While Amsterdam received some of Africa’s noted filmmakers, during Actual Africa, a special focus on Sub-Saharan Africa by World Cinema Amsterdam. MS.ABA caught up with Baloji (Belgium/Congo), Adams Mensah(Belgium/Ghana), Comfort Arthur(UK/Ghana) to talk about the impact of shaping the world’s view of African film.
As a renowned rapper, songwriter, film and music video director, Baloji’s movie Zombie highlights how colonialism is still running in Africa. The multi-talent also shares the impact of ‘scroll’ culture, grasping the attention of his audiences to unveil more serious topics relevant to Africans and the Diaspora.
Ghana for you
Comfort (award-winning animator, graphic designer, visual artist, editor and founder of The Comfy Studio) expresses how animation has always been her outlet to express topics that are hard to discuss. I'm Living in Ghana Get Me Out of Here (her animation film) is what she calls her on-the-continent frustrations turned into a short humorous episodic film. We dived into the questions: why people should move back to Ghana vs. why people are moving to Europe.
Adams, who is a Ghanaian-Belgian actor and filmmaker shared his devotion to address misconceptions coming both from Africa and Europe when it comes to way of living. Through film and documentation, Adam portrays how travel can enriches experiences and ultimately your work. All participants shared their ‘Ghana-for-you-moments’, which is in a comical way their ‘aha’ moments they’ve all experienced travelling back to Ghana.
Have a good laugh and learn more on how these film makers convert their stories to timeless films that impacts how the world is to view Africa.