The association toucouleur e.V. has initiated the project RE_IMAGING AFRICA: Issues, Perspectives and Utopias of Contemporary African Cinemas. The film, talk and seminar events taking place in the period from November 2013 to March 2015 will focus on the facilitation of exchange relations between selected film festivals and film schools in Germany and in the African countries.

A central building block in the project is the exchange program “Moving Images, Moving Experiences” between African film schools and German film academies, scheduled to begin in 2014. Venues for RE_IMAGING AFRICA will be Berlin and Kassel (Dokfilmfest) as well as the partner festivals in the African countries.

Kick-off will take place in Kino Arsenal where four film programs, curated bilaterally with the partners in Africa, will present themes that move the “Post Independence Generation” of today’s young, African film makers, containing several Germany premieres.
Full programme here 

SYMPOSIUM  – The Art of Collaboration
Saturday 16th November

As part of the symposium possible new models and routes for the partnership cooperation between people engaged in film production in Germany and Africa should be discussed and worked out. How can festival networks contribute to the enhancement of the visibility of current, African cinema on the continent itself and in Germany / Europe? How can barriers between French and English networks be overcome, and German festivals become connected? How must the cooperation be designed so that both sides profit? And what is necessary in order to improve the connection between German and African film schools, to strengthen the professional know how of African film makers and promote new talent? Here it is important to stress the question of which role civil society initiatives are given in this context: How can these support and which concrete cooperation modules are conceivable? How can the film media be instrumental in generating new commitment in the German-African partnership?

Invited are people from the cultural sector, politics, media and civil society, who deal with the developments on the African continent and support them: creative people, journalists and NGO members, as well as representatives from the participating film schools and film festivals. Contact for registration: info@afrikamera.de

Keynotes speakers / Workshop hosts

Claire Diao studied film studies in Lyon and London. She worked as a coordinator for a French filmmaker’s collective then became an independent journalist specialized in African cinemas and filmmakers emerging from French suburbs. Covering international film festivals, she contributes to various Francophone newspapers and online publications and runs the blog L’Afrique en Films. Since 2013, she curates “Quartiers Lointains”, a short-film program between France and Africa. At AFRIKAMERA, she presents screenings and moderates panels and Q&A.

Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Schneider  is director at Institut für Kulturpolitik at Universität Hildesheim and holds the  UNESCO professorship „Cultural Policy for the Arts in Development“

Peter Rorvik (South Africa) is   Secretary-General of the Arterial Network, a civil society network, comprising of artists, activists and NGO, founded in 2007 to strengthen the cultural and creative sector in the African countries.   As director of South African Centre for Creative Arts (CCA) from 1999 to 2012 Rorvik among others headed the   Durban International Film Festival (DIFF) and initiated there the Talent Campus Durban in cooperation with the Berlinale.

Mohamed Saïd Ouma is artistical director of the Comoros International Film Festival (CIFF) and has since 2004 been co-organizer of the International African Film Festival of Africa and the Islands (FIFAI) at Réunion Island. He furthermore works as a journalist and documentary film maker (among others Le mythe de la cinquième île, 2007).

Political schientist Eric Van Grasdorff works at the communications department of the South African embassy in Berlin and chairs the German section of AfricAvenir International e.V.. He has for more than ten years organized a monthly film series, in which framework a systematic scrutinization of cinematic production in Africa takes place.

The symposium will be organized by toucouleur e.V. (Afrikamera) in cooperation with the COMENGA program of Stiftung Partnerschaft mit Afrika e.V. and with financial support from Bundesministerium für wirschaftliche Zusammenarbeit und Entwicklung and Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung.

AFRIKAMERA – current African cinema film festival seeks to counter the lack of awareness towards contemporary African film production in the German capital. AFRIKAMERA sees itself as a new permanent platform for dialogue between African moviemakers and the Berliner audience, and as a venue for exchange between filmmakers, producers and distributors. The nonprofit cultural association, toucouler e.V., has since 2007 engaged in the intercultural dialogue between Africa and Germany. With the “AFRIKAMERA – current African cinema” film festival, toucouleur e.V. seeks to counter the lack of awareness towards contemporary African film production in the German capital. AFRIKAMERA sees itself as a new permanent platform for dialogue between African moviemakers and the Berliner audience, and as a venue for exchange between filmmakers, producers and distributors. To attain this, AFRIKAMERA cooperates with African film festivals, from Marrakesh to Durban.

www.afrikamera.de