My Beauty Best Teacher

Still image from Restless City

“In this intense twist on the American Dream, director Andrew Dosunmu vividly captures the pulsating dynamic of New York city's pan-African community, a robust aggregation that subsists amid an often hostile foreign environment. “Restless City” is a mesmerizing glimpse into a culture and community that is only superficially seen by indifferent New Yorkers.” – Duane Byrge, The Hollywood Reporter

Untitled from Coalition Films - Projects on Vimeo.
New York-based producers of a documentary called “Death Metal Angola”, about the emerging metal scene in Angola and a rock festival in the city of Huambo, are raising money for post-production costs on crowdfunding platform IndieGogo. The film's tagline: “The hardest hardcore is Angolan hardcore.”

The documentary, which is based on a critically-acclaimed short film titled just White Elephants, centers on the Central Post-Office in Kinshasa, and its employees.
White Elephant (nzoku ya pembe) | Official Trailer from Kristof Bilsen on Vimeo.
This grandiose relic of the colonial past has trapped its employees in a frozen timewarp from which they are planning their escape. From past to present, through the cracks in the walls, and leaks in the ceilings, we glimpse present-day Congo.

WAITING LINES by Lagos Based Daniel Oriahi Follow @Filmic25

Shorts have been the means by which upcoming film makers show the world and more specifically the industry what they are capable of doing. Many of the legends of today made short films which enabled them to be recognized and get the opportunity to make feature films. Directors like Speilberg, Scorcese, Chris Nolan ,George Lucas and other went through this path at some point.

As a cinephile and director, i get excited when i discover other film makers that know their craft , so I want to dedicate this post to the young film makers from Nigeria.

I won’t write much but i’ll let their work speak for them. Some of them are based in Nigeria others are outside the country, But they are all Naija Bred .

They vary in genre and tone. Some are socially relevant, some are art house and indie, and others are just entertainment,your opinions on their execution may vary. but they all show something different about their craft and the capabilties and potential of their directors. So ladies and gentlemen, say hello to The Future

Although the Nollywood film industry is one of the fastest-growing film markets around, it still contends with a "poor quality films" perception often attached in describing the industry but filmmaker Obi Emelonye hopes to change that with his new big-budget thriller.His hit film The Mirror Boy was a huge success, critically and financially, in the UK and throughout Africa last year. His latest production, Last Flight To Abuja, is the first-ever Nollywood disaster film and, with a budget of $500,000, will become one of the most expensive Nollywood films made.

He realizes there's skepticism but thinks that can change telling The Voice..."I know there is a little bit of doubt about how would we compare in terms of quality of production values and storyline to Hollywood. But that argument is being won right now. Film-makers like myself are trying to use the conventions, the visual narrative style and the technology of the West in a very unique African way, to tell our own stories.”...[continue reading]

Narcocorrido Trailer 1 min from Narcocorrido on Vimeo.
In the film, Nicki Michaeux plays "Naija Dillion a Yuma county Sheriff’s deputy, an outsider and minority in her community. Gravely ill, Naija robs a notorious cartel shipment in a last-ditch scramble for survival. When the robbery spirals out of control, Naija finds herself caught up in a Narcocorrido made real."

French/Senegalese director Dyana Gaye, whose short film, the vibrant, unorthodox musical Saint Louis Blues, was one of 5 projects selected, financed and produced under the Focus Features Africa First program (she was part of the very first class, announced in 2008), will be making her feature film directorial debut with a project titled Des Etoiles (or, in English, Stars). Watch related interview after the jump

...teaser trailer of Black Swan Theory, the short film by Nikyatu Jusu, winner of the Inaugural Shadow And Act Filmmaker Challenge.
[BLACK SWAN THEORY] teaser from Nikyatu Jusu on Vimeo.