Please note there is a panel discussion after the screening on 9 November, details below.
Neptune Frost is a genre-defying, Afro-futurist, sci-fi punk musical created and composed by Saul Williams and co-directed with Rwandan actor Anisia Uzeyman. An electrifying connection between intersex runaway Neptune and coltan miner Matalusa creates a virtual offspring with the potential to ignite a revolution against the authoritarian regime. Made with an entirely Rwandan and Burundian cast and crew, Neptune Frost presents an intoxicatingly original way to explore the role of technology as both oppressor and liberator.
Neptune Frost is screening as part of Women Creators of the Future, a programme at LIFF 2022 presented in partnership with the Films Femmes Festival in Senegal, with support from British Council.
The screening of Neptune Frost on 9 November is followed by a panel discussion on African cinema and cinephilia.
Cinephilia is a word that literally means ‘the love of film’. Yet it has come to suggest certain kinds of filmmaking, by certain people from certain places – the French New Wave, Italian neorealism, and the works of a few select auteurs. What does cinephilia mean today, in the context of African cinema? Can, and should, cinephilia be ‘decolonized’? After the screening, leading film curators, filmmakers and scholars will reflect on these questions in a special roundtable discussion.
This event is held in collaboration with the ‘New Voices in Cinephilia’ project, led by Dr Rachel Johnson and Prof Stephanie Dennison of the Centre for World Cinemas and Cultures, University of Leeds.
Panelists:
Amayel Ndiaye, co-organiser of the festival Films Femmes Afrique and, alongside Molly Cowderoy, co-curator of the ‘Women Creators of the Future’ spotlight at LIFF.
Estrella Sendra, lecturer in Culture, Media and Creative Industries Education (Festivals and Events) at King's College London. Estrella specialises in Senegalese cinema, film festivals and cultural industries. She is also a board member of Film Africa.
Mosa Mpetha, film programmer and creative engagement officer at the Hyde Park Picture House, as well as co-founder of the Black Cinema Project. She recently programmed Women's Stories from the Global South (& to Whom they Belong), which is currently touring the UK, funded by BFI.
