A visual history of African LGBTQ
A quick review of films showing at two festivals with a focus on gay people: The Out in Africa Festival and the London Lesbian and Gay Film Festival.
38 Articles by:
Basia Cummings
Basia Cummings is a writer and film critic based in London.
Out in Africa
Writing gays and lesbians into the political and social history of South Africa – a history from which LGBT people are so often obscured and ignored.
Witchcraft and the British Media
Can a belief be condemned as immoral? Or must we accept cultural difference, and merely condemn the acts that follow as a consequence?
Dabbling in the sublime
The 2012 edition of the Berlinale includes a number of films from Africa or with African themes.
Film and Johannesburg’s Ponte City
The German writer Norman Ohler described Johannesburg's Ponte City, Africa's tallest residential building, thus: "Ponte sums
South Africa’s TRC on film
It has recently been announced that Roland Joffe, (Londoner and) director of films The Mission and
The fragmentary character of memory
John Akomfrah’s ‘The Nine Muses’ obliquely tells the history of migration to Britain in the 1950s and 1960s.
Nelson Mandela (Hollywood; plural)
Rumours are circulating on various Hollywood gossip and film blogs that Stringer Bell also known as
The confused lens of memory and trauma
The Rwandan film, “Grey Matter,” is part of prestigious traveling film exhibition, the Global Film Initiative.
Nollywood and Hollywood
A Nollywood director has reached the dizzying heights of Hollywood, and all the famous names that come with it. What can happen?
Zarina Bhimji: “A photograph cannot give you concrete information”
Zarina Bhimji’s exhibition at The Whitechapel Gallery is the first major survey of her work, documenting 25 years of her artistic practice.
The Top 10 African films of 2011
2011 was a good year for African cinema. In various cinema seats and at home, I’ve
Celebrating African women filmmakers
Two events in London this year focused on female filmmakers working in African cinema. This is high exposure for a demographic of the African film industry that is generally low on the radar.
Adapting African literature for the screen
In a recent video interview (first spotted on film blog Shadow and Act), Kenyan film director
The documentary imaginery
At the recent Film Africa film festival in London, the new Ethiopian feature film "Atletu" (The
Fighting somebody else's war
By Basia Lewandowska Cummings We British are very good at honoring the dead. Last Friday Prime
Africa gets new football kits
Puma created new kits for African teams ahead of the 2012 African Cup of Nations. At first sight, it looks exciting. Up close, the designers stuck to conservative.
The films of Sarah Maldoror
Maldoror on filmmaking: “To make a film means to take a position … I make films so that people—no matter what race or color they are—can understand them.”