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Last Updated: Apr 29th, 2008 - 00:16:06 |
The films in the festival address this spirit of the times and allow us to take cinema, history, Africa and the future and set forth into the cosmos—as the lights go down let us explore our history and our future together.
African Film Festival 2008 Festival Program
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| Mahen Bonetti |
Mahen Bonetti’s desire to direct a film festival started nineteen years ago. Now, the African Film Festival is celebrating its 15th anniversary. Its 2008 festival launches on April 9 at the Walter Reade Theater at Lincoln Center in New York City. Along with the African Diaspora and Pan African film festivals, this festival is the last of the three film festivals to celebrate its 15th anniversary in the past 12 months. Last year, Bonetti gained national exposure by being covered in Vanity Fair’s special issue on Africa. When she met the Vanity Fair journalist, her immediate impulse was to expose the writer to independent African filmmakers who are obscure to U.S audiences but are revered internationally. She urged the journalist to not only contact the filmmakers who were in New York for the festival but to also reach the filmmakers who are based in Europe. Through her persistence, the journalist travelled to Europe to photograph and interview those filmmakers.
Bonetti does not target a homogeneous audience. She speaks at academic conferences and is often the only non-academic panelist. Nonetheless, most of Bonetti’s outreach efforts occur without her traveling to different sites. Anchored in New York, the staff takes advantage of the centripetal force of the metropolis. Every year before the festival launches, the African Film Festival team publishes a brochure consisting of the contact information for all the featured filmmakers and circulates the information widely. More importantly, this brochure indicates that these foreign films have an English translation. As a result, festivals in places like Poland and Cameroon have agreed to incorporate these films from the African continent. The expanding forums for these films have led to teaching and artist in residency offers for the filmmakers—a trend that Bonetti is most proud to witness. Once the film series launches, it travels to different cultural institutions and crosses the boroughs of New York City. Each year these institutions change but the Walter Reade Theater at the Lincoln Center has remained a consistent location and was, in fact, the first venue that hosted the festival 15 years ago.
Mahen Bonetti becomes a practitioner of theory through navigating spaces and different spheres of influence. She certainly understands the interconnections among theory, policy, art, tradition and modernity. In this brief exchange during our lengthy conversation, she recalls one unfortunate but ultimately beneficial moment with the diplomatic community.
Astride: Do you still screen films for the United Nations?
Mahen: We do, in a sense, but more indirectly. We did for a long time in the past. We [generally speaking] tend to forget that a lot policymaking that happens in Africa is the result of the decisions that are made here. People in the U.S questioned the reason behind us having the festival in New York. Even in Europe they asked me why I do not have the festival in Africa. We do have our counterparts working over there. I don’t know if it is because we are so visible that people are not aware of what is going on in different countries on the continent.
I feel that New York is a very important location to have the festival. Let us not forget that New York is a very important international community and a very powerful community. The reason why we wanted to provide screenings at the UN is because the ears and of eyes of our leaders are there. Most of them do not venture outside of the system; therefore, it was important to bring films and the filmmakers to them. Now, the effectiveness of these screenings is a whole other story.
There was one film we screened and all the ambassadors walked out. It was extremely embarrassing [to see them walk out]. You know how we are, we are so concerned about showing our dirt. That is where the roots of colonialism and slavery are not so far removed from each other. Whose barometer do we use to measure our success and beauty? Why don’t we start looking internally and realize that we should be self-critical and raise questions and also find solutions together and also praise each? I think we’re coming from a more [subversive] position when we can show our dirt and talk about it amongst ourselves.
Astride: How did your article in the UN Chronicle come about?
Mahen: After that fiasco, I thought we were never going to be invited back to the UN. Surprisingly—I think we let a year pass—we were invited again. (Laughs.) Perhaps, there were some leaders who were overthrown. (Laughs.) In any case, we were invited back.
In every sector of society, there is a generation that paves the way for the next one. We hope to keep improving on what already exists. The challenge is always how to melded the tradition and the modernity. I feel that the people from the Diaspora are the ones who are going to meet the kids back home who have been through the wars and the genocides. At that intersection, maybe, something good will come out. Maybe they will find a solution. I hope that it will happen in my lifetime because I would love to see that happen.
2008 African Film Festival Venues and Dates:
Walter Reade Theater, Lincoln Center
April 9-15
French Institute Alliance Française
May 6, 13, 20, 27
Brooklyn Academy of Music, BAMcinématek
May 23-26
For more information, visit www.africanfilmny.org.
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