Following on the success of last year’s “Modern Days, Ancient Nights: Thirty Years of African Filmmaking” — the largest celebration of African cinema ever held in New York — the Film Society and the African Film Festival, Inc. present a wide-ranging selection of new and classic works from Africa.

This year’s series shifts the emphasis from the better known Francophone / West African cinemas to include acclaimed work from Anglophone cinemas of Western, Eastern and Southern Africa. This year’s festival highlights a powerful selection of work by women directors, as well as provocative, innovative documentaries such as FIRE EYES and IN DARKEST HOLLYWOOD. One not-to-be-missed feature is JIM COMES TO JO’BURG, the first South African film (1949) with an all-black cast. Film milestones such as JIM and the later MAPANTSULA (1988) presage a post-liberation South African cinema which the April elections will make possible.

African Film Festival, Inc. (Mahen Bonetti, Hilary Ney, Sharan Sklar, Linda Fiske, Fadhima Thiam) thanks to Maureen Slattery, Carol Davis Fiske, Valerie Woodson, Troy Brown, Nicole Kekeh, Tunde Giwa, Mamadou Niang, William C. MacKay, Dorothy Desir Davis, Kojo Ade, Anyango Odhiambo and Luca Bonetti for their help and support. For their help with this series, the Film Society wish to thank the French Ministry of Cooperation and Development, ATRIA (Claude Le Gallou and Annabel Thomas), French Cultural Services, Peter Davis, Erika Rutheford, KJM3 and Dramane Deme.