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“font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13px;”>Thanks to the Washington University African Film Festival, St. Louis has been afforded the blessing of bearing witness to the changing landscape of filmmaking in the Motherland.
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“font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana;”>Over the past six years, Wilmetta Toliver-Diallo has presented an array of films that vary as much in themes and subject as the vast continent, from tragic war stories to hilarious romantic comedies.
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“font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana;”>Toliver-Diallo, who serves as assistant dean in the College of Arts & Sciences and senior lecturer in African and African American Studies, has created a special experience for the 2011 festival. Her choices illustrate the spirit of African filmmakers to think beyond traditional storytelling and cinematic techniques.
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“font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana;”>Two films in particular venture into unchartered territory while presenting a message of believing beyond what the eye can see for the greater good.
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“font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana;”>Writer/director Wanuri Kahiu uses science fiction as a platform for Pumzi, a short film that is about hope as it literally expresses the power of planting a seed.
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“font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana;”>The film takes place in East Africa 35 years after World War III. The population is confined within the walls of a compound where humanity seems to have been one of the casualties of war.
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“font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana;”>There is no contact between residents, and they use technology to carry on the monotony of day-to-day life, trapped because of the toxicity in the air and the obliteration of water through nuclear warfare.
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“font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana;”>Lead actress Kudzani Moswela
lies beyond the compound and the disappointment of being prohibited
to do so without the luxury of speaking. Computer systems transmit
thoughts and conversations between characters.
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“font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana;”>As she is moved to risk everything to break free from her confinement for future generations, viewers will be moved to step out on faith.
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“font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana;”>According to Toliver-Diallo, the blind faith theme of Pumzi recurs throughout the selection of this year’s festival.
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“font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana;”>“In each film, the focus is on using your inner strength to reach your goals versus taking the easy way out,” Toliver-Diallo said.
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“font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana;”>The Legend of the Sky Kingdom “font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana;”>reiterates the festival’s focus. But the film’s presentation and perspective are opposite to those of Pumzi – as well as groundbreaking It is Africa’s first feature-length animated film.
“mso-spacerun: yes;”> the pristine caricatures that major studios in America have developed for animation; this is animation of scrap materials.
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“font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana;”>The animation is rough, but the message is clear. As the film chronicles a group of orphans as they escape from an underground city of enslavement, inspiration is provided with every twist and turn of their journey.
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“font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana;”>“Nothing is impossible,” the characters say in unison during a pivotal scene. “Believing is seeing.”
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“font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana;”>Pumzi
and
The Legend of the Sky
Kingdom are just two of the eight films that will screen in
Washington University’s 6th Annual African Film
Festival.
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“font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana;”>The Washington University’s 6th Annual African Film Festival will take place March 25-27 in Brown Hall, Room 100. All screenings are free and open to the public. For more information, call 314- 935-7879 or visit http://wupa.wustl.edu/africanfilm.
