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African Film Touring Programme Summer 2019

Africa 3.0 shows obsession as represented in African cinema. The season will screen in cities across the UK this Summer and forms part of the Film Feels: Obsession season, supported by the National Lottery and BFI Film Audience Network.

Films in the programme adhere to three relatives of obsession – 1.0 Vanity, 2.0 Joy and 3.0 Infatuation. Each subsection offers a new perspective on the theme, and an opportunity to watch and engage with films from across the African continent and beyond.

Through a series of probing and experimental short films 1.0 Vanity explores the influences of social media and our infatuation with image in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa. Films include the new experimental music video from influential music artist BALOJI in Zombies (BALOJI, DRC 2018), which interrogates the almost carnal relationship we have with our phones; Hello, Rain (C.J. Obasi, Nigeria 2018) a Nigerian Sci-Fi film tells the stories of a witch who combines juju and technology to create wigs that give supernatural powers to her and her friends; We Need Many Prayers: This One Went to Market (Jim Chuchu, Kenya 2018) mocks the image of Afrofuturism; and this country is lonely (Jaco Bouwer, South Africa 2019) from artist Jazzard Jaslyn creates an endurance performance piece staged through instagram stories, looking at the flattening effect social media has on our understanding of complex humanitarian crises.

2.0 Joy focuses on the global movement of Afrobeats and how this has brought joy and connections to music movements in Cuba and the US, through screenings of Birth of Afrobeat (Opiyo Okeyo, US 2019) and Bakosó: Afrobeats de Cuba (Eli Jacobs-Fantauzzi, US 2019)

3.0 Infatuation brings classic and contemporary films to the big screen. These include the legendary Egyptian director, Youssef Chahine’s masterpiece, Cairo Station (Bab el hadid) (Egypt 1958).  A 1958 drama through which obsession turns into madness as Qinawi a newspaper vendor working in the Cairo train station, becomes infatuated with Hannuma an engaged beverage seller. Foreign Body (Corps Étranger) (Raja Amari’s, Tunisia 2016) follows Samia as she arrives in France illegally, and finds refuge with Imed, an acquaintance from her village, and then in a middle-class Parisian household, with Christine, the woman she starts to work for. A blend of infatuation, desire and fear forms between the three protagonists in this spicy, sordid and sincere melodrama.

The cover design for the programme has been created by Kenyan artist Joy Richu, who drew inspiration from the concept of Africa 3.0. in her artist statement she said: ‘we all desire to be seen, to be loved, to experience happiness. I chose to create a design that focused on one individual to celebrate the beautiful, unique, and colourful presence that Africans bring to the world despite the fact that we may sometimes feel a little peculiar too’ – Joy Richu.

The programme will travel across the UK including screenings in London, Glasgow, Birmingham, Edinburgh, Inverness, Cardiff, Leeds, Grange-over-Sands and Sheffield. More information about the films and upcoming screenings 

Full screening schedule 

Credits: This programme is part of Film Feels: Obsession, a UK-wide cinema season, supported by the National Lottery and BFI Film Audience Network. Explore all films and events at www.filmfeels.co.uk  

Social media credits: @ayadistribution @filmhubmidlands #FilmFeels #FilmFeelsObsession #BFIFAN  

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