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New Moon, from Philippa Ndisi-Herrmann win at Zanzibar International Film Festival[/caption]
African women dominated at the 2018
Zanzibar International Film Festival winning many of the top prizes at the awards ceremony on Saturday night July 14th. Amongst a record number of over 4,000 entries across all all categories and from over 140 countries, East African filmmakers also featured prominently with the stunning Kenyan film
Supa Modo taking home the coveted Golden Dhow for Best Feature Film.
The films in selection crossed a broad spectrum of topics and genres and represented over 40 countries including Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda South Africa, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Iraq, Western Sahara, Niger, Iran, The United States, France, Ghana, Belgium, Tunisa, Swaziland, India, United Kingdom and many more.
Women filmmakers took home a total of 10 awards, with the documentary
Silas directed by Anjali Nayar, Hawa Essuman taking home two awards; Best Documentary and Best International Film.
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The Wedding Ring by Rahmatou Keita win at Zanzibar International Film Festival[/caption]
The Chairman’s Bi Kidude Award, named after the legendary Zanzibar musician, was awarded to Rahmatou Keita from Niger for her moving and romantic plea for cultural preservation,
The Wedding Ring.
The Emerson Foundation’s Award for Best Film from Zanzibar was also awarded to a woman, Barke Ali, while the SIGNIS East African Talent Award went to Ugandan woman Kemiyondo Coutinho for Kyenvu.
In the inaugural version of the category for Best TV Series, South African Lucilla Blankenberg for her series Jab.
The Ousmane Sembene Awards for Short Film went both went to women, with Tanzania’s Esther Mndeme and South Africa’s Rea Moeti taking home the honours for their films Leah and Mma Moeketsi respectively.
Best Short Film overall was won by Tunisia’s Moufida Fedhila for Aya, while the Best Short Swahili Film was won by Faith Musembi for her film Pendo.
Additionally, women were in the spotlight throughout the event with the Ladima Foundation hosting two events and also awarding the Adaiaha Award for Best Documentary from an African Woman to
New Moon, from Philippa Ndisi-Herrmann.
The Ladima Women of Influence Panel was especially well received with its focus on tangible steps to be taken to assist the development and recognition within the film and media industries. The panel included Bikiya Graham-Douglas, a Nigerian actress, singer, entrepreneur and the founder of Beeta Universal Arts Foundation, Biola Alabi, an African media expert with over 25 years of local and global media experience, Theresa Hill: South Africa: General Manager STEPS/ Acquisition Manager AfriDocs, Dr. Mzuri Issa Ali: Zanzibar: Director TAMWA, Giselle Portenier, a Candian award-winning journalist and filmmaker, and Farida Nyamachumbe a filmmaker from Zanzibar.
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The 2018, Zanzibar International Film Festival will open with the World Premiere of the Tanzanian film Bahasha, continuing the tradition of featuring a new and noteworthy African film on opening night. ZIFF 2018 will take place from July 7th to 15th 2018 in venues in and around Stone Town.
The film is directed by Jordan Riber and features some of Tanzania’s most talented actors including Ayoub Bombwe, Godliver Gordian, Omary Mrisho and Catherine Credo.
“I am very excited and honored that Bahasha has been selected as the opening film for one of Africa’s most important film festivals. I am proud to be a part of the Tanzanian film industry at such an exciting time. The talent of Tanzanian actors and film crew has been so well showcased over the last few years, and I see a bright future in filmmaking for Tanzania. Ayoub, Godliver, Catherine and Omary are all world-class actors and their work in Bahasha is something that will no doubt make Tanzania proud.”
Bahasha is the story of an elected public official who betrays his family, friends and community when he takes an easy bribe. He learns the hard way and must now find the road to redemption.
https://vimeo.com/276651586
With the theme of ZIFF 2018 being Speak Up and Be Heard, there could not be a better film to open the festival with in order to inspire and encourage constructive and open dialogue.
The origins of Bahasha can be traced to the premiere screening of Media for Development International’s (MFDI) popular TV series, Siri ya Mtungi, on the eve of December 2, 2014. Following that screening, the Swiss Ambassador for Tanzania at the time, Olivier Chave, impressed by the series challenged MFDI to develop a film that confronted the issue of corruption, considered one of the most serious underlying challenge facing social and economic development of Tanzania.
This exchange led to the Embassies of Switzerland and the Netherlands providing seed funding for MFDI to develop the script for a feature film that would help to encourage social dialogue around the theme of corruption. To make the project inclusive, MFDI created a number of partnerships with Tanzania’s major anti-corruption stakeholders from government, civil society and the private sector.
The key partner in this project was the Prevention and Combating of Corruption Bureau (PCCB). With generous support from the Swiss Development Corporation and The Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, BAHASHA was filmed on location in and around Arusha, during November and December 2017.
image via screengrab
Supa Modo[/caption]
The inspiring and beautiful new Kenyan film, 
Somebody Clap For Me from Brazilian director Luciana Farah, will have its world premiere at the 20th edition of the Zanzibar International Film Festival taking place July 8 to 16, 2017.
A rollercoaster ride from grassroots poetry to the political heart of Uganda, this captivating labour of love provides a fascinating window into life in a country in which three-quarters of the population is under 25. Linking Uganda’s oral tradition to its 21st Century culture of hip-hop and slam poetry, the film brings its protagonists to the fore, providing a constantly shifting portrait of a Kampala-based youth movement that uses spoken word to challenge the oppressive restraints of Ugandan society and the increasing constraints on freedom of speech under current president Yoweri Museveni.
As Farah chronicles the resurfacing of village bonfire storytelling traditions in the form of open-mic poetry events, we meet some of the scene’s key actors, including Roshan, a mixed race Ugandan who has grown up in the UK, Ugly Emcee, a freedom-of-speech activist who reveals himself to be the grandson of Idi Amin, and Medals the Born Again Politician, who challenges the status quo with both his conviction and command of political pastiche.
The film, which was shot over the course of three years with a crew of East African film students, follows these and other poets as they go about their daily lives in Kampala, the eclectic individual portraits building to form a cross-sectional vision of a country trying to shed its past and create a more inclusive and democratic reality, despite the conservative forces that are attempting to hold on to power.
What begins as a documentary about a grassroots poetry collective, twists and turns unpredictably as it takes viewers into the political and cultural heart of contemporary Uganda. Fuelled by the universal themes of love and identity and made using unconventional filmmaking techniques, Somebody Clap for Me was produced with the support of Maisha Film Lab and the Doha Film Institute.
“I am extremely happy for Somebody Clap for Me to be premiering at ZIFF,” said Farah. “The festival has a long history of supporting independent African cinema and it is fitting that the film will receive its first public screening at one of Africa’s leading film festivals.”