The liberating power of transgressive film genres
Jordan Peele’s ‘Get Out’ should be seen as part of the Afrofuturism genre, which offers physical and mental liberation through supernatural or non-realistic means.
26 Articles by:
Katarina Hedrén
Katarina Hedrén is a film curator and critic , based in Johannesburg.
The second life of ‘Daughters of the Dust’
The classic film, first premiered in 1991, is making a comeback. Not least: Beyoncé’s visual album ‘Lemonade’ borrows liberally from Julie Dash’s film. Why is the film so influential?
5 Questions for Filmmaker, Djo Munga
The Congolese cites the crime film, ‘Carlito’s Way,’ starring Al Paciono, as a project he wished he had made. You can see the inspiration in “Viva Riva,” his breakout film.
5 Questions for a Filmmaker: Tunde Kelani
The legendary Nigerian filmmaker, Tunde Kelani is considered the bridge between the first generation of Nigerian filmmakers and Nollywood.
The Wizard of Zimbabwe
What do you when your 70 year old South African father wants to meet Robert Mugabe for his birthday. Make a film about it.
5 Questions for a Filmmaker: Hawa Essuman
Essuman believes that confining any storyteller to labels like “African stories” is a disservice to the story and the one telling it.
5 Questions for a Filmmaker: Jim Chuchu
The Nairobi-based filmmaker and musician aims to bring stories, pictures and sound together to create something immutable on the screen.
5 Questions for a Filmmaker: Newton Aduaka
For Aduaka, cinema is important if it illuminates or resonates something that makes up the essence of this thing called human nature.
5 Questions for Filmmaker: Branwen Okpako
Okpako wants to show people as they see themselves but in a way that others can recognize themselves as well.
5 Questions for a Filmmaker: Philippe Lacôte
The Ivorian filmmaker wished he had made Akira Kurosawa’s Dreams, based on the filmmaker’s own dreams, when the fantastical infiltrates the real.
5 Questions for a Filmmaker: Kivu Ruhorahoza
Ruhorahoza wished he made “Sans Soleil” by Chris Marker: “The film is a good example of the work of a filmmaker who has reached maturity and an artist who is truly free.”
Sweden’s love affair with Pippi Longstocking and “definitions” of racism
Recently The New York Times picked up on one of Sweden’s latest "race controversies": The Swedish national broadcaster announced
5 Questions for a Filmmaker–Teddy Goitom
Teddy Goitom is a Swedish-Ethiopian/Eritrean content producer and the founder of Stocktown (1998), “a cultural movement celebrating
5 Questions for a Filmmaker–Jihan El-Tahri
Legendary documentarian Jihan El-Tahri started her career as a journalist, working as a news agency correspondent
5 Questions for a Filmmaker–Philippa Ndisi-Herrmann
Born in Bonn in 1985, Philippa Ndisi-Herrmann is a Kenyan and German photographer and filmmaker. She is intrigued
5 Questions for a Filmmaker–Dani Kouyaté
In 1995 filmmaker and griot Dani Kouyaté won the Golden Stallion – The award for Best