2019 African Film Festival Shorts

2019, 120 minutes, Digital, NR

This mixed genre shorts program features highlights from selections from New York’s African Film Festival. The program covers wide array of African cinema, from goofy Nollywood inspired Wrong Con and Afro-futuristic and supernatural Hello, Rain from Nigeria; heart-jerking Razana from Madagascar; documentary and mythical The Prophetess from the Democratic Republic of Congo; to Senegal’s essayic hybrid My Beloved Co-Wife.

The New York African Film Festival takes cinema of all genres throughout Africa and the African Diaspora to weave a story of the present. From the archival to the experimental, classic fictional narrative to documentary, the festival, now in its 26th year, selects treasured stories of the past to contextualize the present and all of its possible futures.

Additional Images

Hello Rain

C.J. “Fiery” Obasi, Nigeria, 2018, 30m

In this adaptation of an Afro-futuristic short story by Hugo Award–winning author Nnedi Okorafor, three scientist witches create magical wigs that grant them untold supernatural powers. As with everything, power corrupts, and the leader, Rain, must stop them before they destroy the nation.

Razana

Haminiaina Ratovoarivony, Madagascar, 2018, 15m

Solo is Malagasy, Parisian and homosexual. In order to fulfill the last wishes of his deceased partner, Solo returns to Madagascar to meet with his estranged “in-laws”.

My Beloved Co-Wife

Angèle Diabang, Senegal, 2018, 15m

Two new co-wives are alone in a house. They don’t want to talk to each other; at the same time, the voices of two other women tell us about their own experiences of polygamy. This film is an essay that mixes visual elements of fiction and documentary sound excerpts.

The Prophetess

Sylvie Weber, DR Congo, 2018, 22m

The Prophetess is a story of overcoming struggle through gumption and sisterhood. Furaha and Venantie have survived physical and psychological traumas we could never imagine. Set in the South Kivu region in the DR Congo, the pair has experienced horrific sexual terrorism by the FDLR militia, yet in each other they find the strength to make a change and tell their own stories, devoid of societal pressures.