The films below will be streaming in the Virtual Cinema from May 20 to May 25 as part of New York African Film Festival for $10.
The 29th New York African Film Festival is presented under the banner Visions of Freedom: tuning into diverse and interconnected notions of freedom pertinent to Africa, the diaspora, and the world at large. This year’s festival presents programs that recall activisms past and usher in new anthems of the future to embrace a united front for liberation and expression.
10 Songs for Charity
Karin Junger, 2021, The Netherlands, Belgium & Nigeria, 115m
Dutch and English with English subtitles
In this musical drama, Charity, a young Nigerian woman beaten and hardened by life in a Lagos slum, leaves for illegal sex work in Europe along with her younger sister, Happy, in pursuit of her dream of becoming rich. Happy, whom Charity ruthlessly initiates into the world of prostitution, resists her fate, jeopardizing Charity's dream. Together with other undocumented women, they endure day-to-day hardships, exploitation, and humiliation with resilience and song. One day, it all becomes too much, and they revolt, singing their fury from the rooftops.
Aya
Simon Coulibaly Gillard, 2021, Ivory Coast, Belgium & France, 90m
Avikam with English subtitles
Young Aya lives with her mother on the island of Lahou. Joyful and carefree, she loves picking coconuts and sleeping in the sand. However, her paradise is doomed to disappear under the water. As the waves threaten her home, Aya makes a decision—the sea level may rise, but she won’t leave her island.
When Women Speak
Aseye Tamakloe, 2021, Ghana, 90m
This documentary challenges perceptions that Ghanaian women’s activism around existential and political issues is of more recent or ‘western’ origin. While the contributions of African women to anti-colonial and nationalist struggles have been recognized, the position of women in post-independence states and societies has been very uncertain. The film traces 16 women who came of age in the 1960s and 1970s. It follows their experiences, told in their own words, as Ghana passed through periods of military, single-party, and multi-party rule.
Time Embodied in Hue, Poetry, and Bold Imagery - Shorts Program
This program of experimental and animated shorts follows trajectories of personal evolutions and connected temporalities, in hue, poetry, and bold imagery.
How the Tortoise Cracked its Shell (Ijapa for President)
Kamal Adisa, 2021, Nigeria, USA, 15m
Set in a not-so-distant future Lagos, Remi, an EFCC (Economic and Financial Crimes Commission) officer, investigates Ijapa's mysterious presidential campaign.
Ele of The Dark
Yace Sula, 2021, USA, 13m
In this experimental short, nonbinary visual artist, Ele, contemplates their evolving relationship with darkness. The film quietly foregrounds the complicated influence darkness has held in their life, as well as their eventual realization of its importance as a survival tool and legitimate aspect of their identity.
An Ode to a Time I Loved Bread
Neema Ngelime, 2021, Belgium, Portugal, Hungary & Tanzania, 11m
Swahili and English with English subtitles
This memory trip of juvenile sentiments recalls the filmmaker's time at a colonial legacy boarding school. Though high school can be fun and memorable for some, Neema compares her teenage years to her peers' and finds odd differences. The rules she followed in school under the umbrella of "suffer now, enjoy later" make no sense these days. To revisit those times, Neema recreates her memories using collage. She lays down the absurd, the silly, and the sometimes unforgivable, interrogating it with her present self.
Winter Insect, Summer Flower
Gbenga Komolafe & Tee Jaehyung Park, 2021, USA, 11m
Described as a trans woman's journey of love, loss, and redemption through the seasons, Winter Insect, Summer Flower uses a circular narrative to explore the ever-evolving body. Starting in the spring, a woman is born from the earth and follows a moth into the light. She experiences a short-lived romance in the summer, faces her fears in the fall, and washes off her loss in the winter. Spring comes around again, and she returns to earth, surrounded by flowers.
