On 27 April 1994, the first non-racialised democratic elections took place in South Africa, a significant milestone in the dismantling of 300 years of colonisation and oppression. To celebrate the 30th anniversary of what is known as Freedom Day, the ICO has partnered with Cinema Africa! and Maona Art to bring a 4K restoration of Mapantsula to UK cinemas.
In this blog, Mosa Mpetha of Cinema Africa! discusses their aims for the release, the journey to get to this point, and their vision of making Black and African stories more regularly seen on the big screen.
In April and May 2024, Tatenda Jamera from Maona Art and myself, Mosa Mpetha from Cinema Africa! at Hyde Park Picture House (HPPH) are touring the newly restored South African classic, Mapantsula (1988) to UK cinemas.
We are working on a model of supporting cinemas to collaborate with South African diaspora locals. This tour is part of an ongoing process of learning the best approach to present African films in the UK, and how to encourage cinemas to build an initial, then long-lasting relationship with African diaspora audiences.
For a bit of context, I am a programmer of African, Black and archive films. For the last few years I have worked as Creative Engagement Officer at HPPH, working with individuals, programmers, scholars and community groups on co-curating film events.
I started the Cinema Africa! strand to address the unreasonable lack of African films that are available on the big screen, to connect Black audiences with African content, and to broaden the scope of the cinema’s programme. It has been a long process, starting with surveys, advisory group meetings, multiple pilot events… However, we can now celebrate the first six months of Cinema Africa!, live, in person, in our gorgeous new building.
Getting started
I had already built a relationship with Tatenda of Maona Art, who was developing an incredibly generous initiative to programme a monthly African film for cinemas nationally, negotiating fair rates, and providing cinemas with an ongoing package of films, all really without much cost to the cinemas. We obviously took Tatenda up on this monthly art house release, and we aimed to screen one commercial film a month alongside it. While also being receptive to any African new releases or docs that popped up.
So how did it go? Between July 2023 and December 2024, we had a total of 884 admissions to Cinema Africa! screenings, with an average of 32 people per screening, or 59 per film. We are not yet set up with a robust demographic data collection method, but anecdotally I know that we have increased our African diaspora audiences, especially those who had never come to our cinema before. The strand also supported 38% of newcomers to come back for other (non-African) films.
The films that performed the best were the ones with the strongest community partnerships, such as This is Not a Burial, It’s a Resurrection (2019) with Leeds International African Arts Festival; our off-site screening of Mandabi (1968) for the Leeds Senegalese Community; and Mami Wata (2023) with a director Q&A.
Looking forward, I’m changing the model slightly to deliver fewer films, but with more direct community co-curation. For example, I am talking to the Leeds Congolese community about an Omen/Augure (2023) collaboration.
Towards a national model
So aside from aiming for the financial success of Cinema Africa! in Leeds, one of my other aims for this strand is to support and develop the African film sector in the UK more widely. I am hoping to build a case study around the strand, to share learning with other cinemas and to help demonstrate to UK distributors that there is an audience for these films. I’m also seeking to encourage cinemas to take risks and look beyond their usual audiences, and to highlight that African cinema is on the rise and it is worth getting behind the trend.
In 2022 I toured a different African heritage film, Sambizanga (1972), to cinemas across the UK. This was funded by the BFI and arranged by Cinema Rediscovered Film Festival. Even though the reach to so many different cinemas was fantastic, I noticed that the outreach or community engagement in different cinemas was lacking. Not for a lack of interest (as far as I am aware), but due to time and resource. Tatenda and I have discussed how we can externally support cinemas in reaching African diaspora audiences through our programmes, and we felt that an annual tour of a recently restored African heritage film, with extra support and activity, may be a good vehicle to try different methods.
We chose repertory films to be the focus, not just because they are my preference, but because they can be easier to programme as we are less tied into distributor schedules and demands. This also offers a longer lead in planning time, which works better with partnership/community screenings. Additionally, repertory films can be more familiar to the target audience and can also be led by them.
Tatenda and I had an ambition of presenting a new African Film Heritage Project (AFHP) restoration every year, as part of a package to cinemas, supported by audience engagement strategies or partnerships. Unfortunately, we have hit consistent financial problems trying to book these films. The terms for AFHP films are set at a standard high rate, which is a clear attempt to appropriately value the work. The problem is that this amount is not conducive to a film tour, and for the local cinema or non-theatrical space to book. We haven’t given up on this, and we will be speaking to the AFHP on different approaches we may be able to take. But for now, we moved onto another idea.
Touring Mapantsula
Working with the film Mapantsula has been a dreamy process. Director Oliver Schmitz is also the distributor of his film, and after the restoration last year he was already aiming to present the film in a tour model, so our approach was appreciated. The timings worked beautifully as I had internally committed myself to working on more South African content this year, given the 30 years of freedom anniversary.
Plus, I think the film itself has an interesting crossover between themes. The nature of the filmmaking process in a restricted apartheid era meant Schmitz and writer-actor Thomas Mogotlane had to pass the film off as a gangster movie, to get the real anti-apartheid film made. This tension between commercial or permitted content vs the subversive undercurrent message reminds me of how it feels sometimes presenting African films in independent cinema spaces. Sometimes promoting African films to white-led cinema spaces requires convincing that the film is ‘accessible’, ‘audiences will love it, look at all these western-based awards it has won!’.
But my ultimate agenda is to infiltrate the space gradually then radically, to normalise Black and African stories on the big screen for all audiences and to have African cinema considered as worthy as the latest art house big hitter: Mati Diop alongside Wim Wenders, CJ Obasi next to Emerald Fennell. This blog is specifically looking at the ‘art house’ side of the project, however there is much more to be said about African commercial films too.
So how are we creating co-curation opportunities for cinemas who book Mapantsula? I am reaching out to South African community groups, creatives, individuals, programmers and businesses to see if there is any interest in partnering with their local cinema on the film screening, utilising the event as a Freedom Day (27 April) celebration.
We are still mid-process, and whilst we have already established some lovely new collaborators, I am still sending emails back and forth to possible connections around the country. Ultimately this is a research and development project, so as well as wanting as many audiences in front of this great film as possible, the impact will lie in the learning we get from the process, which hopefully cinemas can benefit from too.
But the point is, we must give it a go, so please get in touch if you’d like to book the film, or if you know any South African contacts who might want to get involved.
Based in Leeds, and from Liverpool & South Africa, Mosa is a film programmer of Black, African and Archive films in a freelance capacity and in a permanent role as Creative Engagement Officer at her local heritage cinema, Hyde Park Picture House (est. 1914). At Hyde Park Picture House, amongst other things, Mosa curates a new permanent strand of African films called Cinema Africa! for African and non-African audiences, addressing the unreasonable lack of African films being show on the big screen in the UK.
Mosa is particularly passionate about archive film and has recently published a personal journal from a research trip on African Film Archives in South Africa, Burkina Faso, France and the UK. Please see her website for more information.