{"id":26491,"date":"2019-01-31T10:49:02","date_gmt":"2019-01-31T15:49:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/fass\/?p=26491"},"modified":"2024-08-09T07:41:48","modified_gmt":"2024-08-09T11:41:48","slug":"african-film-festival-of-ottawa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/fass\/2019\/african-film-festival-of-ottawa\/","title":{"rendered":"African Film Festival of Ottawa"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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\n African Film Festival of Ottawa\n <\/h1>\n \n \n <\/header>\n\n <\/div>\n\n <\/div>\n\n <\/div>\n<\/section>\n\n

About the Festival<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

When<\/strong>: February 9-16
\nWhere<\/strong>: Alma Duncan Salon, Ottawa Art Gallery, 10 Daly Ave, Ottawa, ON K1N 6E2<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For more information visit the Canadian Film Institute website<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Welcome to the fourth edition of the African Film Festival of Ottawa (AFFO). It is a pleasure to offer again to the Ottawa cinephilic audience a sample of some of the best in contemporary African cinema. This year marks a historic shift in the young history of the festival. For the first time it will be held during Black History Month. The idea is to be able to be part in this month-long celebration of the cultures of people of African descent in Canada. We consider cinema one of the most significant contributions of artists and cultural workers from Africa and of African descent to culture. Indeed, the cinema is one of the artistic forms that most illuminates what it means to live as human beings on this planet, one of the most thoughtful, sensitive and sensible spaces for reflections and meditations on the human condition. What better time to screen African films than in a month of intensified awareness of African and Afro-diasporic cultures and their indispensable role in shaping Canadian culture daily in a multiplicity of forms? Black History Month is thus one of the most propitious moments to have a conversation between Africa and Canada around culture, and more specifically film culture. It is part of an effort to make African cinema an indelible part of Canadian film culture and to broaden the cinematic palates of Canadian in a meaningful manner.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Films<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

In continuity with our original project to represent the various regions of the African continent each festival, the films selected this year come from North Africa (Morocco), West Africa (Senegal and Nigeria), East Africa (Kenya) and Southern Africa (Zambia) with the Senegalese film set in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo (Central Africa).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While we focused on the question of film heritage during our 2017 edition, we thought we would return to some of the most vibrant experiments taking place in African cinema today. The films we have chosen for you definitely feature in that category. They all feature strong voices (some established, some emerging, but each compelling) which are poised to play a significant role in African and world cinema the years and decades to come.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

F\u00e9licit\u00e9 <\/em><\/strong>(2017)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our opening film F\u00e9licit\u00e9<\/a> <\/em>is a masterpiece by Alain Gomis, an original voice in cinema. He is returning to AFFO after the screening of Tey <\/em>in 2016. This narrative of the journey of a single mother (played by newcomer and absolute revelation V\u00e9ro Tschanda Beya Mputu) across Kinshasa, one of Africa\u2019s most dynamic yet infrastructurally-challenged city, in an effort to find resources for her son\u2019s leg operation is a mix of documentary realism, naturalism and surrealism, featuring the legendary Kasai All-Star Band and the Kinshasa Symphony Orchestra. A narrative of resilience, resistance and emergence if makeshift love in a context of extreme scarcity, this city symphony marks the increasing triumph of the Djibirl Diop Mambety school in African cinema. F\u00e9licit\u00e9<\/em>won the Golden Stallion at FESPACO (Africa\u2019s most important film festival), the Berlinale\u2019s Silver Bear and was Senegal\u2019s Oscar entry for Best Foreign Language Film.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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