The most thought provoking black movies and black art from around the world in the past year are currently being exhibited at the Pan African Film and Art Festival. Since its early years, the festival has served as a cradle to the best of black art and cinema, giving them a platform for thorough appreciation, free from the marginalization often experienced at other art festivals. With the goal to keep promoting cultural understanding among people of African descent, the festival, now in its 26th year since it began awarding black films.
This year’s festival has a line up of about a hundred and eighty films from over forty countries telling diverse African and diaspora stories. Including a film based on Chimamanda Adichie’s short story “On Monday of Last Week” and Oscar nominated “Watu Note”, We’ve curated the trailers for some of our most anticipated films to share with you.
Toyin Ibrahim Adekeye :”BIGGER THAN AFRICA”
When the slave boats docked in the Americas, Cuba and the Caribbean, hundreds of cultures and religions came with the Africans but only one survived the plantations. The feature documentary looks into the Yoruba culture as the most pronounced African Culture of the Diasporas.
Kelley kali: LALO’S HOUSE
Inspired by true events, LALO’S HOUSE follows the relentless courage of Manouchka, a 14-year-old Haitian girl, and her 5-year-old sister, Phara, who are abducted and thrown into an underground prostitution network that is posing as a Catholic orphanage.
Roberta Durrant: KROTOA
A biopic on a Khoi woman considered the mother of black people in South Africa by some, Krotoa is a drama inspired by historical fact about a feisty, bright, young 11-year-old girl who is removed from her close-knit Khoi tribe and brought into the first fort established by the Dutch East India Company in 1652. There she grows into a visionary young woman who assimilates the Dutch language and culture so well that she rises to become an influential interpreter for the first Governor of the Cape Colony. As such Krotoa ends up being rejected by her own Khoi people and eventually destroyed by the Dutch when she tries to find the middle way between the two cultures.
Akosua Adoma Owusu: ON MONDAY OF LAST WEEK
Adapted from Chimamanda Adichies’ short story, “On Monday of last week”, this film tells the story of Kamara, a Nigerian woman, working as a nanny caring for the five-year-old son of an interracial couple. Tracy is an African American artist working on a commission in her studio – a space she rarely leaves. When Tracy finally emerges from her studio one afternoon, Kamara’s growing curiosity is piqued. Their brief encounter inspires Kamara to become Tracy’s muse.
Courtney Miller: REPAIRations!
REPAIRations! is a story about the power of optimism against forces that are seemingly more powerful than yourself. Following the story of a man named Isaac who lives during the end of slavery, end of segregation and President Obama’s inauguration, we see how Isaac navigates through an ever-changing America through song and dance.
Stefon Bristol: SEE YOU YESTERDAY
https://vimeo.com/206628005
“See you yesterday” is a short sci-fi film about two African American teenagers determined to outwit fate and role-play as God building make-shift time machines to save ones brother from being wrongfully killed by a police officer.
Licínio Azevedo :THE TRAIN OF SALT AND SUGAR
During the Mozambican civil war in the 1980s, a train under military guard, led by a mystic Sangoma military Commander, must transport its passengers and goods 500 miles through apartheid South African-backed guerrilla-held territory. As rivalries form between the soldiers and friendships between the passengers, violence looms both on board and from the rapacious rebels. This film is Mozambique’s submission for consideration in the Foreign Language Film category for the 90th Academy Awards.
Katja Benrath: WATU WOTE – ALL OF US
For almost a decade Kenya has been targeted by terrorist attacks of the Al-Shabaab. Much like the religious crisis that springs up in Nigeria, an atmosphere of anxiety and mistrust grew between Muslims and Christians. “Watu Wote All of Us” is based on real life events from 2015’s Mandera bus attack by Kenyan military group, Al-Shabaab. Asides the Pan African Film Awards, it has also received awards at the Student Academy Award and nominations for the Oscar’s Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Film category.
