Africa World Documentary Film Fest returns for year six
Mama Africa
Mama Africa, directed by Mika Kaurismaki, will screen at the Missouri History Museum as part of the Africa World Documentary Film Festival 4:30 p.m. Saturday, March 2.
“I never sing politics,” South African musical icon Miriam Makeba said. “Only the truth.”The late singer’s soul-stirring life lessons, tragedies and triumphs over the course of her career and life’s journey are shown through director Mika Kaurismaki’s Mama Africa. The documentary will serve as a focal point for the 6th Annual Africa World Documentary Film Festival next weekend at the Missouri History Museum.
What started as a modest initiative from E. Desmond Lee endowed professor Niyi Coker has grown into a truly global phenomenon. Forty-six films submitted by filmmakers representing countries from Australia, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Israel, Japan, Mali, Egypt, France, Spain, The United Kingdom, Namibia, The United States and everywhere in between.
Variations of the festival will travel around the world – from Kansas to Cameroon – and spread the unique and varied experiences of the myriad of those with roots in the Diaspora.
“Through the art of documentary film making, the Africa World Documentary Film Festival is committed to the promotion of knowledge, life and culture of the people of Africa worldwide,” Coker said.
“We celebrate and congratulate the extraordinary group of talented filmmakers who have employed their craft and skills in the exploration of African subjects. Some of the major subjects covered in these documentary films are culture, socioeconomic, environment, history, gender, legal, music and performing arts, religion, politics, sport as well as human rights issues.”
This year, the festival kicks off where it all began – St. Louis. The Missouri History Museum will serve as host as they present nearly a dozen films – most notably Mama Africa.
Makeba remains an icon in her native South Africa and her entire home continent five years after her death. Sadly, her outspoken views and battle against apartheid had to be fought from beyond the border because of her 30-year banishment.
Mama Africa displays Makeba’s loves, her life and her fight for the freedom of her people and a right to return home. The film creates a colorful and insightful portrait of a woman brave enough to sacrifice popularity and personal safety for the sake of lending her voice to a political movement.
For more than half a century Makeba bravely shared her message of freedom, equality, justice and peace as her native South Africa practiced overt and brutal form of racial segregation that rivaled the slavery and Jim Crow segregation tactics of the United States.
After being introduced to the world, she found herself without a homeland in 1959 as a result of her involvement in the documentary indictment of the apartheid system in South Africa.
Fellow singer and social justice/civil rights activist Harry Belafonte catapulted Makeba onto the world’s stage in the early 1960s. And she went on to shine her own light on injustices against people of color – particular her own experiences with Apartheid.
She found herself in the sights of the FBI following her marriage to Black Panther leader and black activist Stokely Carmichael in 1968. She decided to live and settle in Guinea, West Africa where she continued to fight the minority white apartheid regime in her native land.
Mama Africa is a beautifully woven collection of archives and post scripts that showcases her unyielding passion for music, freedom and equality – both in her native South Africa and around the world – and illustrates her continuing legacy.
Audiences will be introduced to her unique artistic style and how she used her gift for music as a catalyst to do her part to change the world.
Mama Africa will screen as part of the festival on Saturday, March 2 at 4:30 p.m. A Q&A with the film’s director, Mika Kaurismaki, and Miriam Makeba’s grandson Nelson Lumumba Lee will take place immediately following the screening at 6 p.m
The 6th Annual Africa World Documentary Film Festival will take place on Friday, March 1 – Sun. March 3 at the Missouri History Museum, 5700 Lindell Blvd in Forest Park. For more information and a full schedule of this year’s documentary selections, visit
http://www.africaworldfilmfestival.com/ or www.mohistory.org
St. Louis American.
What started as a modest initiative from E. Desmond Lee endowed professor Niyi Coker has grown into a truly global phenomenon. Forty-six films submitted by filmmakers representing countries from Australia, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Israel, Japan, Mali, Egypt, France, Spain, The United Kingdom, Namibia, The United States and everywhere in between.
Variations of the festival will travel around the world – from Kansas to Cameroon – and spread the unique and varied experiences of the myriad of those with roots in the Diaspora.
“Through the art of documentary film making, the Africa World Documentary Film Festival is committed to the promotion of knowledge, life and culture of the people of Africa worldwide,” Coker said.
“We celebrate and congratulate the extraordinary group of talented filmmakers who have employed their craft and skills in the exploration of African subjects. Some of the major subjects covered in these documentary films are culture, socioeconomic, environment, history, gender, legal, music and performing arts, religion, politics, sport as well as human rights issues.”
This year, the festival kicks off where it all began – St. Louis. The Missouri History Museum will serve as host as they present nearly a dozen films – most notably Mama Africa.
Makeba remains an icon in her native South Africa and her entire home continent five years after her death. Sadly, her outspoken views and battle against apartheid had to be fought from beyond the border because of her 30-year banishment.
Mama Africa displays Makeba’s loves, her life and her fight for the freedom of her people and a right to return home. The film creates a colorful and insightful portrait of a woman brave enough to sacrifice popularity and personal safety for the sake of lending her voice to a political movement.
For more than half a century Makeba bravely shared her message of freedom, equality, justice and peace as her native South Africa practiced overt and brutal form of racial segregation that rivaled the slavery and Jim Crow segregation tactics of the United States.
After being introduced to the world, she found herself without a homeland in 1959 as a result of her involvement in the documentary indictment of the apartheid system in South Africa.
Fellow singer and social justice/civil rights activist Harry Belafonte catapulted Makeba onto the world’s stage in the early 1960s. And she went on to shine her own light on injustices against people of color – particular her own experiences with Apartheid.
She found herself in the sights of the FBI following her marriage to Black Panther leader and black activist Stokely Carmichael in 1968. She decided to live and settle in Guinea, West Africa where she continued to fight the minority white apartheid regime in her native land.
Mama Africa is a beautifully woven collection of archives and post scripts that showcases her unyielding passion for music, freedom and equality – both in her native South Africa and around the world – and illustrates her continuing legacy.
Audiences will be introduced to her unique artistic style and how she used her gift for music as a catalyst to do her part to change the world.
Mama Africa will screen as part of the festival on Saturday, March 2 at 4:30 p.m. A Q&A with the film’s director, Mika Kaurismaki, and Miriam Makeba’s grandson Nelson Lumumba Lee will take place immediately following the screening at 6 p.m
The 6th Annual Africa World Documentary Film Festival will take place on Friday, March 1 – Sun. March 3 at the Missouri History Museum, 5700 Lindell Blvd in Forest Park. For more information and a full schedule of this year’s documentary selections, visit
http://www.africaworldfilmfestival.com/ or www.mohistory.org
St. Louis American.
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