Late Post RE: The Royal African Society's Film Africa Nov 1- Nov 10

Nov 1st marked the start of The Royal African Society's (RAS) 10-day film festival. My internship, Numbi Arts, has been a long time collaborator with RAS and was asked to run a free workshop during Film Africa Family Say on Saturday November 2nd. I had been anticipating the film festival since my first meeting with the Numbi family. The elaborate foldout pamphlets, composed of showtimes and stills from films, wall paper my campus. Films came from each edge of the continent, exploring the life, the love, the joy, and the anguish of African peoples from all angels. I had planned a trip to Rome,Italy for the end of the week so my participation in the festival was limited to the first 3 days. I was most excited about seeing Andrew Dosunmu's Mother of George, but I hesitated to book my tickets and they sold out. Instead I booked a ticket to a showing of 5 short films including Akosua Adoma Owusu's Kwaku Ananse. 

Saturday, I arrived at the venue to support Numbi with the set-up and running of a 1950s style African Photo Studio. We set the background positioned our props and waited for traffic to pick up. One of my classmates, a loving warm spirited woman of Congolese decent, was volunteering with the Royal African Society. She came over and we chatted while the photographer snapped a few test shots.

Between sips of mint tea and conversation on the artistic development of black youth, I circled the room in search of props and encouraging folks to capitalize on the free photos Numbi was offering. A group called "Open The Gate" had organized an African market. To my left was a woman selling hand crafted Ankara print children's clothing, to my right were hand made dolls that reminded me of the playmates my mother created for me while I was a toddler. Black baby-dolls with natural hair will forever be an item of cultural importance. If "playing house" is when we first come into awareness with our capacities for love and our maternal energies, being able to see, carry, and love a child that looks like you as you were fashioned by the Creator, surely lays the foundation for any conception of self-love.

Of the people who came through our photo-booth were children, bloggers, families, designers, and other enterprising creatives. I enjoyed watching them interact with the camera. 

The next day I took a bus to Hackney Picturehouse to participate in the less active side of the festival. I have never been decidedly "into" short films. Kwaku Anase has received a lot of black/african tumblr hype and I was excited about the reworking of one of the many Ananse The Spider stories that narrated my childhood. All the films were cogent and entertaining though some left me hanging on unfulfilled plot lines.

Kwaku Ananse, directed by one beautiful Ghanaian creative, starring another (JoJo Abot), re-birthed in me an impassioned longing to return to Ghana. It is a strange sort of homesickness that is not at all unfamiliar, having 'theorectical roots' in a place you are generations of violence and exploitation removed from gives way to a series of odd sentiments that I have been blessed with the opportunity to make sense of. 

I left the theater ready for the next chapter in this journey. My time in London is coming to an end (I will be boarding a plane literally some 30 days from tomorrow) and after a brief respite in the States I will be off again. There is so much stirring, in me/around me, that I know this time will be different...perhaps even more meaningful.I still have a lot to do to ensure I make the most of it.

*logs off blog to work on grant proposal*