Wilmetta Toliver-Diallo
De Ferguson à Paris
A scene form De Ferguson à Paris: Coupable d’etre Noirs/Not Yo Mama’s Movement, directed by Rokhaya Diallo. Courtesy of Wilmetta Toliver-Diallo.
The African Film Festival returns to St. Louis for its 13th year of showcasing acclaimed African cinema. The festival this year will feature seven films across three days, one short and one long film each day and a youth matinee. Directors of all of the short films will be in attendance to introduce their films and answer questions afterwards, as will Rokhaya Diallo, director of the last feature film, De Paris à Ferguson: Coupable d’etre Noirs/Not Yo Mama’s Movement.
The festival’s founder Wilmetta Toliver-Diallo says that this year’s festival will feature films around an overarching theme of “love and resistance.”
“In all of the films,” Toliver-Diallo says, “I think you really get to see that emotion play out of love—whether it’s love of family, love and relationships, love of community—and trying to define that love. What you resist to make that love possible.”
This love is showcased in the festival’s first short film, Still Waters Run Deep, about a father in search of his missing son in Nigeria. Director Abessie Akhamie will introduce the film and follow with a Q&A.
Directly following Still Waters Run Deep will be the Silver Stallion Award winner from the 2017 Ouagadougou Panafrican Film and Television Festival, L’Orage Africain: Un Continent sous L’Influence. The film directed by Sylvestre Amoussou follows the president of an imaginary African country as he battles Western foreigners who exploit the countries resources.
On Saturday, the Ekwa Msangi will introduce her film, Farewell Meu Amor, about the love and tensions between an immigrant, his lover and his family when his wife and son join him in the United States. Msangi will lead a Q&A following the film.
The feature film for Saturday will be Félicité, which received multiple awards including Best Film at the 2017 Berlin International Film Festival and the 2017 Ouagadougou Panafrican Film and Television Festival. Directed by Alain Gomis, the film follows a mother who goes from singing in a bar to navigating the music industry of Kinshasa in a race to raise money for her hospitalized son.
Wilmetta Toliver-Diallo
Samedi Cinema
A scene from Samedi Cinema, directed by Mamadou Dia. Courtesy of Wilmetta Toliver-Diallo.
Sunday’s showcase will draw on the idea of love and community, beginning with Samedi Cinema, a film about two children raise money to go to the cinema one last time before it closes. Director Mamadou Dia will introduce his award-winning film for the audience.
The last film of the festival will be De Paris à Ferguson: Coupable d’etre Noirs/Not Yo Mama’s Movement following Samedi Cinema. Journalist and filmmaker Rokhayo Diallo will talk about her film, which digs into the racial climates in the United States and France and explore international conversations and connections that can be made through activism.
“It’s a great opportunity for us in St. Louis to see how these conversations are happening in other countries,” Toliver-Diallo says, “and what things are universal, what things are parallel, how can we support each other, what things are different, what makes the context different and what we can learn from that.”
The “Eye on Youth” film, Bilal: A New Breed of Hero, will be shown on Saturday. The computer-animated film directed by Ayman Jamal and Khurram H. Alavi depicts the story of Bilal, one of the most prominent figures in Islam behind Muhammad. Far from home, Bilal resists the world of injustice to make a change for the people of this land.
Also on Saturday, all of the guest filmmakers will hold a discussion about emerging African cinema. For the first time in the festival’s history, directors of the featured films will interact with each other to talk about African film and let people know how to see more of these films and support African cinema.
The African Film Festival runs March 23-25 at 7 p.m. All screenings take place at Washington University’s Brown Hall, Room 100, and are free. The “Eye on Youth” film will be shown on Saturday, March 24 at 3 p.m. at the Saint Louis Art Museum. For more information, go to africanfilm.wustl.edu.
