AFROFUTURISTIK
With the advent of Black Panther, spectators all over the world discovered the concept of Afrofuturism. Can Africaproject itself into the future? Can it tell its own stories in more experimental, offbeat ways than humanitarian imagery and/or cinema’s images of hardship and suffering have so long done?
The 6th season of Quartiers Lointains seeks to question this perception that Africa has of itself in a compendium of diverse, vibrant short films made by filmmakers to look out for, from North to East of the continent.
Our Patron : Selly Raby Kane
Selly Raby Kane is a Senegalese fashion designer who launched her eponymous brand in 2012. SRK has deep fantastic and cinematographic influences; she develops over the years an edgy and avant-garde line and builds a reputation through its Fashion Performances. Gradually, Selly Raby Kane lends her style to numerous icons such as: Beyoncé, Nai Palm (Hiatus Kaiyote), Daara-J Family, Tiwa Savage, Solange Knowles...
Her first VR Film, The Other Dakar, premiered at international festivals such as: The Berlinale, Tribeca Film Festival, The Virtual Encounters, etc. Today Kane is working on several projects bridging the gap between fashion, immaterial heritage, and technology such as Tang Jër, an experimental short winner of Dakar Court Grand Prix and distributed by Sudu Connexion..
CINÉASTES / FILMMAKERS
Quartiers * Lointains
France / Quartiers Lointains - Siniman Films 2015-2017 / Sudu Connexion 2021
So What if the Goats Die - Sofia Alaoui - Marocco - 23 minutes - 2020 - Fiction
Synopsis
High in the Atlas Mountains, the young shepherd Abdellah and his father are hemmed in by snow at their goat pen. Their animals are wasting away. Abdellah must go to find supplies at a market village more than a day and walk away. When he arrives with his mule, he finds the village abandoned due to a strange event that has wreaked havoc on the lives of all believers.
Awards
César for best short film
Grand Jury Prize at Sundance
Criticism Prize at the Champs Elysées Film Festival
Jury's favorite prize at Cinéma en liberté
Biography
Franco-Moroccan, Sofia Alaoui grew up traveling the roads of Asia. After studying and starting a career in Paris as a reader and script consultant, she has directed a few short fiction films (Kenza des choux) and documentary (Les Enfants de Naplouze).
Today, she has returned to settle in Morocco where she develops currently its cinematographic universe having at heart to participate in the revival of Maghreb cinema.
Her last short film (What matters if the beasts die )won the Grand Jury Prize at the 2020 Sundance Festival. She is currently preparing to shoot a fantasy short film for 20th Century Fox and is in production on her first feature film Among Us.
This One Went To The Market - Jim Chuchu - Kenya - 4 minutes - 2018 - Fiction
Synopsis
A young Kenyan visual artist comes up with a sly plan to take over the art world abroad. Will it work ?
Awards
Rotterdam International Film Festival's Opening Short Film
Biography
Jim Chuchu (1982) is a filmmaker, musician and visual artist living and working in Nairobi, Kenya. Jim’s photographs debuted in the exhibition, “Precarious Imaging:Visibility and Media surrounding African Queerness” at RAW Material Company, a space for art and culture in Dakar, part of Dak’Art 2014.
In 2014, Jim co-founded the Nest Collective - a multidisciplinary art collective based in Nairobi, Kenya that has created works in film, music, fashion, visual arts and literature such as the critically-acclaimed queer anthology film Stories of Our Lives, which was banned in Kenya for ‘promoting homosexuality’. Despite the ongoing ban in the country, the film has so far screened in over 80 countries and won numerous awards such as the Jury Prize at the 2015 Berlinale Teddy Awards.
His photography and video works have since exhibited and screened at the MoMA, the Museum of Contemporary Photography, the Royal Pavilion and Museums, Guggenheim Bilbao, the Vitra Design Museum, and now form part of the collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art.
Jim co-founded HEVA in 2015, an East African creative business fund based in Kenya that invests in the creative economy sector in the East African region. Since its inception, HEVA has invested more than $3 million in the East African creative economy sector, innovated financial models specifically for the region, created networking, exchange and training opportunities for young entrepreneurs and pushed for policy and legal reforms to improve the sector.
Jim is currently serving as co-founding director of the Nest Collective–where current projects include an ongoing partnership in the International Inventories Programme, an international research and database project that has so far catalogued an inventory of 30,000 Kenyan cultural objects held in museums and public institutions across the globe–and HEVA, where he thinks through intervention strategies and future outlooks for the fund in his capacity as co-founding partner.
Ethereality - Kantarama Gahigiri - Switzerland / Rwanda - 14 minutes - 2019 - Documentary
Synopsis
Stranded in space for thirty years. How does it feel to finally come home ? A reflection about migration and the sense of belonging.
Awards
Golden Foal Documentary - FESPACO, 2021
Best Short Film Award - Rastro Film Festival, 2020
Best Film Award - Arica Nativa, 2020
The Q12 residency award - The Human World Film Festival, 2020
Best Documentary Short Film, Best Editing - Festival Rencontres Courtes (Greece, 2021)
Biography
Kantarama Gahigiri is a Swiss-Rwandan filmmaker (writer/director). Her internationally multi-award-winning work immerses her in an exploration of the notions of identity, migration, sovereignty and representation on screen, through various film formats, shot in Switzerland and West Africa.Hello Rain - C.J. Obasi - Nigeria - 30 minutes - 2018 - Fiction
Synopsis
A ScienEst-Witch through an alchemical combinaEon of juju and technology creates wigs which grants she and her friends supernatural powers. But when their powers grow uncontrollable, she must stop them by any means."
Award
Jury Prize at the Fantasia International Film Festival in the international short film category
Biography
C.J. Obasi also known as “Fiery” or “The Fiery One” wrote and directed the feature films OJUJU and O-TOWN, both of which has screened in many festivals, including the Pan African Film Festival in Los Angeles, Shockproof Film Festival in Prague, New Voices in Black Film Festival in New York, Gothenburg Film Festival and Fantasia Film Festival in Montreal, garnering acclaim from the likes of Screen Anarchy, IndieWire and The Hollywood Reporter. He has won many awards and nominations including Best Nigerian Film (OJUJU), the African Movie Academy Awards (African Oscars), and the Trailblazer Award at the Africa Magic Viewers Choice Awards (AMVCA).
His short film Hello Rain an adaptation of World Fantasy and Nebula award winning author, Nnedi Okorafor’s short story “Hello, Moto” premiered in the International Competition of the International Short Film Festival, Oberhausen, and in over 30 festivals like Fantasia Film Festival, where it won the Special Mention of the Jury prize, and the BFI London Film Festival where it was nominated for the Short Film Award. He participated in Le Groupe Ouest’s Less is More (LIM) development lab with his feature project Mami Wata.
Zombies - Baloji - Congo Kinshasa - 14 minutes - 2019 - Experimental
Synopsis
A journey between hope and dystopia in a hallucinated Kinhsasa, Zombie goes from the culture of the hair salon to a futuristic clubbing, from the urban parade to the glory of a dictator in campaign to a modern western. And interrogates the almost carnal relationship we have with our phones, outgrowths of the hand giving us the talent of digital ubiquity...
Awards
Special Mention by the Musical Jury - Soria International Film Festival, 2020
Screendance Competition Winner - Leeds Festival, 2020
Best Experimental Short - Guanajuato International Film Festival, 2020
Bronze Horseshoe - AsterFest International Film Festival de la Macédoine, 2020
Prix Festival Connexion - Festival Internattional du court-métrage de Clermont-Ferrand, 2020
Streaming Film Of The Year, Mubi Audience Award, 2020
Principal Prize, Oberhausen, 2019
Best International Short, Tourne-Film Festival Lausanne, Suisse, 2019
Best cinematography, Ostend Film Festival, Belgique, 2019
Best Experimental Short, Nova Frontier Film Festival, USA, 2019
Best Music Award, Bucharest International Dance Film festival, Romania, 2019
Grand Prix du Jury et Prix du Public, 25 FPS Festival, Croatie, 2019
Best Film - catégorie EMERGING - LA Fashion Film Festival, USA, 2019
Best Styling in Video in association with i-D, UK Music Awards, UK, 2019
Award Of Merit, Global Short USA, 2019
Honourable Mention: Experimental Film, Florence Film Awards, Italy, 2019
Marcin Prize From Young Jury People, International Young Audience Film Festival Ale Kino, Poland, 2019
Biography
Baloji is a poet, composer-lyricist/beatmaker, scriptwriter, actor and performer, video artist and stylist
