Category: The official competition

Synopsis

A deceased mother is not dead; she lives in the blowing wind, in the rising tide of a full moon night. In order to grieve and properly say goodbye to her love ones, Isabel Cardoso 71, decides to share with her late mother, deceased over 30 years earlier, certain key moments of her life. Isabel and her late mother spent most of their time working in the plantations in Sao Tome during the colonial time and subsequently in various cleaning and catering services once in Portugal. They never really have a moment for themselves. This is the odyssey of a black woman and her mother transcending space, time and dimension while highlighting black womanhood and struggle in Portugal.

Biofilmographie

Cyrielle Raingou is a Cameroonian filmmaker passionate
about African cultural identity, its promotion on an
international scale and the economic interest it raises. She
very often uses legends, metaphor, the symbolism of animals
to unearth the complexity and mystery within human. She is
currently working on her first feature length documentary “Le
Spectre de Boko Haram”, focused on the life in a war zone
from children perspective. She holds master’s degrees in law
and in documentary film directing.
Cyrielle Raingou participated in the “Connexions citoyennes”
project launched by CFI, the French Media Cooperation
Agency across France, Senegal, Ivory Coast and Benin, in 2016. She gained that recognition through her Limegbie (the
woman eye) project , which trains rural women to make short
documentaries (03min) on their life and their civic
engagement. She is one of the 2018 Mandela Washington
Fellows alumni. As part of that program, she studied civic
leadership at Drexel University in Philadelphia (Pennsylvania
State); and shot in Austin (Texas) her short film “Requiem
Prologue”, premiered at Luxor African Film Festival 2019. She
created a production company, RaingouFilms in 2014. She
has directed short films such as “Challenge”, “Les voisins”,
“Requiem prologue”, “the lamb”, “Parallèle” or “Mother just a
smile”.

Synopsis

LOUVRI POU MWEN, which means “Open for Me” in Haitian Creole is a short film that tells
the intimate stories of two young women from neighborhoods at conflict in Port-au-Prince, Haiti,
and the enduring plight for peace despite their own physical and mental traumas.

Biofilmography

Jess DiPierro Obert is a visual journalist and filmmaker based between New York and Haiti (2016-2021). She is focused on reporting on stories related to women, abortion rights, human rights, immigration, identity, mental health and trauma.
In 2014, Obert completed an undergraduate degree in Journalism at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication in Phoenix, Arizona. During her studies, she specialized in Gender, Religion and Sociocultural Anthropology. In 2015, she completed a six-month internship at The Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting in Washington, DC, which inspired her to move to Haiti, where she lived for five years. In 2020, she received a Still I Rise Films Visual Arts Grant to work on a film about women peace builders in conflict zones within Port Au Prince, Haiti. The short documentary film is scheduled to be released in 2022.
Her work has been published in numerous publications including Buzzfeed News, 1843 Magazine, Al Jazeera English, Univision, The New York Times, Bloomberg, The New Humanitarian, and Rest of World.
From 2018 to 2020, Jess led a series of workshops for Girls Voices, a nonprofit organization that empowers young girls globally to develop their media storytelling skills.

Synopsis

Kelasi is a historical, political and artistic wander around the congolese educationnal system, through years. Tainted by politics will, by the State Party MPR and masses manipulation. With multiple animation techniques, the short film tells through tracking shot a schoolday in Congo/Zaïre. A memorial and cultural work that leaves a door open to the future for education in Congo.

Biography

Fransix Tenda Lomba is a visual artist born in Kinshasa. Graduated at the Academy of Fine Arts of Kinshasa in Visual Arts, he collaborated with the KinartStudio since its foundation. His work is multidisciplinary and varied: from painting, to sculpture, through drawing and video animation, created and shown in several residencies and exhibitions in Africa, Europe and the United States.

Synopsis
Katanga is a bustling district of Addis Ababa where many locals dream of making it big in the capital. Enkehone, a street vendor from the countryside, lives in Amele Mamo’s makeshift hostel. Both are part of this struggling community on the brink of extinction, as city developers edge ever closer to their derelict neighbourhood.

Biography
Beza Hailu Lemma is an Ethiopian filmmaker based in Addis Ababa. He has written,
directed, and independently produced factual tv content and several short films, including Ballad of the Spirits (2017), and Katanga Nation (2022), the latter of which was screened in competition at Visions du Réel. Beza was an artist in residence at Bundanoon in Australia (2017) and the Realness Screen Writing Residency (2019). He has also participated in Berlinale Talents, TIFF Filmmakers Lab, L’atelier in Cannes and Produire au Sud.

Synopsis

The dramatic untold story of 420,000 Cubans soldiers and teachers, doctors and nurses who gave everything to end colonial rule and apartheid in Southern Africa.

Biography

Ethiopian-American filmmaker and educational technology consultant. Founder of RI
Systems Inc. His award-winning film Cuba in Africa was years in the making, overcoming many challenges. Cuba In Africa tells the story of Cuban volunteers who
gave everything to win the independence of Angola, Namibia and contributed to the fall of apartheid in South Africa.

Synopsis

A filmmaker visited Ouagadougou the capital city of Burkina Faso and did not only got inspired by the aesthetics of motorbikes and bicycles that gave the city a unique cultural beauty, he also discovers through his lens that there was something appealing maybe even special about the independent spirit of the women of Burkina Faso.

Biography
Kagho Idhebor’s journey into film started at the National Film Institute Jos where he obtained a degree in film production. His career as a cinematographer was borne out of his love for photography while in film school, where his keen interest in the characteristics of light on subjects and contrast were ignited.
In 2012 He moved on to earn a certificate in advanced cinematography from the prestigious German-funded institute One Fine Day Films in Nairobi, Kenya. kagho’s collaboration with directors and producers has led to various award winning films and recognitions both in and outside the country . He’s also a multiple award winning director and a two time Africa Magic Viewers’ Choice Award (AMVCA) Best Cinematography nominee .
His recent cinematography project KING OF BOY – THE RETURN OF THE KING
is currently streaming on Netflix as a Netflix original series.

Synopsis

Alone in a local landfill site that borders the Atlantic, two fisherman’s sons engage in a friendly game of hide and seek until the youngest of the two stumbles upon a horrific sight: the corpse of a young man washed up along the shore. Believing it to be his eldest brother whose body was lost at sea, this young boy must battle against a weathered people wanting to move on from a traumatic past, the only brother he has left who struggles to relate to him, and his own inner turmoil in desperation to recover what was lost.

Biography

The product of a Ghanaian father and an American mother, Amartei Armar is a writer/director who gravitates towards topics surrounding identity, immigration, and the human need to feel a sense of belonging having spent most of his life moving back and forth between the two countries and cultures. He is currently based in Accra, Ghana.

Synopsis

La routine de la vie quotidienne entre Radia et sa mère engendre un malaise affreux et devient un obstacle majeur pour l’avenir émotionnel de Radia et sa relation avec sa mère. Cette monotonie provoquera donc un clivage imprévu.

Biofilmographie

La cinéaste et scénariste marocaine Ouijdane Khallid est titulaire d’un Master spécialisé en en documentaire de l’Université Abdelmalek Essaadi de Tetouan, et d’une licence fondamentale en écriture et réalisation de l’Institut supérieur des métiers de l’audiovisuel et du cinéma (ISMAC) à Rabat. Elle a écrit et réalisé trois courts métrages, fiction et documentaire, dans le cadre académique, lesquels films ont été présentés dans plusieurs festivals nationaux et internationaux. En 2021, Ouijdane a écrit et réalisé son premier court métrage professionnel ‘’Tender Threads‘’.