Your Guide to the Inaugural African Film Festival of Ottawa

AFRICAN FILM FESTIVAL OF OTTAWA (AFFO)
Carleton University’s Film Studies Department and Institute of African Studies, the African Group of Ambassadors and High Commissioners in Canada and the Canadian Film Institute are pleased to present the inaugural African Film Festival of Ottawa (AFFO), held over two weeks, on October 16-18 and October 23-25, 2015 in the River Building Theater of the Carleton University Campus.
The cinemas of Africa have consistently delivered some of most impressive, urgent, and engaged films in contemporary world cinema. The project of this new annual festival is to showcase the best in contemporary African cinema and offer a complex, nuanced and doubly moving image of Africa. It seeks to engage audiences in a conversation on Africa around the moving image by presenting Africa and Africans through the cinematic voices and visions of the continent’s filmmakers themselves.
The films selected primarily celebrate emerging voices from across the five regions of the African continent as well as its historical diaspora. They range across a number of genres from futurist to political thriller, melodrama to horror, social realist to fantasy. They are at once celebratory and critical, contemplative and reflexive, elegiac and prospective. The films have been screened, won awards, or entered for nomination at FESPACO (Pan African Film Festival of Ouagadougou), the Durban International Film Festival, the Cannes Film Festival, The Berlin Film Festival, the Toronto International Film Festival, the American Film Institute Film Festival and the Academy Awards (Oscars) among others.
For this first edition of the festival, the following countries are represented (in alphabetical order): Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Ghana, Haiti, Kenya, Madagascar, Morocco, Nigeria, South Africa and Tunisia. Together they represent both the major and emerging film producing countries across the continent.
SCHEDULE OF SCREENINGS AND SYNOPSIS OF THE FILMS
Fri/Ven 16 Oct / 19:00 (Opening Night!)
AFRICA PARADISE
Dir: Sylvestre Amoussou | Benin 2006, | 86 minutes

Amoussou’s clever comedic satire inverts the world economic and power structures. In his scenario, Europe has become underdeveloped due to acute economic and political crisis, while Africa has been experiencing a very thriving development. Africans are no longer emigrating; it is the Europeans who flee their dire situations to come to Africa. Witness Olivier and Pauline: an engineer and teacher from France, who can no more decently live in their country, and decide to immigrate into the United States of Africa. Unfortunately they don’t manage to get an entry visa and therefore call on a smuggler. From then on their life is turned upside down, and they face the grim realities of immigration: the tenuous position of illegal immigrants, the difficulty to find decent jobs, and the political use of immigration in this other U.S.A. Witty and telling, AFRICA PARADISE is a clever overturning of the geopolitical status quo. English sub-titles.
Preceded by: FASA
Dir: Laza | Madagascar 2015 | 16 minutes

This fascinating, poetic short drama deals with the connection between the world of the living and the world of the ancestors, mediated by the Zebu cattle. Fasa, who was orphaned very young because of a zebu thief, decides to use her poems to contact her long lost father. English sub-titles.
Sat/Sam 17 Oct / 14:00
SOUNDIATA THE AWAKENING OF THE LION
Animation |Dir: Abel Kouamé/ Cote d’Ivoire 2014 | 70 minutes

In this family-friendly adaptation of the one of Africa’s greatest epics, Abidjan-based Africatoon studio offers a feature 3D animation biopic on the founder of the Mande Empire. They recast the major stages of the life of great Soundiata Keita from sibling rivalry and his conquest of physical disability to his exile and return to save the Mande from the dominance of the terrifying, megalomaniac and putatively invincible Soumangourou Kante. The film ends with the proclamation of the Mande Charter, considered by UNESCO as one of the oldest human rights documents and part of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. A must-see for children and family!!! English sub-titles.
Sat/Sam 17 Oct / 16:00
NINAH’S DOWRY
Dir: Victor Viyouh | Cameroon 2012 | 95 minutes

A mother of three, Ninah is stuck in an abusive relationship with no hope of change. Her family lives off her meagre earnings from farm work while her husband, Memfi, drinks away his equally modest earnings as a shepherd. When she learns that her father is seriously ill and her husband refuses to let her go to see him, Ninah realizes that she cannot take the abuse anymore and flees. Memfi pursues her, determined to either recover the dowry he paid or take home the woman he owns—by any means necessary. As a result, an extraordinary series of dramatic, suspenseful events takes place across the sprawling Cameroon landscape. Writer-director Victor Viyouh’ s powerful story is filled with complex characters, and Mbufung Seikeh, as Ninah, makes a screen debut that is nothing short of astonishing. English sub-titles.
Sat/Sam 17 Oct / 19:00
PRICE OF LOVE
Dir: Hermon Hailay | Ethiopia 2015 | 99 minutes

One of the leading female filmmakers in Ethiopia, Hermon Hailay’s third feature, offers a gritty dramatic portrait of the sinister underworld of Addis Ababa’s prostitution rings. Outside a fancy nightclub, the alluring young Fere frantically jumps into a taxi after freeing herself from the grip of a middle-aged man. Examining Fere in his rearview mirror, cab driver Teddy can guess that she, like thousands of young Ethiopian women – including his own mother- was lured into the dark world of prostitution networks. Growing up on the street after his mother died when he was a teenager, Teddy had fallen into addiction, until the priest to whom his mother had entrusted his care gave him a second chance by lending him the money to buy a cab licence. As Fere and Teddy grow closer, they discover that falling in love can liberate, but the cruel reality is that it comes with a very high price. Selected in Official Competition at FESPACO 2015 where it won the Special Prize of Ouagadougou. It has gone on to compete in numerous international film festivals (most recently, TIFF) and has won multiple awards.
Preceded by: ZAKARIA
Dir: Leyla Bouzid | Tunisia 2013 | 28 minutes

Zak is living in a village in Southern France. He has a quiet life, with his wife and his two kids. When he learns about his father’s death in Algeria, he decides to go there with his family. Sarah, his daughter, refuses to come with him. Complications mount.
Sun/Dim 18 Oct / 16:00
OJUJU
Dir: C.J. ‘Fiery’ Obasi | Nigeria 2014 | 95 minutes

“Considering the massive output of the Nollywood film industry, it was probably inevitable that it would eventually get around to appropriating that most familiar of Hollywood tropes, the zombie film. The result is this horror film… brings the flesh-eating creatures to a Nigerian slum. Winner of the Best Nigerian Movie award at last year’s African International Film Festival, Ojuju was recently showcased at the Brooklyn Academy of Music’s New Voices in Black Cinema. Although made on an obviously miniscule budget, this enterprising genre film is very well crafted. Infused with both sly humor and genuine thrills. Set in a teeming Lagos slum, it provides an all-too-realistic explanation for the sudden transformation of its inhabitants into desiccated figures with an appetite for human flesh: It’s the result of a contaminated water supply, which is certainly a problem endemic to the African nation. Among those first affected is local drug dealer Fela, who gets bitten early on and suffers the predictable ill consequences as a result. The film’s hero is Romero (a charismatic Gabriel Afolayan) – the name’s inspiration is obvious – who discovers that his pregnant girlfriend has become infected. Along with his friends Emmy (Kelechi Udegbe) and Peju (Omowunmi Dada), he desperately searches for a solution to the situation while trying to stay alive in the process.” (Hollywood Reporter).
Preceded by: SISTER OYO
Dir: Monique Phoba Mbeka | Democratic Republic of Congo 2014 | 24 minutes

In 1950s colonial Congo, a Congolese schoolgirl, Godelive, lives in a Catholic boarding school in Mbanza-Mboma, the first school teaching French to Congolese.
According to the wishes of her parents, Godelive is becoming ‘westernized,’ but her grandmother thinks otherwise. A potent short drama about the politics of history. English sub-titles.
Fri/Ven 23 Oct / 19:00
PEGASUS
Dir: Mohamed Mouftakir | Morocco 2010 | 104 minutes

Talented writer-director Mouftakir’s acclaimed first feature is a penetrating psychological drama about memory, gender, and the clash of the old and the new in contemporary Morocco. Zineb is an emotionally exhausted psychiatrist assigned to Rihana, a traumatized and pregnant young woman found in the street muttering unintelligibly about “The Lord of the Horse.” A flashback sequence returns us to Rihana’s childhood, where her dictatorial father, horseman chief of his tribe, raises her as the son his legacy demands. Trapped in parental delusions, Rihana falls in love with a young man with whom she carves out the beginnings of her own life. Soon, Rihana’s story awakens repressed thoughts in Zineb’s own troubled mind, and reality merges into a haunted fever-dream of fear and denial in this visually striking, award-winning psychological thriller. English sub-titles.
Preceded by: KWAKU ANANSE
Dir: Akosua Adoma Owusu | Ghana 2013, | 26 minutes

The traditional West African fable of Kwaku Ananse is combined with the story of a young outsider named Nyan Koronhwea attending her estranged father’s funeral. Nyan’s father led two separate lives with two wives and two families – one in Ghana, one in the United States. Nyan’s 9
ambivalence about her father’s double life is a reflection of a broader truth about the nature of our personal relationships.
Sat/Sam 24 Oct / 16:00
NAIROBI HALF LIFE
Dir: David ‘Tosh’ Gitonga | Kenya 2012 | 96 minutes

Screened at the 2013 Pan African Film Festival, NAIROBI HALF LIFE revolves around the story of Mwas, an aspiring young actor who moves to the big city, as so many do, to realize his dreams. Playing on Nairobi’s nickname “Nairobbery,” Mwas experiences the harsh realities of big city life early. The film then follows him as he hooks up with a group of local thieves who become a band of brothers. The film depicts their antics, as well as Mwas’s efforts to break into acting. He ends up leading a double life as a petty crook and that of an aspiring actor. The two lives become increasingly intertwined as the film’s climax features a series of unexpected twists. Gritty and energetic, the film also maintains a sense humour throughout. Impressive. English sub-titles.
Preceded by: TWAAGA
Dir: Cedric Ido | Burkina Faso 2013 | 30 minutes

Burkina Faso in 1987 is a country in the throes of revolution. Manu, an eight-year-old who loves comics, tags along with Albert, his big brother. When Albert decides to undergo a magic ritual to become invincible, Manu realizes there are real powers to rival those of his comic-book superheroes. English sub-titles.
Sat/Sam 24 Oct / 19:00
OF GOOD REPORT
Dir: Jahmil X.T. Qubeka | South Africa 2013 | 101 minutes

“The drama concerns a shy, spindly, bespectacled young man called Parker Sithole, played by Mothusi Magano. Parker is new in town, having turned up to take a job teaching English literature in a high school: we see him earnestly preparing lessons on Keats and Shakespeare. He is, as his headteacher puts it, ‘of good report,’ with a great degree result and fine references. But his landlady doesn’t trust this quiet, secretive new tenant, and Parker’s male colleague, a boozy reprobate called Vuyani recognises a strange darkness in him. Parker is troubled by family memories and flashbacks to gruesome military service in the Democratic Republic of Congo, and his lethally non-mousy side is revealed when there is a spark of desire between him and a pert teenage girl in his class… Their affair unleashes a macabre spasm of sexual obsession and violence. Watching this brazenly shocking and gripping film, I remembered the feeling I had on seeing Christopher Nolan’s low-budget black-and-white debut, Following. Here is a director who is going places.” Peter Bradshaw (The Guardian).
Sun/Dim 25 Oct / 16:00 (Closing Film!)
LUMUMBA
Dir: Raoul Peck | Haiti 2000 | 115 minutes

The true story of the rise to power and brutal assassination of the first Prime Minister of independent Congo, Patrice Lumumba. Using newly discovered historical evidence, Haitian-born and Congo-raised writer and director Raoul Peck renders an emotional and tautly woven account of this mail clerk and beer salesman with a flair for oratory and an uncompromising belief in the capacity of his homeland to build a prosperous nation independent of its former Belgian overlords. Lumumba emerges here as the heroic sacrificial lamb dubiously portrayed by the international media and led to slaughter by commercial and political interests in Belgium, the United States of America, the international community, and Lumumba’s own administration; a true story of political 11
intrigue and murder where political entities, captains of commerce, and the military dovetail in their quest for economic and political power. English sub-titles.
NOTE: All films are presented in their original languages with English sub-titles.
PRACTICAL INFORMATION
Directions:
All screenings will take place in the River Building Theater of Carleton University. The address is: 2200 River Building, 42 Campus Avenue, Carleton University, 1125 Colonel By Drive, Ottawa, ON K1S 5B6-Phone 613-520-2600.
For more information on how to get to the River Building Theater, please click on the following link from the Canadian Film Institute: Link
Ticketing
For general admission, the Canadian Film Institute will set up a box office at the entrance of the River Building Theater before the beginning of the screening. Please click on the following CFI link for more information: Link
Opening Reception
An opening reception will be offered by the Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences of Carleton University around 9.30pm on Friday, October 16 after the screenings of Fasa and Africa Paradis in the Atrium of the River Building. You are cordially invited to attend.
Contact
For more information about the event, please contact us at the following addresses:
General information:
Kumru Bilici: affoinfo@gmail.com
Specific and more details:
Aboubakar Sanogo: aboubakar.sanogo@carleton.ca (Film Studies Department) – Phone 613-520-2600 ext. 2346
Blair Rutherford: blair.rutherford@carleton.ca (Institute of African Studies) – Phone: 613-520-2600, ext. 2422 or 2601
Jerrett Zaroski: zaroski@cfi-icf.ca and Tom McSorley: mcsorley@cfi-icf.ca (Canadian Film Institute) – Phone: Tel: 613-232-6727