Africas lost classics to be showcased in the UK

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Africas lost classics to be showcased in the UK --

Tue, 19 Sep 2017 11:30

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Banned, censored, damaged and forgotten classic films from Africa will be showing across the UK - some for the first time - this autumn thanks to an initiative by five of the country s leading festivals of world cinema and new moves to rescue Africa s lost film heritage by (among others) the legendary US director Martin Scorsese.

The Africa s Lost Classics screenings are being put on by TANO - the network founded by the Africa in Motion film festival (Scotland), Afrika Eye (Bristol), the Cambridge African Film Festival (East of England), Film Africa (London) and Watch Africa (Wales) to give more people more opportunities to see African films.

Chief researcher of the programme is Dr Lizelle Bisschoff, a South African-born lecturer in film at the University of Glasgow and the founder of Scotland s Africa in Motion festival.

She says: In the past decade or so the five festivals in the TANO alliance have been working hard to redress the imbalance which makes it extremely rare for African films to get any screen time in the UK. As a result, the festivals have focused mainly on giving audiences what is often their only chance to see the best contemporary releases or the past work of the best-known directors. But African film history is punctuated by many incidents of great films and exceptional talent being lost, forgotten or silenced. So for the Africa s Lost Classic programme we are delving into the archives to let UK film fans discover an older selection of work of which they are most likely unaware, because the films were banned, forgotten, damaged, lost or simply failed to get the distribution deal they deserved.

Some of the films in the line-up have been rediscovered and restored by the World Cinema Project, founded by Martin Scorsese in 2007. They include El-Momia (The Mummy, 1969), often described as the best ever Egyptian feature but whose director Shadi Abdel Salem never made another, and the poetic 1972 music documentary Trances, by the Ahmed Al Maanouni of Morocco.

Others are being retrieved from academic, family or specialist collections in different parts of the world while three by pioneering women directors are being restored and sub-titled especially for the TANO screenings: Fatma 75 by Selma Baccar (Tunisia), Flame by Ingrid Sinclair (Zimbabwe) and Mossane by Safi Faye (Senegal).

In all, there are two dozen titles from 15 countries on the Africa s Lost Classics menu. The earliest dates back to 1915 and the mix takes in animation, shorts and documentaries as well as features in a variety of genres. Each of the festivals in TANO will be selecting their own programmes from the line-up with details of all screenings available here from the end of September.

Lizelle Bisschoff adds: Despite the under-representation of African cinema in the UK we are witnessing both an increase in African film production and in the public s appetite for films from Africa or by African filmmakers. Putting this expansion into a historical framework is not only interesting but also necessary if we want insight into experiences and influences which are not exact copycats of our own.

The Africa s Lost Classics initiative is being funded by the AHRC (Arts and Humanities Research Council ) through a grant to the University of Glasgow. Dr Lizelle Bisschoff is the project s principal investigator with Dr David Murphy, of the University of Stirling as its co-investigator.

To stay up-to-date with news about screenings and related workshops, talks, exhibitions and other related events, visit the Africa in Motion website.

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