Africa in Motion

The Starbird is a most beautiful bird, with sparkling wings that touch the sky. When the sun sets, she flies way up high, and magically lights up the stars until they sing, giggle and glow. What happens when a wicked hunter appears in the Starbird's forest...can she escape him and save her family?

Inspired by Booker prize-winning Nigerian author Ben Okri, Starbird's story is told through a dazzling combination of African-inspired music, story, dance, costume, puppetry and interactive storytelling by much-loved AiM storyteller Mara Menzies from Toto Tales.

This forum will look at the burgeoning African film industry and the new and exciting possibilities emerging for African films. It will draw on the experience and expertise of leading industry professionals who will share their insights into filmmaking, film festivals and film distribution.

Key speakers include: Newton Aduaka (filmmaker), Basil Dube (Southern African Regional Secretary for the Pan-African Filmmakers Federation - FEPACI), and Lizelle Bisschoff (Africa in Motion founder). The forum will include the following panels:

Panel 1: Opening new markets for African film
Panel 2: The role of film festivals in the distribution of African films
Panel 3: The freedom for African filmmakers to tell their own stories

The South African animation Adventures in Zambezia is screening as part of AiM’s hugely popular annual children’s day, followed by an African storytelling event.

Come and enjoy a night on the AiM Movie Bus as we take you on a wild ride of sex, money and murder along the east coast of South Africa. Durban Poison follows the relationship between two lovers whose passionate affair self-destructed: they ended up as serial killers, South Africa’s version of Bonnie and Clyde, killing four people in a game of sex for money.

The bus is located outside The Three Sisters pub and each audience member will receive a complimentary cocktail upon arrival. So hop aboard, fasten your seatbelts and enjoy the ride!

Entering the Brass Monkey takes you into a colourful world of mysticism and travel; its Moroccan style lounge fuses with a traditional Scottish pub making it a truly unique experience. We will offer you a sanctuary from daily toils as you can lie back on mounds of mattresses and cushions and get swept away on a pilgrimage of one million Sufi Muslims to the holy Senegalese city of Touba.

Once part of Edinburgh’s infamous underground vaults, the Banshee Labyrinth is one of Scotland’s most haunted pubs. Now home to the tortured souls of thieves, criminals and the very unsavoury, it provides a perfect setting for our African horror film evening.

African horror is a tricky genre to get right. Horror movies, almost by their nature, have to step across lines of political correctness. But portrayal of Africans in film is historically tainted by racialised imagery and superficial presentations of magical beliefs in various cultures.

Yet those aspects of African society – animist beliefs, sangomas (‘witch doctors’), the merging of magical realism into many aspects of everyday life – provide a rich stew for filmmakers to dip into, and are arguably among the defining characteristics of classic African storytelling. They provide a wonderful shortcut for getting straight to the (often bloody) heart of the tale. No ‘origins’. No exposition. Just a descent into the pit.

These cultural influences, used well, allow African horror to be almost uniquely spare and economical in its aim of making you, dear viewer, squirm and sweat. We have chosen several of our favourite spine-chillers - some short, some feature-length - and invite you to jump into the pit with us. We take no responsibility for what happens next…

We are screening the South African horror film Night Drive at 9pm plus several African horror shorts.

St John's is a thriving Scottish Episcopal church at the heart of Scotland’s beautiful capital city, located on Princes Street, just around the corner from Filmhouse. Here we will be screening The Pirogue, a film illuminating the moving and often tragic human stories behind the headlines about illegal immigration.

The Summerhall is one of Edinburgh’s newest and biggest arts venues, the former Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies in Edinburgh, now a creative hub for arts and sciences. In keeping with its history we are screening two African documentaries about adventure and the art of animal communication.

Earlier this year, through a happy accident, we came across an idea for introducing people to African short films. It's not VJ-ing in the traditional sense – in this case the initials stand for Video Jukebox. Quite simply, we will bring a wide selection of the very best shorts from our collection, covering a range of genres from comedy to sci-fi to documentary to... well, you get the idea.
 
From the box of treasures on offer, you can browse through the catalogue and see what appeals to you. There will be a provisional running order, but you, the audience, are welcome (nay, encouraged!) to request anything that catches your interest, and let the evening find its own direction. This relaxed format allows for brief discussions of the films, and even repeat screenings by popular demand. If you want to take a break, feel free to come and go as you please.
 
Every film featured in the catalogue has been a big hit at previous festivals or tours, so whatever the final programme evolves into, you can be sure it is ‘all killer, no filler’.

Edinburgh Zoo is one of Europe's leading centres of conservation, education and research. Each year their extensive education programme aims to raise awareness and understanding of the fragility of life on this planet, and our responsibility to take care of it. This year Africa in Motion have partnered with Edinburgh Zoo to hold two school screenings of the South African animation Adventures in Zambezia, with each screening accompanied by a tour of the Zoo.

To book for the Edinburgh Zoo schools screening, please email [email protected]. 

Africa in Motion has partnered with the first National Youth Film Festival (NYFF), a nationwide programme of free film screenings and related activities for children aged five to 19. The festival is an annual celebration of film and cinema, enabling young people across the UK to enjoy a wide variety of films and learn about filmmaking and the film industry.

As part of NYFF we will be screening two African animations at Filmhouse, Aya of Yop City (for secondary schools) and Adventures in Zambezia (for primary schools). These screenings will be free of charge and participating schools will receive teaching resources on the films to complement topics in the curriculum, develop review writing and critical skills, and teach pupils about film and filmmaking. 

For the sixth consecutive year, AiM has invited African filmmakers to submit short films of up to 30 minutes for our annual Short Film Competition. From the dozens of submissions, 5 films have been shortlisted, comprising a diverse and captivating collection of work from across the continent.

The Short Film Competition is part of AiM’s commitment to nurturing young African filmmaking talent. The winner is selected by our jury of acclaimed film practitioners and academics and will be announced immediately after the screenings. The audience will also have the opportunity to vote for their favourite films with the Audience Award winner announced at the closing screenings of the festival where the winning shorts will be screened again prior to the screening of Hidden Beauties and The Forgotten Kingdom.

Our thanks go to The Africa Channel and Buni TV for sponsoring the prize money for the Short Film Competition.

The jury members are: Noe Mendelle (director, Scottish Documentary Institute), David Archibald (University of Glasgow), Mark Cousins (filmmaker), Zina Saro-Wiwa (filmmaker), and Rungano Nyoni (filmmaker and winner of the 2012 Africa in Motion Short Film Competition).