Paula Lindo – Our histories, stories, present, future.

As the African Film Festival of T&T (AFFTT) celebrates its fifth year of existence, the Festival will be holding its first screening in San Fernando. The Festival will run from May 20 to 26 and will showcase films from the African continent and diaspora.

Festival founder and director Asha Lovelace said while the milestone is a big deal, it was never something she consciously aimed for when she first came up with the idea of the Festival. “AFFTT had a real kind of organic growth, it decided for itself the kind of direction it wanted to take and we just followed suit with it. It feels like five years has come in the blink of an eye. There are some challenges, the main one being a lack of funding. It’s mainly been run by volunteers, but as it goes on we’re seeing the need for some structure, which we’re putting into place. I keep going because I feel the Festival is a phenomenal idea which can be of use socially. To me, the films coming out of Africa seem really familiar and I feel like we see more possibility of being able to make similar films here in T&T. The structure of the festival is to include everybody and to provide something for everyone.”

This year’s Festival features films which explore diverse lives and experiences from Nigeria, Sudan, Ghana, Burkina Faso, Kenya, South Africa, and beyond. “This year, the festival joins countries around the world in commemorating Africa Day on May 25, and the formation of the historic Organisation of African Unity (OAU) in 1963. AFFTT 2019 highlights a wide range of African films emerging from a continent of 54 countries, home to different cultures that have impacted every part of the globe. What I keep in mind every year in curating of the festival is that we have a clear and diverse picture of Africa, so it’s not just one country or one region or one genre. I like to program films that I find are relevant to T&T and this region as well.”

Some of the highlights of the Festival include a day of South African films on May 25, in collaboration with the South African High Commission of T&T; the AFFTT Jr. Programme on mornings from May 23 to 26; and the San Fernando screening at Library Corner on June 7.

Lovelace said she is particularly enthused by being able to screen the opening and closing films of the Festival, especially as both directors will be present to introduce their films. The opening film is The Burial of Kojo, directed by Ghanian-American musician and TED Fellow Samuel “Blitz the Ambassador” Bazawule. Lovelace said she chose the film because it was visually stunning. “When I saw his film there was something so really special in the way he crafted the film and the images, the music and the costuming. There’s also a magical realist quality about the film which I think is phenomenal, and I think that’s something we should be maximizing here in T&T. Also, when he was making the film, he declared he wasn’t going to the typical sources of funding for African filmmakers because he saw them as a way of having control of your work and your narrative, so he found alternative ways, including a Kickstarter campaign, so I figured having that example could be also quite an exploration for us as people trying to make our films here. The film has done really well since it was released last year and since then Ava Duvernay took it up under her Distribution Company and he’s now on Netflix and all over so he’s done really well.”

The closing film is called My Friend Fela, directed by Brazilian director and Fela Kuti’s official biographer Joel Zito Araujo. It deals with Kuti’s friendship with Cuban intellectual Carlos Moore. Lovelace said she is particularly fond of Araujo because “he takes really big topics like race and puts them into a 90-minute documentary without trivializing or cutting anything. He has this special way of moulding these really big issues in a way that really just makes you reflect. What he does with My Friend Fela is, he put the story of Fela Kuti in the context of what was happening at the time in North America, in Nigeria, in the Caribbean and so on, so you’re able to see this musical giant in the context of the whole world, how he related to it and how the world related to him. Araujo will also be doing a workshop on documentary filmmaking which I’m really excited about.”

The AFTT 2019 films run from May 20-26 at the Little Carib Theatre. Visit africafilmtt.com or call 796-8988 for tickets and more information, follow AFTT2019 on Facebook at Africa Film Trinidad and Tobago, twitter #AFTT17, or email info@africafilmtt.com.