São Paulo – A special edition of the African Film Festival (Mostra de Cinemas Africanos) will run from March 12 to 22, via a partnership with the Mário Gusmão Film Club (Cineclube Mário Gusmão), an extension project from the Federal University of Recôncavo da Bahia. The program will include seven feature documentaries and 14 short fiction films, many of which will premiere in Brazil. All films are subtitled in Brazilian Portuguese, with viewing available only in Brazilian territory.
Three of the films are Arab-made: two feature films – A Place Under the Sun (Morocco, 2019, 75 min) and Let’s Talk (Egypt, 2019, 95 min) – and one short fiction film, Henet Ward (Egypt, 2020, 23 min), pictured above.
All films will be viewable online, free of charge, via a partnership with streaming platform Spcine Play. The feature films will be available for 72 hours after the date of premiere, and there’s a cap on the number of views for each film.
The short films will be available from the date of premiere to the end of the festival, with no cap on views. The feature films were curated by Ana Camila Esteves and by festival creator Beatriz Leal Riesco.
“The entire festival was curated to meet a need to showcase the aesthetics and narratives of contemporary African cinema, which remains largely unknown to Brazilian audiences,” a press release quoted Camila Esteves as saying. Apart from the films, the festival will feature experts’ comments in the three short film programs, a roundtable on contemporary African documentary filmmaking, and a catalogue of the films featuring texts by guest writers.
Feature films
The feature films have never been show in Brazil. These contemporary African productions were made in countries including Kenya, Morocco, Ghana, Egypt, Ethiopia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The documentaries revolve around African activisms, providing a brief overview of contemporary forms of struggle and resistance in different territories across the continent.
Marianne Khoury’s Let’s Talk sees the director and her daughter explore four generations of their family, as she reflects on what it’s like to be a woman in this microcosm of contemporary Egyptian society. From Alexandria to Cairo, from Paris to Havana, mother and daughter go on a personal trip that’s as visceral as it is visual. All the while, they question their feelings and fates in an intimate narrative.
Karim Aitouna’s A Place Under the Sun sheds light on street merchants in Morocco, portraying in a subtle, suggestive way their complex existences and family relationships, the roughness of the streets, and the impact of urban progress on them.
Short films
All of the featured short films are fiction pieces, and four will premiere in Brazil: Henet Ward (Egypt), Tab (South Africa), Troublemaker (Nigeria), and Da Yie (Ghana), which has been shortlisted for the 2021 Academy Awards.
The 14 short films are divided into three programs that will remain available until the end of the African Film Festival. Each program will be made available on the Spcine Play platfrom as of 7 pm on the date of premiere. The short film programs were curated by Jamille Cazumbá, Ema Ribeiro and Álex Antônio, all of whom are Cineclube Mário Gusmão members. The programs are the outcome of a training effort in curation.
Morad Mostafa’s Henet Ward tells the story of Halima, a Sudanese henna painter who goes up to the household of a young Egyptian bride to prepare her for the wedding. Ward, her seven-year-old daughter, goes on an exploratory trip of the premises. From Ward’s perspective, the meeting of the two women evolves from complicitous rapport to sudden tensions.
The full program is available on the Festival website.
How to watch
Viewers are required to go on the Spcine Play website and then do a quick registration process in the partner platform Looke. Then, just click on the Mostra de Cinemas Africanos tab and chooese the desired title.
This special edition of the African Film Festival is an offering of Ana Camila Comunicação e Cultura and Cineclube Mário Gusmão, com parceria da Spcine Play, with financial support from the State of Bahia, via the Secretariat for Culture and the Cultural Foundation of the State of Bahia (Aldir Blanc Bahia Program), under the Aldir Blanc Law, in connection with the Special Secretariat for Culture of the Brazilian Ministry of Tourism.
Featured Arab films
Tuesday (16): A Place Under the Sun (Morocco)
Wednesday (17): Short film program 3: Body-territory: transversing spaces. Films: Ethereality (Rwanda), Henet Ward (Egypt), Le Bleu Blanc Rouge de mes Cheveux (France), Gagarine (France).
Sunday (21): Let’s Talk (Egypt)
Quick facts
African Film Festival
March 12-22, 2021
Spcine Play
Online and free of charge
Find out more: mostradecinemasafricanos.com
Instagram: @mostradecinemasafricanos
Facebook: /mostradecinemasafricanos
Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
