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Africa USA International Film Festival

Our Purpose: To provide a venue to showcase films from across the African and North American continents. in the hope of promoting mutual respect and understanding through cultural exchange.  Indeed, we believe that only mutual respect and understanding can save the world from endless conflict, misery, waste and destruction.

Today, more than ever, it is important that we understand that we are all a part of the vast human family -- all the with the same cares, trials, and aspirations regardless of our continent, nationality, race, language, socio-economic status, gender, age, or sexual orientation.

The African-USA Film Festival is all about inclusion and representation, giving voices to the voiceless, bringing the invisible to the light, and promoting the universality of love and compassion.  We recognize that films present a unique way of telling stories to cut through our differences and to find our commonalities as humans existing on this planet at this particular time in history.

Our Aim is to do our part ot empower filmmakers to share their stories of strife, reconciliation, growth, mutual effort and achievement.  Won't you join us in this effort? We welcome your film submittals at AfricaUSAIntFilmFest.com.

AWARDS TO ATTENDEES - CERTIFICATES TO NON ATTENDEES

  • Best Film

  • Best Short Film

  • Best Screenplay

  • Best Actress

  • Best Actor

  • Best Cinematography

  • Best Music Score

  • Best LGBTQIA+

  • Best Women Film

  • Best Animation

  • Best Documentary

Juan Aizpitarte alters what is easily recognizable by reconfiguring the meaning or function of its surroundings. He works methodologically to displace social and architectural codes by modifying the spatial or acoustic references particular to the sites in which his projects are developed.

All operational modes – whether conceptual, comic, poetic, symbolic or fictional – are envisaged here. Nothing is overtly fixed, leaving the viewer free to mentally reconstruct his or her own version of the project. His references come from everyday speech as much from the theatre, allowing different worlds to encounter and interact with one another. The transformation of the space happens through the public. The progressive transmutation of the site designates, signals, delimits and identifies the space, turning the visitor into the potential agent of that process.

Toubisme

This documentary addresses the relationship between tourism and culture in Senegal through a series of interviews. It offers different visions of tourism from the local perspective. It also makes direct references to language and tourism and their link to the consequences of colonialism.

During the quiet days of summer/fall of 2021 while we were all trying to figure out what would be next as Covid started to become “manageable”, the Artists selected for the Kent Cultural Alliance/Chesapeake Heartland Artist Fellowship were hard at work using their talents to bring to life a few of the thousands of stories being collected and archived within Washington College’s Chesapeake Heartland: An African American Humanities Project. As part of a three year partnership, the Kent Cultural Alliance (KCA) was tasked with connecting residents and visitors to the Archive through the arts. While the pandemic slowed the process, the artists completed their projects and an open exhibition was held in March 2022 in the parish hall at Emmanuel Church, Chestertown. As a picture is worth a thousand words, and a video is 24/30 pictures a second, Andover Media was asked to document the work of each artist as they wrestled with the past, present, and future of Black Art and History in Kent County. This is that story.

Looking Inward - Black History & the Arts

“Looking Inward” is a film documenting the artist fellowship process through the Kent Cultural Alliance. 6 artists dug through thousands of historical documents and images from the Chesapeake Heartland Archive to find what spoke to them, and then created their own artwork from the inspirations they found. This Documentary is a journey through Black History and the Arts and how we all can benefit from 'Looking Inward.'

I am Black, I am Beautiful

"I am Black, I am Beautiful" (2023) is a documentary movie written and directed by Sabrina Onana about Black French Women (both Caribbeans and daughters of African immigrants in France).

We don’t make movies to make money, we make money to make more movies.”

Kuvah - Legend of the Sea

Kuva tells the story of Ekema, a “no good” fisherman, down on his luck. In a fishing society where a man’s worth is a derivative of his fishing prowess, Ekema finds himself the lowest rung in the society’s ladder. He finds himself, through no want of efforts, unable to measure or match up to his mates which leads to constant ridicule from the society in general, but a certain Njie, the “King Fisher” in particular. His only source of solace is from his two friends, Eposi and Lyonga. He hates his fate and wishes he had more financially which will translate to more respect.

UNITE FOR BISSAU (Nô Kumpu Guiné): agroecology and feminism in Guinea Bissau

In the West African nation of Guinea-Bissau, this thought-provoking film takes you on a journey that follows brave local women who challenge patriarchy by building institutions that promote self-sufficiency through agroecology. They also defy social norms by standing up against female genital mutilation and rejecting forced marriage. Carrying forward the legacy of Amílcar Cabral, the Bissau-Guinean independence leader who placed women's rights at the center of the struggle for liberation, the women of a rising generation are taking their power back.

I make inspirational films and stories about rural women and girls on their day to day plight, myths, challenges and victories to inspire other women

Zipped

A rural girl tells a story of her struggling with an unknown illness relaying the support of her mothers love which keeps her going in her toughest of times as the illness ZIPPS OFF her dreams. This is story of hope of how she braze through all and triumphant

In 1964, the lake created by the Aswan High Dam led to the largest displacement in modern Egyptian history as Nubians were forced to leave their villages along the bank of the Nile. In the years immediately preceding construction of the dam, hundreds of photos of “Old Nubia” were taken as part of a large-scale project of salvage anthropology directed by the American University in Cairo.

The animated film Hanina/Homesick re-imagines these ethnographic photos as a visual accompaniment to the iconic displacement song “Wa Hanina,” written and performed by the late musician Sayed Gayer and re-arranged and recorded for this project by his son Ahmed.

My maternal family is from the Kenuz village of East Kushtmna. I grew up within the Nubian community in Cairo listening to stories and songs about “Old Nubia” even though my family had been calling the capital city home for decades. Still, Nubians have kept the memory of our lost homeland through cultivating a loving yearning or hanin, for Nubia across generations. By blurring the boundaries between art and documentation to give memories moving form, Homesick participates in Nubian traditions of nostalgic storytelling as historical witnessing while recasting salvage anthropology as a sentimental archive.

Hanina/Homesick

HOME IS A PLACE INSIDE US

A young Nubian girl embarks on a journey back in time to reconnect with her drowned homeland. Guided by the Nile egret, she travels underwater within the lake created by Egypt's Aswan High Dam to visit Nubia's mountains and palm trees, water wheels and houses, men and women. She bids farewell to her people as they board the boats that will take them to their resettlement villages. Returning to her own time, she carries the strength of knowing that Nubia will always live on inside her.

I am a Distinguished Scholar, Sociological Expert and New Director, looking to make a significant difference in the world through my distinctive arts and film projects! I believe as a society we need to always utilize our Sociological Imagination when analyzing societal or worldly issues. Therefore, we are best prepared and efficiently informed on the necessary and effective elements needed to implement sustainable positive changes for the people

Homeless not Hopeless in America, featuring "Brook"

First-Time Filmmaker Walton’s Debut Film: Homeless Not Hopeless in America is a multi-award winning progressive sociological documentary which provides an up-close and vivid expression of the unreal realities, and street trenches of the impoverished environments many disenfranchised homeless Americans attempt to survive daily. Additionally, the film strongly illuminates how drug abuse is truly a mental disease that should be treated holistically, with modern medical and social services. Therefore, this emotional educational film depicts alarming statistics and substantiative research which prove that individuals should not be criminalized or incarcerated for suffering from a mental disorder (drug abuse) in which they greatly need rehabilitative assistance to overcome. Innovatively, this unprecedented documentary intensely shows how both the use of both Methamphetamine and Fentanyl have utterly destroyed the homeless population in Los Angeles, CA. In addition, the film highlights how city officials choose to ignore the longstanding damages associated with homelessness, by allowing drug use and drug abuse to be perpetuated, thus marginalizing those struggling in the country’s largest homeless population. Unfortunately, many homeless individuals in Los Angeles are unjustly denied the due process of adequate medical and social services that could significantly assist their lives or cure their sicknesses.

This is my fourth documentary, but definitely my favorite. Harriet Tubman was an amazing contributor to US History who's full story needs to be told. This documentary is not about her work on the Underground Railroad, because everyone knows that story; this is about all of the incredible details of her life that most people will be surprised, impressed and motivated by.

Civil War Colored Troops | Courage, Determination, Survival

It’s so important that we learn from the past to improve the future. In African tradition, it is expected that one not only speaks in their voice, but also in the voice of the ancestors. So much history, especially Black & Gullah history, has been hidden from textbooks. Because of that, Luana’s passion is telling untold stories that educate and inspire people to understand more about who they are.

The Fly Collectors

A group of men in Senegal volunteer as human bait to catch flies carrying a parasite that once blinded hundreds of thousands of people throughout Africa. Following the lead of Africa's leading medical entomologist, Daniel Boakye, the group of men work towards freeing the Gambia River from the vicious disease.

Legendary Senegalese singer Baaba Maal provides the soundtrack for this lyrical celebration of the work that has brought his country within sight of a once unthinkable goal: eliminating river blindness.

This is my fourth documentary, but definitely my favorite. Harriet Tubman was an amazing contributor to US History who's full story needs to be told. This documentary is not about her work on the Underground Railroad, because everyone knows that story; this is about all of the incredible details of her life that most people will be surprised, impressed and motivated by.

Harriet Tubman | From the Railroad to a Spy

2022 marked the 200th anniversary of Harriet Tubman’s birth, as well as the memory of one of America’s most profound figures. Tubman was one of the nation’s leading human rights activists who assumed many roles, including that of an Underground Railroad conductor, army scout, nurse, and women’s rights champion.

As the director of "Illusion of Distance," my mission is to shed light on the power of human resilience and the enduring impact of forced separation during the apartheid regime in 1950s South Africa. This heartfelt film centers around Boeta Allie, a colored man who is separated from his childhood friend, Isaac Mbenyane, due to racial segregation.

Set in the neighborhood of Bonteheuwel in Cape Town, our film intimately explores Boeta Allie's emotional journey as he works to reunite with Isaac, who was forcibly relocated to the distant township of Langa. Through this narrative, we aim to highlight the false sense of distance created by apartheid. Despite physical proximity, communities were kept apart, accompanied by injustice and suffering experienced by individuals like Boeta and Isaac.

Themes of home, friendship, history, and human resilience resonate throughout the film, providing a profound reflection on the enduring spirit of humanity in overcoming adversity. As a director, my motivation stems from the belief that art can serve as a powerful tool for exploring and understanding historical events.

By bringing the story of Boeta Allie and Isaac to life, I aim to honor the experiences of those affected by apartheid while fostering empathy and dialogue surrounding its enduring effects. "The Illusion of Distance" offers a unique perspective on the human capacity to endure hardships and find strength in relationships, even in the face of oppressive systems.

Illusion of Distance

llusion of Distance delves into the enduring effects of the Apartheid. Boeta Allie, an 80-year-old man classified as coloured by the Apartheid government was separated from his childhood friend Isaac Mbenyane because of his race. The two were inseparable as children while living in District 6, before forced removals scattered communities and families across the Cape Flats. Boeta Allie and Isaac ended up in neighborhoods set aside for so-called coloureds and blacks by the ruling party of the day. Langa and Bonteheuwel are only divided by a highway but because of pass laws and the restriction of movement, the friends did not see each other for more than 70 years. The film follows Boeta Allie's journey as he is accompanied by 'born-free' filmmaker Sapho Wulana to try and find his long-lost friend Isaac.

Rainbow Nation

A quick but in-depth look on South Africa's history, people and economy. By learning about its past, we can peek into the future of this Rainbow Nation.

Fisantekraal

When a 12-year-old boy visits his friend, the boys get into some expected mischief. But the boys soon find out, freedom can quickly get dangerous.

MELIKHAYA

Born into a culture that values male leadership above all, Melikhaya finds it difficult to find her place as a strong African woman. When her brother makes choices that impact the entire community, she is forced to make a tough decision.https://editor.wix.com/data/AfricaUsaIntLFilmFestival/821267a4-437c-4181-b611-c6947076655e

Perfect Angel

In this short comedy, a father and his only daughter have a strange relationship, guided by love and entitlement, but is love unconditional? They say do not discuss politics with family...

Directed by Andrew Jacobs, produced with his amazing long time team of talented individuals, starring Eric Roberts and newcomer comedian Champagne as his daughter.

Mali: The Quest for Peace

The documentary unfolds through the voices of El Hadj Djitteye, the visionary founder of the Timbuktu Center for Strategic Studies on the Sahel, and Djoken, president of the UNESCO Center for Peace. Djitteye shares the harrowing tale of Timbuktu's occupation by Islamist militants in 2012, where priceless manuscripts were burned, and the population fled. Djoken's narrative delves into his endeavors against female mutilation, emphasizing the significance of empowering women for societal progress and education for the youth.

In 'Sipping Words', we intended to immerse the audience in Wendy's world by using cinematic scenes of her personal life and also blending it with her professional life as a bookstore owner and wine enthusiast. Music was selected specifically to emphasise the emotional impact her community experiences in her sessions.

Sipping Words

We explore the world of books with Wendy Njoroge and how she has managed to curate a series of events that combine wine and books in a very unique way in Kenya. Wendy provides deep therapeutic explorations and adventures as she interacts with her growing community.

Once Upon A Murder

In the near future, time travel tourism allows vacationers to travel back in time to experience moments of historical significance. When mild-mannered Frank visits a time travel agency to inquire about a trip, he is offered the “ultimate” thrill - an opportunity to go back in time to participate in a murder. But what was supposed to be the adventure of a lifetime turns into an unimaginable nightmare, with only one way out…

“Human Rights is a fundamental thing that should take priority over everything else if we envision a more humane society”. Daisaku Ikeda

“The past is not dead, It’s not even past.” William Faulkner

The Poison Garden

It tells the true stories of 3 acts of racial terrorism that occurred in and out of South Florida's courts in the 1930's and draws parallels to the problems of law enforcement of today.

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