Balufu Bakuba, Director, Centre du cinema in DRC (extreme right) and Senegal’s Germain Coly (centre) take part in a panel discussion on cinema policies in Africa at the first edition of the Timimoun International Short Film Festival in Algeria. [Betty Njeru, Standard] African cinema is collecting international praise and winning awards across festivals abroad, yet young audiences across the continent still struggle to access the very films that tell their stories. This tension between global celebration and local invisibility defined conversations at the Timimoun International Short Film Festival, held deep in the Algerian Sahara, where filmmakers and producers gathered to…
Author: Betty Njeru
Distinguished guests at the Timimoun International Short Film Festival in Algeria. [Betty Njeru, Standard] Imagine this: a smoke show, three towering screens, and a lineup of films projected beneath the open skies of the Algerian Sahara. That was the backdrop for the inaugural Timimoun International Short Film Festival, which opened on Wednesday, November 13, in Timimoun, Algeria, under the auspices of the Ministry of Culture and Arts. Thousands of Algerians, young and old, packed a 3,000-seat open-air theater to watch some of the continent’s best short films under a starry sky that looked like something straight out of a movie.…