By Ogova Ondego
Published September 2, 2009
Films that won awards during the 12th ZIFF Festival of the Dhow Countries (June 27 – July 4, 2009) shall be showcased in Potsdam, Germany, September 10-13, 2009.
In what Prof Martin Mhando, the outgoing Festival Director of ZIFF describes as ‘effort at widening the reach of African films presented at its festivals,’ ZIFF, in collaboration with the Filmmuseum Potsdam, the City of Potsdam and the Tanzanian Embassy in Germany, will present a programme called ZIFF@Potsdam that will ‘involve projecting most of the ZIFF 2009 Festival Winners and some of the more prominent Tanzanian film productions.’
The main theme of the four-day festival is ‘Development Films’ and is a reflection on the role and place of films realized through collaboration between African filmmakers and Western development cooperation partners.
The films to be shown include ZANZIBAR SOCCER QUEENS (Cameroon, 2007), Lekoko Piniel ole Levilal’s MWALIMU: THE LEGACY OF JULIUS KAMBARAGE NYERERE (Tanzania, 2009), Savannah Films’ AFRICAN TALES short story compilation (Tanzania, 2009), SUWI by Catherine Kaseketi Musola (Zambia, 2009), Tunda wa Munga’s MON HISTOIRE’ PAPY (DRC, 2007), Michel Ocelot’s KIRIKOU (France, 2005), KEISKAMA: A STORY OF LOVE (South Africa, 2007), SEASONS OF A LIFE by Charles Shemu Joyah (Malawi, 2007), Wanuri Kahiu’s FROM A WHISPER (Kenya, 2008), Daniel Kamwa’s MAH SAAH SAH (Cameroon, 2007), BONGOLAND (Tanzania, 2003), and Auguste Bernard Koueho’s WARAMUTSEHO (Cameroon, 2009).
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“IFF has embarked on this internationalisation of its programme in an effort to widen the reach of African films overseas and hopes to further export its programme, ‘Festival of Festivals’, to other festivals in the world,” Prof Mhando says. “Later in the year the programme is expected to tour Italy and in 2010 it will be in New York at the Museum of African Art.”
