Africa in Motion

Here is a short video introduction to Africa in Motion:

Africa in Motion is a largely volunteer-run festival, founded in 2006 by Lizelle Bisschoff and Melissa Trachtenberg. At the time, Lizelle had just commenced with a PhD in African cinema, and quickly came to realise how difficult it is to access African films. Not wanting to keep her research to the academic realm only, she founded the Africa in Motion film festival in order to create more opportunities for Scottish audiences to see African films and to provide a platform to African filmmakers to exhibit their work in Scotland. Lizelle directed the festival from 2006 to 2011, with Stefanie Van de Peer co-directing the festival in 2009 and 2010. In 2011 Isabel Moura Mendes became part of the festival management and was appointed festival director in 2012, joined by Natalia Palombo as festival co-director.

The main aims of the festival have been, since its inception, to introduce Scottish audiences to the brilliance of African cinema and to overcome the under-representation and marginalisation of African film in British film-going culture. We believe that the best way to learn about Africa is to listen to African voices and to view representations created by African themselves, as these often counter the stereotypical representations we see from Africa in mainstream media in the West. But our main reason for screening the films is because we believe they are great films which should be seen the world over. Over the past six years we have screened over 200 African films to audiences totalling around 15,000 people!

Our current management and staff:

Management Team

Isabel Moura Mendes: Festival Director E-mail

Natalia Palombo: Festival Co-director E-mail

Lizelle Bisschoff: Festival Advisor & Programme Consultant E-mail

Staff, volunteers and collaborators

Catherine Bromley: Press Officer E-mail

Emily Chappell: Graphic Designer

James Cocker: Website Development

Simon Cree: Marketing & Sponsorship Assistant E-mail

Miles Fielder: Press Officer E-mail

Darling Forsyth: Website Design & Hosting

David Holmes: Film Database Coordinator  E-mail

Carina Kanbi: Glasgow Coordinator

Zora King: Schools & Rural Tour Coordinator E-mail

Jessica Rodgers: Marketing & Sponsorship Assistant E-mail

Kari Ann Shiff: Film Selections & Guests Hospitality E-mail