Annett Stenzel’s g´(Silence Song)

Annett Stenzel’s g´(Silence Song) A film is often supposed to be a means of communication, and following this principle, it seems interesting to gather different understandings in order to broaden one’s own vision, and that is precisely what the freedom of an experimental visual production can offer. This act of collecting is all the more interesting as it clusters understandings coming from viewers of different cultures. It is in this sense that the director, who has studied oriental languages - notably Persian - and has a great interest in Japanese culture, fosters the creation of multi-centricities, in this case a German-Nippon-Persian-tricentrism, into which viewers can immerse themselves and come out more enriched.

Afroscreen

28.01.2021 | by Cheong Kin Man and Mathilde Denison

Plateau 2020: Afro Cinema, Protest Storytelling and the Year of the Great Pandemic

Plateau 2020: Afro Cinema, Protest Storytelling and the Year of the Great Pandemic In the jury, we decided to use this year's excellent crop of films to award not only the awards traditionally bestowed by the festival but also a handful of special prizes and honourable mentions. For this, we offered the following official rationale, both on why we attributed the extra bling, but also on why we enthusiastically applauded this year's programming choices.

Afroscreen

01.12.2020 | by P.J. Marcellino

Luta ca caba inda: from archive to fragment

Luta ca caba inda: from archive to fragment  The book condenses some important aspects of the project. Its authors are not made explicit, pointing to the collaborative nature of this effort of rescue and rereading. But it also ends up suggesting that this living process of documenting complicates the very notion of authorship as a sovereign gesture with the authority to determine how images are exposed (or concealed), or to guide interpretation and impose meaning.

Afroscreen

12.02.2019 | by Miguel Cardina

Another day of life: the journalist memorialized, Angola forgotten

Another day of life: the journalist memorialized, Angola forgotten Em Mais um Dia de Vida, encontramos uma estética hollywoodesca, de construção e celebração do herói Kapuscinski. Terá a mais valia de dar a conhecer a outros públicos (em particular ao mais jovem, pelo estilo de filme de ação) o xadrez político regional e internacional que se jogava em Angola. Porém, ao centrar a narrativa de forma tão redutora na figura do ‘herói jornalista’, o filme não responde à evocação de Carlota, ficando suspenso num jogo dúbio de uso (e abuso) da memória e do esquecimento.

Afroscreen

21.01.2019 | by Hélia Santos

Nina Simone's face

Nina Simone's face Simone was able to conjure glamour in spite of everything the world said about black women who looked like her. And for that she enjoyed a special place in the pantheon of resistance. That fact doesn’t just have to do with her lyrics or her musicianship, but also how she looked. Simone is something more than a female Bob Marley. It is not simply the voice: It is the world that made that voice, all the hurt and pain of denigration, forged into something otherworldly.

To read

23.03.2016 | by Ta-Nehisi Coates

are you for real?

are you for real? We resume our exploration of African queer cinema, thus extending the Queer Focus on Africa cycle featured in the Queer Lisboa festival last year. This time, we’re leaving Africa proper behind for the American and British world, thus reiterating one of our premises... the extension of "African" and "African-ness" that is part of AFRICA.CONT, a cultural force abroad in the world, much as a current in the ocean: integral to the whole but with movements and temperatures all its own - in the beautiful imagery of Achille Mbembe. We are certainly eager to explore the realities that this current embodies in its Central and South American, European and Asian diasporas.

Afroscreen

25.06.2015 | by José António Fernandes Dias

The Awakening of African Cinema [1962]

The Awakening of African Cinema [1962] ECAScreening9: Today a new African cinema is coming into being, which is adding something new and significant to the cultural and artistic life of this continent. The importance of this development was underlined at an international round-table discussion held last year in Venice on “Africa and Contemporary Civilization”. At this gathering Unesco presented several studies on the cinema in Africa. The article below is an edited and abridged version of a study by Jean Rouch, in which the French film producer traces the development of the cinema in Africa and looks at some of its new trends. The subject will also be dealt in future issues.

Afroscreen

26.06.2013 | by Jean Rouch

Luso-African cinema: nation and cinema, editorial of Journal of African Cinemas

Luso-African cinema: nation and cinema, editorial of Journal of African Cinemas Substantial research has been dedicated to post-colonial productions in African Studies, Postcolonial Studies and Film Studies. Francophone and Anglophone film productions have been extensively assessed in academic writings; however there is a lack of critical research on the subject of Lusophone cinemas and co-productions. This special issue of Journal of African Cinemas intends to address this shortfall in academic work by presenting a critical and informative body of research on the subject.

Afroscreen

24.08.2012 | by Alessandra Meleiro

Cinema from way back when...

Cinema from way back when... The cinemas in Angola are points of reference in the towns where they found a home. And there are many of them. It’s the kind of infrastructure that you find all over the country, because their heyday started way before independence, allowing the Portuguese colonial authorities to take entertainment – but especially regime propaganda – all over the country. What remains for the telling are the architectural lines, the pleasure for shows and multi-purpose spaces.

City

13.12.2010 | by Miguel Gomes

Angola film industry at a glance

Angola film industry at a glance Angola is a leading oil producer in Africa and one might have expected that some of the financial benefits of this valuable commodity would be passed onto the country’s film industry. Veteran Angolan filmmaker Mariano Bartolomeu provides an insight into the state of the film and television industry in this Portuguese speaking country.

Afroscreen

14.08.2010 | by Martin Chemhere

Tarifa African Film Festival

Tarifa African Film Festival One part of the programm of the 7th Festival de Cine Africano de Tarifa, is called: "Utopia and Reality: 50 years of African Independencies?" Coinciding with the 50th anniversary of the Independence of 17 African countries, FCAT’10 offers a selection of African and non-African productions that explores, illustrates, questions and analyses this independence. There are films which talk about the life and ideas of figures like Aimé Césaire, Patrice Lumumba or Amilcar Cabral, or about the hope and dignity found after so many years of colonialism.

I'll visit

23.05.2010 | by Tarifa African Film Festival

"The Alcântara Family" –The Saga of a Black Film Production in Brazil

"The Alcântara Family" –The Saga of a Black Film Production in Brazil I began to feel the painful lack of African history in my curriculum and the absence of Afro-Brazilians amongst my college peers. The way blacks were represented (or absent from) the media had bothered me since I was a child. Now, as a film producer, it made me even more uncomfortable. To escape this dilemma, I felt I had to follow my dream of making my own films, but where to begin?

Afroscreen

14.04.2010 | by Lilian Solá Santiago

Dakar's Cine-suburb: Young people create a cine-club in Pikine.

Dakar's Cine-suburb: Young people create a cine-club in Pikine. Dakar became overpopulated towards the beginning of the fifties. A displacement of families away from the inner city neighbourhoods was decided by the colonial state: they were truly "evictions" framed within urban planning projects. The Pikine department was created, regrouping "all of Dakar's excluded". Today it accounts for about one million persons: there is talk about "Pikine-Peking".

Afroscreen

14.04.2010 | by Rosa Spaliviero