The Chronicle Interview: Mahen Bonetti
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| Photo courtesy of the African Film Festival, Inc | “I know what Africa has given me and what she’s capable of”, says Mahen Bonetti, founder and Executive Director of the African Film Festival, Inc., but although everyone was talking about Africa at the end of the 1980s, “there was no African voice”. This “paradox of culture”—when images of starving African children flooded television screens while “world music” came into being and African-American emerged as a political concept of identity— led her to finding ways of fostering a cultural dialogue between Africa and the United States. Realizing that cinema would be the ideal medium for such a cultural exchange, she put all her energy into creating the African Film Festival (AFF) in New York City. Horst Rutsch of the UN Chronicle speaks with Ms. Bonetti about using films to bring African culture to audiences in the United States.
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On establishing the African Film Festival in New York
New York in the 1980s was vibrant, with different cultural expressions in terms of music, dance and fashion. More than ever, I felt the presence of Africa in these different cultural media.
In 1989, I visited the Locarno Film Festival in Switzerland and came across a thirty-year retrospective of African cinema. It clicked right away. This is how we could show Africa to others, through films made by African filmmakers. This modern art form could preserve something from Africa’s culture and further our education, especially because literacy rates were not so high. Upon my return to New York, I called the Lincoln Center, The Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) and the Public Theater to get their support. Everyone expressed interest, but said such a programme would be hard to sell. Even high-powered blacks told me they were not interested; that really challenged me. I was discouraged because I was not getting the response from people that I had expected; nevertheless I remained determined.
The best response I received was from Richard Peña of the Film Society of Lincoln Center who had a track record of successfully showcasing international films. AFF was launched in 1993 and was the Center’s first collaboration when they built the Walter Reade Theater. To everyone’s surprise, the audience demand was so overwhelming that they extended the festival from ten days to an entire month! This led to foundations being interested in supporting the Festival.
On the idea of cultural exchange through the AFF
The Film Festival was conceived to promote cross-cultural communication, cultural identity and understanding. Audiences could see these works and discuss them first-hand with the filmmakers. Prior to the festival, there were very few opportunities for American audiences to see African cinema. Over the years, we have seen that there has been a nationwide increase in the demand for this type of films and we tried to nurture this by consulting with programmers across the country, who were interested in bringing African cinema to their venues but did not have the experience or information to do so.
On the vitality of African cinema
I’ve attended several editions of FESPACO—the largest pan-African film festival in the world—which takes place biannually in Burkina Faso, West Africa. The country has managed to produce so many wonderful filmmakers, which goes to show that even small countries with few resources can produce a film industry and culture. They have such a rich cultural tradition, a sense of their landscape and a wealth of imagination, which ultimately are as important as money in making a good film!
During FESPACO, nobody sleeps, everyone engages in discussions. It is magical to see Africans’ reaction to cinema. People walk miles and miles to come and see movies in packed open-air stadiums. People jostle and push, even hang on trees to see these films. They really want to see images of themselves, to hear their voices, to see their own faces on the screen. African cinema needs to be supported financially. Perhaps tariffs should be demanded on important foreign films, and private movie theaters should devote a percentage of their programmes to show local works.
On expanding the festival through outreach programmes
After the first Film Festival, we started thinking about programmes to sustain interest throughout the year in African film, and we printed a technical catalogue for programmes that we have sent around the world, from Cameroon to Poland.
The New York African Film Festival takes place every year in April. To complement the Festival, we create comprehensive packages with education and marketing materials that we offer for a very small fee. The AFF Traveling Series runs from October through May of the following year, and brings African cinema to ten cities around the United States. As a result, more and more art houses and festivals now incorporate an African programme. We organized a dozen free community-based outdoor screenings in historic parks in Harlem and other locations in Brooklyn, Queens and downtown Manhattan.
On the importance of educational programmes
AFF has created two programmes to reach young audiences, many of whom never see positive or realistic black characters on the screen or have much knowledge of Africa. The first—The Young Adults Education Program—is a component of our annual New York City Film Festival. It is a specially designed matinee for middle and high school students, with an audience of approximately 200. Two to three short films are screened that are age-appropriate and relevant to African history, geography, politics and culture. The filmmaker is also there to answer students’ questions. Discussion topics have included African women’s issues, the history of decolonization and the influence of traditional story-telling techniques on cinema.
The AFF In-School Program was initiated in 2000 in cooperation with the East Harlem School at Exodus House (EHSEH), a middle school of 75 students in one of New York City’s most disadvantaged neighbourhoods. At the beginning of the school year, AFF consultants meet with teachers to tailor their curricula, augmenting traditional materials and lesson plans with African films, literature, history and visiting African artists and schools. AFF has provided EHSEH with a video library of twenty films and print materials on African history and culture. Six times during the school year, an AFF facilitator visits the school to present a film or a guest artist, and AFF has arranged guest visitors such as: renowned Malian musician Salif Keita; African art scholar and curator Dr. Carol Thompson of the High Museum; Fode Bangoura, a prominent member of Guinea’s leading ballet company; and Madison Davis Lacy, an Emmy-award winning documentary filmmaker. We hope this will be a model for other schools as well.
On the value of international partnerships
AFF has also participated in a number of international projects. We have a long history of sending representatives to Burkina Faso for FESPACO. We also nominate African American films for the FESPACO Paul Robeson Award for the best film from the African Diaspora. Our efforts at film programming across national boundaries began in a partnership with the Bob Marley Foundation, which hosted an African film festival at the Bob Marley Museum in Kingston (Jamaica) in 1996, and since then, we have organized a mini African film festival every fall. Due to the overwhelming success of that programme, AFF went on to co-curate an African and African Diaspora film series for the 2nd Johannesburgh Biennale in 1997, and since 1999 has also been co-curating a Pan-African film festival in conjunction with the third Celebration of African Heritage in Brazil, where there is a large black population with strong ties to Africa.
On the publication of “Through African Eyes”
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| Photo courtesy of the African Film Festival, Inc. |
Most books published on African culture are not easily accessible to the general public because they are directed at specialists and academics. We wanted to create a straightforward book to give an overview through the voice of the African filmmakers themselves. The book consists of conversations with filmmakers, conducted by a variety of media professionals, including Danny Glover, Jonathan Demme and A. O. Scott of The New York Times—I call it “cinema 101”. We hope that readers of the book become excited to have the films discussed, meet the filmmakers and then read the academic books with their more in-depth film analyses. In addition to selling it on our web site, we are now approaching universities and schools, as it would make a great resource for students of African cinema.
On screening films at the United Nations
The eyes of countless African leaders are here at the United Nations. That is why it is crucial that we present films at the United Nations with the filmmaker in attendance, so that they get to interface with the diplomatic community and representatives from Africa. When there is no food or medicine, it is difficult to convince people that culture is also a top priority and that our souls and spirits need to be nourished too. Food and health certainly are immediate concerns, but I feel that it is vital to support the sense of culture that has kept Africans grounded despite all the economic and political hardships that they have endured.
We first started screening at the United Nations in 1994 with the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF). We chose to do the screening during the festival because the filmmakers would also be in New York. At first, it was supposed to be for children who would come in during the day. Then we realized it was important to have the participation of the international community and the ambassadors. In 1998, we screened a film by a Cameroonian filmmaker who does politically charged works and the film sparked a lively debate. Most recently, we have screened award-winning films, such as Mweze Ngangura’s Pieces d’Identites and Mauritanian/Malian filmmaker Abderahmane Sissoko’s Waiting for Happiness. These films help us to confront the issues; they challenge us to continue thinking about ways to improve our situation and build for the future, and that is the magic and power of the cinema. |
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