In early July a brand new cultural event was born in Rome: the RomAfrica Film Festival (RAFF), held at the Casa del Cinema. The event, put on in collaboration with one of the largest African film festivals, the Pan African Festival of Cinema and Television of Ouagadougou (FESPACO), wants to offer “a look at an Africa still unknown here, seen through recent films as yet not shown in Italy”, with more than twenty hours of free screenings.
The programme was divided into four sections. The first offered seven feature films and five short films, including Hicham Ayouch’s Moroccan film “Fièvre” which won the Golden Stallion at FESPACO in March. The second section was for documentaries. The third section “2G”, (2nd Generation), showed 16 video clips about the life of 2nd generation Romans of African origin. Finally, the fourth section “Video Arte” was provided by Qwatz, an artists’ residency programme in Rome, with the presentation of 14 works by visual artists from sub-Saharan countries.
On July 10th, in parallel with the screenings, there was a round table on “African Cinema: between culture and industry”. Directors, producers and representatives of the film industry were able to discuss Africa’s role in the current culture industry.
Sources: romafricafilmfest.com et giornaledellospettacolo.globalist.it
