As countdown to the African Film
Festival 2017, TAFF, begins, Rogers Ofime's action thriller film, “
Oloibiri” has been announced as the opening film for the festival.
The festival which holds at the Dallas
City Performance Hall, will commence from Friday, June 30, and
climaxes on the 3rd of July with a glamorous night of
awards. While “Oloibiri” will be screened as the opening film,
Uganda's award-winning film, “Remand” will close the festival.
Also, screening during the festival is
South African crime film, “Call Me Thief.” The film was submitted
for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 89th Academy
Awards but was not nominated.
Making this revelation to HVP,
the festival director and founder, Kelechi Eke said, they are leaving
no stone unturned in their bid to record a successful outing this
year, as not less than 200 film makers from over 40 countries are
expected to storm Dallas for the festival.
Already, the city of Dallas, is said to
be bubbling with life as the African film makers and stars have
started arriving there ahead of June 30, opening of the festival. The
workshop and training session commenced since 24th of
June. The founder, Kelechi Eke speaks on the highlights of the
festival, its impact on the blacks in diaspora and his expectation
this year.
My expectations at this year's TAFF!
My expectation is to have a better
festival than last year, with more film makers and African movie fans
in attendance; and with more media coverage globally. We received
better films this year, and some from very well-known film makers. We
will be screening “Call Me Thief” – a film that represented
South Africa at the Oscars Academy Awards this year. “Oloibiri”,
which is the opening film. It won multiple film accolades in Africa.
Our closing night film, “Remand”, is about the justice system in
Uganda as told by Golden Globe Award winner, Angela Bassett. We are
expecting about 200 film makers from over 40 countries at The African
Film Festival in Dallas this year.
Why I established the African film
festival in diaspora
The African film industry is growing by
the day. New creative film makers are emerging; better quality film
production is on the rise. Yet, we do not have enough platforms to
showcase African films and celebrate our film makers. There are
several other challenges that African film makers face, ranging from
lack of adequate finances to fund a film – to lacking distribution
after managing to complete one – to piracy when the film finally
makes it out there. These facts make it discouraging for African film
makers to even bother to produce another motion picture. But the
passion and drive that many of us have continue to push us to not
quit. Good quality films need a large budget for production and
marketing just like we observe from our Hollywood counterparts where
millions of dollars are spent in making one film. This makes their
films unbeatable with quality in the film market. And to compete with
such productions in various film festivals, makes it look as though
we do not have films that are good enough. We do. In fact, some of
our story lines are better. But we do not have the luxury to pay for
the best visual effects. If given a quarter of the funds used to make
some of Hollywood films, the African film maker could probably make
three equally quality films. It is therefore difficult to compete
with such films at a given festival.
Hence, TAFF is born to showcase and
celebrate some of our best films that would normally be overshadowed
by the wealthier Hollywood productions.
TAFF as a welcome development among
the blacks in America
TAFF came when many blacks in the
diaspora are rather nostalgic about Africa. Many African Americans
were in quest of their ancestral link in Africa. Many Africans were
talking about moving back home. So it was very welcome and one of our
screening venues last year was at the Pan African Connection - a spot
in South Dallas that sells African arts and educative materials on
African American history - owned by an African American whose
preferred nationality is Ghana.
Build up to TAFF 2017
The build up has been exciting. For the
first time in the history of film festivals, TAFF, will make a short
film and screen it on the closing night. Many are looking forward to
being a part of this unique initiative which aims at promoting
teamwork and collaboration among film makers. We just concluded our
auditions for the short film which we will shoot and edit within five
days before the festival opens to the public on June 30. Last year, I
introduced “Trailer of the Day” which allows the teaser of each
selected film to have a day spotlight before the festival begins.
These trailers are shared on all our Instagram and Facebook pages and
various Whatsapp groups. I would like to say this has never been done
before by any festival.
Highlights of this year's festival
Making a short film and screening it on
the closing night (June 24th to June 29th); Master Acting class with
TAFF 2017 Host, RMD (June 30th) ;Opening with award-winning film,
OLOIBIRI; starring RMD and Olu Jacobs (June 30th) ;Screening 40 films
from 27 countries (July 1st and July 2nd); Elegant Charity Dinner
where TAFF supports AVODA in its Breast Cancer Awareness and
Screening Program in Africa (BCASPA) (July 2nd); Filmmakers soccer
match (July 3rd) and Closing Night/ Awards Gala and screening of
'Remand' by Angela Bassett (July 3rd).
Impression of Americans and
non-Americans
It has been great. They appreciate the
“do it yourself” approach and believes that our stories are best
told by us and our culture best promoted by us. I recall attending a
Festival Directors conference in Dallas two years ago and receiving a
standing ovation when it was announced that TAFF was coming 2016. “It
is about time” was the mantra in a hall filled with over 300
attendees. I received a similar reaction when I registered TAFF with
the city of Dallas; and the mayor and the entire city supported the
initiative with overwhelming attendance during TAFF Inauguration at
the Dallas City hall.
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