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AFRICAN EFFECT FILM FESTIVAL 2008
starts May 15-18, CCA/ Cinematheque
view: the African Effect schedule & showtimes
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The African Effect, one of Santa Fe's favorite cultural events, returns to the Center for Contemporary Arts Santa Fe for its sixth edition on May 15-18, 2008. The festival includes films, discussions and presentations about African culture in Africa and in the Disapora. Once again, Samba Gadjigo, one of the world's foremost scholars of African cinema, returns as co-curator.
With African culture of increasing interest to Americans— thanks in part to films including Blood Diamond, Catch a Fire, The Constant Gardener and The Last King of Scotland —and with the stakes in terms of understanding diverse cultures at new heights due to increased global tensions, The African Effect offers Santa Fe audiences an opportunity to explore one continent's culture and history through an array of perspectives.
As The African Effect' s guide through the complexities of Africa and the African Disapora, Gadjigo, the official biographer of Ousmane Sembene (himself the father of African cinema and one of Africa's greatest novelists) provides context, stories and history that allow Santa Fe's audiences to deepen their understanding of Africa. Co-curator Jason Silverman is a co-founder of The African Effect and curator of film/video at the CCA. He has built programs for organizations including the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian, the Bioneers Conference, the Telluride Film Festival, the New Mexico Museum of Art, Santa Fe and El Museo del Barrio in New York City.
Past programs at The African Effect include films from more than a dozen countries; a performance by the late Senegalese griot (storyteller) Lamine Konte; and lectures on art, language and music.
Programming in 2008 is being scheduled to include such topics as African-American comedy, a tribute to Ousemane Sembene, and female genital mutilation.
Though many different kinds of stories from Africa can and are be told, we found, while researching for African Effect 2008, many African films focused on two central themes: redemption and transformation. Appropriate subject matter, of course, as African nations continue to come to terms with their colonial past and with the challenges of independence and globalization. The films we have selected—from Tunisia, Chad, Senegal, the Congo, Mali, South Africa and Rwanda—also showcase storytelling and technical skills that remind us that Africa has become the site for some of the world's most exciting cinema. It is a pleasure to welcome these films to Santa Fe audiences, which during the first five African Effect festivals, has proven to be intellectually curious and deeply appreciative of stories from other cultures.
Samba Gadjigo
Jason Silverman
Co-curators, African Effect
Seminars
Fighting FGM 1 p.m. Saturday
Jessica Neuwirth, the director of Equality Now, an international organization that works for the protection and promotion of the human rights of women around the world, leads a discussion on the efforts of activists worldwide to end the practice of female genital mutilation. Neuwirth will present clips from a forthcoming film about the anti-FGM campaign, and discuss the challenges and successes of the movement.
House of Mirrors: Africa Through Hollywood's Lens 2:45 p.m. Saturday
Scholar Samba Gadjigo and Jason Silverman, CCA's Director of Film Programming, use clips from new and classic Hollywood films to examine the history of representation of Africa. From Tarzan to the Jungle Book to the more recent crop of politically aware films—Blood Diamond, The Constant Gardener, Last King of Scotland—Hollywood has a long, complex, often racist and sometimes well-intentioned history of presenting "Africa" to audiences around the world. This discussion will prove an eye-opening comparison between Hollywood's "Africa" and the real one.
Special screening
Remembering Sembene: Camp de Thiaroye 8 p.m. Friday
Introduced by Samba Gadjigo, author, Sembene: Revolutionary Artist
"A novelistic and often witty treatment of a complex subject in which all the characters get their due.' –Jonathan Rosenbaum, Chicago Reader
The late Ousmane Sembene, one of the world's greatest filmmakers and the father of African cinema, died last summer. Many of his extraordinary films were rarely seen in the U.S. This tale of Senegalese troops who return home from World War II combat only to find themselves treated as lesser citizens by their French counterparts is based on true events. An epic in miniature, it has all of the richness and nuance of a great novel. Samba Gadjigo, Sembene's official biographer, will introduce the film.
(Senegal, 1987, 147m, 35mm, in French and Wolof with English subtitles)
Premieres
Bab'Aziz noon and 6 p.m. Friday; 11 a.m. Saturday, 10 a.m. and 8:15 p.m. Sunday
“An Arabian dream that weaves timeless story threads with mystical and Sufi elements into a beautiful film object … as fascinating as reading a new chapter of 1,001 Nights.” –Deborah Young, Variety
This masterful visual poem from director Nacer Khemir (whose previous films have won awards at Torino and Venice) begins with the story of a blind dervish named and his spirited granddaughter who wander the desert in search of a great reunion of dervishes that takes place every 30 years. The grandfather amuses his daughter with tales of a prince who left his castle to seek deeper wisdom. A fairytale-like story of longing and belonging, Bab'Aziz was filmed in the enchanting and ever-shifting sandscapes of Tunisia and Iran, written in collaboration with Tonino Guerra (Amarcord, Night of the Shooting Stars, Blowup and L’Avventura) and shot by Mahmoud Kalari, who has worked with giants including Kiarostami and Makhmalbaf.
(Tunisia/Iran, 2006, 96m, 35mm, Typecast Films, in Arabic and Farsi with English subtitles)
Daratt, the Dry Season 4 p.m. Friday, 4:15 p.m. Saturday
"A wise and moving modern parable … confirms Haroun as one of Africa’s leading filmmakers, a committed humanist and a sly political commentator." –Dave Calhoun, Time Out
Commissioned by the opera director Peter Sellars as part of a festival celebrating Mozart's 250th birthday, Mahamat-Saleh Haroun's film unfolds like a fable. Nassara, a 16-year-old survivor, sets out to obey his grandfather's instructions and kill the man who killed his father during Chad's civil war. Leaving his village for the city, Nassara locates the man—Atim, a baker with a family—and talks his way into a job. But as the two grow closer, Nassara grows conflicted about his grandfather's orders. With Shakespearean overtones, this unforgettable journey explores with great sensitivity the universal themes of revenge, forgiveness and redemption.
(Chad/Austria, 2006, 95m, 35mm, in French and Arabic with English subtitles)
Faro, Goddess of the Waters 8 p.m. Thursday, 12 noon Sunday
Radiates authenticity and authority … In its embrace of the old and the new, Traore's vision is tolerant, wise and forward-looking." –Robert Kohler, Variety
Having been driven out of his village, a child born out of wedlock returns after many years to find his father. His arrival coincides with an event that the villagers interpret as the river spirit Faro’s angry reaction. Using this fateful moment as a starting point, first-time director Salif Traoré explores tensions that exist throughout Africa, including in his native Mali: the urban versus the rural, modernity versus tradition, and citizens who, previously disenfranchised, are using their voices to stand up against public corruption. One of the standouts at festivals including Toronto, Berlin, AFI and Cannes, and the opening night film at the Festival of Pan-African Cinema, Faro offers an exquisite and lovely contemporary fable about a community in transition.
(Mali, 2007, 96m, 35mm, in Bambara with English subtitles)
Munyurangabo 6 p.m. Sunday
Introduced by Lucian Niemeyer, author of Africa, The Holocausts of Rwanda and Sudan
"An astonishing and thoroughly masterful debut … by several light years the finest and truest film yet on the moral and emotional repercussions of the 15-year-old genocide that wracked Rwanda … Flat-out the discovery of this year's Un Certain Regard." -Robert Kohler, Variety
After stealing a machete from a market in Kigali, Munyurangabo and his friend Sangwa leave the city on a journey tied to their pasts. Munyurangabo wants justice for his parents who were killed in the genocide, and Sangwa wants to visit the home he deserted years ago. Though they plan to visit Sangwa's home for just a few hours, the boys stay for several days. From two separate tribes, their friendship is tested when Sangwa's wary parents disapprove of Munyurangabo, warning that "Hutus and Tutsis are supposed to be enemies." Lee Isaac Chung's film, winner of awards at the AFI and Amiens festivals, brings an enormous history down into compelling, human-size story. And Chung's gift for storytelling that makes a director to watch.
(U.S./Rwanda, 2007, 97m, 35mm, in Kinyarwanda with English subtitles)
On the Rumba River 8:15 p.m. Saturday
Preceded by live music!!
"Sarasin appears to be a filmmaker who knows when he's captured lightning in a bottle, and wisely lets Wendo's group play their magic… superb.” –Variety
Traveling up and down the majestic river Congo on a rickety boat, the young orphan Antoine Kolosoy composed his first songs on a beat-up guitar. As he gained renown, songs by the young “Wendo,” as he was now known, were banned by the Belgian Colonial authorities, who feared his joyful rhythms would stir unrest. When his first album was released in 1948, Wendo became Congolese Rumba's first superstar. As the Congo suffered for nearly three decades under the dictator Mobutu Sese Seko, his music remained as a manifestation of the joyous spirit of the Congolese people that could not be taken away. Rediscovered several years ago, having been reduced to beggarhood, Wendo is ready for a comeback. Jacques Sarasin's documentary—a Buena Vista Social Club for Africa—pays musical tribute to the Congolese people, who despite desperate poverty, a history of oppression and an ongoing civil war, continue to be sustained by music.
(France/Congo, 2007, 85m, 35mm, in Lingala with English subtitles)
Son of Man 6:15 p.m. Saturday, 4 p.m. Sunday
"Extraordinary and powerful … the joyous full-throated South African music combines great technical skill with great heart." –Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times
Mark Dornford-May, director of the 2007 African Effect hit U-Carmen, returns with this film, winner of Sundance's Audience Award. The story is set in Judea, in Southern Africa, where violence and poverty, and an invading country, have led to bloody street battles. As the civil war grows, a divine child is born to a lowly couple, only to witness the inhumanity of the world he lives in, and to try to save it from the work of evil men. This update and relocation of the Jesus story, filled with glorious music, has new resonances as told in the era of video cameras and mass media and in a place whose contemporary realities echoes those from the Bible. The result, according to Seattle Weekly, is "more moving than Last Temptation of Christ and smarter than Mel Gibson's Passion."
(South Africa. 2007, 86m, video, in Xhosa with English subtitles)
Tickets and schedule
Festival passes: $50/$40 members
Entitles holder to priority admission to all shows and events
Tickets: $9/$8.50/$7.50
Thursday, May 17
8p Faro, Goddess of the Waters
with musical guests
Friday, May 16
noon Bab'Aziz
4p Daratt, the Dry Season
6p Bab'Aziz
8p Camp de Thiaroye
Saturday, May 17
11a Bab'Aziz
1p Fighting FGM
2:45p House of Mirrors: Africa Through Hollywood's Lens
4:15p Daratt, the Dry Season
6:15p Son of Man
8:15p On the Rumba River
With musical guests
Sunday, May 18
10a Bab Aziz
12 noon Faro, Goddess of the Waters
4p Son of Man
6p Munyurangabo
8:15p Bab'Aziz
Special thanks: The Pond Foundation for its continued and vital good works in Africa and beyond
Thanks: Clemencia Acevedo and Diarah N'Daw-Spech, Artmattan Productions; Clément Duboin, Urban Media International; Jonathan Howell, New Yorker Films; Alex Williams, Typecast Releasing; Paul Marchant, First Run Features; Maya Gnyp, Spier Films; Claire Zambaux, Wide Management
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