Bringing the best of Pan African cinema to New Zealand each year, the African Film Festival returns this month.

From 18 to 26 July at Auckland's Capitol Cinema, the African Film Festival New Zealand deep dives into cinema from across the continent. Boubacar Coulibaly has been part of the team for the past nine years and joins Here Now in this episode to talk about his favourite picks and why the festival is crucial for telling stories reflecting the complexity of the continent.

Some of the films to watch out for this festival are Mali 70, directed by Marcus Schmidt, Sira by Appolline Traore of Burkina Faso, and African Glory that tells the story about one of the world's least known historical accounts that was referred to as the "forbidden story" - a kingdom from ancient Mali whose people navigated the new world before Christopher Columbus.

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details