African Film Festival returns to New Zealand for the ninth year

From Here Now, 5:00 am on 15 July 2024

A still from the film "Choose me" shot in Chad, based on "amchilini", a long-disused custom requiring unmarried women to publicly choose a husband from a selection of candidate. Photo: African Film Festival

From 18 to 26 July at Auckland's Capitol Cinema, the African Film Festival New Zealand deep dives into cinema from across the continent. Boubacar Coulibaly has been part of the team for the past nine years and joins Here Now in this episode to talk about his favourite picks and why the festival is crucial for telling stories reflecting the complexity of the continent.

Some of the films to watch out for this festival are Mali 70, directed by Marcus Schmidt, Sira by Appolline Traore of Burkina Faso, and African Glory that tells the story about one of the world’s least known historical accounts that was referred to as the “forbidden story" - a kingdom from ancient Mali whose people navigated the new world before Christopher Columbus.