London International Pan-African Film Festival (London PAFF 2024) showcasing outstanding Pan-African films produced in Africa and the Diaspora (Europe, Caribbean countries, USA, Latina America), and from all over the world, at the West Norwood Picturehouse from 18 to 25 October 2024. See today’s line-up below!
16h40 FROM GOD TO MAN
Lansana Mansaray, Documentary Short Film (Sierra Leonne), 2024, 14 min
Amidst celebratory, humorous, and quotidian moments of village life, Mansaray interweaves reflections from a community that has endured more than its share of hardship — colonization, a civil war, and growing threats to the forests that the Limbas treasure. As with pouring out a little palm wine for the ancestors, Ma ŋaye ka Masaala a se ka Wɔmɛti is an offering to those who came before and to those who are still here. But as Mansaray playfully lets the viewer know, some things should not be shared with the rest of the world.
16h55 ENCHUKUNOTO (THE RETURN)
Laissa Malih, Documentary Short Film (Kenya), 2024, 15 min
As the first female Maasai filmmaker, Laissa Malih initially set out to document the land-based practices of her forefathers and ways in which climate change is reshaping Maasai communities. In returning to the IL-Laikipiak Maasai village that her parents left when she was a child, Malih experiences an epiphany: her own life is a reflection of the myriad challenges between Maasai youth and elders, women and men, ancestral ways of passing down essential knowledge and modern methods of education.
17h10 ATIVIO
Juliette Boucheny, Narrative Short Film (France/Togo), 2024, 26 min
Guénolé, an eleven-year-old boy, lives in a very small village called Agotimé Adamé, two hours from Lomé in Togo. He has an obvious musical sensitivity and dreams of playing the piano. He will manage to practice without having one…
17h37 JUJUMAN + Q&A
Tony Ogunyinka, Narrative Short Film (United Kingdom), 2023, 28 min
Jujuman follows the story of Mani, a south east London gang leader who is forced to rethink his attitudes towards morality when he is confronted by a mysterious vigilante African witchdoctor who appears to have placed a Juju curse on him contrived to put his mothers life in danger. Mani must make a choice, leave the gang world behind or face the consequences of the curse!
18h22 THE LONDON RECRUITS + Q&A
Gordon Main, Documentary Feature Film (UK/SA), 2024, 2022 1h 43min
At the height of apartheid, late sixties/early 70’s, an international group of working-class students and workers living in London answered Oliver Tambo’s secret call for undercover agents. This film tells the story of the young men and women who brought to life - at great personal risk - Oliver Tambo’s daring, non violent strategy to keep hope alive in his embattled people in South Africa.
20h05 TOOTH FOR TOOTH
Ottis Ba, Narrative Feature Film (Senegal), 2023, 1h 21min
Idrissa lives in the suburbs of Dakar, Senegal. He lost his job as a civil servant as a result of budget cuts ordered by the IMF. The day his redundancy money runs out, he is forced to live off his wife Viviane. He then searches by all means for a way to regain his pride as a man that he thinks he has lost...
Screen 3:
18h00 "ONDJELUA" - THE RAIN FESTIVAL
Eurico "Gigio" Pereira, Documentary Feature Film (Angola) 2023, 1 hour
In the forgotten heart of the Huíla province in Angola, there exists an ancient people surviving the modern world. A people woven from rituals and stories, their wellspring of culture slowly drying up, struggling to endure in a technological, globalized world. Through the Sacred Ox procession, the Mumuíla initiate the Ondjélua. A tradition upholding culture - and hope - with ancient wisdom, yearning to be shared.
19h05 SAFARI IN CONAKRY
Dominique Philippe, Narrative Feature Film (Guiné), 2024, 1h 30min
Two opposite police officers must go on a mission to try to dismantle a mafia organization.
They meet Sira and FC, two independent female journalists who denounce the corruption put in place by this organization. This quartet, despite differences and tensions in the way they each carry out their profession, will attack these criminals in order to bring down the thinking heads of this mafia network. Will they manage to come together to resolve this investigation and put an end to the corruption that is plaguing the country?
