Presented under the banner Beyond Borders: Storytelling Across Time, the 26^th New York African Film Festival (NYAFF) reaches back into the past and forward into the unknown, weaving a story of the present using all genres of cinema from Africa and the African Diaspora. The NYAFF presents a fascinating selection of more than 60 narrative and documentary features and shorts from over 30 countries. From the archival to the experimental, classic fictional narrative to documentary, the festival selects treasured stories from the past to contextualize the present and all its possible futures.

The festival will open with the New York premiere of the South African drama, Sew the Winter to My Skin by acclaimed director Jahmil X.T. Qubeka, an epic existential-adventure film chronicling the true-life story of 1950’s black rebel hero John Kepe. Celebrating the 50th anniversary of FESPACO (Panafrican Film and Television Festival of Ouagadougou), the festival will showcase classic African films that premiered at this esteemed festival (the largest on the continent). Created in 1969, FESPACO is a forerunner and space for African media makers to share their work on the home front and the world stage. Films in this commemorative retrospective include the first-ever FESPACO Best Film winner, Oumarou Ganda’s Le Wazzou Polygame in 1972 and the 2019 winner, Joël Karekezi’s gripping drama The Mercy of the Jungle. Also included are Mahmoud Ben Mahmoud’s Fatwa (Bronze at FESPACO in 2019, first prize at Carthage Film Festival in 2018), Ola Balogun’s Black Goddess (1978), Safi Faye’s Mossane (1996), Souleymane Cissé’s Baara (1980), and the sweeping epic Sarraounia (1986) by Med Hondo, who passed away on March 2.

Ouaga, Capitale du Cinema by Mohamed Challouf, an archival documentary about Ouagadougou from 1983 and 1987, when the city was the scene of one of the most exciting cinema utopias, will also be presented during the festival. To bookend the FESPACO series, we take a look into the productions of two giants of African cinema, Ousmane Sembène and Djibril Diop Mambéty. Mambéty is a behind the scenes look at the making of, La Petite Vendeuse de Soleil and L’Envers du Décor, a documentary that captures the making of Sembène’s, Ceddo.

We recognize the 100th anniversary of the first Pan-African Congress organized in Paris by W. E. B. Du Bois and Ida Gibbs Hunt in February 1919, when delegates from Africa and the diaspora convened to champion Africa’s self-determination. In celebration of the spirit of Pan-Africanism, the festival will showcase films including HERO: Inspired by the Extraordinary Life and Times of Mr. Ulric Cross, Frances-Anne Solomon’s retelling of the story of Cross, a West Indian lawyer who joined the Pan-African independence movements sweeping through the world in the 1960s; Fanon Yesterday, Today by Hassane Mezine which gives an unprecedented and rare insight into the life of French West Indian psychiatrist, philosopher, revolutionary, and writer, Frantz Fanon; and Standing on Their Shoulders, in which director Xoliswa Sithole explores the role of women in the resistance during apartheid in South Africa, marking the day 20,000 women marched to the Union buildings in Pretoria.

This edition of the NYAFF also memorializes the tragic Rwandan genocide of 1994 when the light of humanity was dimmed. We commemorate the 25th anniversary of the genocide and honor the 800,000 lives lost during this indelible moment in world history. Rwanda will be the spotlight of this year’s DanceAfrica and the focus of the FilmAfrica program at BAM which includes Finding Hillywood, a documentary about the very beginning of Rwanda’s film industry and the healing power of cinema; Dreamstates by Rwandan director Anisia Uzeyman – a live performance by one of the film’s subjects, Saul Williams and frequent collaborator CX KiDTRONiK will follow the screening; and a free screening of I Am Not Your Negro director Raoul Peck’s Sometimes in April, a soul-shaking account of the Rwandan genocide, starring Idris Elba.

Special events in this year’s festival include the annual NYAFF Town Hall, Art & Activism: Afropresentism, a Verb – an event featuring discussions between artists of various disciplines and generations that are mobilizing Afropresentism as a verb to not just dream the future, but to create it; a master class by acclaimed Cameroonian filmmaker Jean-Marie Teno (whose latest film Chosen will screen during the festival) on entertainment and education within the context of African cinema, will take place on June 1; and a digital art exhibition titled From Ouaga to NYC: Capturing the Pan-African Spirit, featuring photographs by director Mohammed Challouf and cultural advocate Kojo Ade that capture African and African diaspora cultural celebrations on the continent and in the diaspora over four decades. The exhibition will run from May 31 – June 4. These special events are free and open to the public.

The 26^th New York African Film Festival was organized by Mahen Bonetti, Founder and Executive Director, African Film Festival, Inc. with Dara Ojugbele,  Françoise Bouffault, Amélie Garin-Davet, Dora King, Jacki Fischer, Shirine Gill and Kiesha Knight; Dennis Lim, Director of Programming, Erin Delaney, Operations Coordinator, Jeff Delauter, Director of Theater Operations, Film at Lincoln Center; Ashley Clark, Senior Programmer at BAM Film; and Allason Leitz, Theater Manager and Programmer, Maysles Cinema.

Thanks are due to the AFF Board of Directors, Joan Baffour, Luca Bonetti, Gabriele Donati, Belynda Hardin,  Ulli Maier, Karen McMullen, Mohammed Sillah, Alonzo Speight, Malika Lee Whitney, Cheryl Duncan & Company Inc. Public Relations, Kojo Associates and AFF’s volunteer team.