Do you live near New York City? Do you want to watch good African cinema? If the answer is yes those questions, I would recommend you to attend this year’s edition of the African Film Festival in New York city.
The Festival will run from April 2nd to May 31st 2011 at different locations in the city and will showcase many films from all over Africa. Among them, two that I recently reviewed, A Screaming Man and Pumzi.
You can also watch Black Venus, based on the story of Sara Baartman, or Africa United a movie that tells the story of a group of children who want to to travel to the opening of the 2010 Football World Cup in South Africa.
And you don’t want to miss Besouro, the true story of a capoeira fighter from Bahia (Brazil); this one seems to be an amazing action movie!
But there are many more…

From Ethiopia there will be two pictures shown, a full length documentary and a short film, and both seem quite interesting.
The documentary is Shooting with Mursi. It shows a bit of the life of the relatively isolated Mursi  tribe in southern Ethiopia. The most interesting part of the film is that it was shot by a member of the tribe, so you can probably watch how they see themselves and the changes they are facing. It’s a view from within, a more authentic description of the tribe, their lives and the future ahead. It was filmed by Olisarali Olibui, a Mursi, along with filmmaker Ben Young. Olibui was sent to Australia to learn English and returned to his native land armed with a video camera and a laptop, and with the help of solar energy he started documenting what surrounded him.
The other movie coming from Ethiopia, is the short film Lezare. It’s the story of a homeless boy in a small village in southern Ethiopia  and the film has a message about global warming.
I haven’t watched these two films, and would really like to travel to New York to have a chance to do so. If it is in your plans to attend the Festival, these Ethiopian movies will be shown together on April 6th and April 11th at the Walter Reade Theater.
For a full list screening schedule, go to the AFF site.
Here is a trailer of Shooting with Mursi:

AliciA