Africa in Motion

Following the opening screening of Hyenas everyone is warmly invited to celebrate AiM’s 10th birthday in style at Edinburgh’s number one arts venue, Summerhall. Join us for an evening filled with African beats, dancing, circus acts and African cocktails and snacks as we warm up a chilly October evening with the vibrancy of African culture. The party will begin with a performance by Scottish drumming group Baobab Gateway, whose unique sound fuses Western and West African instruments. Later, the Artcore Circus (Pyroceltica) and fire artist Ashley Male will perform a packed show of acrobatics, parkour, fire throwing, stilt walking and more. To take us into the late night, Edinburgh-based DJ Swank ‘n’ Jam’s afrocentric beats will get you on the dance floor. All of this can be enjoyed with a complimentary cocktail, Knights Kitchen’s finest Kenyan cuisine, and, of course, no birthday party would be complete without a slice of cake!

Across Africa local film industries are flourishing, and as commercial and independent cinema spaces slowly begin to cater for African cinema, audiences have found a myriad of innovative ways to watch African films. This exhibition is comprised of a selection of photographs that were submitted to AiM as part of a call for photographs depicting ‘Ways We Watch Films in Africa’. We asked photographers, professional or amateur, to capture film-viewing habits across the African continent. In response we received stunning images of street pop-up cinemas, crowded film parlours, mobile phone cinema, film festival screenings and more. The best photographs were selected for this exhibition and will be displayed in Edinburgh and Glasgow for the duration of the festival. 

The image above, from the FiSahara Festival in the Western Sahara, won the first prize. The winning image has received a cash prize and was selected to be the cover image for the AiM 2015 festival brochure. This is the first exhibition of its kind, and one that should not be missed!

Join in with this interactive and engaging storytelling session with Mara the storyteller and her exciting animal stories from across Africa. A perfect opportunity to let your imaginations run wild, practice your roars and meet other cheeky monkeys! Then stay on for a collection of family short films, AfriKids at 3.45pm.

Africa in Motion’s annual Short Film Competition has been successfully running for eight consecutive years. This year, the shortlist was selected from over 120 entries, which is a record in AiM’s history. African filmmakers were invited to submit short films of up to 30 minutes, and the final shortlist comprises a diverse and captivating collection of work from across the continent.

The Short Film Competition is part of AiM’s commitment to nurturing young African filmmaking talent. The winner is selected by our jury of acclaimed film practitioners and academics and will be announced immediately after the screenings. The audience will also have the opportunity to vote for their favourite film with the Audience Award winner announced on our website at the end of the festival.

Our thanks go to Aduna for sponsoring this award.

The prize for the Aduna Award for Short Film is decided upon by jury. We are very grateful for the careful consideration of the esteemed jurors that make up the panels for this year's award.

This year's Short Film jury is:

Zina Saro-Wiwa

Zina Saro-Wiwa is a video artist and film-maker. She makes video installations, documentaries, music videos and experimental films. Saro-Wiwa is the founding film-maker of the alt-Nollywood movement.

Matt Lloyd

Matt Lloyd is the director of the Glasgow Short Film Festival, which is the only dedicated international short film festival in Scotland.

Vincent Moloi

Vincent Moloi is a South African director who has directed ten different TV drama series and short films and is one of South Africa’s trailblazing new breed of directors.

Following the success of our annual Short Film Competition, Africa in Motion has launched a brand new Documentary Competition at this year’s festival. African filmmakers were invited to submit documentaries of 30 minutes or more, and the final shortlist was selected from a wide range of fascinating entries from across the continent, covering varied themes.

The Documentary Competition aims at encouraging and supporting young and talented African filmmakers. The winner is selected by our jury of acclaimed film practitioners and academics and will be announced on Friday 30 October. The audience will also have the opportunity to vote for their favourite film with the Audience Award winner announced on our website at the end of the festival.

TICKET DEAL: Buy tickets to any two of the documentary competition screenings at CCA and get a third one free. The screenings at Edinburgh College of Art are free and non-ticketed. 

Our thanks go to The Scottish Documentary Institute for sponsoring this award.

The prize for the Africa in Motion Documentary competition is decided upon by jury. We are very grateful for the careful consideration of the esteemed jurors that make up the panels for this year's awards.

This year's Documentary Jury is:

Noe Mendelle

Noe Mendelle is the producer of films such as State of the World and I am Breathing, and the founder of the Scottish Documentary institute.

Darryl Els

Darryl is one of the most active personalities in the South African indie film scenes do the co-founder of the Bioscope independent cinema.

Judy Kibinge

Judy Kibinge is the driving force behind film production house Seven and director of films including A Dangerous Affair and Something Necessary.

Omelga Mthiyane

Omelga Mthiyane is South African documentary filmmaker of films such and a member of the Filmmakers against Racism initiative. Her films include Body Beautiful (2003); Ikhaya [Home] (2004); Baraka (2008 – Marianne Gysae, Riaan Hendricks, Omelga Mthiyane); Inanda, My Heritage (2008); Thank You Mama [Siyabonga Mama] (2010); Li-Xia’s Salon (2011).

Born in 1971 in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, Philippe Lacôte grew up next to a movie theater – The Magic. As he began to study linguistics, he became a radio enthusiast, before he turned to film and started making short films. In 1989, he made a series of sound portraits on the fall of the Berlin Wall. Four years later, he made his first short film, Somnambule, in black and white. In 1995, he directed the black and white The Messenger, starring Denis Lavant, presented at the Rotterdam International Film Festival. In 2001, he co-directed with Delphine Jaquet Affaire Libinski, a short film made up of stills, reminiscent of Chris Marker’s The Jetty. In 2001, he felt like going back to documentary filmmaking – Cairo Hours portrayed Cairo through the wanderings of young Egyptian writers from the Movement 90. One year later, he set off for Ivory Coast to make a film on his childhood friends. Three days later, the rebellion broke out. He decided to film his neighborhood, Wassakara, in the working-class suburb of Yopougon, during the first three weeks of the curfew. It took him five years and ended up as an artwork, halfway between an essay, a documentary and a diary – Chronicles of War in the Ivory Coast. In 2010, Philippe Lacôte produced Lonesome Solo’s Burn it up Djassa, which was shot in 11 days in the Abidjan suburb and screened at the Toronto International Film Festival and at the Panorama Selection of the Berlin Film Festival in 2012. In 2013, he directed To Repel Ghosts, a fiction film on the unrecognised journey of artist Jean-Michel Basquiat to Ivory Coast. RUN, which won the Jerusalem Film Lab Award, is Lacôte’s first feature. It was presented in the Un certain regard section of the 2014 Cannes Film Festival.

During this masterclass Philippe will show clips from his films and talk about his filmmaking practice.

This programme of shorts pulls out different elements of play, whether it be imaginative and creative engagement, playful filmmaking, a distortion of the playground and the toys of our childhoods, or the loss of playful innocence, these shorts look to capture the pleasure and pain of the game.

This strand will explore recent political movements and transitions made towards freedom across Africa.