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AFRICAN ARCHIVE CINEMA
Barbican, London, 30th Nov. - 2 Dec 2007
Africa at the Pictures in collaboration with Cineteca Bologna / Officina
Cinema Sud Est
African Archive Cinema will present the recently restored
African films, in the presence of film-makers, archive film directors,
professionals and film foundations. Screenings of the recently restored
films will be programmed alongside a one-day seminar on the theme of
African Archive Cinema from 30 November - 2 December at the Barbican
Silk Street London EC1 and from 3-7 December 2007 at the new Birkbeck
College Cinema 43 Gordon Square, London WC1H 0PDA. A follow up conference
is scheduled to take place on 29 March 2008.
Africa at the Pictures acknowledges support from Film London, Cineteca
di Bologna/Officina Cinema Sud Est, the Barbican and the University
of London.
30 November 2007
7.00pm
Opening Screening
Homage to Ousmane Sembene
1923 - 2007
Camp de Thiaroye
Barbican Cinema, Silk Street, London EC2Y 8DS
- Box Office 020 7638 8891
Set during World War II, the story centres around
men enlisted from the colonies in Francophone Africa who return to Senegal
no longer content to accept their role as inferior black citizens. Awaiting
their back pay in November 1944, they are determined to fight for their
rights. They take the French commanding officer hostage who promises
that they will be paid their dues but then tragedy strikes. By order
of high officials in the French army, the camp is destroyed one night
and the soldiers massacred.
a stronger sense of African consciousness and understanding.
Dir Ousmane Sembene with Sijiri Bakaba,Hamed Camara,Ismaila Cisse Senegal,Tunisia,1988
152 mins
1 December 2007
10.30am – 5.00pm
Barbican Cinema, Silk Street, London EC2Y 8DS
- Box Office 020 7638 8891
Preserving Africa’s Film Heritage: Workshop
The preservation of African cinema has often been on the agenda for
discussion, but for one reason or another progress towards archiving
Africa’s screen heritage has been slow. A preliminary discussion
will address who are the key stakeholders; who is actively involved
in initiatives to address this issue on the continent and elsewhere;
and what action (or collaboration) is required to find lasting solutions.
Some of the key film archive institutions and representatives from Africa
and Europe will meet to share information of their initiatives and discuss
practical solutions to some of the throny issues of source, value and
access to be resolved.
Archive African Cinema
Harvest 3000
1 December 2007, 6.00pm Screening - Restored by Cineteca Bologna
Barbican Cinema, Silk Street, London EC2Y 8DS
- Box Office 020 7638 8891
A film classic, HARVEST dramatizes the contradictions
between an exploited peasant family and their landlord. The entire family
wakes at dawn to work in the fields all day til dusk. A local "fool"
encourages the young man in the family to seek and education, above
all else, as the only way out. The local "fool" himself seeks
out another desparate solution. Among the prizes this classic film has
been awarded are: Grand Prize, Locarno International Film Festival Georges
Sadoul Prize, Cannes Oscar Micheaux Award for Best Feature Film. Joined
the Cannes Film Classics on May 26th, 2006
Dir Haile Gerima Ethiopia-USA 1976/150 min.
Come Back Africa
1 December 2007, 9.00 pm Screening - Restored
by Cineteca Bologna
Barbican Cinema, Silk Street, London EC2Y 8DS
- Box Office 020 7638 8891
In 1958, Rogosin tackled the subject of Apartheid by filming the pioneering
“Come Back Africa” on location in Johannesburg, unbeknownst
to South African authorities who believed Rogosin was filming a benign
musical travelogue.
The film focuses on the tragic story of a Zulu family trying desperately
to stay together and survive. Instead, they are caught up in the contradictory
laws of Apartheid. Bringing together some of South Africa’s best
known radical intellectuals Rogosin shot the film combining documentary
footage and fiction. Come Back Africa is an indictment on the brutality
which the system created. It was selected by Time Magazine as”
one of the Ten Best Pictures of 1960” and launched the career
of the unknown Miriam Makeba.
Dir Lionel Rogosin with Lewis Nkosi, Mirima Makeba South Africa Italy
1958/95 mins2 December 2007
Tumult (Gir-Gir)
2 December 2007, 4.00pm Screening
Barbican Cinema, Silk Street, London EC2Y 8DS
- Box Office 020 7638 8891
Set during 1960 abortive attempt to overthrow Ethiopia's
Haile Selassie. Concentrates on the panic-stricken flight of Yoseph,
a US-educated young aristocrat-turned-revolutionary after the coup fails.
He finds refuge with Dejen, of of his family retainers and this confrontation
between two social classes leads to prejudice and resentment which is
not easy to overcome.
Dir Yemane Demissie with Jima Assefa, Eskinder Behane,Seble Tekle,Ethiopia-USA
1996
Heritage Africa
2 December 2007, 6.00pm Screening
Barbican Cinema, Silk Street, London EC2Y 8DS
- Box Office 020 7638 8891
Winner of the Etalon de Yennega 1989, African cinema’s
premire award in Burkina Faso, Heritage Africa tells the story of Kwesi
Atta Bosomefi. Becomes an African District Commissioner. In his quest
for power he is willing to sacrifice anything... From his rise through
the colonial education he is elevated within the colonial admiitrstion
of the 50s as an African District Commissioner. His identinty and his
name change with his newly adapted English values,Kwesi Attah Bosomefi
becomes Quincy Arthur Bosomfield. Bosmfield aligns himself with his
colonial counterparts and abandons all that is real to him.
Dir Kwaw Ansah with Kofi Baba Bucknor, Ian Collier, Anima Misa Ghana
1988 110 mins
Touki Bouki
2 December 2007, 8.00pm Screening
Barbican Cinema, Silk Street, London EC2Y
8DS - Box Office 020 7638 8891
A classic from the late Senagalese director Djibril Diop Mambéty
Touki Bouk is tells a story of two young lovers who long to escape to
Paris is a legend in African cinema. Like their New Wave counterparts
in France, young Mory and his girlfriend Anta are alienated from their
own society and imagine freedom far from the dusty streets of their
hometown Dakar. Living at the edge of the heaving, crystal-blue ocean,
their dream city doesn't seem so far away, and the lovers embark on
an exhilarating picaresque adventure as they try to hustle money for
their passage.
A rueful parable about fear and freedom, Touki Bouki has all the restless
energy of modernity and all the power of traditional African symbolism.
Dir Djibril Diop Mambety with Aminata Fall, Christoph
Colomb, Magaye Niang Senegal 1973/85 mins
SOLEIL O
3 December 2007, 10.30am Screening
Birkbeck Cinema, 41 Gordon Square, London
WC1H OPD
SOLEIL O is a black and white film made over five years on a low budget
of $125,000. It has been hailed by many as the most significant expatriate
African film. It owes its title to an old song that the African slaves
used to sing aboard ships on their way to the West Indies. Since slaves
were the first Africans forced from their native land, Honda aptly selects
this song to name his film, which is about the alienation of contemporary
black Africans working in France. In the opening sequence of SOLEIL
O, which serves as a background for the credits, Honda uses a cartoon
showing an African put into power by foreign military intervention and
then dethroned by the ones who had formerly helped him.
Dir Med Hondo with Robert Liensol, Theo
Legitimu (Mauritania, 1970) 105 mins
FACES OF WOMEN (Visage de Femme)
4 December 2007, 10.30am Screening
Birkbeck Cinema, 41 Gordon Square, London
WC1H OPD
At a festival, a chorus of women sing and dance as two stories unfold.
In a village, a young women with a jealous husband gives him something
to be jealous about when his younger brother comes for a visit. When
her husband threatens her, she learns self-defense, but her troubles
may not be over. In a coastal city, Mrs. Congas runs a fish-drying business.
She wants a less smelly job, so she seeks a loan to open a restaurant.
When she's turned down, two of her daughters visit the banker and bat
their eyes; the loan comes through. But her troubles aren't over: every
male relative and tribal cousin shows up, praising her lazy husband
and expecting money, food, and help.
Dir Desire Ecare with Sidiki Bakaba, Kouadio
Brou, Eugenie Cisse Roland.(Ivory Coast, 1985) 112mins
CHRONICLES OF THE YEARS OF FIRE (Ahdath sinin el-djamr)
5 December 2007, 10.30am Screening
Birkbeck Cinema, 41 Gordon Square, London
WC1H OPD
The colonial exploitation of Algeria by the French -- which led up to
the 1954 rebellion in Algeria -- is the focus of this 1975 Cannes Golden
Palm Winner. Achmed and his family are forced to leave their rural home
in search of water. While they are trying to adjust to city life, he
is drafted into an Algerian unit fighting in the Second World War. He
returns to Algeria after the war only to find that the colonial grip
has grown even tighter, and following an edict forbidding public meetings,
he joins the growing revolt. When the battles begin, he fights bravely,
and is killed in an ambush. However, his fire and his desire for liberty,
has been passed on to his son, who continues the struggle.
Dir Mohammed Lakhdar Hamina with Yorgo
Voyagis, Mohammed Lakhdar-Hamina, Leila Shenna (Algeria, 1976) 170mins
HERITAGE AFRICA
6 December 2007, 10.30am Screening
Birkbeck Cinema, 41 Gordon Square, London
WC1H OPD
Winner of the 1985 Golden Yennenga Africa’s
premiere prize Heritage Africa, centers on a man named Kwesi ("Sunday-born")
Atta ("a twin") Bosomefi ("an illustrious ancestor has
been reborn") who prefers to be called Quincy Arthur Bosomfield.
The perfect product of colonial education, Bosomfield embraces English
culture in all forms, rising within the colonial administration to become
an African district commissioner (a rarity) and member of the black
educated elite. In the process, he abandons his African heritage and
all that has real meaning to him, to the point that we see him humiliate
his own mother (his rejection and betrayal of her is symbolically a
rejection and betrayal of "Mother" Africa) and give away a
treasured family heirloom, his family legacy.
However, the status quo of Bosomfield's privileged position becomes
troubled over the course of the film. Bosomfield suffers a true identity
crisis and begins to change direction, moving away from servile dependence
on the colonialist, back to the heritage that he has long suppressed.
Dir Kwaw Ansah with with Kofi Bucknor
(Bosomfield), Ian Collier (Snyper), Anima Misa (Theresa Bosomfield)
(Ghana,1985) 110mins
HYENES
7 December 2007, 10.30am
Birkbeck Cinema, 41 Gordon Square, London
WC1H OPD
An African adaptation of Friedrich Durrenmatt's
famous Swiss play, The Visit, Hyènes (Hyenas) tells the story
of Linguere Ramatou, an aging, wealthy woman who revisits her home village--and
Mambéty's--of Colobane. Linguere offers a disturbing proposition
to the people of Colobane and lavishes luxuries upon them to persuade
them. This embittered woman, "as rich as the World Bank,"
will bestow upon Colobane a fortune in exchange for the murder of Dramaan
Drameh, a local shopkeeper who abandoned her after a love affair and
her illegitimate pregnancy when she was 16. The intimate story of love
and revenge between Linguere and Dramaan parallels a critique of neocolonialism
and African consumerism. Mambéty once said, "We have sold
our souls too cheaply. We are done for if we have traded our souls for
money" [5] Although its characters are distinct, Mambéty
considered Hyènes to be a continuation of Touki Bouki and a further
exploration of its themes of power and insanity. Wasis Diop, younger
brother of Djibril Diop Mambéty, is responsible for the film's
soundtrack.
Dir Djibril Diop Mambety with Ami Diakhate,Djibril
Diop Mambéty,Mansour Diouf Senegal (1992) 113mins
All screenings are free to students and there
will be intros and some Q&A sessions.
For further information, contact; kshiri@boltblue.com
tel 020 3278 6000.
Supported by the National Lottery through the
UK Film Council and Film London Regional Investment Fund for England.
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