Rafiki
In their community “good Kenyan girls become good Kenyan wives,” but Kena and Ziki long for something more. When love blossoms between them, the two girls are forced to choose between happiness and safety.
Filmmaker Bio: Wanuri Kahiu’s first feature film, From A Whisper, based on the real events surrounding the 1998 twin bombings of US Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania won Best Narrative Feature in 2010 at the Pan African Film Festival in Los Angeles, as well as five awards at the African Movie Academy Award, including Best Director and Best Screenplay. In 2009 Wanuri produced TV documentary, For Our Land about Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Professor Wangari Maathai for MNET, a pan African cable station. In 2010, her short science fiction Pumzi premiered at Sundance film festival and went on to win best short film at Cannes Independent Film Festival and the silver at Carthage Film Festival (Tunisia). Pumzi also earned Wanuri the ‘Citta di Venezia 2010’ award in Venice, Italy. Her second feature film Rafiki based on the short story “Jambula Tree” premiered at Cannes 2018 and was nominated for the Queer Palm. Wanuri is the creator of the Afrobubblegum genre, fun, fierce and frivolous black content that celebrates joy and hope. Wanuri is a TED fellow and a World Economic Forum cultural leader.
The short film Cross My Heart will play before the feature.
Cross My Heart
Directed by Sontenish Myers
Short 2018 [Jamaica, USA] English, 14 min
While visiting her family in Jamaica, an American teenager becomes her cousin’s confidant, changing the way she sees the people she loves.
Filmmaker Bio: Sontenish Myers is a Caribbean-American writer-director based in Harlem, NY and a thesis student at NYU’s Grad Film program. Sontenish has written and directed 4 short films to date. In her work, racial identity, womanhood, power dynamics, and the heroic journey are often explored. She is particularly interested in doing so across genres, from dramas, science fiction/fantasy, to dark comedies. The film world premiered at East End Film Festival in London and made its North American Premiere at Seattle International Film Festival. Sontenish was also awarded the Alexis Award for Best Emerging Student Filmmaker at Palm Springs International Shortfest for Cross My Heart. Cross My Heart was also included in Refinery29’s list of “The Most Exciting Woman-Directed Films at 2018’s Palm Springs Shortfest.” Cross My Heart won the Vimeo Staff Pick Award at Hampton International Film Festival. Sontenish was selected by NYU as a 2017 Martin Scorsese Scholarship recipient. She was recently accepted as a 2018-2019 IFP Marcie Bloom Fellow in Film.
