Afrika Eye - Bristol’s annual celebration of African cinema and culture - will return from November 14 to 22 with its 17 annual programme, presenting the city with opportunities to take in street art, architecture, chess, politics, music and a Sundance Festival award winner rooted in Nigerian folklore.
The festivals full line-up is still being finalised but events will include:
- On Tuesday 14 November, a screening at The Cube, Dove Street South, of WHO I AM NOT (Dir Tunde Skovran, 2023, 1hr 43mins), an award-winning documentary telling the heartfelt and moving stories of two South Africans learning to live with being among the 2% of people worldwide classed as intersex.
- Thursday 16 November, as a follow-on to an after-hours tour of Arnolfini’s autumn exhibition featuring the found materials work of Ethiopian artist Elias Sime, a screening of SYSTEM K (Renaud Barret, 2019, 1hr 34mins), documenting how street artists in troubled Kinshasa, DRC are sharing messages of anger and hope through their passionate & creative use of discarded items, including bullet casings, bottle tops, plastic waste and more.
- On Friday 17 November, at Trinity Arts, a screening of the internationally-feted NEPTUNE FROST (Saul Williams and Anisia Uzeyman, 2021, 1hr 45mins), set in Burindi and described as an Afrofuturist romantic musical, with after-screening participation from Trinity’s ‘Speak Out’ arts and social issues project for young people.
- On Saturday 18 November, a full day of screenings at Watershed, beginning with the family-friendly true-life story QUEEN OF KATWE (Mira Noir, 2016, 124 mins), about a poor Ugandan girl who dreamed of becoming a chess grandmaster. Two more films plus debates will follow before Watershed’s Afrika Eye day finishes with the SW regional premiere of the Sundance Festival prize-winning MAMI WATA (C.J. ‘Fiery’ Obasi, 2023, 1hr 47 mins), a supernatural thriller, shot mostly in Benin, inspired by folk myths from Nigeria about the power of a mermaid goddess and then over to the café-bar for live African music. .
- Afrika Eye 2023 will wrap on Wednesday 22 November with an event at Design West, Narrow Quay, celebrating the work of Burkino Faso born architect and social activist Diébédo Francis Kéré - the first black African architect to win the prestigious Pritzker prize in 2022. The event will include a screening of AN ARCHITECT BETWEEN (Daniel Schwartz, 2016, 19 mins), plus interviews and discussions the breadth of Kéré work. ranging from a mud brick school and furniture echoing traditional African designs to London’s Serpentine Gallery and the National Assembly of Mali.
Festival director Annie Menter says: “Afrika Eye is delighted to be bringing a festival of films from and about Afrika and the diaspora to venues across Bristol this November. Films that touch on art, politics, architecture, music, migration and gender will take us to many different parts of Africa, while insightful interviews with directors, panel discussions and ‘in conversations’ will give context and breadth to our screenings and, as always, offer audiences the chance to air their opinions”.
Further details of the complete Afrika Eye 2023 programme, including a food sharing event at Coexist Community Kitchen, will be published soon on the festival’s website - www.afrikaeye.org.uk - where it is already possible to register an interest in tickets &/or sign up to join the free mailing list. Updates can also be found by finding/ following the festival’s social media posts on Facebook Twitter and X (formerly Twitter). .
Afrika Eye is made possible thanks to the financial support of the BFI via funds from Film Hub South West (https://watershed.co.uk/filmhub/).
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