Urban Tales from the African Continent

From September 5 to 7, this year's Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) will host premieres of five remarkable and fiercely contemporary African short film stories from an ambiguous, Nairobi-set science fiction story to a Cape Town recreation of the myth of Noah's ark.

Short Films:

African Metropolis: Berea / South Africa / Director: Vincent Moloi

African Metropolis: Homecoming / Kenya / Director: Jim Chuchu

African Metropolis: To Repel Ghosts / Ivory Coast / Director: Philippe Lac te

Kwaku Ananse / Ghana / Director: Akosua Adoma Owusu

Noyes Fludde - Unogumbe / South Africa / Director: Mark Dornford-May

Film screenings:

09/05/13, 6:00PM / Public 1 / Jackman Hall (AGO)

09/06/13, 8:30PM / Press & Industry / Bell Lightbox 5

09/07/13, 9:00AM / Public 2 / Jackman Hall (AGO)

The screenings include a selection of the African Metropolis Project, showing three short films from three African directors shot in three African cities. They are set in Nairobi (Homecoming, dir.: Jim Chuchu), Abidjan (To Repel Ghosts, dir.: Philippe Lac te) and Johannesburg (Berea, dir.: Vincent Moloi), portraying the face of a modern and cosmopolitan Africa and challenging long-standing clich s about the continent.

The African Metropolis Short Film Project is an initiative of the Goethe-Institut South Africa and South African executive producer Steven Markovitz, with support from Guaranty Trust Bank and the Hubert Bals Fund of International Film Festival Rotterdam.

Kwaku Ananse by director Akosua Adoma Owusu, brought to TIFF by Focus Features' Africa First Program, is a spellbinding, semi-autobiographical interpretation of a traditional Ghanaian folktale. The Africa First Program is a unique initiative, with funds earmarked specifically for emerging filmmakers of African Nationality. It also sponsored Berea.

With Noyes Fludde-Unogumbe, Mark Dornford-May, Golden Bear winner at the 2005 Berlinale, sets Benjamin Brittens one-act opera in Cape Towns Khayelitsha Township, scored for African instruments and performed by members of the renowned Isango Ensemble, featuring Pauline Malefane as Noah.

Filmmakers Vincent Moloi, Jim Chuchu, Akosua Adoma Owusu and Mark Dornford-May will be present at the festival, as well as Steven Markovitz, Executive Producer of African Metropolis, Mike Downey, Executive Producer of Noyes Fludde-Unogumbe, and Mandisi Dyantyis, Isangos co-music director.

Rasha Salti, International Programmer of Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF), says: To Repel Ghosts: Urban Tales from the African Continent is a selection of remarkable short film stories from Ghana, Kenya, South Africa and Ivory Coast. We are very glad to showcase them at this years' TIFF, as the plurality and diversity of voices within the program is a joy to discover. Through shaping their very own aesthetics, these five productions by emerging directors are a fascinating cinematic testimony from a continent for too long harnessed into the most moribund and facile prejudices.

LINK:	http://www.filmcontact.com/americas/canada/urban-tales-african-contine...
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