The Africa Film Festival gives cosmopolitan Trinidad & Tobago a chance to reshape its own world view · Global Voices
A youth panel in session at the 2022 Africa Film Trinidad and Tobago (AFTT), which was held in Port of Spain from May 24-28. Photo courtesy the AFTT, used with permission.
The 2022 edition of the Africa Film Trinidad and Tobago (AFTT), which took place in Port of Spain from May 24-28, showcased a mix of contemporary and classic films from the continent, alongside local and regional films highlighting issues relevant to the Afro-Caribbean experience.
Now in its eighth year, the festival is much more than a movie screening event. With its grassroots feel and commitment to inclusivity, the event is creating a diverse and dynamic space that reflects the Caribbean's cultural reality — through film, music, art and literature — while paying homage to “the tone, landscape, colour, complexity and beauty of Africa.”
I attended some of this year's AFTT events [full disclosure: a film I co-produced was screened at the festival] and spoke with filmmaker and founder <PERSON> about the bridges of communication and collaboration she is building between the worlds of Caribbean and African film, and why is it so important for regional audiences.
Africa Film Trinidad and Tobago (AFTT) founder <PERSON>, at the opening of the 2022 film festival. Photo courtesy the AFTT, used with permission.
<PERSON> (JMF): How and when did you decide to start the Africa Film Festival and why did you feel it was necessary for Trinidad and Tobago to have a festival of this nature?
<PERSON> (AL): In 2013, I was invited to be part of the jury at FESPACO (Pan-African Film and Television Festival) in Burkina Faso, one of the most significant film festivals of African cinema in the world. It was quite an experience! The opening took place at a massive stadium, full of people from every walk of life — from those on the red carpet, to people strolling in without shoes. Everyone was included, excited, and there to watch films from across the African continent and beyond.
That festival offered me entry to a world of diverse African films, with unique aesthetics, endorsed by their countries and enjoyed by their own people. They took deep pride in these films and in telling their own stories, in their own way, something they were unable to do in colonial times.
As a filmmaker working to bring Caribbean stories, told by Caribbean people, to the screen, I was inspired to see the support offered by the festival to films and filmmakers across Africa. 550
As I sat there in that packed stadium, I realised that African cinema can offer us models for developing a rich and vibrant industry right here at home in the Caribbean.
Not only do we have a connection to Africa — physical, historical and ongoing — it is largely African people who have established the base of what the Caribbean is. Coming from a similar colonial experience, African people have been addressing the same kinds of questions that we in this region have to address as we struggle to recuperate our psyche. With AFTT, we wanted to reconnect with Africa and to give us something to see of ourselves that we have been estranged from.
<PERSON>: At this year’s launch you talked about the role of the AFTT in reframing how Black people are perceived. Tell us about that in the context of multicultural Trinidad and Tobago.
<PERSON>: With all its complexity and diversity, I cannot think of a continent that has been more vilified in recent history, and at the same time, whose people have served as such a source of creativity and inspiration for the world. In an attempt to liberate African people from the view imposed by generations of colonial denunciation, AFTT gives us a chance to see an African view of the world, which will, in fact, help us to shape our own world view, not only for people of African origin, but for all of us in this very complex and cosmopolitan society. We can all address the essential humanity and requirement for human dignity and justice for all.
Africa Film Trinidad and Tobago founder <PERSON> (far left) with patrons of the 2022 festival, taking in the Afrovive art exhibition. Photo courtesy the AFTT, used with permission.
<PERSON>: How does the collaboration with African filmmakers work?
<PERSON>: I have been the regional secretary for the Caribbean diaspora for FEPACI, the Pan African Federation of Filmmakers since 2013 and this association has brought me in close contact with filmmakers and film festivals across the continent and beyond. This has certainly helped with being in the know about new films, and has also led to collaborations and exchanges with content between festivals. 127