WIU and MC host African film festival

By: Kyle Christensen
Features Editor

Since Oct. 9, Monmouth College and Western Illinois University have been hosting a month-long African Film Festival between the two campuses, which will continue until Saturday, Nov. 4.

Featuring the works of 10 highly-influential cinematic pieces, the inaugural event entitled, “Two Campuses, Two Continents, One Festival” commenced only three weeks ago, with a viewing and discussion panel of New York University professor Manthia Diawara’s “Who’s Afraid of Ngugi” in Morgan Hall of WIU.

Yesterday evening, Monmouth College held its first screening in the festival with “Flame,” Ingrid Sinclair’s 1996 reflection upon the roles which women played as recruits in the Zimbabwean liberation struggle, which was publicly exhibited in the Hewes Library Barnes Electronic Classroom (the location throughout the duration of presentations at Monmouth College).

Future selections will include “Madame Brouette,” the story of Mati, an impoverished revolutionary who finds herself forced to question her values after she falls for the dastardly Naaga while still encouraging the women of a Senegalese village to oppose their authoritative husbands, with live commentary and chat session from filmmaker Moussa Sene Absa on Thursday, Nov. 2 at 7 p.m, and “Hip-Hop Colony,” the critically-acclaimed Kenyan documentary, accompanied by director Michael Wanguhu fielding questions from the audience on Saturday, Nov. 4 at 1 p.m.

Screenings scheduled for the Western campus are as listed: “The Twelve Disciples of Mandela” with creator Thomas Allen Harris in attendance (this afternoon, Oct. 27, at 4 p.m. in the Union Sandburg Theater), “Thunderbolt” (Saturday, Oct. 28, at 7 p.m. in Morgan Hall 109), the short film collection “African Dreaming” (Sunday, Oct. 29 at 4 p.m. in Morgan Hall 109), “Mooladdé,” a provocative look at one woman’s efforts to protect young girls from the ritualized practice of female circumcision (Friday, Nov. 3 at 3:30 p.m.at Cinema I and II on University Drive off of U.S. 67 in Macomb), “Lumumba” (Saturday, Nov. 4 at 7 p.m. in Morgan Hall 109) and “Ali Zaoua” (Sunday, Nov. 5 at 4 p.m. in Morgan Hall 109).

The entire festival was made possible by correspondence between the faculty and staff of both schools, with sponsorship from Western’s Expanding Cultural Diversity Project, Center for Innovation in Teaching and Research, Provost’s Office, University Them Committee, Expanding Cultural Diversity Project and department of African American studies, and Monmouth College’s public affairs committee, Association of Student Activity Programming, Global Partners Projects and the modern foreign languages department, and organizations such as the National Geographic Society and the Global Partners Project Regional Alliance Grant.