Film Forum

African Film Festival, Inc. (AFF) is dedicated to advancing an enhanced understanding of African culture through the moving image. It offers diverse platforms for the wide distribution of African media through its flagship annual film festival and complementary year-round programming. AFF is committed to increasing visibility and recognition for African media artists by introducing African film and culture to a broad range of audiences in the United States and abroad, bypassing economic, class and racial barriers. In 1990, AFF’s founders established goals that continue to enrich the organization mission and organizational development: To use African cinema to promote and increase knowledge and understanding of African arts, literature and culture; To develop an audience for African films; To expand the opportunities for the distribution of African films in the United States and abroad. More info.

French-Senegalese filmmaker Ramata-Toulaye Sy was born and raised in the Paris region. She joined La fémis in 2011 in the Screenwriting department, from which she graduated in 2015. Ramata-Toulaye worked, among other roles, as a screenwriter on the film SIBEL (2018) by Çagla Zencirci and Guillaume Giovanetti as well as on the OUR LADY OF THE NILE (2019) by Atiq Rahimi. In 2020, Ramata-Toulaye directed her first short film, “Astel,” selected in more than 80 festivals and pre-selected for the 2023 César Awards. BANEL & ADAMA is her first feature film.

Hailing from Charlotte, North Carolina, Devin Powell grew up in a slow, more rural lifestyle with farms neighboring his childhood home. After graduating from Dartmouth College, he picked up and moved to New York City for a change of pace. He worked in various departments of film production, mainly grip and electric, while he simultaneously worked at African Film Festival, Inc. as a programmer and made short films. He makes analog, narrative short films based primarily on experience and writes film reviews about international cinema.

Supported by a Humanities New York Action Grant

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