Africa in Motion

Africa in Motion

Welcome to the 11th edition of the Africa in Motion (AiM) Film Festival! We are back and ready to present a packed programme of screenings, discussions, Q&A sessions with filmmakers, pop-up screenings, workshops, exhibitions, live performances and more, across Edinburgh and Glasgow. Artistically innovative and thought-provoking, the programme takes on bold narratives through a range of features, documentaries and shorts.

This year we have taken a unique collaborative approach to curating the festival, with a number of different groups and organisations taking part in choosing what they want to see on screen. Residents from East Lothian and Paisley have programmed two pop-up film festivals taking place within their home regions. We have engaged young programmers to curate a package of events inspired by taking part in our ‘Reviving Scotland’s Black History’ summer school. Postgraduate students from the University of Glasgow made up the selection committee for the Short Film and Documentary Competitions.

This year our festival theme is ‘Time’, through which we explore the past, present and future of Africa, looking at different eras of African history including slavery, colonisation, globalisation and future concepts of Africa. We will also look at cultural notions of time including a focus on Swahili time, the Amharic calendar, and the place of tradition in a modern world. By looking at different political, cultural and social epochs we aim to show how Africa has never been a place bound in past tradition separated from the rest of the world, but has always been influenced by and connected to global movements.

Our festival theme of 'Time' is illustrated through our cover design and trailer created by South African artist, Diek Grobler, who in his own words, drew inspiration from ‘The way in which rock artists have been telling stories with pictures in the flickering light of fires on cave walls for centuries. Cinema in Africa is ancient!’

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