Dates: July 16-17, 2011
Venue: Goethe Institut Auditorium
Time: Saturday; 1, 4 & 7.30pm and Sunday; 1, 3, 4.30 & 5.30pm
Entry: Free
FilmAid is partnering with the Sundance Institute to bring the Film Forward Festival to Kenya. Film Forward is a cultural exchange program designed to enhance cross-cultural understanding, collaboration and dialogue around the globe by engaging audiences through the exhibition of film and conversation with filmmakers. Between 15th and 21st July, Film Forward events will take place throughout Kenya.
Screenings and workshops are being held in the refugee camps of Kakuma and Dadaab, and the slums of Kibera and Mathare in Nairobi. Through these programs FilmAid and Film Forward are engaging communities who would not usually be able to enjoy a world class film festival.
At Goethe Auditorium they will show amongst others Udaan (IND), Last Train Home (CHI), La Mission (USA), Afghan Star (UK), as well as A Small Act (USA) followed by a Q&A with filmmaker Jennifer Arnold.
SATURDAY, 16TH JULY 2011
1.00 pm UDAAN
India – Director and Screenwriter: Vikramaditya Motwane – 138 min
Cast: Rajat Barmecha, Ronit Roy, Aayan Boradia, Ram Kapoor
Following his expulsion from boarding school, Rohan returns to the small industrial town of Jamshedpur. After 8 years away, he finds himself closeted with an authoritarian father and a younger half-brother whom he didn’t even know existed. Udaan explores deep-rooted family dynamics and a triumph of the human spirit. – Sundance 2010
4.00 pm LAST TRAIN HOME
Canada – Director: Lixin Fan – Documentary – 87 min
Getting a train ticket in China proves a towering ordeal as a migrant worker family embarks on a journey, along with 200 million other peasants, to reunite with their distant family. – Sundance 2010
7.30 pm A SMALL ACT – followed by Q&A with the filmmaker Jennifer Arnold
United States – Director: Jennifer Arnold – Documentary, 88 min
A young Kenyan’s life changes dramatically when his education is sponsored by a Swedish stranger. Years later, he founds his own scholarship program to replicate the kindness he once received. – Sundance 2010
SUNDAY, 17TH JULY 2011
1.00 pm FREEDOM RIDERS
United States – Director: Stanley Nelson – Documentary – 113 min
The story behind a courageous band of civil rights activists called the Freedom Riders who in 1961 creatively challenged segregation in the American South. – Sundance 2010
3.00 pm LA MISSION
United States – Director and Screenwriter: Peter Bratt – 117 min
Cast: Benjamin Bratt, Erika Alexander, Jeremy Ray Valdez, Talisa Soto Bratt, Jesse Borrego
A traditional Latino father in San Francisco’s Mission District struggles to come to terms with his teenage son’s homosexuality. La Mission is credited by Latino media as being both authentic and genuine to various aspects of American Hispanic cultures. – Sundance 2009
4.30 pm A Short Refugee Film – followed by Q&A with the filmmaker
Sundance 2010
5.30 pm AFGHAN STAR
Afghanistan/UK – Director: Havana Marking – Documentary – 87 minutes
After 30 years of war and Taliban rule, Pop Idol has come to television in Afghanistan: millions are watching and voting for their favorite singer. This film follows the dramatic stories of four contestants as they risk their lives to sing. – Sundance 2009
Film Forward is an initiative of Sundance Institute and The President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities, in partnership with the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the Institute of Museum and Library Services (USA).
