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Event of Africa Week and the 10th African Film Weekend

October3-4, 2014

Theme: The City and the State in Contemporary Africa

Kasongo M. Kapanga

I. Africa Week’s Lecture.

Thursday, September 25, 2014, 7:30 P.M. “The Boko Haram Phenomenon: Challenges for the Nigerian State and Society.” Presenter: Professor Tanure Ojaide, Frank Porter Graham Professor, Africana Studies Department, The University of North Carolina at Charlotte. Venue: The Commons of the Weinstein International Center.

II. The 10thAfrican Film Weekend. Friday and Saturday, October 3-4, 2014. Presenter: Professor Carina Yervasi, Associate Professor of French. Department of Modern Languages and Literatures,Swarthmore College, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Friday October 3: 3:00 & 7:30 P.M. Tey (Aujourd'hui) by Alain Gomis (Senegal/France, 2012) (86 minutes)

Saturday, October 4

8:30 -9:30 (Shorts):

  1. Mwansa the Greatby Rungano Nyoni (Zambia/ UK, 2011). (23 min) Appropriate for ages 7-12 year +.
  2. Varavarankelyby Sitraka Randriamahaly (Madagascar, 2008-2010) (silent animation, 3 min.)Appropriate for all ages.
  3. Y en a marre /Fed Up by Adams Sie (Senegal, 2013). (19 minutes)

9:45 -10: 45. A Letter to Nelson Mandelaby Khalo Matabane (South Africa/Germany, 2013). (85 mins)

Modify times

11:00-12:15: Atalaku (Crieur)by Dieudo Hamadi (République Démocratique du Congo/ France, 2013). (60 minutes)

Lunch

2:00: Aya de Yopougon / Aya of Yop Cityby Marguerite Abouet and Clément Oubrerie (Ivory Coast/France, 2013) (84 mins)

Film Descriptions.

Tey (Aujourd'hui) by Alain Gomis (Senegal/France, 2012) (86 minutes). After spending a few years abroad in America, Satché comes back to his city of Dakar, but he is on his last day on earth, since it has been determined that he would die. He then has to visit and bid farewell to his family, his friends, and his acquaintances including his former lover. At the same time, it is a trek to pay tribute to the city of Dakar. French and Wolof. English subtitles.

Mwansa the Greatby Rungano Nyoni (Zambia/ UK, 2011). (23 min) Appropriate for ages 7-12 year +. Mwansa is an 8-year old boy set for great actions after breaking his sister’s doll. He goes on a mission to make amends and has to show himself brave enough to overcome obstacles. The film was nominated for many awards and won several including the Audience Award at the VS Independent Short Films Festival in Vienna.

Varavarankelyby Sitraka Randriamahaly (Madagascar, 2008-2010) (silent animation, 3 min.)Appropriate for all ages. Based on a proverb from Madagascar "Two are better than one because if one falls down, the other can help him up," of which it is an illustration, the film is an animated film about a boy who is watching a bird fly by. Appropriate for all ages.

Y en a marre /Fed Up by Adams Sie (Senegal, 2013). (19 minutes). Thiat, Simon, Xuman, Kelifa and Fadel Barrow, five your rap musicians, found a movement seeking political change in their country Senegal. The film captures their intervention and their galvanizing of the youths often left on the margins of society in their attempts to vote out the sitting who, through maneuvering, wants to change the constitution.

A Letter to Nelson Mandelaby Khalo Matabane (South Africa/Germany, (2013, 85 mins), is a documentary that presents a portrait of Nelson Mandela through some the lenses of global leaders such as the Dai Lama, Colin Powell, Henry Kissinger, Ariel Dorfman … What should one choose between the sainthood with which Mandela has been cloaked in and the stark reality he left behind? The documentary has English subtitles and has been shown at various festivals.

Atalaku (Crieurs) by Dieudo Hamadi (République Démocratique du Congo/France, 2013). (60 minutes) With the end of the Cold War, Africa’s political landscape has embarked on various democratic experiences of which elections are the most visible facets. Some are positive, some rather lukewarm and others negative. The film is an insider’s look into the DRC’s 2011 presidential race. Gaylor, a preacher in dire need of resources, elects to mobilize votes for a candidate. His canvassing gives him the possibility to hear from the electorate who are eager to use the ballots as a way to foster changes and improve their lives.

An insider view into Congo's 2011 presidential elections. Gaylor, a struggling pastor, has sold his services to the highest paying candidate. As Gaylor attempts to mobilize voters in Kinshasa's gritty streets, filmmaker Dieudonne Hamadi's lens is in the fray, never missing a beat. The atmosphere is charged, and Gaylor comes face to face with the Congolese people's discontent. When elections finally do arrive, the nation's vast poverty besieges the polls, plunging a suspect electoral process into chaos.

Aya de Yopougon / Aya of Yop Cityby Marguerite Abouet and Clément Oubrerie (Ivory Coast/France, 2013) (84 mins). This is an animated film about the nineteen-year old Aya and her life in her Abidjan (Côte d’Ivoire) neighborhood of Yopougon during the 1970s. Humor, surprise and hope accompany her existence.

Presenter. Carina Yervasi teaches French and Francophone Studies at Swarthmore College. Her research and teaching is primarily focused on modern France and contemporary Francophone West African cinemas. Her current project, on African cinemas and questions of displacement, usually takes her to Ouagadougou's FESPACO film and media festival, but this year led her to Dakar, Senegal to do research at the Dak'Art Biennale of contemporary art. Always looking for innovative pedagogies, she recently co-taught a globally networked class with colleagues and students from film and media studies (Swarthmore) and history (Ashesi University, Ghana) on the topic of diasporas and invited a documentary filmmaker in the African cinemas class to help students make a film for their final project.