AfriDocs on BET in June once again presents a diverse array of films, including a selection of new documentaries from across Africa.
The 2016 film Accra Power is an eclectic look at one of Africa’s most thriving urban settings. The film focuses on a selection of young Ghanaians; the poet Poetra Asantewa, fashion DJ Steloo, gospel scientist Edward Ohemeng Oware, dancer Hadassah Asare, musician Wanlov (one half of Fokn Bois), visual and performance artist Serge Attukwei Clottey, storyteller Mary Yaa Konadu and boxer Abigail Quartey to be our guides around the greater Accra area.
UPRIZE! is a South African film that looks back 40 years at the 1976 Soweto uprising in light of the recent university student uprisings and the #FeesMustFall protests that rocked South African campuses. Director Sifiso Khanyile explains further, “It’s a glimpse into 70s SA, the cost of the fight for education and freedom, and especially relevant 40 years later as university students take on the ANC government demanding free, quality education.”
AfriDocs also journeys to the US for a music-drenched chronicle of hip-hop, urban culture and fashion. Fresh Dressed is the story of hip hop fashion that has transformed the style of young people the world over. The film is a rich mix of archival materials and in-depth interviews with rappers, designers, and other industry insiders, such as Pharrell Williams, Karl Kani, Kanye West and Nas.
1 June -Town of Runners | Jerry Rothwell | Ethiopia | 2012 | 86 min
The world’s best long-distance runners come from one small town in Ethiopia. In a country long associated with poverty, world-record-beating athletes are the source of pride. Many come from Bekoji, a remote town in the southern Highlands. In the Beijing Olympics, runners from Bekoji won all four gold medals in the long-distance track events – more medals than most industrial countries.
Sheffield International Documentary Festival, 2012
8 June – Accra Power| Sandra Krampelhuber & Andrea Verena Strasser | Ghana | 2016 | 49 min
Accra Power provides an eclectic mix of perceptions of power in one of many thriving urban settings in Africa. It outlines creative and artistic strategies of young Ghanaians at the crossroads of tradition and various belief systems, high techno and economic growth, infrastructural deficits and current energy crisis.
Crossing Europe International Film Festival, Austria, 2016
15 June – UPRIZE! | Sifiso Khanyile | South Africa | 2016 | 58 min
On the morning of 16 June 1976, a group of school children in Soweto gathered peacefully to protest the mandatory inclusion of Afrikaans as a medium of instruction. By nightfall over 200 of them lay dead, mowed down by Apartheid armed forces. Forty years later, this film looks at the world that made these kids, and how 40 years later as university students they once again take to the streets to fight the post-apartheid government on the issue of free quality education.
New York African Film Festival, 2017
22 June – Dear Mandela | Dara Kell & Christopher Nizza | SA | 2011 | 93 min
When their shantytowns are threatened with mass eviction, three ‘young lions’ of South Africa’s new generation rise from the shacks and take their government to the highest court in the land, putting the promises of democracy to the test.
Best South African Documentary, Durban International Film Festival, 2011
29 June – Fresh Dressed | Sacha Jenkins | USA |2015 | 82 min
Fresh Dressed is a fascinating chronicle of hip-hop, urban fashion, and the hustle that brought oversized pants and graffiti-drenched jackets from Orchard Street to high fashion’s catwalks and Middle America shopping malls. Director Sacha Jenkins’ music-drenched history draws from a rich mix of archival materials and in-depth interviews with rappers, designers, and other industry insiders. Sundance Film Festival, 2015
What: AfriDocs
When: Every Thursday 9am/9pm (CAT)
Where: BET Africa, DStv channel 129
Info: www.afridocs.net
Social media: www.facebook.com/AfriDocs, @afri_docs
WS
