Bristol’s Watershed is teaming up with Afrika Eye to present two new Kenyan films in UK cinemas through March 2014.

Watershed hosted the popular Afrika Eye Festival last weekend. Two of those titles, Tosh Gitonga’s Nairobi Half Life and Judy Kibinge’s Something Necessary, will now travel to other UK cinemas including the Showroom in Sheffield and Cornerhouse in Manchester, and festivals including Africa In Motion, the Cambridge African Film Festival and Film Africa.

Both projects came out of workshops run by Marie Steinmann & Tom Tykwer’s One Fine Day Films, in partnership with Nairobi based Ginger Ink.

“Currently only 0.01% of films shown in cinemas in the UK are from Africa. This touring initiative is about developing the availability and range of African films for increasingly diverse UK audiences. It builds on the excellent collaborative work of the UK African film festivals and the partnership with The Africa Channel,” said Mark Cosgrove, Watershed’s Cinema Curator.

Ingrid Sinclair, Director, Afrika Eye, added: “We show the best of African and African Diaspora films to bring a bigger picture than the mainstream gives. If we don’t show what’s happening in Kenya today, how will we find out that it’s changed since the 1950s images stuck in people’s minds?”

 

 

 

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