African Film Festival, Inc. (AFF) is a non-profit cultural organization that presents an annual film festival and year-round community programs. Based in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

, the organization was founded in 1990. The organization is dedicated to promoting greater understanding of African culture through film.

Programming

AFF was established in 1990, by Mahen Bonetti and an ad hoc committee of African and American artists and scholars. AFF's flagship program, the New York African Film Festival (NYAFF) was launched in 1993 under the banner of Modern Days, Ancient Nights. The festival was co-presented with the

Film Society of Lincoln Center Film at Lincoln Center, previously known as the Film Society of Lincoln Center until 2019,Aridi, Sara (April 28, 2019).. ''The New York Times''. nytimes.com. Retrieved April 29, 2019. is a film society based in New York City, United States. Fo ...

and in association with

Brooklyn Museum The Brooklyn Museum is an art museum located in the New York City borough of Brooklyn. At , the museum is New York City's second largest and contains an art collection with around 1.5 million objects. Located near the Prospect Heights, Crown H ...

. It showcased classic and contemporary works including films such as ''

Udju Azul di Yonta ''Udju Azul di Yonta'' / ''The Blue Eyes of Yonta'' is a 1991 Portuguese film, the second film by the Bissau-Guinean director Flora Gomes. The government of Guinea-Bissau helped in production, together with the Institute of Cinema in Portugal, Ver ...

'' by

Flora Gomes Flora Gomes is a Bissau-Guinean film director. He was born in Cadique, Guinea-Bissau on 31 December 1949 and after high school in Cuba, he decided to study film at the Instituto Cubano del Arte y la Industria Cinematográficos in Havana. Shot fou ...

, ''

Yeelen ''Yeelen'' ( Bambara for "brightness"/"light") is a 1987 Malian film directed by Souleymane Cissé. It is filmed in the Bambara and Fula languages, and is based on a legend told by the Bambara people. Though the era is undefined, it is presumab ...

'' by Souleymane Cissé, ''

Kaddu Beykat ''Kaddu Beykat'' ( Serer: "Voice of the Peasant"; also known as ''Lettre paysanne'' or ''Letter from My Village'') is a 1975 Senegalese film directed by Safi Faye. It was the first feature film made by a Black African woman to be commercially distr ...

'' by

Safi Faye Safi Faye (born November 22, 1943) is a Senegalese film director and ethnologist.Petrolle, p. 177. She was the first Sub-Saharan African woman to direct a commercially distributed feature film, ''Kaddu Beykat'', which was released in 1975. She ha ...

and Djibril Diop Mambéty's '' Badou Boy'' among others. There was also a retrospective on the films of Ousmane Sembène. The festival has been held annually between the months of April and May. The annual festival, co-presented with Film Society of Lincoln Center, includes film screenings, live performances, art exhibits, panel discussions, artist talkbacks, educational youth programs, master classes and workshops. In 2004,

Brooklyn Academy of Music The Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) is a performing arts venue in Brooklyn, New York City, known as a center for progressive and avant-garde performance. It presented its first performance in 1861 and began operations in its present location in ...

's BAMcinématek became a co-presenter of the NYAFF. In 2011, Maysles Cinema Institute launched a segment of the festival screenings and presentations. AFF has introduced to American audiences the works of many African filmmakers, including

Abderrahmane Sissako Abderrahmane Sissako (born 13 October 1961) is a Mauritanian-born Malian film director and producer. His film '' Waiting for Happiness'' (''Heremakono'') was screened at the 2002 Cannes Film Festival official selection under Un Certain Regard, ...

Lupita Nyong'o Lupita Amondi Nyong'o (, ; ; born 1 March 1983) is a Kenyan-Mexican actress. She is the recipient of List of awards and nominations received by Lupita Nyong'o, several accolades, including an Academy Awards, Academy Award, and nominations for ...

Tunde Kelani Tunde Kelani (born 26 February 1948), popularly known as TK, is a Nigerian filmmaker. In a career spanning more than four decades, TK specialises in producing movies that promote Nigeria's rich cultural heritage and have a root in documentation ...

among others. The festival runs for 8–14 days and showcases about 40 classic and contemporary films each year. The organization also hosts a National Traveling Series which consists of a package of short and feature films selected from the latest edition of the New York African Film Festival and is presented at institutions around the U.S. AFF collaborates on year-round cultural and educational programs around New York City with city-based institutions and agencies such as

Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture is a research library of the New York Public Library (NYPL) and an archive repository for information on people of African descent worldwide. Located at 515 Malcolm X Boulevard (Lenox Avenue) b ...

, CityParks Foundation,

Electronic Arts Intermix Electronic Arts Intermix (EAI) is a nonprofit arts organization that is a resource for video and media art. An advocate of media art and artists since 1971, EAI's core program is the distribution and preservation of a collection of over 3,500 new ...

MoCADA Museum of Contemporary African Diasporan Arts (MoCADA), is a museum of contemporary art located at 80 Hanson Place in Fort Greene, Brooklyn, New York City. It is the first museum of its kind to be opened in New York. History MoCADA was founded i ...

, The Trust for

Governors Island Governors Island is a island in New York Harbor, within the New York City borough of Manhattan. It is located approximately south of Manhattan Island, and is separated from Brooklyn to the east by the Buttermilk Channel. The National Park ...

Queens Museum The Queens Museum, formerly the Queens Museum of Art, is an art museum and educational center located in Flushing Meadows–Corona Park in the borough of Queens in New York City, United States. The museum was founded in 1972, and has among its pe ...

and

Bronx Museum of the Arts The Bronx Museum of the Arts (BxMA), also called the Bronx Museum of Art or simply the Bronx Museum, is an American cultural institution located in Concourse, Bronx, New York. The museum focuses on contemporary and 20th-century works created by A ...

. In addition, AFF also collaborates with festivals and organizations internationally. Notable program attendees include, the late "Father of African Cinema",

Ousmane Sembène Ousmane Sembène (; 1 January 1923 or 8 January 1923 – 9 June 2007), often credited in the French style as Sembène Ousmane in articles and reference works, was a Senegalese film director, producer and writer. The ''Los Angeles Times'' consider ...

, playwright, poet and Nobel Prize laureate,

Wole Soyinka Akinwande Oluwole Babatunde Soyinka (Yoruba: ''Akínwándé Olúwọlé Babátúndé Ṣóyíinká''; born 13 July 1934), known as Wole Soyinka (), is a Nigerian playwright, novelist, poet, and essayist in the English language. He was awarded t ...

, late singer and civil rights activist

Miriam Makeba Zenzile Miriam Makeba (4 March 1932 – 9 November 2008), nicknamed Mama Africa, was a South African singer, songwriter, actress, and civil rights activist. Associated with musical genres including African popular music, Afropop, jazz, a ...

and singer, songwriter, actor, and social activist,

Harry Belafonte Harry Belafonte (born Harold George Bellanfanti Jr.; March 1, 1927) is an American singer, activist, and actor. As arguably the most successful Jamaican-American pop star, he popularized the Trinbagonian Caribbean musical style with an interna ...

Publications

In 2003, AFF published an anthology 'Through African Eyes: Dialogues with the Directors', which featured conversations with pioneer and emerging African filmmakers. In 2010, AFF released the second edition of the publication featuring an overview of African cinema in the 20th and 21st centuries through essays and interviews with African directors. To commemorate the 20th anniversary of the New York African Film Festival, AFF published an anniversary anthology, titled 'Looking Back, Looking Forward: 20 Years of the New York African Film Festival'.

Bibliography

*Bonetti, Mahen, and

Prerana Reddy Prerana Reddy is a New York-based activist involved with community engagement who works in many different areas and disciplines. Reddy was the Director of Public Programs and Community Engagement at the Queens Museum from 2005–2018, where she org ...

. Through African Eyes. New York, NY: African Film Festival, 2003. *

References

External links

* {{Authority control African-American film festivals Film festivals in New York City