Nothing gets me excited quite like a good piece of cinema on Africa. I was delighted to come across two projects we’re really rooting for at the moment. The best part is YOU, us…we can all can help these budding filmmakers tell their stories. First up is Boneshaker by Frances Bodomo about a Ghanaian family that takes a trip to a tent revival church in Louisiana to cure their violent [...]
(photo: Mohamed Dione and Marie Zoumanigui in ‘Maffe Tiga’) The African Movie Academy Awards take place tonight in Lagos. First time-nominee Mohamed Dione, a LA-NY based director and actor, with his first film Maffe Tiga is short-listed in the best short film category. Dione is a working actor with roles in the likes of Law & Order: Criminal Intent, Notorious as well as a feature in Andrew Dosunmu’s film Restless City [...]
Former ESPN and E! host Sal Masekela explores his complicated relationship with his father, South African jazz legend Hugh Masekela, in the new short, “Alekasam.” Conceptualized when Sal was working on a new album, the short documents how Sal dealt with feeling of abandonment by his famous father, who moved back to South Africa in the 90s. The film debuts at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York City this [...]
I’m cheating. This spot is usually for blogs technically. But Buni TV, a web and mobile video channel, is too good and long overdue an idea to pass up. It’s an aggregation of innovative content you’re more likely to find off the beaten path of mainstream entertainment. It doesn’t say anything about curating just content from Africa, and it is brand new but so far that’s where the content appears [...]
South African and Nigerian films dominate the 26 categories at this year’s Africa Movie Academy Awards taking place in Lagos on April 22nd, with Jimmy Jean-Louis as the host and musical performances from Asa and 2Face expected. Who will win? Here are 5 sure shots. AMAA 2012 BEST DIASPORA FEATURE – KINYARWANDA Already a Sundance 2011 winner, this feature gave us an idea of just how entangled and complicated the [...]
We posted about this film when it premiered last year in London at the BFI Film Festival. Otelo Burning, directed by Sara Blecher (Surfing Soweto) finally opens in South AFrican cinemas on Friday 11 May 2012. Here are some behind-the-scenes clips including insight from Blecher: To go with it, there’s also a mix tape of music both from the film and inspired by its mood and themes, available for free [...]
No sooner had the announcement been made that the film adaptation of Nigerian author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s award-winning novel Half Of A Yellow Sun was to star Thandie Newton, than a petition rang out. By now many people, mostly of Igbo or other Nigerian origin, have complained that the casting of Thandie Newton as the book’s Igbo female protagonist Olanna, is a slight they are not willing to suffer. The [...]
Wanuri Kahiu has been busy. The Kenyan film director has been putting work since the critical success of her Focus Features Africa First short film Pumzi. Last month she gave a talk on the movie and Afrofuturism at NYC’s Parsons The New School of Design. We had to snatch her up to discuss her own “futurism”! She talks to us about delving into adaptation screenwriting for the Nnedi Orokafor penned Who [...]
A rousing success at the 2011 Sundance and Toronto Film Festivals, ‘Pariah’ is the feature-length expansion of writer/director Dee Rees’ award-winning 2007 short film ‘Pariah’. Spike Lee is among the feature’s executive producers. Luso Mnthali spoke to Dee
Nadia Denton decided to pool together the knowledge amassed from her association with film festivals both in the UK and abroad. She wrote this guide as an aid to filmmakers through the entire filmmaking process from the initial financing to the marketing and distribution.
