AiM Film Festival takes lessons from African youth

The festival, in its sixth year, will open with Tunisian director, Nacer Khemir's 'Bab'Aziz: The Prince Who Contemplated His Soul' and will include screenings of a number of films especially for primary and secondary schools in and around Edinburgh, in collaboration with National Schools Film Week. Schools are invited to Filmhouse for screenings of fiction, animation and documentary films followed by fun and challenging workshops for Scottish children to really engage with the lives of their counterparts in Africa.

Films to be screened

Three award-winning feature fiction films from the 2011 FESPACO film festival, an African film festival held every two years in Burkina Faso, will be screened for the first time in the UK at this year's AiM.

They are:

• 'Notre étrangère' (The Place in Between) from Burkina Faso grapples with issues of belonging, identity and the relationship between a mother and a daughter
• Moroccan film 'Pegase' (Pegasus), a surreal coming-of-age drama, told through flashbacks and dreamscapes, winner of Best Film at FESPACO
• 'Un pas en avant, les dessous de la corruption' (One Step Forward: The Inside of Corruption) from Benin, which won the FESPACO award for best actor and humourously deals with corruption and politics in Africa.

AiM will continue to host a number of seminars and documentary screenings at Edinburgh College of Art. Nigerian director Obi Emelonye will talk about Nollywood, the Nigerian video-film industry, and his award-winning fiction film The Mirror Boy.

African Social Documentaries will address prominent social issues in contemporary African societies: disability and domestic abuse. African Documentaries about Children will tackle serious children's issues. In collaboration with the University of Edinburgh's Centre for Theology and Public Issues's (CTPI) Project on 'Peace-building through Media Arts', a series of documentaries will offer examples of peace-building through film, with screenings followed by discussions.

Short film competition

The annual Africa in Motion Short Film Competition returns with seven short films from across Africa. Dealing with themes ranging from myths and folktales, families and relationships, to mysterious powers and the magic of storytelling the films are representative of the young filmmaking talent in Africa. The winner will be announced immediately after the screenings with the audience getting a chance to vote for their favourite in the Audience Choice Award.

Lizelle Bisschoff, festival founder and management team member, says, "Africa in Motion 2011 is dedicated to children and youth. With a programme filled with stories and representations by, for and about the youth of Africa, we are looking towards the future of the continent with excitement and optimism. Not only are we celebrating the extraordinary filmmaking talent from Africa, but also the future of a continent from which we have much to learn."

For more, go to www.africa-in-motion.org.uk