In celebration of Black History Month, five of the UK’s biggest African film festivals are collaborating to produce a magnificent online experience, called ‘We Are Tano.’ As recognition of the historic five-way collaboration, the organizers have chosen Tano, which is Swahili for five. Starting October 1st, they will showcase ten of the best African films of the 2010s in an online format in which viewers will be allowed to pay what they choose. Among the films chosen for the showcase is the music-rich 2014 documentary Beats of the Antonov, directed by Hajooj Kuka whose imprisonment, with fellow artists, in Khartoum last week, has prompted a statement from the Tano network echoing worldwide condemnation and calls for their release. Other titles in the line-up – each representing a year in the 2010s – include: UN HOMME QUI CRIE [A SCREMING MAN] (Chad/France, 2010) by Cannes Jury Prize winner Mahamat-Saleh Haroun; Akin Omotoso’s missing person drama MAN ON GROUND (South Africa, 2011); Alain Gomis’s TEY [TODAY] (France/Senegal, 2012), voted best international film at Berlin that year; writer/director Judy Kibinge’s SOMETHING NECESSARY (Kenya/Germany, 2013); AS I OPEN MY EYES (Tunisia, 2015) by Venice prize-winner Leyla Bouzid; Rahmatou Keïta’s beautiful portrait of Sahel Desert life, ZIN’NAARIYÂ! [THE WEDDING RING] (Niger, 2016); Daryne Joshua’s true story inspired NOEM ME SKOLLIE [CALL ME THIEF] (South Africa, 2017); Likarion Wainaina’s bittersweet SUPA MODO (Kenya/Germany, 2018); and the mischievously comic docu-drama FILM FESTIVAL FILM (Namibia/South Africa, 2019).
SOURCE: THE VOICE ONLINE