New York African Film Festival

Americans of all ethnicities have consistently overlooked the plight and struggle of African Americans and their contributions to our country, as well as their Diaspora from their motherland. Since film has been a popular medium through which different groups throughout American history have shaped the perceptions of the American public, the 7th Annual New York African Film Festival (AFF/NY) is being held this week to provide an overview of African film history in the historic cultural capital of African Americans, Harlem, N.Y.

In keeping with the spirit of the AFF mission, its thematic banner represents the evolving style and politically charged content of African cinema - both feature and short films produced on the African continent and in the Diaspora representing a spectrum of issues, values, and challenges were selected to be shown in the festival.

Veteran Nigerian director Tunde Kelani and pop star/writer Richard Mofe-Damijo are featured guests of AFF/NY, as well as acclaimed directors Ousmane Sembene and Raoul Peck. All are brilliant filmmakers; however, their audiences are, without doubt, limited. Sembene and Peck's new films will be paired with their first films, which are rarely seen yet dramatically illustrate how far African filmmaking has come in the last 40 years.

"Awudjo" is Yoruba for "stew." In Ghana and Nigeria, video films are wildly popular for their compelling yet comic mix of consumer culture, melodrama, and magic. The effects of the AIDS crisis, the difficulties of modern city life, contemporary religious/spiritual issues, environmental concerns, and the rampant corruption and greed among public officials - as never before seen in the United States - are all subject matter for these videos which showcase the hottest contenders and the biggest names in the industry.

The Emerging Market Series highlights the recent flurry of filmmaking activity in South Africa (M-Net Magicworks selections), and captures the spirit of critically acclaimed filmmakers living in the Diaspora for whom the media is a dynamic hybrid culture. Features and shorts by Ivanga, Coelo, Sissoko, Manso, Duarte, and Wade among others frame issues of economic development, education, health, and post-apartheid survival shaped by the Internet, hip-hop, and M-TV generation. The AFF/NY encourages young African and African American filmmakers to continue dealing with historically controversial and political issues.

All AFF/NY screenings are being presented at the new three-floor nine-screen multiplex building in Harlem owned by Loews and operated by Magic Johnson Theatres, and accommodating 2,700 seats. The multiplex is the economic development brainchild of Grid Properties Inc., the Gotham Organization, and the Commonwealth Local Development Corporation, a local not-for-profit community-based corporation. Upper Manhattan Empowerment Zone's largest single investment to date, the complex is expected to generate significant commercial and economic growth in the area.

The Schomburg Center for Research in African American Culture will host AFF/NY panel discussions in the Langston Hughes Auditorium. The Center is a national research library devoted to collecting, preserving, and providing access to resources documenting the experiences of peoples of African descent throughout the world. It has five research divisions to assist both the scholarly community and the public in the use of its collections. The Center first won international acclaim in 1926 when the personal collection of distinguished Puerto Rican-born Black scholar and bibliophile, Arturo Alfonso Schomburg, was added to the 135th Street branch of the New York Public Library.