Movie lovers and filmmakers gather for NYU Accra’s ‘Labone Dialogues StreamFest: Moving Images into the 21st Century.’
All roads lead to Labone this month. The eleventh edition of NYU Accra’s signature public program ‘Labone Dialogues’ will kick off on October 11 with movie screenings and panels all weekend free to the public. That Friday will see the Ghana premiere of “The Man Died” a new big-budget film based on the prison diaries of Noble Prize Winner, Wole Soyinka. It will be the keynote feature on a day that spotlights acclaimed films and documentaries produced in the region.
The director of “The Man Died” Awam Amkpa, a dramatist and acclaimed New York University professor leads a dazzling array of filmmakers and actors who will be showcased in Accra that weekend including Wale Ojo, Ramesh Jai, Collins Okoh, Gene Adu, Nicole Amarteifio, Joewackle Kusi, Femi Odugbemi, Leo Douglas, Wanlov the Kubolor and more.
The festival will have multiple panels and screenings that are free of charge to the public as is a Labone Dialogues tradition. Eleven films have been carefully selected including the Nollywood monster hit ‘A Tribe Called Judah’ as well as the superb Ghanaian comedy ‘Bad Luck Joe.’
It will end with a tribute to the groundbreaking work of Amarteifio who’s Accra shot series ‘An African City’ has been lauded worldwide, and earning her the moniker the ‘Shonda Rhimes of Ghana.’
The first season of An African City hit the airwaves 10 years ago. And ten years before that, New York University welcomed its first cohort of students to Ghana. Twenty years later NYU scholars see African stories taking center stage.
“From our very first year, documenting the African city, countries, and regions were an integral part of the scholarship of our students and our faculty,” said Chiké Frankie Edozien, the writer and director of NYU Accra.
“We’ve seen a lot of changes in two decades and it is fitting that we commemorate the deep well of talent that runs in our region. All the films we have an opportunity to screen, whether shorts or features, documentaries or episodic television have one thing in common. They all elevate the art form and tell our own story to the world that still barely knows us.”
Movie lovers will have a chance to interact with casts and crew of all the films shown and VIPS are expected to grace NYU’s famed purple carpet all day Friday and Saturday. lovers will be treated to readings panels featuring poets, novelists, and nonfiction writers committed to reclaiming the in early 2020, the ‘Labone Dialogues by NYU Accra’ was conceived is curated by Prof. Edozien, the Global Site Director for the New York University campus in Labone. Since then, iconic artists like the late great Ama Ata Aidoo, the novelist, Ayesha Haruna Attah, the musician Wanlov The Kubolor, the playwright Latif Abubakar, have all graced the NYU Accra stage.
The first event was a tribute to the late great pioneering musician, Kofi Ghanaba. Since that first event, heavy hitters and multiple award winners in the African literary scene have flocked to NYU Accra for a chance to connect with Ghanaian audiences including Ethiopia’s Maaza Mengiste, Nigeria’s Abubakar Adam Ibrahim, South Africa’s Zukiswa Wanner, and Leye Adenle. Last year over 30 writers across the African diaspora descended on Accra to help reclaim the narrative with talks at NYU Accra.
Edozien emphasized that NYU is a private university that has always been in the public service and that all programming is free to attend. NYU is partnering with several Accra-based organizations to bring this to pass including Globe Productions and SocialiteAF. Surprises for the audience are planned.
The program will be held at the NYU Accra Gardens, No. 7 Fourth Norla Street, Labone, Accra at with doors opening 9 a.m. and lasting till sundown. Anyone can RSVP at nyuaccra@nyu.edu More information could be found here https://bit.ly/labonedialogues
Source: Ghana/Starrfm.com.gh/103.5FM
