Africa and African Diasporic Cinema

 

This year’s symposium will look at the inter-relationship between Africa and African Diasporic Cinema. A strong narrative tendency in African Cinema as, Imruch Bakari suggests, “is towards exploring and reconciling the infinite possibilities simultaneously existing in both tradition and modernity” the panel will explore some of the ways this is negotiated by African diasporic filmmakers.

 

11 am  Panel Discussion

 

Speakers:

Florence Ayisi,  director of Zanzibar Soccer Queens (2007) and co-directored Sisters in Law (2005) with Kim Longinotto. Other work includes My Mother: Isange to mark International Women’s Day 2005 and the documentary Reflections, about a black British dancer-choreographer in Cardiff in 2003. She teaches practice-based research at the International Film School Wales, University of Wales, Newport.

 

Obi Emelonye, director of Asylum (2008), Echoes of War (2004) and The London Successor (2006) winner of 4 gongs AfroHollywood Awards 2006 including best director.

 

Anthony Monjaro, actor, who stars in The London Successor (2006).

 

Chair:

Dr. Orla Ryan, teaches film studies, art history and art practice at the Wexford Campus School of Art and Design, IT Carlow, Wexford. She has recently curated exhibitions by Ursula Biemann and Trinh T. Minha at the Void Gallery in Derry.

 

 

2 pm  Performance

 

Mara Menzies is a Storyteller from Kenya who now lives in Edinburg. She founded Toto Tales which is dedicated to bringing African stories to life.

 

 

2:30 pm Keynote Address:

 

Dr. Hal Weaver

 

Films and Filmmakers from the African Diaspora: Transforming Images about the transatlantic middle passage and chattel slavery in the Americas.

 

Dr. Hal Weaver, is the Principal Curator of the ChinaFilm Project and The BlackFilm Project. He offered the world first course on African cinema at Rutgers University in 1972. He has participated on juries of film festivals: Vues d’Afrique in Montreal, Canada; the first President of the Pan-African Jury for the Paul Robeson Prize at the Pan-African Film Festival of Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso; and President of the international jury at the Festival of the Dhow Countries/Zanzibar International Film Festival, Tanzania. His current focus is using films to enhance cross-cultureal understanding and respect for the U.S., China, Africa, and the African Diaspora through the ChinaFilm Project and The BlackFilm Project.