Africa in the Picture
Annual film festival Africa in the Picture returns from 18 to 23 September 2012 at the Ketelhuis in Amsterdam's Westergasfabriek. Doing just as the name suggests, the festival aims to restore the balance and get African stories back into the pictures, be they straight out of Africa or from the many communities worldwide.
Festival selection
With a huge range of films varying from shorts to feature-length and from drama to science fiction, the Africa in the Picture festival boasts films from countries as widespread as the Bahamas, Mali, Great Britain and the Netherlands.
The festival represents not only the continent of Africa but also its communities and legacies throughout the entire world. Five themes dominated the 2011 festival: 10 Years of Gay Africa, Horror, Northern Africa, Panorama and 'Round About African Shorts'.
2011 highlights
For an idea of what's in store, check out our editor's 2011 picks below.
A Kind of Language (South Africa, 2010). Based on two autobiographical plays by Kabelo ‘Sello’ Duiker, this film follows the harrowing lives of three individuals: a recently released patient of a psychiatric hospital in Cape Town, a child living on the streets and a prostitute trying to escape her brutal pimp. The film comes to an intriguing conclusion as the lives of the three intersect.
Gun Hill Road (USA, 2011, pictured right). Lead character Enrique returns home to the Bronx after a stretch in prison to find that the world he knew prior to going to jail has been turned on its head. His wife can barely hide her emotional affair from him and he struggles to understand his son’s sexual transformation. Enrique is forced to question his unforgiving perception of manhood, hardened by his past.
Mad Cow (South Africa, 2010). Bent on world domination (of course), a crazed scientist steals the body of an android from a military research base. On discovering that the body is missing a head, he attaches the head of a butchered cow to complete his creation. The mad cow then runs riot around an African game lodge, with bloody consequences.
For more information, head to Africa in the Picture.
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