Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Rome (Fides Service) - From 22 to 28 March the 14th African Film Festival was held in Milan. This year’s edition included a “Window on the World competition of films from Africa but also Asia and Latin America. A panorama which travelled from the Maghreb, to India, from South Africa to South America presenting the public with a selection of films which can contribute towards enriching inter-cultural dialogue .We spoke with Annamaria Gallone one of the Festival founders and at present art director with Alessandra Speciale.
Ms Gallone stressed the importance of intercultural dialogue as a channel for peace which emerged from the spirit of unity that animated the Festival. She underlined the growing presence of women film directors in the competition for documentaries and non fiction films as well as the increasing impact of the Festival. It is most important for an African, a Latin-American, to see cinema filmed from the inside, a mirror of their country and civilisation.
Among the films selected for an Italian preview: the delicate humour of Kazakha comedy Malen'kie Ljudi (Little People) by Nariman Turebayev; Uniform (Zhifu) film/video revelation of Rotterdam Festival by young Chinese underground film director Diao Yinan; the mystery of the first African night of two French people lost in Dakar in Le jardin de papa by French-Congolese Zeka Laplaine. A “Panorama of African Cinema” proposed a broad selection of fiction and 35mm documentaries and video from Africa and all over the diaspora by African film directors all over the world. This was followed by a series of “short films”, “African documentaries and non fiction”, by non African directors which offer a different picture of a country in view of better knowledge of the social and cultural realities of Africa.
To mark the 10th anniversary of the genocide in Rwanda there was a Special selection of films and videos and a meeting of reflection on one of the most tragic pages in the history of humanity. There was a “Looking back” section concerning South African Cinema from the 1960s to today. This is actually part of a South African government programme for 2004 to mark the 10th anniversary of the beginning of democracy and a broad selection of films starting with the dark years of apartheid through the cultural rebirth of the country. (AP) (20/4/2004 Agenzia Fides; Righe:33 Parole:399)
