The University will host the African Film Festival’s renowned Traveling Film Series March 23-26.
The series will consist of four feature films and four short films from seven different African nations. Filmmakers combine oral traditions, non-linear storytelling and other narrative strategies while also drawing on identifiably African motifs — including myth, fantasy, humor and magic — to address themes ranging from colonialism and urbanization to youth subcultures and the ironies of contemporary life.
Each evening will include one recent feature and one recent short film. All screenings are free and open to the public and begin at 7 p.m. in Brown Hall, Room 100. An opening reception will follow March 23’s films.
“This African Film Festival is a showcase of diverse and complex issues from the continent tackled by African filmmakers, who have limited distribution outlets and resources,” said Wilmetta Toliver-Diallo, Ph.D., assistant dean and lecturer in African and African American Studies in Arts & Sciences.
“This is critical because there has been a deluge of foreign-made films about Africa that have become very popular. Only rarely do we, in the United States, get to see contemporary films made by African filmmakers who provide self-critique of their societies through rich and moving imagery.
“Bringing the festival to campus is a way of balancing current conversations and broadening our conceptions of Africa,” she added.
Said Shawn Shimpach, Ph.D., lecturer in Film and Media Studies in Arts & Sciences, “These films can offer an important window onto the societies’ cultural self-representation. Such forms of understanding are all the more important when we realize that the nations of Africa will only become more economically and geopolitically influential as the 21st century progresses.”
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Dates and titles of the African Film Festival’s Traveling Film Series: March 23: Safi, La Petite Mere; and Niiwam March 24: Be Kunko/Everybody’s Problem; and Dolé/Dollar March 25: African Middleweights/Africains Poids Moyens; and Le Ballon D’or/The Golden Ball March 26: Something Else/Nkan Mii; and The Colonial Misunderstanding/Le Malentendu Colonial |
The African Film Festival is a New York-based nonprofit dedicated to promoting African arts, literature and culture.
The Traveling Film Series, now in its 10th year, highlights an often-neglected part of international film culture, and one frequently overlooked by major film distributors.
Each year, the series travels to about a dozen cities, reaching thousands of viewers who would otherwise have little or no opportunity to view African cinema.
The series is made possible by generous support from the National Endowments for the Arts, the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts and the New York State Council on the Arts.
WUSTL sponsors include Film & Media Studies, African & African American Studies and the African Students Association. Additional support is provided by a grant from The Women’s Society of Washington University.
For more information, go online to wupa.wustl.edu:16080/africanfilm, e-mail wtoliver@artsci.wustl.edu or call 935-7879.