African Film Festival 2018

AFRICAN FILM FESTIVAL NEW ZEALAND - WELLINGTON: 2018

“The darkest thing about Africa has always been our ignorance about it.” – George Kimble

Africa? War...poverty...famine...disease...corruption... That’s Africa, isn’t?
Well, if you attended Wellington’s first African Film Festival last year - or any of the previous festivals in Auckland - some of those clichés will have already been challenged. Now, in 2018, we are back in the capital, with a longer and better Festival – determined to overturn, once again, stale ideas and racial stereotyping. This year, we are presenting - from right across the continent – a selection of films which portray the astonishing cultural richness and social diversity of Africa. Some films focus on history; some on the problems besetting emerging nations; some on African music; some on the natural beauty of the continent; some on continuing areas of conflict; some on those features of “being human” which bind us all together - African or not.

We have a political comedy - part satire, part slapstick – involving both corruption and asparagus! We take an in-depth look at one of Africa’s greatest musical icons – Miriam Makeba. We are also presenting “Frontières”, a road-trip with a difference. “Sacred Water” is a candid examination of female sexuality, within the very specific context of Rwandan culture. Then there is “Clash” – a tense political drama from Egypt, already the winner of numerous international awards.

All regions of the continent are represented, in films which make the audience look at Africa and Africans through native eyes and from new perspectives. The Festival also underlines the astonishing range of artistic and cinematic talent that is blossoming - north, south, east and west - across that vast continent.

Dates and venue for the 2018 Festival:

Wellington: 9th-13th May at the Embassy Theatre, Mount Victoria.

In a world that has recently taken a dangerous lurch back towards narrow nationalism and isolationism, we need to focus our minds on those characteristics which humans everywhere share. Of course, cultural diversity and individuality are to be celebrated, and these films do just that...but they also offer a telling reminder of what unites us all.
In the words of a great African, Desmond Tutu:

“My humanity is bound up in yours, for we can only be human together.”

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