BANNED, censored, damaged and forgotten classic films from Africa will be showing across the UK this autumn thanks to a project led by three of Scotland’s leading African cinema experts.

It will see the world premiere in Edinburgh of the first film to be made by a woman in Tunisia as well as two more films by female directors which have been restored and digitised as a result of the project.

The Africa’s Lost Classics screenings are being screened this October and November by TANO, the network founded by Scotland’s Africa in Motion film festival, Bristol’s Afrika Eye, the Cambridge African Film Festival, London’s Film Africa and Watch Africa in Wales to give more people more opportunities to see African films.

“Despite the under-representation of African cinema in the UK we are witnessing both an increase in African film production and in the public’s appetite for films from Africa or by African filmmakers,” said Dr Lizelle Bisschoff, a lecturer in film, theatre and media studies at the University of Glasgow’s School of Culture and Creative Arts. “Putting this expansion into a historical framework is not only interesting but also necessary if we want insight into experiences and influences which are not exact copycats of our own.”

WHAT ARE THE LOST CLASSICS?

THERE are two dozen titles from 15 countries on the Africa’s Lost Classics menu. The earliest dates back to 1915 and the mix takes in animation, shorts and documentaries as well as features in a variety of genres.

Scotland’s Africa in Motion festival in Glasgow and Edinburgh is showing the highest number of films in the collection, supplemented by talks, workshops and exhibitions, and is also hosting a web page listing the other UK screening times, dates and venues.

“In the past decade or so the five festivals in the TANO alliance have been working hard to redress the imbalance which makes it extremely rare for African films to get any screen time in the UK,” explained Bisschoff, lead researcher in the programme along with Professor David Murphy, of the University of Stirling and Stefanie Van de Peer, project coordinator, linked to Glasgow University.

“As a result, the festivals have focused mainly on giving audiences what is often their only chance to see the best contemporary releases or the past work of the best-known directors. But African film history is punctuated by many incidents of great films and exceptional talent is being lost, forgotten or silenced. So for the Africa’s Lost Classic programme we are delving into the archives to let UK film fans discover an older selection of work of which they are most likely unaware, be it because the films were banned, forgotten, damaged, lost or simply failed to get the distribution deal they deserved.”

WHO FOUND THEM?

SOME of the films in the line-up have been rediscovered and restored by the World Cinema Project, founded by Martin Scorsese in 2007. They include El-Momia (The Mummy, 1969), often described as the best ever Egyptian feature but whose director Shadi Abdel Salem never made another, and the poetic 1981 music documentary Trances, by Ahmed Al Maanouni of Morocco.

“Trances were a music group that were really famous in the 70s and 80s and became a sensation in the development of world music,” said Stefanie Van de Peer of Africa in Motion.

“Scorsese heard them on TV when he was editing one of his films and became obsessed by them. He discovered there was a Moroccan film made about the band and decided to restore it. That was the first one he restored, and then he went on to do another three and has now committed to 50 more which is really amazing.

“The Mummy is another one he restored and is one of the most beautiful films I’ve ever seen,” she added. “I think it will be popular here. It is a stunning film aesthetically and is about the juxtaposition between regions who claim ownership of the treasures hidden in tombs and the central government and its museums and institutions in Cairo.”

WHAT’S THE SCOTTISH ANGLE?

WHILE Africa in Motion has been on the go for 12 years, this is the first year there has been investment in restoring films in danger of being lost.

“We saw what Scorsese was doing and admired it, but so far the World Cinema Foundation has focused on men’s films that have been restored — which is important — but we thought we would broaden the scope and give women’s films such an opportunity too,” said Van de Peer.

The first one is Fatma 75 by Selma Baccar and it is hoped the director, who is now in her 80s, will fly in from Tunisia for the screening on November 1 at Edinburgh Filmhouse.

“She has applied for a visa so we are hoping the application will be accepted. She is really a formidable woman and we want to have her as our special guest — after the Tunisian revolution she became a politician and was very concerned with women’s rights,” said Van de Peer. “The film deals with the history of women in Tunisia and she shows they have always been really important in the culture and politics of the country. Our stereotype of Arab women is that they are oppressed but Baccar shows that has not always been the case.”

She added: “We have had it translated, restored and digitised, which is so exciting and we hope it will now be shown elsewhere in the world.”

Zimbabwean film Flame by Ingrid Sinclair and Mossane by Safi Faye of Senegal are the other two films by female directors rescued by the project. To find out more see http://www.africa-in-motion.org.uk/africas-lost-classics/.