As feature film budgets continue to rise, shorts offer emerging filmmakers an opportunity to experiment, perfect their craft, and establish their definitive voice. The 23rd New York African Film Festival presented two spectacular short film programs at the Film Society of Lincoln Center, providing short filmmakers an opportunity to reach large audiences.
QUARTIERS LOINTAINS
Curated by film journalist Claire Diao, “Quartiers Lointains,” is a touring series of French-African short films exploring the theme of “L’Amour à la Française/French Love” in a diverse society. The theme is an effort to counteract the French media’s efforts, in the aftermath of the Parisian terror attacks, to otherize Muslim and Arab citizens.
Born in Senegal and raised in Paris, by French and Burkinabè parents, Diao is intimately aware of how first- and second-generation French immigrants are constantly being asked where they are from, or whether they are really French. She co-founded the Siniman film nonprofit, which produces the Quartiers Lointains program, to promote cultural diversity and understanding.
Having lived through the Parisian and Tunisian terror attacks—though miles away in both cases, the experience was deeply affecting—she proposed a series of shorts promoting something that all people, regardless of religion or color, have in common: love.
“We want to share, to interrogate, and to think about this dual culture and how we can all be recognized as French in France,” Diao explained.
The “Quartier Lointains” films showcased diverse perspectives on love, from whimsical to comedic to disaffected, grappling with issues of sexuality, tradition, the body, and the shifting definition of French identity. (We previewed the films earlier this year.)
The slate of films included: “Le Retour/The Return” by Yohann Kouam, about a teenage boy who discovers his older brother’s secret; “The Sense of Touch,” by Jean-Charles Mbotti Mololo, a dance-inspired animation about two deaf mutes falling in love; “Destino,” by Zangro, a hilarious tale of two friends who film Arabic weddings, and end up filming one of their ex-girlfriend’s; and “Vers La Tendresse/Toward Tenderness,” a documentary by Alice Diop that probes the depths of masculine tenderness.
“From the French perspective, there are a lot of fantasies and stereotypes about young men from African and Arabic backgrounds. I wanted to give them voices to talk about love, but also to talk about their situation as French people growing up in these [immigrant] hoods,” Diop said, during the Q&A, where she was joined by Diao and Patrick Zingilé, one of her film’s stars.
Diop taped conversations she had about love with four young men from Seine Saint-Denos, deciding to create a movie around their dialogue. The film disambiguates voice and image, forcing the audience to interrogate the men’s deepest thoughts while considering the abstract images Diop pairs with them. White people are the ones who know love; because their parents have shown them.
In the end, she offers a deeply thoughtful and often sobering exploration of love in the 21st Century.
AFRICANS IN NEW YORK
Africans in New York, the second shorts program, played to a sold-out audience. The collection of films, all by or about New York City–based African creative, ranged from slick documentaries—like Teddy Goitom’s “Afripedia X New York,” that we reviewed earlier this month—to experimental shorts, visual poems, and a lyrical meditation on the City of Dreams, “New York, I Love You,” my second short to screen at the NYAFF.
In 2014, after debuting my previous film, “Aissa’s Story,” I spent the following year screening it around the globe. The experience demonstrated how much the festival serves as a gateway to others, presenting films to leading international programmers and influential audiences.
Much of this is due to the passionate leadership of NYAFF Founder and Executive Director Mahen Bonetti, who curates a world-class, high quality festival with international programming year-round. As a result, the festival has become a mainstay of the local and global film scene. And to her credit, each short film director had a distinct voice and style, offering a unique perspective on life in the African Diaspora.
ANTON
In “Anton,” a bi-racial German boy longs for his father in Africa. This is the second short film by actor/director Ntare Guma Mbaho Mwine screened at the NYAFF, and exemplifies his stunning, layered, and poetic experimental style. The film mimics a dream-like state in which Anton imagines what his father and Africa are like, and what it would be like to meet him someday. The images are superimposed, representing how perception often blurs the boundary between reality and fantasy. In the end, when we learn the secret Anton’s mother is keeping, hope turns to heartbreak. Brilliantly and tightly executed, you’ll want to watch this film more than once.
CONTAINED
“Contained,” by Senegalese director Mamadou Dia, tells the story of a man, played by Hoji Fortuna, quarantined on suspicion of Ebola. Prior to becoming a filmmaker, Dia spent eight years traveling the continent while working as a journalist. The film was inspired by a real-life experience he had of being thrown into quarantine after complaining about a cold. Keep an eye out for Dia’s upcoming short, “Baba,” which was shot in Senegal with a team of Senegalese professionals and colleagues from NYU/Tisch School of the Arts.
OLIVE
“Olive,” by Alfonso Johnson, starring MaameYaa Boafo, explores betrayal and heartbreak, inspired by the song O Mistress Mine written by William Shakespeare. Johnson conveys strong emotions of longing, betrayal, and heartbreak with virtually no dialogue, in stark black and white.
Complete film:
RELUCTANTLY QUEER
“Reluctantly Queer,” by Akosua Adoma Owusu, explores the life of a young Ghanaian man struggling to reconcile his love for his mother with same-sex desire, amid the increased tensions incited by same-sex politics in Ghana. This is the third short film Owusu has screened at the NYAFF in as many years, highlighting her affinity for heady, social topics and the avant-garde. The recipient of a Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship, she’s currently in pre-production on her first feature, “Black Sunshine,” that tells the story of a hairdresser and her 12-year-old albino daughter.
Iquo B. Essien is a Nigerian-American writer and director. She attended the Graduate Film Program at NYU/Tisch School of the Arts. Her short film, “New York, I Love You,” screened in the 23rd New York African Film Festival and the New Voices in Black Cinema Festival at BAM. She is currently adapting the short into a feature film while writing a memoir, Elizabeth’s Daughter, about losing her mother to cancer. You can find her on Twitter @alligatorlegs.
