Afrika Eye, Bristol’s African film festival, got underway last night with music, dancing and a sell-out screening of Sing Your Song, a powerful and inspirational documentary of American singer Harry Belafonte, highlighting his roles in the US civil rights movement and worldwide struggle for equality and peace.
The festival, which celebrates and showcases African cinema and is now in its sixth year, takes place this weekend at Watershed. This year includes a focus on the Arab Spring and the revolutions across North Africa.
Following the film, Moroccan musician and singer Hassan Erraji and South West-based dancer Shema performed at the opening night party.
The festival continues today with a speech at 7pm by Lord Paul Boateng, the former Chief Secretary to the Treasury and British High Commissioner to South Africa, who will speak on the challenges and opportunities for democracy in North and sub-Saharan Africa – expanding on the festival’s core themes of democracy, dictatorship and revolution in Africa.
Paul Boateng’s talk takes place between screenings of An African Election, a documentary about Ghana’s 2008 election, and Bristol-based exiled Zimbabwean filmmaker Simon Bright’s Robert Mugabe… What Happened? – the fascinating story of a man who built a country and then destroyed it.
Tomorrow Utopia in Ethiopia, at 1pm, looks at the establishment of a democratic village where religion is openly questioned and men and women have equal rights. At 2.30pm The Satanic Angels traces the lives of 14 young hard-rockers arrested for Satanism and ‘shaking the foundations of Islam’ in Morocco.
The first feature-length documentary about the Tunisian revolution, No More Fear, is at 4.30pm and the festival closes with Viva Riva, the globally-successful gangster movie from the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Watershed has a special offer of buy four tickets and get the cheapest one free on all Afrika Eye events – and double points for Watershed loyalty card holders.
Bristol Business News is proud to be a media partner of Afrika Eye.
