African Movie Festival expanding its reach

A local film festival dedicated to telling African stories is expanding its reach across Winnipeg this week for its biggest edition yet, with screenings planned in four locations, including the Winnipeg Art Gallery-Qaumajuq.

Founded eight years ago, the African Movie Festival in Manitoba will feature 20 narrative features, short films and documentaries focused on stories from the continent, as well as 20 short films from local filmmakers of all ethnic and national backgrounds.

That “mini festival,” called Manitoba Gaze, is being produced in partnership with the 48 Film Festival.

The festival runs from Sept. 15 to 21, with regular passes selling for $60, seniors passes going for $45, and 25-and-under passes available for $25 at am-fm.ca.

While past festivals have called Dave Barber Cinematheque and the Gas Station Arts Centre home, this year, the fest will click play at the WAG, plus the universities of Winnipeg, Manitoba and St. Boniface, to accommodate growing interest and to reach new audiences, fest founder Ben Akoh says.

That increased appeal has a lot to do with the growing local population of African Manitobans, says Akoh, who himself moved to the city 18 years ago after living in Nigeria, Ethiopia, South Africa and Senegal.

Since the festival was founded, Akoh, a tech entrepreneur who serves as artistic director, says organizers have always had a desire to celebrate African storytelling while breaking down cultural divides to cultivate a better understanding of African cultures within non-African audiences.

“We also realized — this was mostly out of my personal experience — but (when I moved here) there were some difficulties experienced in the workplace, in the community and on the street because people did not understand who I was, my culture, my background, and there were lots of stereotypes in the air as it relates to the Black body,” says Akoh.

“I wanted to create a space for that dialogue and conversation around cultural tradition, given the mosaic that we have in Manitoba and Canada in general. I thought that film was a better place to do that, and to also have discussions that come from the people that actually created the films themselves, not having Hollywood create a depiction, but having Africans tell their own stories.”

The festival program officially kicks off Monday at the University of Manitoba’s John J. Conklin Theatre with a 4 p.m. screening of Mother City, directed by Miki Redelinghuys and Pearlie Joubert. Described as a David vs. Goliath story, the documentary details the ongoing battle between housing activists and private real estate developers in Cape Town.

Other highlights include the Manitoba Gaze program, set to start Thursday at 6 p.m. at the WAG’s Muriel Richardson Auditorium, followed by an Afrobeat dance party with DJ Riski in the skylight gallery.

Before the Friday night gala screenings of the Canadian short film Imam and Goodbye Julia — an Arabic-language (with English subtitles) feature produced by Oscar-winning actor Lupita Nyong’o — the WAG’s main hall will be transformed into an African artisan marketplace.

Directed by Ant Horasanli, Imam tells a story of faith, belonging and boxing centred on the teenage Roya, who immigrates to Toronto with her father from Egypt. Written and directed by Mohamed Kordofani and set in northern Sudan, Goodbye Julia follows a guilt-stricken singer who hires a deceased man’s widow as her maid.

ben.waldman@freepress.mb.ca