diop

Princeton Lewis Center of the Arts
21 September 2024

At Seuls en Scène, Alice Diop will read the text of Voyage of the Sable Venus in a work-in-progress version of a performance scheduled to premiere at Festival d’Automne/MC93 Bobigny in Fall 2025.

https://arts.princeton.edu/events/seuls-en-scene-2024-presents-voyage-of-the-sable-venus-by-robin-coste-lewis-read-by-alice-diop/

Image: Lewis Center of Arts

Oscar 2025 : Dahomey de/Mati Diop représentera/will represent le Sénégal pour/for Best International Feature Film category

1

Mati Diop

Dahomey

Dahomey de Mati Diop représentera le Sénégal à l'Oscar 2025 du meilleur film international

Dahomey by Mati Diop selected to represent Senegal for the Best International Feature Film category at the 2025 Oscars

 

Description

Novembre 2021, vingt-six trésors royaux du Dahomey s’apprêtent à quitter Paris pour être rapatriés vers leur terre d’origine, devenue le Bénin. Avec plusieurs milliers d’autres, ces œuvres furent pillées lors de l’invasion des troupes coloniales françaises en 1892. Mais comment vivre le retour de ces ancêtres dans un pays qui a dû se construire et composer avec leur absence ? Tandis que l’âme des œuvres se libère, le débat fait rage parmi les étudiants de l’université d’Abomey Calavi.

November 2021, twenty-six royal treasures of Dahomey prepare to leave Paris to be returned to their land of origin, Benin. In 1892, with several thousands of others, these oeuvres were pillaged during the invasion by French colonial troops. How then will the return of these ancestors, to a country which has had to reconstruct and rebuild itself since their absence, be received? While the soul of these oeuvres frees itself, the issue is hotly debated among the students at the University of Abomey Calavi.

 

Nadine Otsobogo, Filmmaker Make Up Artist is a featured speaker at GLF Africa 2024: Greening the African Horizon

Nadine Otsobogo

Filmmaker and Make Up Artist

a featured speaker at GLF Africa 2024:

Greening the African Horizon

https://events.globallandscapesforum.org/africa-2024/

 

She is also founding director of the Festival du Film de Masuku - Nature et environnement - Film Festival of Masuku - Nature and Environment in Gabon.

 

Also see:

 Nadine Otsobogo - Tout est lié | It’s all connected - Gabon
https://africanwomenincinema.blogspot.com/2023/09/nadine-otsobogo-tout-est-lie-its-all-connected.html

Nadine Otsobogo crée le Festival du Film de Masuku - Nature et environnement |  Nadine Otsobogo creates the Film Festival of Masuku - Nature and Environment (Gabon)
https://africanwomenincinema.blogspot.com/2013/08/nadine-otsobogo-cree-le-festival-du.html

(Re)Discover Nadine Otsobogo
https://africanwomenincinema.blogspot.com/2011/05/la-parole-nadine-otsobogo.html

Cine Fem Fest - The African Film and Research Festival - Call for Applications for a Writing and Creation Workshop

CINE FEM FEST

The African Film and Research Festival

Call for Applications for a Writing and Creation Workshop: Intersections: Genre(S), Art and Action-Research

This writing workshop, which will be held in the last trimester of 2024, will bring together a group of around fifteen carefully selected participants of artists, political decision-makers and researchers who will work together to produce artistic and/or academic works that shake up the established order in terms of knowledge production based on rigorously documented empirical data or on artistic works. The week-long writing workshop aims to bring together teachers, researchers, feminist activists and artists to produce a collective output.

Deadline September 2, 2024. 

For full details go to: https://cinefemfest.com

WildTrack Newsletter 2024 - Issue 1.24 published by the Women Filmmakers of Zimbabwe

The WILDTRACK NEWSLETTER

published by the Women Filmmakers of Zimbabwe (WFOZ) is accessible on the ICAPA TRUST website

 

Contents:

- Trailer IIFF 2024

- IIFF 2024 Takes over the city again

- Elevating Women’s Voices: Winning the WorldWomanShero Award

- ICAPA, OPAC & SWIFT sign historic MoU

- ICAPA Trust hosts prominent Scriptwriting Workshop in Harare

- Throwback: the International Images Film Festival for Women 2023 Reviews

 

Click here to view Wild Track newsletter

Global Cinema Meets Female Empowerment At IIFF2024 - Harare, Zimbabwe - PRESS RELEASE

Global Cinema Meets Female Empowerment at IIFF2024

PRESS RELEASE

Harare, Zimbabwe — 6 August 2024  

 

ICAPA Trust is thrilled to announce its highly anticipated annual event, the International Images Film Festival for Women (IIFF) 2024, set to run in Harare from August 23 to August 31, 2024, under the theme "Women of the Future."

 

The festival will take place at prominent venues across Harare, including the National Gallery of Zimbabwe, B2C Nexus Batanai Mall, Alliance Francaise, Dzivarasekwa Community Hall 1, and Hatcliffe Community Centre Hall. Screenings will be held daily from 9 AM to 5 PM, showcasing an exceptional lineup of films that explore the dynamic and multifaceted experiences of women from different cultures and backgrounds. 

 

 

IIFF 2024 features a rich variety of international cinema, with films spanning continents and genres, namely:


 

Tiger stripes – Malaysia


A place at the operating table – USA, Zimbabwe

Goodbye Julia – Sudan


Daughter of Rage – Nicaragua, Mexico

June Again – Australia


Mamifera – Spain


Mambar Pierrette – Cameroon


Banel and Adama – Senegal


Are you there God? It’s me, Margaret – USA

Our Father, the Devil – France


4K US – Zimbabwe


Baada Ya Masika – Tanzania
 

In an interview, ICAPA Trust founding director, Tsitsi Dangarembga, announced that this year’s festival introduces new categories to honor outstanding cinematic contributions across a wider scale. She gave an interesting insight into these categories saying, “The New Man category is for stories about men and how they interact with women, while the World View category recognizes films that depict how Africa views the world.” She further highlighted that the new Best Zimbabwean Film category is set to celebrate exceptional local cinematic talent.

 

IIFF continues on its mission to empower and elevate women's voices in the film industry, offering a platform for emerging and established filmmakers to share their unique stories and perspective. With its diverse program and new awards, the festival underscores its commitment to fostering a global dialogue about the roles and impact of women in the future.

 

ICAPA Trust is a renowned organization dedicated to promoting the arts and supporting creative expression in Zimbabwe. Through initiatives like the International Images Film Festival for Women, ICAPA Trust seeks to amplify voices and perspectives that contribute to a richer, more inclusive cultural landscape in Africa and beyond.

 

Join us in celebrating the groundbreaking work of women filmmakers and exploring the future through their eyes at the International Images Film Festival for Women 2024!

***

The International Images Film Festival For Women (IIFF) 2024 Catalogue - Harare, Zimbabwe
Follow the link to download the catalogue (23.4mb) on the right column of the page:
https://www.icapatrust.org/news/iiff-2024/

“Neo in Nomansland” (Women in African Animation)

 “Neo in Nomansland”

(Women in African Animation)

 

Description (LithaFlora African Botanicals)

Neo is on a quest to reconnect with herself and the land.  Who and what she meets along the way will inform, entertain and inspire.

 

Created as an output of our second-year running, 2D professional internship at LithaFlora African Botanicals, this animated ebook has been designed and created, to deliver the confluence of indigenous #afrofuturistic storytelling, health & wellness, ecological conservation and cultural preservation.

 

"Indigeneity & Biomimicry in African Animation", is a 2.5 month highly demanding, fully remote and online programme targeting early career female animation professionals, in Africa.

 

Follow link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xxg49cWkeQI&list=PLI0AOfBJir0VFOG_3bsbhMkgAx9R2Hide

Alice Diop filmmaker-sociologist-activist : «Nous, on vote» (We're voting)

 

Alice Diop filmmaker-sociologist-activist : 

«Nous, on vote» (We're voting)

As a racialized person facing this catastrophe, I speak so that an experience, personal and singular, can be heard. I speak so that our words can exist. In this situation of unrest, what helped me was to confront head on the program of the National Rally. I read it completely. I took notes in a journal to develop ideas to engage in this struggle. The extreme right in power is not only a moral discomfort but a veritable existential fear...for people like me it a question of life or death--Alice Diop

 

Alice Diop filmmaker-sociologist-activist, whose films interrogate the social, political, ethnic fabric of French society, has always aimed her camera at the peripheries of French communities. In response to the prospects of an extreme right in power, she has launched the collective «Nous, on vote» (we're voting).

 

Friends, artists, cultural workers, a group with one objective: mobilize the youth in working-class neighborhoods who frown on voting, hence a high level of abstentionism. Her objective is to encourage residents of these neighborhoods to vote in the legislative elections on June 30 and July 7 in France. "It's a question of life or death."

Source and image: Libération, 26 juin 2024

https://www.liberation.fr/societe/alice-diop-lextreme-droite-au-pouvoir-ce-nest-pas-un-inconfort-moral-mais-une-peur-reelle-la-vie-ou-la-mort-20240625_4RD2CWX3Z5CVJOAUQHHSIDPHKM/

Closeup: The Africas/Diasporas of Women in the Evolution of a TransAfrican Film Practice and Critical Inquiry curated by Beti Ellerson - Black Camera: An International Film Journal 15. 2 (Spring 2024)

Closeup: The Africas/Diasporas of Women in the Evolution of a TransAfrican Film Practice and Critical Inquiry 

curated by Beti Ellerson
Black Camera: An International Film Journal

 15. 2 (Spring 2024)
https://doi.org/10.2979/blc.00014

https://muse.jhu.edu/issue/52661

Excerpted from introduction:

The objectives of the Close-Up, The Africas/Diasporas of Women in the Evolution of a TransAfrican Film Practice and Critical Inquiry: to recover, to chronicle, to affirm, to reimagine even, African/Diasporan women’s cinematic world-making, indeed self-making—envisioning the manners in which they devise, create, make, a space, a universe, a domain, a world; within which they may tell/relate their stories—storytelling as a project of world-making through cinema.

The Close-Up asks questions regarding the tenets of an African/Diasporan cinematic practice/tradition shaped by women: its beginnings, the forces that compelled, facilitated and informed it, the requisite approaches needed to formulate it, and the propositions on which to explore its cultural, political, and social manifestations.

The title “The Africas/Diasporas of Women in the Evolution of a TransAfrican Film Practice and Critical Inquiry” calls attention to the multiplicity of locations, providing a place for the explication of African/diasporic histories (historical and new Diasporas), as well as an elaboration of the peregrinations as well as the negotiation of hybrid, indeed symbiotic, identities of so many of these women.

The Close-Up comes together under myriad themes, in order to draw from the intersectional, multifarious aspects of women’s transAfrican film practice, histories and critical inquiry.

“(Re)imagining cinematic histories of Africa: African women, cinema and the tale of Kadidia Pâté”, offers a prelude of sorts, relating the story of Kadidia Pâté’s first experience with cinema, as a colonial subject in Mali in 1908, and later in 1934 when she first sets foot in a movie theater, during which the specifics of her engagement with cinema unfolds, related by her son, the inimitable griot, storyteller-historian Amadou Hampâté Bâ.

The introductory essay, “Women’s transAfrican cinematic practice and activism: Mapping the trajectory of an African women’s cinematic consciousness,” conceptualizes the transAfrican nature of women’s cinematic practice and critical inquiry. In so doing, it traces key historical, political and cultural movements of the twentieth century that stimulated the artistic and intellectual sensibilities of the trailblazers who set the course moving forward. The discussion of these pioneering women—several of which are featured in this section—puts into focus the multiple environments that shaped their choices, and offered the requisite context in which to study, work, live and imagine future worlds for themselves and Africas/Diasporas.

“Building a legacy: archiving, curating, disseminating, producing, preserving, African-diasporic cinematic experiences,” brings together a discursive profile of cultural workers who have as mission, to build a legacy by creating, archiving, disseminating, curating, preserving, the collective experiences of cinematic Africas/Diasporas as well as to uphold its oral traditions through visual storytelling.

“Alternative Discourses: theorizing lived experiences in African women’s cinematic practice, meaning-making and shaping of knowledge,” draws its main heading from the words of Togolese international lawyer-filmmaker, Anne-Laure Folly Reimann, who describes the dialogue of the women in her films as “alternative discourses”: beyond the analysis of things, they live them. This appropriately applies as well to the women in front of the screen, as scholars, critics, organizers, advocates, activists and behind the camera as filmmakers. The women presented in this segment, work at the intersection of critical meaning-making and the cinematic practice of counter-hegemonic production of knowledge.

“Mediating diasporic cinematic experiences and practice” probes African women’s cultural identity and social location as diasporic experience. Thus, the section explores the ways that they grapple with exilic, traveling identities in their cinematic practice, research and analysis. It examines as well the multiple ways that “the duty of memory” plays out in the films and visual projects of the women selected to represent this segment. The painful question: Do they remember us? gives rise to the emotional reconnecting needed “to no longer feel hurt” by the tear of separation from dislocation during the trans-Atlantic slave trade and enslavement of Africans in the Americas. The Sankofa proverb: “it is not taboo to go back and retrieve what you have forgotten or lost”, becomes the leitmotif of so many of the stories of Africans who have left and seek to return, whatever the circumstances.

“Critiquing Africas/Diasporas: Intersecting dialogues,” presents a compilation of interviews by Falila Gbdamassi with several celebrated filmmakers, organizers, film critics/activists who navigate within the world cinema landscape—with Africa and the Diasporas on their minds.

“Reconciling Africas, Identities and Diasporas,” prepares the reader of a caveat, but insists it is not a polemic. The title speaks for itself. Discourses, questions, responses, on the very nature of Africa, the African, are not new. Hence, this section returns to a moment in the past when, “in the mouth the teeth sometimes bite the tongue” as a Burkinabe adage goes. In 1991, at the start of the landmark Women’s Meeting at FESPACO, confusion ensued at the announcement that “all non-African women leave the room,” which, as it turned out included diasporan women. Compiled here are diverse responses on both sides of the debate. Thus, by introducing this section, employing in this proverb all the conflicts and anxieties that the event revealed, provides an armature of sorts, in which to continue the conversation raising other stakes and ultimately returning to this pivotal question and its incessant pursuit towards an answer.

The final piece on this theme repositions discussions around African subjectivities, as well as deconstructs the very notion of an African ontology, including questions of ethnicity. Thus, this section considers the positionality of white South African women, especially as it relates to white privilege and the importance of interrogating whiteness. The questions around identities in South Africa focus as well on the Bo-Kaap community largely populated by the Malay diaspora. During this same conversation around complexities of identity, this segment explores the dual positionalities of Arab/African women. And finally, it probes the renegotiated identities of first and second generation diasporans in search of belonging, home, place.
 
The Close-Up is in the memory of Sarah Maldoror and Safi Faye.

Pauline Mvele Nambané, founding director of the Festival International "Cinéma & Liberté" Libreville, Gabon

Pauline Mvele Nambané, founding director of

the Festival International "Cinéma & Liberté"

Drawing from several sources, following is the vision of the Festival International "Cinéma & Liberté" and a portrait of founding director of the Festival International Cinéma & Liberté, Pauline Mvele Nambané. Translation from French by Beti Ellerson

Sources: Marie Dorothee (gabonactu); Steven Mpono (7joursinfo-com) and video conversation with Pauline Mvele Nambané by Urban FM 104.5 La Station Urbaine and image from its YouTube channel.

A culmination of years of dreams and fine-tuning of ideas, the International Cinema and Freedom Festival of Libreville finally comes to fruition. The activities were detailed on Friday the 4th of June 2024 during a press conference which was held at the French Cultural Center in the presence of an array of invited guests.

The 1st edition of the International Cinema and Freedom Festival of Libreville in Gabon will take place from June 24 to 29. Film screenings followed by Q&A, will be held each evening from 18h30 free of charge at the Baie des Rois. Fittingly, Laurence Ndong, the Gabonese Minister of Communication and Media, is the patron of this 1st edition.

During her inaugural address Pauline Mvele Nambané, founding director of the festival, whose vision of the festival is to create a space for an intergenerational exchange, presented the objectives of the film event. She emphasized that the festival, which was the outcome of a collaboration between the Association Gabon Ciné Doc and Clybe Nambané Production, aims to promote, education through images, human rights and freedom of expression. These objectives will be achieved through film screenings, training workshops and other cultural activities. In addition, an international conference on the theme “cinema and citizenship” will be held.

In addition, the festival aims to promote African film heritage. Pauline Mvele Nambané noted that the 1st edition will celebrate and pay homage to many of the great filmmakers of African and Gabonese cinema such as: Charles Mensah, Philippe Maury and Pierre Marie Ndong, as well as Henry Joseph Koumba Bididi, Imunga Ivanga and Prince De Capistran.

Translation from French of the video interview by Urban FM 104.5 La Station Urbaine
(L’interview YouTube originale en français, ci-après)  

The emergence of the Festival International "Cinéma & Liberté"

The festival has a particular interest in films on human rights, freedom of the press and best practices of democratic governance. The goal is to educate, to inform people about freedoms and rights. We are convinced that cinema is a powerful tool for educating, awareness building and a means to change behavior. Through this festival we want to contribute to educating the Gabonese population.


Pauline Mvele, director of the Festival International "Cinéma & Liberté"

I am a filmmaker and throughout the years I have made several documentaries that focus on social themes. I created an association with friends and for several years we toured the schools to do film screenings. So this festival presents a bit of a culmination of everything we have done; and in particular, of my filmography, of my commitment towards these themes.
 

Why the focus on the protection of liberties?

Because I believe that every human being has a mission and we are not here by chance. As a filmmaker I cannot just stand by. When you look at my filmography you will notice that I decided not to remain silent and inattentive regarding certain situations that I observe in my society. So I give voice to these people so that the situations that they live are known and that another perspective can be given.


Violence against women, giving testimony

I received a lot of testimonies when preparing to make the films. With the film, Mivova Yato, which is a documentary about gender-based violence, I collaborated with an association. I received a lot of testimonies but at the time of filming many withdrew, after having agreed, at the moment of the filming they “remove their body,” as we call it. But I do understand perfectly. It’s not easy. Sometimes when one experiences a situation and talks about it with two other people it's okay, but to do so in front of a camera, to say it to the whole world. I really do admire all the people in my films who had the courage to testify, with their faces uncovered. Personally I am not sure if I had experienced certain situations that I would have dared to talk about it. But it is also the role of the filmmaker to provide the environment that instills a sense of confidence and trust with the interlocutors. I do feel that I create an environment where people feel comfortable to confide in me.


What is your method for creating this trust?

I don't know if I would say that I have a method but I think it is because I really like people, I know how to listen to people, I know how to look at them and I am sentient of their situation. To give an anecdote of a great filmmaker, who said that one should film the people one loves and in so doing, inevitably something comes out positive for you.


Accroche-toi, the first documentary film

It was my first documentary, which I continue to hold very dear. However, when I look at it with hindsight I say to myself that I could have done better, but it was not about the technology at the time. No, that has nothing to do with it. I believe that’s often the big mistake people make. To say, “Oh yes I have the most efficient camera so I could make a good film.” It’s not true. Someone can make a good film with a cell phone. So it is one’s cinematic practice that determines the results. I was trained on the job and I had my background as a journalist as well. So yes, there is cinema there, but there is also a lot of reportage in the film. I think today, now 10 years later, I would have made this film differently, especially as the characters were really strong.


Perhaps a remake?

Unfortunately, no. When I watch the film now I am touched, because Libreville is no longer like that… I am taking advantage of your platform to talked about what happened. The three women who you see there, in the film, two of them died. That makes it even more important to talk about the people who are living with HIV, the situation has regressed a great deal in Gabon. Today we need to talk about the fight against AIDS. In Gabon there is no longer awareness, no one is taking charge of the problem. It seems that HIV is touching a progressively younger population, the 18-30 year-old population which are carriers of the disease and it's very serious because it is an illness which is still incurable. There is still no definitive cure so there is this film and it's important that it exists. And it's also an opportunity to pay tribute to these people who agreed to testify openly. Today there are those who are no longer with us, but they continue to live, one could say, because of this film.


In 2014, you made Sans famille, a documentary that received the award for best documentary at the International festival of cinema and audiovisual of Burundi. How did you established contact with the actual and former prisoners or certain prisoners?

Actually with most of my film projects, the first thing that I do is to familiarize myself on the subject, I start collecting documents, I read a lot of books, watch other films and then I talk about it to a few trusted people. I tell them that I am working on a project and ask them if they are also familiar with the subject, I meet with associations that support the cause to see  if perhaps they have leads.


Films focusing on Gabon

All of my films take place in Gabon and these films that I have made actually give me another face of humanity…they allow me to be even more sensitive and give me the force to say that I am on the right path and that I must continue.


Sans famille, did you want to highlight prisoners’ rights

Yes. The central prison of Libreville was built during colonialism, designed for an occupancy rate of 300. At the time that I made the film there were more than 5,000 people. That’s not normal. Because someone made a mistake, they should not have to live in inhuman conditions. And the prison system should assist those who are there so that when they are released they can restart their lives. But nothing is done. I know of initiatives in other countries that are commendable. Every morning prisoners were taken out in order to do farming, the prisoners ate what they cultivated, they ate healthy food. The prison sold the products and saved the earnings and when the prisoners were released they benefited as well. There are initiatives such as these. But when people are locked in their cells 24/24 hours, year after year and nothing is done. When a young person is locked away for six months because they stole something, when they are released they become assassins. They have hardened in general. They become hardened having been around other notorious prisoners, there is a mixture of people of varying crimes and sentences. So yes, it is about the struggle for prisoner rights.


And this first edition of the Festival International "Cinéma & Liberté"

The festival is free to all. The aim of the festival is to have cinema meet the public. In addition to film screenings there will be training workshops. There will be roundtables, an international conferences. There will be five Masterclasses (see details below).
 
There are two other people who come from Morocco and Côte d’Ivoire. In any case we expect big names in African cinema. I would like to thank the French Institute who agreed to support us on this first edition as well as others.

Marie Dorothée of gabonactu gave the following details of the Masterclasses:

“Writing, directing and producing the documentary” led by Natyvel Pontalier, Gabonese director and Laurent Bitty, Ivorian director-producer and Kalid Zairi, director/producer from Morocco.

“Actorat” and “How to succeed in a good production” will be led by Rasmané Ouedraogo, one of the main actors of the series “Bienvenue à Kikidéni”, which is currently broadcast on Canal +.

“From idea to realization and production of a series” by Aminata Diallo Glez, director of successful series: 3 hommes 1village, 3 femmes 1 village, Super flics and Bienvenue à Kikideni.

“The management of cultural projects” by Abdoulaye Diallo and Alpha Bah, both festival directors.

“The structure of the scenario” by Imunga Ivanga. This master class will lead to the production of a film which will be screened during the next edition.

 

Dr. Estrella Sendra discusses the Legacy of Safi Faye with The African Cinema Podcast

 Dr. Estrella Sendra discusses the Legacy of Safi Faye with The African Cinema Podcast

Drawing directly from the article “”I dared to make a film: A tribute to the life and work of Safi Faye” Black Camera Fall 2023*, Dr. Estrella Sendra discusses the Legacy of Safi Faye with The African Cinema Podcast

https://open.spotify.com/episode/3KbfNderfGDcoERMVoP4Gt

*See link to Black Camera article by Beti Ellerson
https://africanwomenincinema.blogspot.com/2023/12/safi-faye-i-dared-to-make-a-film-tribute-to-her-life-and-work.html

Ruth Hunduma, laureate of the Hypatia Golden Award for the documentary The Medallion at the 10th edition of the Alexandria Short Film Festival (ASFF) in Egypt

Ruth Hunduma, laureate of the Hypatia Golden Award for the documentary The Medallion at the 10th edition of the Alexandria Short Film Festival (ASFF) in Egypt

The documentary portrays the filmmaker's mother, a survivor of the Red Terror in Ethiopia which left hundreds of thousands of victims. A powerful testimony to a nightmare that remains unknown in the West.

Excerpted from an interview with Ruth Hunduma by Nicolas Bardot at lepolyester.com
The idea for the film came from a short story I wrote when I was at university called The Medallion, about the genocide of the Red Terror, from the point of view of my mother. In 2022, during the Tigray War, as I was preparing to travel to Ethiopia to spend time with my mother, my producer suggested that I re-visit the story of The Medallion. Within the context of the civil war at the time, it was the perfect context to open up a discourse not only about the war itself, but also about Western media bias during the Red Terror genocide, which unfortunately, like the Tigray war, attracted little or no attention. I started filming it myself with the cameras that I had on hand; and bit by bit, I started constructing the DNA of the film.

Tsitsi Dangarembga (ICAPA), Souad Houssein (OPAC), Zanele Mthembu (SWIFT), three women-helmed organizations collaborate to advance and promote women and cinema in Africa

 

Tsitsi Dangarembga (ICAPA), Souad Houssein (OPAC), Zanele Mthembu (SWIFT), 

three women-helmed organizations collaborate to advance and promote women and cinema in Africa

The signing ceremony for the memorandum of understanding between (Institute of Creative Arts for Progress in Africa) ICAPA Trust, The Pan-African Observatory for audio-visual and cinema (OPAC) and Sisters Working in Film and Television (SWIFT) of South Africa was held recently, in Harare. Tsitsi Dangarembga, the signatory of the memorandum, had this to say:
 
“This signing ceremony follows meetings between Souad Houssein, founding director of OPAC, Zanele Mthembu, the acting programme manager of SWIFT and myself, in our capacities as representatives of our three organisations. These meetings took place in Harare last year, during the 2023 edition of the International Images Film Festival for Women (IIFF).”

Today marks a historic moment where together, we strive to break barriers and champion equality in storytelling. The Zimbabwe’s Institute of Creative Arts for Progress in Africa (ICAPA) Icapa Trust, Fance's Pan-African Audiovisual and Cinema Observatory (OPAC) and South Africa’s Sisters Working in Film (SWIFT) sign an MOU, paving the way for a transformative collaboration in film and television across Africa. This partnership aims to foster capacity building of African and African-descended women filmmakers through skills development, film promotion and viewing of women friendly films in the region to amplify diverse voices, facilitate joint and individual projects and the establishment of a pioneering International Images Film Festival for Women (IIFF)

As noted in the ICAPA December 2023 newsletter, “the objective of this historic meeting of three organizations led by African women was to draft and sign an agreement to collaborate in the areas of training, women’s film festivals, including African women’s film awards and fundraising.”

Text:
The Standard. “Icapa, OPAC and Swift sign MoU” by Tendai Sauta,  June 4, 2024
ICAPA News, 20th edition of IIFF wows Harare, December 12, 2023

DIASPORAS : Cinemateca Brasileira apresenta a mostra 80 anos de Zezé Motta - the Cinemateca Brasileira presents the exhibition 80 ans de Zezé Motta (the 80 years of Zezé Motta)

Zezé Motta

Cinemateca Brasileira apresenta a mostra 80 anos de Zezé Motta - the Cinemateca Brasileira presents the exhibition 80 ans de Zezé Motta (the 80 years of Zezé Motta)

Entre os dias 7 e 9 de junho, a Cinemateca Brasileira apresenta a mostra 80 anos de Zezé Motta, comemorando a importante contribuição da atriz ao audiovisual brasileiro. Artista plural, com trabalhos no teatro, na música, na televisão e no cinema, a atriz também se destaca pelos anos de luta por maior representatividade de artistas negros e negras nas artes.

From 7-9 June the Cinemateca Brasileira presents the exhibition 80 ans de Zezé Motta (the 80 years of Zezé Motta) celebrating the important contribution of the actress in the Brazilian audiovisual landscape. Zezé Motta's multifaceted practice as artist spans theater, music, television and cinema, she is also known for her activism throughout the years towards a greater representation of black artists.

 

Source: https://www.cinemateca.org.br/series/mostra-80-anos-de-zeze-motta/

Mujeres por África : ELLAS SON CINE 12 - 2024 Madrid (They [women] are cinema) Ramata-Toulaye Sy, Myriam Uwiragiye Birara, Sofia Alaoui, Rosine Mbakam, Kaouther Ben Hania

Mujeres por África

ELLAS SON CINE 12 - 2024 Madrid

(They [women] are cinema)

Ramata-Toulaye Sy, Myriam Uwiragiye Birara, Sofia Alaoui, Rosine Mbakam, Kaouther Ben Hania

Mujeres por África organiza esta muestra de cine para dar visibilidad al audiovisual femenino del continente

Ellas son Cine, la muestra de películas dirigidas por mujeres africanas, regresa un año más a la Sala Berlanga de la Fundación SGAE en Madrid (c/Andrés Mellado 53) en su decimosegunda edición, del 4 al 8 de junio con proyecciones a las 19.30 horas. Y lo hace con cinco películas de directoras que recorren el continente africano de este a oeste, de norte a sur: Banel et Adama, de la senegalesa Ramata-Toulaye Sy; The Bride, de la ruandesa Myriam Uwiragiye Birara; Animalia, de Sofia Alaoui, originaria de Marruecos; Mambar Pierrette, de la camerunense Rosine Mbakam, y, desde Túnez y en cooperación con Arabia Saudí, Les filles d’Olfa, de Kaouther Ben Hania.

***

Mujeres por África [Women for Africa] organizes this film exhibition to give visibility to women audiovisuals on the continent

Ellas son cine (They [women] are cinema) of the Fundación Mujeres por África returns to the Sala Berlanga of the SGAE Foundation in Madrid for its 12th edition from 4-8 June with five films that reflect the social condition of women throughout the continent from east to west, from north to south. Films by women from Senegal, Rwanda, Morocco, Cameroon and Tunisia: Banel et Adama by Senegalese Ramata-Toulaye Sy; The Bride by Rwandan Myriam Uwiragiye Birara; Animalia by Sofia Alaoui from Morocco; Mambar Pierrette by Cameroonian Rosine Mbakam, and from Tunisia in cooperation with Saudia Arabia, Les filles d’Olfa by Kaouther Ben Hania.

 

Source: https://fundacionsgae.org/actividad/la-sala-berlanga-de-madrid-acoge-el-festival-ellas-son-cine-del-4-al-8-de-junio/

Farida Benlyazid and Moroccan Cinema by Florence Martin

Farida Benlyazid and Moroccan Cinema (2024)

by Florence Martin

Description
This book project unfolds and analyzes the work of Moroccan director, producer, and scriptwriter Farida Benlyazid, whose career extends from the beginning of cinema in independent Morocco to the present. This study of her work and career provides a unique perspective on an under-represented cinema, the gender politics of cinema in Morocco, and the contribution of Arab women directors to global cinema and to a gendered understanding of Muslim ethics and aesthetics in film.

A pioneer in Moroccan cinema, Farida Benlyazid has been successful at negotiating the sometimes abrupt turns of Morocco's rocky 20th century history: from Morocco under French occupation to the advent of Moroccan independence in 1956; the end of the international status of Tangier, her native city, in 1959; the "years of lead" under the reign of Hassan II; and finally Mohamed VI's current reign since 1999. As a result, she has a long view of Morocco's politics of self-representation as well as of the representation of Moroccan women on screen.

DIASPORAS: Quézia Lopes: Corpos Invisíveis (Invisible Bodies) - Festival international du film João Pessoa, à Paraíba

Quézia Lopes

Corpos Invisívei

 Festival international du film João Pessoa, à Paraíba

 

Quézia Lopes

Corpos Invisíveis

2023 - Brazil - documentary

https://www.corposinvisiveis.com.br

Sinopse | Synopsis

O documentário aborda o apagamento social dos corpos negros femininos a partir da experiência pessoal e artística de 11 mulheres negras, que debatem identidade, memória coletiva, ancestralidade, afetividades e maternidade. A partir de entrevistas e performances, afirmam-se como corpos políticos que visibilizam suas muitas formas de ser, existir e resistir, ao passo que respondem à pergunta: o que é ser mulher negra no Brasil?

The documentary “Corpos Invisíveis” addresses the social erasure of black female bodies from the personal and artistic experience of eleven black women, who debate identity, collective memory, ancestry, affections and motherhood. Based on interviews and performances, they assert themselves as political bodies that make their many ways of being, existing and resisting visible, while answering the question: what does it mean to be a black woman in Brazil?

 

Quézia Lopes is a filmmaker, art educator and researcher in black contemporary short-film cinema. Director, screenwriter and producer/executive producer. She assisted with executive production on the documentary feature films “Between us, a secret” (Encantamento Filmes and Vitrine Filmes, 2020), available at MUBI, and “Love Lessons” (Encantamento Filmes and Elo Company, 2020), available at Globoplay. In 2023, she directed the transmedia documentary “Invisible Bodies”, her first feature as a screenwriter and director, in which she is also the executive producer, sponsored by Coca-Cola Brasil, Instituto Coca-Cola and Fundo Baobá. Curator, director and executive producer of the Multiplateform Cultural Exhibition “Bodies (In)visible: between pain and potency” (2021), sponsored by SECEC-RJ (Brazil, RJ). Screenwriter and Director of “Audiovisual Production Workshop” (2021), VOD content for the streaming platform Nitflix, which was sponsored by the Secretary of Cultures of Niterói (Brazil, RJ). (Text: From Youtube trailer)

Simisolaoluwa Akande: The Archive – Queer Nigerians - Festival de Cine Africano Tarifa - Tanger (FCAT) 2024

Simisolaoluwa Akande

The Archive, Queer Nigerians

Festival de Cine Africano Tarifa - Tanger (FCAT) 2024

Simisolaoluwa Akande
The Archive – Queer Nigerians
Experimental - United Kingdom - 2023 - 24′

SINOPSIS
La historia de los nigerianos queer ha sido borrada de la narrativa nacional de Nigeria, por lo que los nigerianos queer del Reino Unido se reúnen para contar sus historias y documentar sus experiencias para que no vuelvan a ser olvidadas.  

SYNOPSIS
With Nigerians queer history erased from the national narrative of Nigeria, queer Nigerians in the UK gather to tell stories, documenting their experiences so they can never be erased again.  

SYNOPSIS
L’histoire des homosexuels nigérians ayant été effacée du récit national du Nigeria, les Nigérians homosexuels du Royaume-Uni se réunissent pour raconter leurs histoires et documenter leurs expériences afin qu’elles ne soient plus jamais oubliées.  

Festival de Cine Africano-FCAT 2024 - Le cinéma réalisé par des femmes et les afroféminismes - Cinema by women and afrofeminisms

 Festival de Cine Africano-FCAT

 

Le cinéma réalisé par des femmes et les afroféminismes sont au coeur de la 21ème édition du Festival de Cine Africano Tarifa - Tanger (FCAT)

Cinema by women and afrofeminisms are at the heart of the 21st edition of the African film festival Tarifa - Tanger.

 

Farida Benlyazid, pionnière du cinéma marocain : « Le cinéma des femmes explore en profondeur, elles s’intéressent davantage à parler de l’âme »

Farida Benlyazid, pioneer of Moroccan cinema: “Women’s cinema goes deep, they are more interested in talking about the soul”

Aperitivos de Cine · Mesa redonda: Posibilidades afrofeministas: Mujeres en las Cinematografías Africanas

Modera: Alejandra Val Cubero (Profesora en el Departamento de Periodismo y Comunicación Audiovisual en la Universidad Carlos III, España) Ponentes: Myriam Birara (director de The Bride, Ruanda) y Cyrielle Raingou (directora de Le Spectre de Boko Haram, Camerún)

 

Aperitivos de Cine · Mesa redonda: Diálogos con enfoque de mujer: narrativas para la diversidad

Modera: Mercedes Jabardo (Académica Universidad Miguel Hernández de Elche) Ponentes: Chaimaa Boukharsa (co-fundadora de la revista Afrocolectiva, Marruecos) y Melaza (Artista multidisciplinar y Especialista en derechos humanos e interculturalidad afrocaribeña, Puerto Rico)

 

Aperitivos de Cine · Mesa redonda: (En) Versión Femenina: conversaciones sobre la representación femenina en el Cine del Norte de África

Modera: Alejandra Val Cubero (Profesora en el Departamento de Periodismo y Comunicación Audiovisual en la Universidad Carlos III, España) Ponentes: Azza Chabouni (investigadora, programadora; DOC House, Túnez), Lina Soualem (directora de "Bye Bye Tibériade", Francia-Palestina-Argelia), Leïla Kilani (directora de "Indivision", Marruecos) y Farida Benlyazid (directora de "Une porte sur le ciel", Marruecos)

Farida Benlyazid and Moroccan Cinema by Florence Martin presented at the Festival de Cine Africano-FCAT

 

Description

This book project unfolds and analyzes the work of Moroccan director, producer, and scriptwriter Farida Benlyazid, whose career extends from the beginning of cinema in independent Morocco to the present. This study of her work and career provides a unique perspective on an under-represented cinema, the gender politics of cinema in Morocco, and the contribution of Arab women directors to global cinema and to a gendered understanding of Muslim ethics and aesthetics in film.

 

A pioneer in Moroccan cinema, Farida Benlyazid has been successful at negotiating the sometimes abrupt turns of Morocco's rocky 20th century history: from Morocco under French occupation to the advent of Moroccan independence in 1956; the end of the international status of Tangier, her native city, in 1959; the "years of lead" under the reign of Hassan II; and finally Mohamed VI's current reign since 1999. As a result, she has a long view of Morocco's politics of self-representation as well as of the representation of Moroccan women on screen

 

 

Lina Soualem gana el Premio a Mejor Largometraje de la 21 edición del FCAT por Bye Bye Tibériade

 

Lina Soualem wins the Best Feature Film Award at the 21st FCAT for Bye Bye Tiberias

Image: Director Farida Benlyazid presents the Best Feature Film Award to Lina Soualem

The Casa África Award for Best Direction goes to Leïla Kilani for her film Indivision

El Premio Casa África a Mejor dirección es para Leïla Kilani por su película Indivision

 

Girley Jazama wins the Best Actress Award for her performance in Under the Hanging Tree; Parista Sambo is the winner of the Best Actor Award for Disco Afrika

Girley Jazama gana el Premio a Mejor Actriz por su interpretación en Under the Hanging Tree; Parista Sambo es el galardonado a Mejor Actor por Disco Afrika

 

The Audience Award goes to Le spectre de Boko Haram, by Cameroonian filmmaker Cyrielle Raingou

El Premio del Público es para Le spectre de Boko Haram, de la cineasta camerunesa Cyrielle Raingou