Coming Event:
Africa at the Pictures
June – October 2005

Africa at the Pictures exists to promote and further enhance the exhibition and distribution of African cinema in the UK and elsewhere in Europe. Established in 1991 Africa at the Pictures also provides a platform for the discussion of African cinema with African filmmakers and within the framework of Africa 2005 we are proud to announce a diverse programme in partnership with the British Film Institute, the Barbican, the Peckham Multiplex, Channel 4 Television and the London Film School. These venues will host a diverse program of screenings retrospectives and workshops on current practices in African filmmaking.

Africa at the Pictures would like to thank the Ford Foundation,Channel 4 and the UK Film Council for financial support to bring all the filmmakers to London as well as the British Council for providing a grant travel to West Africa.

Africa at the Pictures:
Press Release 1
Press Release 2


Ousmane Sembene
National Film Theatre June 2005

The doyen of African cinema , the Senegalese octogenarian Ousmane Sembene will make an appearance at the UK premiere of his latest film Molaade ( winner Un Certain regard Cannes 2004)at the National Film Theatre for a season of his work a programme jointly organized with the British Film Institute. Sembene made his debut on the international scene with Borom Sarret, a story about a cart driver who loses his cart and therefore his livelihood. This film is reminiscent of Vittorio De Sica’s Bicycle Thieves 1948 both in style and theme. A novelist who studied in Moscow Sembene’s has been hailed as one of the most prolific African writers and “the father of African film.

National Film Theatre South Bank London SE1 8XT
Box Office 020 7928 3232

Digital Africa
Channel 4 Cinema 22 – 24 June 2005

Channel 4 Cinema, 124 Horseferry Road London SW1P 2TX

Digital Drama – One day Workshop
Channel 4 Cinema 22 June 10.00am

‘Digital’ and ‘Africa’ are, for those outside the continent, a surprising pairing. This day of dynamic film-making, young talent and the most creative of television and film practitioners and commissioners celebrate the amazing energy young Africans have brought to drama by embracing digital technology and explores what young UK creatives can learn from their dynamic approach to a key TV form.

Africa at the Pictures has invited the producers and film directors of both the Bombshelter (Yizo Yizo) and Dv8 (Max and Mona, Forgiveness) to participate in this one day workshop which will include several screenings and discussions at selected venues in London.



The series Yizo Yizo, produced by the Bomb Shelter, has become a cult brand for South African Youth. Yizo Yizo has achieved record-breaking audiences and sparked intense debate nationally and in parliament. Each episode covers subjects like xenophobia, murder, unemployment, corruption, drugs, serious issues that the creators of Yizo Yizo wanted to contextualise for viewers with the power of music, laughter, friendship and glamour to match the gritty authenticity. Street language made it into the family lounge and gave generations an insight to a shared vocabulary with which to describe their reality. An opportunity for independent filmmakers and others to participate in discussions about how digital technology is providing African filmmakers the freedom to invent and allowing the space for creating and telling stories that are in synch with their realities.

Dv8 was formed out of the desire to develop, produce, market and distribute African feature films, not only throughout Africa but also throughout the world.
Dv8 is the first digital feature project of its kind in South Africa, with a an all encompassing finance, production, local and international broadcast, theatrical release and ancillary distribution and marketing model that is set to become the standard for the growth and development of the South African feature film industry.

The Dv8 model of production has a strong emphasis on script development and training. The training programme aims to strengthen the existing skills base in script development and production of feature films. It will allow key creative and technical personnel to build confidence and enhance their existing skills.

With several projects currently in development, The producers of Dv8 have delivered a number of feature films which include the award winning Max and Mona (Oumaru Ganda Prize FESPACO 2005) and Forgiveness (screened at Toronto and Locarno Film Festivals).

Channel 4 Television 124 Horseferry Road London SW1P 2TX

William Kentridge
Barbican June 2005

An animation programme by the South African artist William Kentridge. This program is a projection of 9 films with the music composed by Philip Miller and then performed by Jill Richards on Piano, and a live performance by the Sontonga Quartet, Adam Howard on trumpet and singing by Tumelo Moloi. The animation is produced by Ross Douglas.
William Kentridge is a South African artist whose work tracks a personal route across the fraught legacy of apartheid and colonialism through an innovative use of charcoal drawing, prints, collages, stop-animation, film and theater. Kentridge see his work as rooted in Johannesburg - the city in which he was born and continues to work today.

Barbican Cinema Silk Street London EC2Y 8DS
Box Office 020 7638 8891

Horace Ove
Barbican 7- 15 June 2005

A film season and photographs by Trinidad born film-maker Horace Ove will be on display in the foyer of Cinema 1 at the Barbican from 30 June – 15 July 2005 .Horace Ove is internationally known as one of the leading black independent film-makers to emerge in Britain since the post-war period. He uses his skills as a film-maker, painter and writer to construct images or key moments of the black community in Britain since the war. The Film Season will start on Thurs 30 June, with a screening of Pressure, followed by a Screen Talk in Cinema 1. A series of Horace Ove films will then be shown on Saturday and Sunday 2 and 3 July 2005 in Cinema 1.

Barbican Cinema Silk Street London EC2Y 8DS
Box Office 020 7638 8891

Nollywood in London + Films by Idrissa Ouedraogo
Peckham Multiplex 9-17 September 2005

In the last few years there has been a measured increase in the production on Nigerian home videos which have quietly entered international markets through the African immigrant population in the West as well as through some international film festivals in Berlin, Rotterdam, New York and London. With a conservative estimate of some 600 titles released each year and with an annual revenue of around £ 40 million, the world is beginning to pay attention.

Africa at the Pictures is creating a special focus on the Nigerian Home Video industry by inviting the directors, producers and ‘marketeers’ of this most interesting development in the African audio visual industries. The workshop will look at how this industry has been developed modelled, how the local star system operates, how subjects, and stories are picked and put on the screen. The workshop will be complemented by a week long screenings of a selection of the most popular genres at the Peckham Multiplex Cinemas in London during the month of September

Films by Idrissa Ouedraogo

Idrissa Ouedraogo studied film at the 'Institut Africaine d'Études Cinématographiques' in Ouagadougou, the capital of Burkina Faso. His short film Poko (1981) won the critics' award of FESPACO. After further studies in Moscow and Paris, he gained a diploma in cinematography at the Sorbonne in Paris. In 1989 he won the critics' award in Cannes for Yaaba in 1990 the Golden Palm in Cannes for Tilai, and in 1993 the Silver Bear in Berlin for Samba Traore. His great popular success Kini & Adams was nominated in 1997 for the Golden Palm in Cannes. In 'Afrique, mon Afrique...' (1995) and Scenarios from the Sahel (2000) he focused on the spread of Aids in Africa.

Kini and Adams
Sunday 10 September at 7.00pm

Kunene and Mohloki fall out over women, work and the car they see as a passport to wealth in an Africa defined by poverty, prostitution and the corruption of traditional values. Ouedraogo uses the 'Scope frame to vivid visual effect, holds the whole ramshackle affair together through the sheer good nature of the performances, and shows us a modern, semi-industrialised Africa all too often ignored by that continent's cinema - but the fairy tale simplicity and contrived tragic climax sit uneasily together and make for a certain superficiality.

Peckham Multiplex, 95a Rye Lane, Peckham, London, SE15 4ST

Yam Daabo

The actors are Ouedraogo’s family, the crew and friends. Although the film was mainly improvised, the non –professional actors splendidly reflect the characters’ emotions. The sparse dialogue translates Ouedraogo’s inclination to speak a universal language in images. Yam Daabo was the discovery of Critics’ Week at Cannes in 1987.

Peckham Multiplex, 95a Rye Lane, Peckham, London, SE15 4ST

Yaaba
Saturday 10 September at 7.00pm
& Sunday 11 September at 2.00pm

A film which reminds us of Ray’s Panther Panchali; it is a take about a friendship between Bila, a 12 year old boy and Sana an outcast old woman. While the whole village considers Sana a witch and blames her for every accident and illness, Bila calls her Yaaba, grandmother in Moore language. Beautifully shot, wityh a formidable ensemble performances, the closing scene will leave you stunned.

Dir Idrissa Ouedraogo with Fatimata Sanga, Noufu Ouedraogo, Roukietou Barry, Adama Ouedraogo Burkina Faso/ 1987 Plus Poko (Pourqui) 1981 total running time 101 mins.
Peckham Multiplex, 95a Rye Lane, Peckham, London, SE15 4ST

Tilai
Friday 9 September at 7.00pm
& Saturday 10 September at 2.00pm



Saga returns to his village after a long absence to learn that his fiancé Nogma has now become his father’s second wife. However his love cannot be superseded by the respect he owes his new mother. Nogma stills loves Saga, and together they dare to rebel against the rituals. Tilai is the law, which guarantees the stability of the village. The reconciliation between respect for tradition and the need to develop to the full in society is at the heart of this poignant drama. The sparse and sublime score is by the South African Abdullah Ibrahim.

Peckham Multiplex, 95a Rye Lane, Peckham, London, SE15 4ST

Dangerous Twins
Monday 12 September at 7.00pm

A classic story of an exchange of identities which investigates the profound and complex relationship that indissolubly links twin brothers, Kehinde, who lives in Lagos and Kehinde an immigrant in the UK, decide unknown to all to echange roles to solve two decisive questions. The first has a family problem, the second one a professional one. The consequences will be unexpected.

Dir Tade Ogidan/Nigeria/2004/ 108 mins
Peckham Multiplex, 95a Rye Lane, Peckham, London, SE15 4ST

Aicha
Tuesday 13 September at 7.00pm

With two award winning films under his belt, Aïcha demonstrates yet again the poetic and visual fluency of young director Newton I. Aduaka. Two souls seek love in the night streets of Dakar. One is that of Moussa, a middle aged man, the other is of Aïcha, a mysterious young woman. In one glance across a bustling dance floor, their quest ends and a dawn of magic begins. Meanwhile a funeral is taking place. Keith Shiri LFF 2004.

Dir Newton Aduka/Nigeria/Senegal/ 2004/13 min
Peckham Multiplex, 95a Rye Lane, Peckham, London, SE15 4ST

Newton Aduaka

Born in Ogidi, Eastern Nigeria, in 1966, Newton Aduaka moved to Lagos in 1970 after the Biafran War, and then to England in 1985. Following a diploma course in video arts and post-production, he studied film history, art and technique at the London International Film School, graduating in 1990. He wrote and published short stories while working as a sound mixer on a wide range of productions.

In 1997 he set up Granite FilmWorks with Maria Elena L'Abbate to produce personal, cutting-edge and uncompromising films. As a director, his short films include Carnival of Silence (1994), Voices Behind the Wall (1990) and On The Edge (1997), which won him three prestigious awards and numerous special mentions.
His debut feature Rage (2000) was released to huge critical acclaim, becoming the first independent film by a black film-maker to gain a national release in Britain. It was also very successful in international film festivals, winning many prizes including Best Director at the Pan African Film Festival in Los Angeles.

Since then he has directed commercials and a further short films including Funeral (2002), commissioned for the Cannes Film Festival alongside similarly-themed work from internationally renowned directors such as Walter Salles, Arturo Ripstein and Amos Gitai and Aicha (2004). He is now based in Paris and is currently preparing to shoot his next feature film Waiting for an Angel.

Rage

Tell me about your reality.' Rage (or Jamie to his mum) dreams of cutting a rap record with his friends Thomas (a DJ), and Godwin, a talented pianist. They're each struggling in their own way to grapple with questions of identity and race on the streets of south London. Rage, the most rebellious, is also walking a moral knife-edge, trying to help an elderly mentor out of his drug debts, but feeling the pressure to cross the law himself. Aduaka's independent, improvised feature isn't a smooth ride ('This ain't no Hollywood movie'), but it feels real, and it has something important to say about where young people are at right now. It's made with sincerity, but more than that, with integrity. Time Out

Dir Newton Aduaka/UK/1999/120 min
Q&A with Newton Aduaka
Peckham Multiplex, 95a Rye Lane, Peckham, London, SE15 4ST

Formidable Force
Wednesday 14 September at 7.00pm

Adenike, the daughter of a wealthy man, Chief Ademola, was on her way out one day when she saw a wounded man on the road. She stopped to help him. She was heading straight for the hospital when the wounded man held out a gun on her and ordered her to take him to her house. He turns out to be a fugitive. The police and Chief Collins, a Politician are looking for him dead or alive. Adenike is acting strange around the house, she now keeps her room doors locked and her younger sister is becoming highly suspicious. How long can he hide in Chief Ademola's house before he is found out? how long can Adenike keep this away from her father and sister? How long can she go without getting in too deep or getting herself killed?

Dir Teco Benson/2002/ 90 min
Peckham Multiplex, 95a Rye Lane, Peckham, London, SE15 4ST

Osuofia in London
Thursday 15 September at 7.00pm

An entertaining comedy on cultural prejudice. Osuofia, a hunter from an Igbo village has troubkle paying for his daughters education and making the contribution due to his community. One day he learns of the death of one of his brothers who had emigrated to London and who has left him a fortune. Catapulted to London to deal with the inheritance formalities, he has a series of adventures.

Dir Kingsley Ogoro/Nigeria/UK/ 2003/ 83 min
Peckham Multiplex, 95a Rye Lane, Peckham, London, SE15 4ST

Fear of the Unknown
Friday 16 September at 7.00pm

A man refuses to subject his newborn son to the rites of initiation, triggering off discontent of the elders. The consequences of his choice will have repercussions of the son when he becomes an adult. The power of love clashes with profound social predudices linked to the Igbo caste system, highlighting the tensions between city and village, Christianity and traditional religious beliefs.

Dir Greg Fiberesima/Nigeria/2003/129 mins
Q&A with Greg Fiberesima
Peckham Multiplex, 95a Rye Lane, Peckham, London, SE15 4ST

Souleymane Cisse
Barbican - Thurs 6 Oct at 7.30pm

One of Africa’s leading directors, Cissé has crafted a body of films that combine visual elegance with Marxist ideology and allegorical storytelling. Born in 1940, Cissé began his film career as a projectionist and photographer in Mali. After studying cinema in the Soviet Union for seven years, he returned to Mali, where he cut his teeth making newsreels and documentaries. His first fiction film, Cinq Jours d’une vie (Five Days in a Life, 1972), launched his career and gained critical attention for the burgeoning African film movement. Three years later, Cissé directed the first feature film in his native language of Bambara, The Girl, only to have the film banned by authorities. His masterpiece, hailed by Film Comment as “the best African film ever made,” would come a decade and a half later with Yeelen (Brightness, 1987). Drawing on traditional indigenous lifestyles and Malian folklore, Cissé attempts to explore conflicts in Mali society, particularly the conflicts that emerge between the desire for change and the need to preserve tradition.

Barbican Cinema Silk Street London EC2Y 8DS
Box Office 020 7638 8891

Yeelen (Brightness)
Barbican - Thurs 6 Oct

Winner of the Cannes Jury Prize 1987, this adaptation of an ancient oral legend from Mali, is one the most acclaimed and widely seen African films ever made. An Oedipal story mixed with magic, Set in the powerful Mali Empire of the 13th century, Yeelen follows the journey of Nianankoro, a young warrior who must battle the powerful Komo cult. Nianankoro's greatest enemy is his own father, a dangerous and corrupt wizard who uses his dark magic to try and destroy his son. Traveling over the arid Bambara, Fulani and Dogan lands of ancient West Africa, Nianankoro eventually comes face to face with his father in a final fatal showdown. Cissi's extraordinary use of landscapes and light produces a unique and striking cinematic style.

Dir Souleymane Cissé, Mali, Fr./, 1987, 105 min
Barbican Cinema Silk Street London EC2Y 8DS
Box Office 020 7638 8891

Finye (The Wind) (1982)
Barbican - Thurs 6 Oct at 1.30pm

Set in a small village community in contemporary Africa, Finye centers on a love affair between an army commander’s daughter and the grandson of a tribal chief. A spirited, sympathetic portrait of a society in transition, the film defines the director’s central philosophical premise: that the ethnographic approach or seemingly modern view of African culture is no more valid that the traditional metaphysical view. Myth and symbolism maintain an important role in Cissé’s films, where the frontier between realism and metaphor constantly shift. Here, he employs these multiple perspectives to present an intriguing study of a culture that is both exotic and unexpectedly familiar.

Dir Souleymane Cisse Mali / 1982 / 105 mins
Barbican Cinema Silk Street London EC2Y 8DS
Box Office 020 7638 8891

Waati
Barbican - Sat 8 Oct 3.30pm

An impressive film chronicling the life of a woman who is forced to flee her South African home when her father is killed during a fight with a white farmer. She studies in Abidjan and spends some time observing a tribe in the Sahara but is eventually driven to return to South Africa after the end of apartheid. An intelligent film with a great performance from its star, Waati is a rarely seen gem that sheds fresh light on racial politics in Africa. Directed by one of African cinema's great masters, Cissé, of Yeelen fame.

Dir Souleymane Cisse Mali/South Africa/ 1995/143mins
Barbican Cinema Silk Street London EC2Y 8DS
Box Office 020 7638 8891

The Young Girl (Den Muso) (1975)
Barbican - Sun 9 Oct 2.00pm

A young mute woman is raped and becomes pregnant, with disastrous consequences within her family. The film also sketches the social/economic situation in urban Mali in the 1970s, particularly in relation to the treatment of women.

Dir Souleymane Cisse 1975/Mali/90mins
Barbican Cinema Silk Street London EC2Y 8DS
Box Office 020 7638 8891

Baara (Work)
Barbican - Sun 9 Oct at 4.00pm

In this early work, Cissé focuses on a young innocent who has left the countryside for the city and become caught in the middle of social conflict. Befriended by the manager of a textile factory, he watches as his mentor is caught between the demands of a cruel owner and the needs of the much-abused workers he oversees. Having spent years studying Marxist ideology in Moscow, Cissé was the first African director to directly confront and criticize the condition of workers in the city. Yet the social constructs and characters he develops are presented with a clarity unencumbered by the typical moralizing of socialist films.

Dir Souleymane Cisse 1978/Mali/ 90 mins
Barbican Cinema Silk Street London EC2Y 8DS
Box Office 020 7638 8891