Africa in Motion

Africa in Motion is a largely volunteer-run festival, founded in 2006 by Lizelle Bisschoff. At the time Lizelle had just commenced with a PhD in African cinema, and quickly came to realise how difficult it is to access African films. Not wanting to keep her research to the academic realm only, she founded the Africa in Motion film festival in order to create more opportunities for Scottish audiences to see African films and to provide a platform to African filmmakers to exhibit their work in Scotland. Lizelle directed the festival from 2006 to 2011, with Stefanie Van de Peer co-directing the festival in 2009 and 2010. In 2011 Isabel Moura Mendes became part of the festival management and directed the festival in 2012, with Natalia Palombo as festival co-director.

The main aims of the festival have been, since its inception, to introduce Scottish audiences to the brilliance of African cinema and to overcome the under-representation and marginalisation of African film in British film-going culture. We believe that the best way to learn about Africa is to listen to African voices and to view representations created by African themselves, as these often counter the stereotypical representations we see from Africa in mainstream media in the West. But our main reason for screening the films is because we believe they are great films which should be seen the world over. Over the past seven years we have screened close to 300 African films to audiences totalling around 20,000 people!

Festival people:

Management Team & Curation: 

Justine Atkinson - [email protected]

Lizelle Bisschoff - [email protected]

Natalia Palombo - [email protected]

Edinburgh Assistant: Lucette Ahouangnimon - [email protected]

Web Development: James Cocker

Press and Marketing Coordinator: James Coutts - [email protected]

Festival Interns: Ana Curtinhal, Paula Martone, Bryony Budd, Elisa Salemink

Audience Research: Lesley-Ann Dickson

Press Officer: Miles Fielder - [email protected]

Illustrator and Designer: David Galletly

Events Organiser: David Holmes

Events Assistant: Stephanie Koenen

Glasgow Assistant: Rhea Lewis

Volunteer Coordinator: Nadia Lipsey

ProExposure Exhibition Organiser: Moragh Reid

Guests Hospitality & Short Film Competition Coordinator: Kari Ann Shiff

North Africa Programme Consultant: Stefanie Van de Peer

Graphic Designer: Jamie Young