Mahen Bonetti: Why I started African films festival

There used to be a time when the only images and news about Africa that make it to the United States of America and other parts of the world were those of starving children, despots, natural calamities. Africa to them was just one disaster zone.  And Mahen Bonetti was not happy with the development and […]

There used to be a time when the only images and news about Africa that make it to the United States of America and other parts of the world were those of starving children, despots, natural calamities. Africa to them was just one disaster zone.  And Mahen Bonetti was not happy with the development and decided she must do something about it. “Those things might have existed,” she agrees, “but there are so many positive things about Africa, particularly its rich culture, that must be celebrated.”
“There were lots of images of Africa circulating in the media at that time, but they were mostly negative and decontextualized. So, I wanted to educate not only Americans, but Africans living here,” said the Sierra Leonean who lives in New York in the United States with her husband and daughter. 
From there, one thing led to another and the New York African Festival (NYAFF) was born in 1990. Today, the NYAFF showcases works which paint the true picture of happenings in Africa and about Africans in the Diaspora. It shows the works of film producers, directors, actors and other visual and performing artists, which present Africa through the eyes of its people within and outside of the continent.
“I had to find a way to make a contribution, to correct some of these misconceptions, about Africa, her people,” she said while speaking to Weekend Magazine in a phone interview from her base in the United States. Bonetti said the festival is out to “tell the African story from the African perspective,” and is busy trying to put finishing touches to the 20th anniversary edition of the NYAFF.
She said what actually served as the catalyst for the programme was the urgency to give and create a balance to what was circulating in the US and other places. “The great Chinua Achebe, one of the best gifts to contemporary African culture, said if you don’t like a story, tell your own. That’s what we are trying to do. We are also trying to expand the opportunities for the distribution of African films in the U.S. and other parts of the world,” she said.
This year’s festival, which holds from April 3 – 9, is going to be presented under the banner theme “Looking Back, Looking Forward: 20 years of the New York African Film Festival.” Through the festival, African filmmakers are given a platform to get more from their works. Among the films to be featured this year are: GUELWAAR (1992), directed by Senegal’s Ousmane Sembène, which revolves around the mysterious death and even more mysterious disappearance after death of one Pierre Henri Thioune (called Guelwaar, the Noble One), a political activist, philandering patriarch, and pillar of the local Christian community.
There is also the ALASKALAND (2012), directed by United States raised Nigerian Chinonye Chukwu; BURN IT UP DJASSA (2012), directed by Lonesome Solo of Ivory Coast; DOLCE VITA AFRICANA (2008), directed by Cosima Spender, which is a documentary about internationally-renowned Malian photographer Malick Sidibe; and another documentary titled FUELING POVERTY (2012), directed by Nigeria’s Ishaya Bako, a rallying cry for change in Nigeria by the Occupy Nigeria movement and an artistic depiction of the failings of fuel subsidy management in Nigeria. There are also many others, and all it takes is for a filmmaker to send his work since applications are taken year round.
And it was not easy making the idea a reality. From a humble beginning, the New York African Film Festival has now become a force to reckon with around the world. It has also become a reference point for so many producers, directors and actors interested in the African film industry. “Ultimately, our goal is to increase awareness and knowledge of African culture using the cinematic medium to an international audience. Culturally, Africa’s contribution to the world—and what black people brought to the Americas as slaves, as immigrants, and so on—was culture. In Brazil, Canada and other parts of the Americas, all the cultural references had African footprint. So, I said ‘okay African crises, some are man-made, some are natural, but let’s celebrate what Africa has given the world and that is culture, which sustains man’,” she said.
What is certain is that an enormous project such as the African film festival requires financial and perhaps moral support. So where is she getting all the support from? In answering this, Bonetti was frank. “We get funding from many foundations and then some private individuals, but I say even if you find all the money and all the hands you can, it is the passion that drives it. For me what is important is that we are consistent and also we are very aware of the work we do.”
  Bonetti also recalls that one of the first African films she saw in the United States in 1979 was one of Sembene’s films. And “Sembene tells the African story like no one else.  There might be others who are even more gifted, creative, but he really goes and grabs it, he really understands his people.”
 “There is an abundance of films to be made in Africa and also demands from various parts of the world for African films that we present,” Bonetti said, adding that “we are fighting a good fight… This is one instance where I feel so proud that this organisation survives, because Africans in the continent and in the diaspora, young and old, have rallied around and have claimed ownership of it and this makes me so proud.”
She thought there is always a challenge, “what keeps us going, what makes us persevere, is that we have such wonderful artistes who are so informed about their traditional and formal education and who also give us support to get the message about us from Africa, about Africa from Africans, because we have Africans in the diaspora. The fact that they continue also to make these movies through which our stories are told and giving us a face and a voice makes us want to continue the work. My approach is that what we are doing is for the larger picture. We have the materials, it is always a challenge, but we will have to continue to do what we have to do.”
  Bonetti is also not unaware of the fact that doing what she is doing may make her the envy of others with similar ideas, especially those who could not turn theirs into reality. “Of course, there may be detractors, but I don’t have the time to put that energy on myself. We are not perfect, but we have to focus and do the best we can. There are people who you can never satisfy, but we will continue to do our best.”