We are delighted to be partnering this year with Menelik Music and Education (http://www.menelikmusic.com and http://www.menelikeducation.org). With Menelik Music, we will be putting on two special events during the festival, at St. Paul’s Centre.
Please visit http://www.menelikmusic.com or contact Theodore Menelik to find out how to book, and for more information.
Friday 30 October
The legendary band from DRC, Les 4Etoiles, will be playing - come and dance the night away!
Saturday 7 November
From 2pm onwards, there will be free screenings of films exploring sport in Africa, followed by Menelik’s monthly dinner and dance party in the evening, with music provided by Koko Kanyinda and the Soukous Koumbele. So come and watch films, feast on delicious African food, and learn some new dance moves!
2pm: THE POSITIVE LADIES FOOTBALL CLUB
Director: Joanna Stavropoulou. Producer: Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF). Zimbabwe 2009. 30 mins.
The Positive Ladies Football Club is a testimony to positive living and the universal theme of strength through adversity. A group of HIV positive women, all seeking treatment at an MSF clinic in a Zimbabwean township, decide to form a football team, ARV Swallows, to fight two stereotypes: that HIV is a death sentence and that women cannot play football. After an initially shaky start the Swallows start winning matches and make it through to the finals of the HIV positive women’s football league. But despite their successes, the women have to carry on with their treatment and daily lives. The difficulties of living with HIV are ever-present for these women.
We are delighted to welcome director Joanna Stavropoulou for a Q&A.
3pm: AFRICAN HOOP DREAMS
Director: Eric Drury. Senegal/Angola/US/South Africa 2007. 54 mins.
African Hoop Dreams is a unique and timely film which takes viewers on a tour of discovery to reveal the present-day hope and excitement that surrounds the game of basketball on a continent which promises to change the landscape of the sport forever.
We are delighted to welcome director Eric Drury to do a Q&A.
WAR GAMES
Directors: Heather Baker, Marc Allen. Sudan 2005. 45 mins.
War Games is an intimate portrait of a community, recently devastated by war, struggling to put itself back together again and to stage an Olympic games (called the Twic Olympics) for thousands of children from the surrounding villages. The film follows the organisers as they struggle with broken goalposts, hungry players, and the constant threat of bombing by the Sudan government, all in scorching daily temperatures upwards of 50 degrees Celsius. The beauty of this film is that it shows the humour and energy that Sudanese people are investing in this Olympic enterprise, in site of the war raging in the country. The people we see are anything but victims – they are movers and shakers. The film was a hit at the LA Amnesty Film Festival and has been screened on BBC World in 52 countries.
We are delighted to welcome co-director Heather Baker for a Q&A.
7pm: WRESTLING GROUNDS (L’APPEL DES ARENES) (CAFF 15)
Dir. Cheikh Ndiaye. Senegal 2006. 105 mins.
A fiction film based on the novel by celebrated Senegalese writer Aminata Sow Fall, Wrestling Grounds takes the viewer into the beautiful and complex world of the Senegalese national sport – wrestling. The film follows 19-year-old Nalla (Abdoul Aziz Ndiaye) in his growing obsession for the sport, and examines the consequences of this obsession. The cinematography is like choreography – a dance, backed up by a brilliant, energetic soundtrack. This film, which was selected for the 2009 Berlin Film Festival, is literally a pleasure to behold, and has a gripping storyline to boot.
We hope to welcome director Cheikh Ndiaye to the screening to do a Q&A.
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