COMING SOON TO YOUR SCREENS. On archives, legacies and new waves of Sudanese Cinema
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In the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s, Sudan was at the cutting edge of filmmaking in Africa. Gadalla Gubara, a lesser known pioneer of African cinema, realised over 50 documentary and feature film productions and made some of the continent’s best-known films. He incepted Khartoum’s first film studio, “Studio Gad” and is a founding father of thePan-African Federation of Filmmakers FEPACI and the FESPACO festival in Burkina Faso. Today Sudan is once again entering a new arena of film-making. The first ever film festival in the country, the Sudan Independent FilmFestival (SIFF) has been launched in Khartoum in 2014, showcasing quality Sudanese and international films each year. Focused on independent cinema as a form of artistic expression for social debate and change, it has set out to diversify West ern cinema paradigms by establishing itself as a platform celebrating African culture and aesthetics.
COMING SOON TO YOUR SCREENS. On archives, legacies and new waves of Sudanese Cinema digs into the archives and traces the glorious legacy to present-day new waves of contemporary Sudanese cinema.
The first screening of the digitalised version of Gadalla’s first feature film TAJOUJE (1977) in Berlin will mark the opening of the programme on November 22nd at Arsenal Cinema. The Arsenal - Institute of Film and Video Art together with Katharina von Schroeder and Nadja Korinth have, over the past years, realised an extensive project dedicated to the preservation and digitalisation of the film holdings of Gadalla Gubara, produced at Khartoum’s famous “Studio Gad”. The film will be presented by his daughter Sara Gadalla who lives and works as a filmmaker in Khartoum. Gadalla’s final master piece LES MISERABLES will be screened on the second night, November 23rd at SAVVY Contemporary in attendance of Sara Gadalla. On the final evening, November 24th we will exit the archive and screen a curated night of five short films followed by a conversation on present-day Sudanese film production, cinematic state of the art and future directions with the curator of the programme Talal Afifi.
PROGRAMME
November 22, 2017 | 9 PM
Arsenal Cinema 1 | Potsdamer Straße 2 | 10785 Berlin
TAJOUJE by Gadalla Gubara / Sudan, 1977 / 90 min / Arabic with English subtitles - Berlin Premiere with Sara
Gadalla in attendance
November 23, 2017 | 7 PM
SAVVY Contemporary | Plantagenstraße 31 | 13347 Berlin
LES MISERABLES by Gadalla Gubara / Sudan, 2006 / 112 min / English - Berlin Premiere with Sara Gadalla in attendance
KHARTOUM by Gadalla Gubara / Sudan, 1960 / 24 min / Arabic with English subtitles - with Sara Gadalla in attendance
November 24, 2017 | 7 PM
SAVVY Contemporary | Plantagenstraße 31 | 13347 Berlin
COMING SOON TO YOUR SCREENS. A cinematic conversation on the present and future of Sudanese Short Films curated by Talal Afifi with the following selection:
EMAN by Mia Bittar / 40 min
NYERKUK by Mohamed Kordofani / 19 min
TASAMI by Tarig Suliman / 7 min
STUDIO by Amjad Abu Alala / 8 min
VEGANIZE by Khalid Salem / 8 min
Talal Afifi, 1976, is a Sudanese film curator, creative producer, and the founder and director of Sudan Film Factory, a production house and film culture platform that works since 2010 in empowering and building youth capacities in the field of documentation, filmmaking and freedom of expression. He is the founder and president of Sudan Independent Film Festival since 2014 and art manager of Karmakol International Festival. He is also a member of the executive committee of the Sudanese Writers ‘Union. Previously working in cultural management in Egypt and Sudan, he also managed the production of a variety of documentaries and short films between 2010-2017, in addition to supervising filmmaking workshops and training in Sudan. Afifi is interested in further developing the independent filmmaking industry and supporting new modes of documentary production and presentation.
Gadalla Gubara is one of the less well-known pioneers of African cinema. He ran the first film studio in Sudan and was co-founder of both the Pan-African Federation of Filmmakers FEPACI and the FESPACO festival (Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso). His oeuvre spans feature films, reports, educational documentaries, advertising filmsand home movies. He documented Sudan’s political and social developments for over 50 years, from independence in 1956 via the phase of socialist government and its policy of modernization all the way through to the proclamation of the Islamic Republic in 1983, equally capturing the obvious deterioration in conditions for filmmaking that went hand in hand with this development.
Sara Gadalla Gubara l ives and works in Khartoum. She has directed feature films, documentaries and animated films. She is a long distance swimmer, and has participated in local and international competitions. In addition, she advises NGOs on questions of gender and equal opportunities. Sara Gubara is a graduate of the Academy of Arts in Cairo. Her films have been presented at festivals in South Africa, Zanzibar, and Uganda. She co-directed the final feature film of her father Gadalla Gubara LES MISERABLES.
COMING SOON TO YOUR SCREENS. On archives, legacies and new waves of Sudanese Cinema is a cooperation between the Sudan Film Factory, Studio Gad, Arsenal - Institute for Film and Video Art and SAVVY Contemporary.
Supported by the Cultural Desk of the Sudan Embassy in Berlin.
More information:
studiogadarchive.com
sudanfilmfactory.org
http://www.savvy-contemporary.com/
www.arsenal-berlin.de/en/home.html