Africa in Motion

29 October 2012

Glasgow Opening Screening: Uhlanga (The Mark)

Four days into the jam-packed schedule of Africa in Motion 2012, and we here at Team AiM had all stocked up on our vitamins and minerals to help us keep going; but it came as small surprise, and with a wry chuckle from the audience in the Glasgow Film Theatre (GFT) when writer and director Ndaba Ka Ngwana, creator of the seminal film Uhlanga (The Mark), stood up and announced that after 4 days in Scotland he had caught a cold. It is 30C back home in South Africa, after all.

Uhlanga is a powerful and emotional film tracing the lives of two South African teenagers as they face abuse and prejudice within their communities and family homes. It is fitting then that this film, one of the many highlights of our festival this year, was to be the feature that we used to debut Africa in Motion in Glasgow for the first time, kicking off a four day programme that hopes to bring African cinema to a new Glaswegian audience: and what a debut it was. The red carpet rolled out front of the GFT greeted our audience, along with a street dance troupe performing pieces that showed off exceptional agility, and made quite a few of us feel very old indeed. Inside the building, as the audience gathered within the cinema the shuffling of bums on seats and quietened whisperings of “Shh!” could be heard as our two festival directors Isabel Moura Mendes and Natalia Palombo took to the stage and welcomed everyone to AiM Glasgow.  After thanking the GFT, the sponsors, those who made the film a reality and last (but by no means least) the audience themselves for turning out in support, our directors made way for Ndaba and Khulekani Zondi, the films cinematographer (his first outing in the role, which considering the stunning visuals within the feature is an incredible feat, as anyone who has seen the film will tell you) stood and, battling the cold, introduced the film. The lights came down, the reel rolled, and for the second time in four days an entirely new audience was held in rapture by the triumph that is Uhlanga.

After the film had finished there was the rare opportunity to hold a Q&A with Ndaba and Khulekani, with the pair answering questions fielded by Isabel, Natalia and the audience themselves. Topics ranged across a vast panorama, from the fabric Khulekani used to dampen the naturally harsher light of South Africa, Ndaba’s passionate assertion that the root causes of abuse and prejudice in South Africa must be dealt with, and the projects commitment to employing solely non-professional actors in an attempt to not only boost their careers, but to inspire a generation of Africans to strive for success (the last answer met with rapturous applause from the audience). A brief interlude followed, with the audience invited later on in the evening to The Lighthouse for an opening party, and a chance to chat more intimately with Ndaba and Khulekani. Refreshments for the event were generously provided by Wines of South Africa, and the audience were entertained into the wee small hours of the morning with a blistering set by Ghanaian-British hip hop artist Kobi Onyame and the DJ Auntie Flo, playing a mix of African beats.

As successful as it was, the debut of Africa in Motion in Glasgow represents a challenge not only to all of us involved with the festival, but to the cinema-going public in Glasgow as well; to explore, and be challenged by, Africa cinema in a way that we would never have been able to before; to support the grassroots movement of African cinema and continue to proliferate it across the city; and to continue to expand the festival in Glasgow, in both scope and ambition, to match the programme already in place in Edinburgh. If last night was anything to go by, we can gladly hope to continue operating a bigger, better festival in Glasgow for many years to come.

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