Bringing Africa to Aotearoa, a film at a time - AFFNZ 2021

From 10 December through to 7 January 2022, the African Film Festival New Zealand deep dives into cinema from across the continent.

Some of the team behind the festival spoke to Voices this week. Listen to the full interview here:

The African Film Festival New Zealand (AFFNZ) was founded seven years ago by Mali-born New Zealander Boubacar Coulibaly. This is the first time the festival has moved online because of the uncertainty around Covid-19 alert levels.

What normally kicks off with a big drumming session and a celebration, this year will be streamed virtually with the organizers having decided against taking the chance of the festival in theatres in Auckland and Wellington.

For the team behind the festival, this new format presents a whole set of new opportunities.

"Now we can open up to Australasia and other cities in New Zealand too."

Memuna Barnes, the Wellington ambassador for the festival, is originally from Sierra Leone. Memuna works in legal aid, and is known for her book "Survived - The Journey" on her own life story through struggles of civil war in Sierra Leone and Liberia.

"We spent like a couple of months on the movies, sometimes we get almost 1000 movies, and we're all hands on - just watching movies to select."

"I believe that is a beautiful way for us to bring our culture to New Zealand - the good, the bad, the ugly; we shouldn't be ashamed of anything."

"Storytelling is really important for the next generation to come and see what happened in the continent or to the continent at a certain point of time. I'm very encouraged to be able to serve in that regard."

More details will be on the film festival website this week, check out:

https://africanfilmfestivalnz.org.nz/

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