← All Of It with Alison Stewart
All Of It with Alison Stewart
A Preview of the 2024 New York African Film Festival
00:22:09
We preview the 31st New York African Film Festival.
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This is all of it. I'm Tiffany Hansen in for Alison Stewart. Thanks so much for spending part of your day with us. On today's show, we'll talk about the fashions and the pageantry at the Met's annual gala last night, where the theme was Sleeping Beauties Reawakening Fashion. New York Times fashion critic Vanessa Friedman will talk to us about the the gala and we'll take your calls. Author Kellyanne Bradley will also join us to talk about her debut novel, the Ministry of Time, in which a modern British government worker falls for a commander from the 1800s who has time traveled to the present day. We'll also discuss the play Grenfell, about a tragic fire in a London housing complex, and a new documentary, the 50, which highlights the journeys of 50 incarcerated people who are in training and to become substance abuse counselors. That's the plan. So let's get started with the New York African Film Festival. Tomorrow, the New York African Film Festival launches into its 31st annual week long showcase of African and diaspora filmmakers and this year's theme is Convergence of Time, which, quote, explores the intersection of historical and contemporary roles played by individuals representing Africa and its diaspora in art. Over the course of the month, the New York African Film Festival will present more than 50 films from more than 25 countries, including over the Bridge, a psychological thriller about an investment banker and struggling alcoholic in Lagos, Nigeria, and Fight Like a Girl, a film about a young Congolese woman who becomes a professional boxer, and Dilly Dark, a hip hop dramedy about a Nigerian student pursuing his MBA in New Delhi, India. The screenings are shown at Film at Lincoln center from May 8th to the 14th. Programming continues at Maisel's Documentary center in Harlem from the 17th. May 17th to the 19th and culminates at BAM, the Brooklyn Academy of Music under the name film Africa from May 24 to May 30. That's during dance Africa. To give us a preview of the festival is founder and curator Man Bonetti, who joins us today. Man, welcome to all of it.
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D
Thank you for having us.
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C
And also journalist and filmmaker Odaba, whose biographical documentary about the Ghanaian artist El Anatsui will make a screen, will make it to the screen at this year's festival. Oyeza. Welcome to all of it.
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E
Thank you for inviting me, listeners.
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C
Of course, we would love to hear from you as well. Are you a fan of the African Film Festival? What is the first African film you remember watching? Are there directors, actors you're watching? Call us, let us know what your favorites are. 212-433-9692. You can also text us at that number and you can find us on all the social medias at all of it. Wnyc man, let's start with you. Since the inception of the New York African film festival in 1993, you've curated films from Africa and the African diaspora. So what was really the impetus behind founding this festival?
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D
I would say it was an urgency. And over the course of the 30 plus years when we first launched the New York African Film Festival, our intention has always been to present a picture of Africa from the African perspective. And for this 31st edition of the festival, we're presenting programs that are an embodiment of all those things and more. We were always mindful of celebrating the old and the new and it is the both. It is both the old and the new that inspires us and has kept us going. And of course, you know, we are always introducing new voices. There's never a lack of content which gives us this encouragement and also inspires us to keep us going as well. And as I said, you know, as we enter this decade, we're truly inspired by these next generation of storytellers who are mindful of the past and are presenting the complexities of our spaces, our people, and challenging some of our traditions as well and critiquing them. But while celebrating that ever evolving experimentation of storytelling that those traditions allow and make possible. So there's so many new voices that are addressing a gamut of themes from religion to coming of age, racism, the environment, ageism, love stories, and they're really mindful of many visions that are taking place in their spaces. So there's a plethora of works and conversations which are equally as important as what you see on the screen that will be taking place over the month of May. So, please. Yes, I'm curious.
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C
Prior to 1993, when we mentioned that's when you founded the New York African Film Festival, where did people go to find these films?
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D
That was it. They were. There were films that would come through various festivals and were not seen by people whose stories were being told. So for us, that was one of the things we were trying to redress. And you would see them probably at art house theaters or. Or festivals. And it was also about access to the information, you know, who got that information and when. So when I would go to, let's say, Lincoln center or at the time, New York Public. The Public Theater, which also had a movie theater then, and the Salier, this is where you'd see these films. And they were the auteur films. And, you know, you enter this space and I would see myself and to maybe to other people of color. And I realized perhaps the information was not filtering into the community. And that was one of the first things we wanted to address when we started doing our research to make sure that everyone had access to this content, to these images. And I think, you know, it's an ongoing work, of course, but I feel that we have succeeded somehow in that. We have a very diverse audience attending our festivals, our programs, which run throughout the year. We make sure we go into the communities in the summer. We have a national traveling series as well. We do an education program because you have to. I describe us as a caravan that travels around pitching our tent and putting up this screen and inviting everyone to partake in these gatherings and manifestations.
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C
Oh, thank you, Oyesa. In addition to the film that you have featured at the festival, you also founded Africa Related, a media and content development company operating in Lagos, Nigeria, and also New York City. I'm curious how you have seen African filmmaking evolve since those early days of the New York African Film Festival.
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E
Thank you again. Yes, the film industry in Africa as a whole has evolved over the years, not just in New York, from the days where it was only Usman Sambane that represented anything filmmaking in Africa. And that was one name that, you know, was the first of so many things. And I think a great inspiration also to Mahen Bonetti for starting this festival. His earlier films like Wagner, Black Girl and the. The Rest. And then, of course, other filmmakers followed. And it's. We look at a country like Burkina Faso, for example, one of the smallest countries, but the amount of films that came out of that country and in My country, Nigeria, later on, with the rise of Nollywood and the growth of Nollywood dominating, being the second largest film producer in the world. So it really has come a long way and it has developed. And of course, with efforts of people like Mahen Bonetti and other film festival cur curators, not just in New York, but all over the world, working hard, working tirelessly to sustain the African film industry, that is just a beautiful platform to bring an understanding of Africa and Africans to the rest of the world. Because don't forget, that film was used as a propaganda tool back in the day during the colonial days where it was controlled by the, you know, the colonialists. And it used that to portray Africa and Africans in a certain way. So it's a great thing for me as a journalist, as a film director. Now, this is the first one and also a company owner, a company executive that sits in this space between my country, Nigeria, Africa as a continent, and a place like New York that is so vibrant in. In expression of culture and. And stories. So it's great to see how it has evolved. Yes. To this point.
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C
Well, I definitely want to hear about the films coming out of Burkina Faso. I lived there for quite a while, so that's of interest to me. But more broadly, we talk about African films, but Africa is a continent and there are many, many countries and many, many voices and many, many histories and ways of storytelling and Maude, I'm just curious how you address that. I know there are, you know, a number of films featured is in the curating of that. Is that something you take into account?
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D
Oh, yes, because it's not a singular story. You know, there's so many stories coming out of African diaspora and, you know, that we can't make assumptions about these creative practices. And coming back to what WISA was saying, what Nigeria, the Nollywood phenomena, has really achieved is that it has created a homegrown industry.
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C
And I should just interrupt and say Nollywood for people who don't know, are films coming out of Nigeria.
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D
Right. But it has also given a template to all these other nations on our continent and outside Africa to create their own nascent cinemas, you know, and the video explosion. You know, one time all these auteurs turned their noses down at the video formats and Nigerians were at the sort of, you know, they had the crystal ball. Now everyone does video. You know, the video format is what most filmmakers are using to produce their films. You know, and I would say that, as I said, it's not a singular story. So you have so many various stories coming out of the various countries and the diaspora. And as I said, the themes range the gamut from religion to love stories. And this is what is beautiful. You know, we're inspired by these new generations of storytellers and who are showing all these complexities but also giving us, inspiring us to really delve into our own self, to be self reflective and to really see that what Africa has really given. I mean, I find her footsteps even here in the diaspora, despite what we think she has really given us really the cultural, you know, her footprints is in everyone's cultural references. I look at what defines American culture and I see Africa everywhere. I go to Brazil, I go to Jamaica, and Africa is ever present in their cultural references. So this is why I feel that cinema is really important to also redress all those blind spots. As Oiza was saying, images for so long were what people saw and believed. This is what Africa and Africans represented. So we're kind of reappropriating these images and correcting all these, you know, what blind spots, as I said. And can you tell us cultural formations? Sure.
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C
Ma, tell us a little bit about the film that's opening, the opening night. Over the Bridge.
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D
Yes, over the Bridge. It's a beautiful film. You know, when we speak of, of Nollywood. Nollywood is the kernel. Right. And there'll be. And it's, it's. Each generation adds another layer to how you define Nollywood. The production value, the storytelling. So you have experimentation, not Nollywood. You have sci fi Nollywood, you have art house Nollywood. And so. And this story, over the Bridge by Tulu Ajayi is about a young man who is rising up in the banking system. And his company has been contracted to by the government to foresee a high profile project. And of course, when the project goes awry, he has to find a solution to redressing this problem, but also finding a solution to his own success and his own being. So he goes back in time, you might say he goes back to a village to find a solution, to find an answer. It's like soul searching. So that's why when we say we're celebrating the old and the new, because the new is informed by the old and the old and the future are always present in the new. So it's very well made. And we have the filmmaker with us, who just arrived by the way. So we're very happy.
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C
Good.
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D
And he'll be there tomorrow and he will tell us more about what is going on within the, you know, the Nollywood industry and also his generation of filmmakers.
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C
Yeah. Oh, we know that there are different types of Nollywood films, obviously all of the types that man was just talking about. But is there a unique characteristic to the style that you could put your finger on?
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E
I think what is unique to. And you are right, Nollywood is quite diverse. And Nollywood has evolved itself. World itself has grown from the days of just quick turnouts on dvd. And, you know, the quicker, the more films we make, they emphasize so much on the. The quantity of films rather than the quality. So part of the evolution is right now, what we see now is the emphasis on the quality of films that are coming out of Nigeria and the Nollywood market, and also the inspiration it's formed for other countries like Ghana and Uganda, Kenya, that have gone on to develop their own film industries. And if you're looking for that unifying factor, I think what, what. What we can just simply say is that Africans love to tell African stories. We like to tell our stories, and for so long it's been told for us, but it's now being told by us. And initially, we didn't put as much emphasis on the how of telling it, but I think the new of producers, directors, writers, actors and actresses that have come up now and they're changing those narratives, that our films can now compete on any platform, on any given platform across the globe. So we see, we've seen a new crop of people that have those interests at heart. And also, one of the things I must mention at this point is the need to look. We've got to face it. We've never really been the biggest or the best at archiving and documenting. And even materials that were short as early as the 70s and 80s are lost today. So we had to step back and say, where is our past? Where are we? How can we tell a complete story about ourselves if we can't even bridge these gaps? And the way to do it is through film, is through cinema. And it's also provided an outlet for people to express themselves freely. You may not be able to do that through music or as a writer, as a journalist, but with film, not very many people can hold you unless they censor you. So it's become that reverse political tool for the African filmmaker to be able to put out very important statements about the African people.
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C
Well, before we let you go, one last question here for you. Oh, about your film about the artist El Anatui. So just give us. Just give us a little brief Outline of what that film is. What, what. What film buffs can expect when they come to the African Film Festival.
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E
Yeah, Well, I mean, you give us two hours of your time. It's 120 minutes. We'll be able to tell you, you know, very detailed and deep story about one of the most recognized, globally recognized sculptors and artists of our time, who normally has been very private about his life in Nigeria and in Ghana up until now, where he's. We really had to delve deep and say, who is this man? How can we share him and what he's done in not just the art world, but just being a. An amazing humanist.
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C
Yeah.
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E
And. And share him with the rest of the world. And that's why we went and, you know, sought his permission and started working with him about 10 years ago. He signed us in 2020.
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C
Can you give us the title again?
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E
It's Della the Making of El Anatui. And it's showing on the 12th of May at 3.30pm at film at Lincoln Center. It was selected to show as part of the New York African Film Festival.
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C
Love it. All right. And the films are at Film at Lincoln center from May 8to May 14, again at Maisel's Documentary center in Harlem from May 17 to the 19th, and at BAM under the name Film Africa from May 24 to May 30. We've been talking about the New York African Film Festival with the founder and curator Maan Bonetti. Maan, thank you so much for your time today.
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D
Thank you for having us and hope to see you at the movies.
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C
Yes, absolutely. And Oiza Adaba, thank you. You're a journalist, filmmaker. So many other things we could say about you, but we're really looking forward to your film. Thanks for your time.
- [23:01]
E
Appreciate it. Thanks.
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D
Thank you.
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Surprise. Beach Day. No excuses. I'm in. Gimme five. With Bix Soleil Glide Razor, you'll have hydrated, smooth skin that's ready to go on the fly. No shave cream needed. You can prep, shave and hydrate all in one step thanks to moisture bars that hydrate your skin during and after shaving. 5 flexible blades hug your skin for a clean, close shave. Glide into smooth. It's your time to shine with bixsolil. Buy now at Amazon and Walmart. Ready? Your skin looks amazing. So smooth and beach. Ready. Let's go.
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