April
24
Generation Africa at Hot Docs 2022
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Two Generation Africa films selected for Hot Docs 2022 African Moot by Shameela Seedat celebrates its world premiereTwo documentaries from Generation Africa, an initiative by STEPS in South Africa, have been selected at this year’s Hot Docs in Toronto, running April 28 – May 8. African Moot by Shameela Seedat, who won the Special Jury Pize at the festival in 2018 for Whispering Truth to Power, will celebrate its world premiere in the World Showcase strand. In the same programme, Akuol de Mabior’s No Simple Way Home will have its Canadian premiere after screenings at the Berlinale and CPH:DOX, among others.  No Simple Way Home Every year, more than one hundred of the most talented law students from across the African continent gather in a different capital city to compete at the prestigious African Human Rights Moot Competition, the largest mock court competition in Africa. Here, young aspirant lawyers act as both prosecution and defense in a cutting-edge fictional human rights court case, each hoping to win the case and bring back the trophy to their home country. African Moot follows four passionate teams from Cape Town, Cairo, Kampala and Nairobi during their months of preparation for a case dealing with refugee rights. The film joins them on their journey to Botswana, where they converge for one intense week of legal oratory, debate, adventure, bonding and high emotion, leading to a dramatic finale before international judges at Botswana’s highest court. African Moot is produced by Shameela Seedat and Francois Verster for Undercurrent Film and Television (South Africa) and Don Edkins and Tiny Mungwe for STEPS (South Africa) in coproduction with Juha Lopponen and Venla Hellstedt for Tuffi Films (Finland). In No Simple Way Home first-time director Akuol de Mabior follows her mother Nyandeng. As South Sudanhangs in the balance of a tenuous peace agreement, Nyandeng prepares to become one of the country’s five vice presidents. Her mission is to safeguard the vision of her late husband, the First Vice President of Sudan and revolutionary leader John Garang, for the people of South Sudan, their country and her family. Her greatest fear is that John Garang along with millions of South Sudanese people died in vain. Her deepest yearning is for her children and the children of her compatriots to lead meaningful lives at home in South Sudan. But what does it mean to call this country home? No Simple Way Homeis produced by award-winning filmmaker Sam Soko (Softie) for LBx Africa (Kenya) and Don Edkins and Tiny Mungwe for STEPS (South Africa).Screenings: African Moot Saturday, 30 April, 3:00 PM, TIFF Bell Lightbox 2 (world premiere) Wednesday, 4 May, 5:15 PM, Varsity 8 No Simple Way Home Saturday, 30 April, 8:15 PM, Varsity 6 Friday, 6 May, 2:45 PM, Varsity 7 Both films are also available online.ABOUT GENERATION AFRICA Generation Africa is a collection of 25 short, medium and feature-length documentary films from 16 countries in Africa, which aim to shine a light on the future of youth in Africa through the topic of migration. Produced by STEPS in South Africa in collaboration with production companies in each country, this project aims to give voice to African storytellers in an initiative that has built a strong documentary community across Anglophone and Francophone Africa. This ground-breaking collection introduces exciting young documentary voices to a world stage in order to shift the narrative on migration. The project is supported by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and DW Akademie. All Generation Africa films will be screened by the French-German public broadcaster Arte in early summer 2022. Films that have been previously released as part of Generation Africa include Ousmane Samassékou’s CPH:DOX 2021 winner The Last Shelter; Zinder by Aïcha Macky (Visions du Réel 2021); Fati’s Choice by Fatimah Dadzie (DOK Leipzig 2021); Stay Up! by Aïssata Ouarma (DOK Leipzig / Doc Lisboa); No Simple Way Home by Akuol de Mabior (Berlinale 2022); and No U-Turn by Ike Nnaebue (Special Mention Berlinale Documentary Award 2022). Screeners are available for press upon request. The directors are available for interviews, both online and on-site. We would like to thank NOISE Film & TVMirjam Wiekenkamp for the press release. |
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