Bristol’s allotment growers of African heritage take centre stage at Afrika Eye

Like so many local film festivals, Afrika Eye has been itching to get back to the real world after the weirdness of 2020. But Festival Director Anne Menter and her team haven’t just been twiddling their thumbs while they wait to stage their first real-world event since 2019.

Afrika Eye 2021 sees the premiere of the festival’s very first documentary film production, plus new collaborations and the addition of venues across the city for an expanded celebration of African films, stories and music.

That big film premiere at the Watershed is Rooted in Bristol, co-directed by Annie and Manu Maunganidze. Packed with fascinating characters, the 30 minute documentary explores the previously untold stories of people of African heritage who’ve created kitchen gardens in allotments across the city over many decades.

Allotment gardener Valerie – one of the growers featured in Afrika Eye’s debut documentary ‘Rooted In Bristol’

Many have been keeping alive culinary traditions by using seeds brought from Africa and the Caribbean. The premiere takes place on Sunday, November 14 and will be followed by a discussion about food culture and access to green spaces.

Kirikou and the Sorceress

This year’s festival runs from November 8 to 16, but there’s also an appetite whetter for families and children on Saturday, November 6, when a teepee will be erected in Felix Road Adventure Playground for a special screening of Kirikou and the Sorceress – a much-praised late-’90s French animated version of a West African folk tale in which plucky little Kirikou embarks on a quest to save his village from an evil sorceress. The screening is followed by a workshop with African master storyteller Kabbo Hue Ferdinand.

Guitarist Justin Adams: partying at the Watershed for Afrika Eye

The festival proper includes an opening night party at the Watershed on Friday, November 12 in which legendary guitarist Justin Adams (Jah Wobble, Robert Plant, etc) joins forces with gimbri player Mohammed Errebbaa, a master of Morocco’s gnawa music, and his compatriot percussionist Idriss Yamdah.

The Watershed also hosts a packed weekend of screenings taking in films from Chad, Cameroon, Mali, Lesotho and Nigeria, with subjects ranging from musical and artistic traditions to stories of resistance and solidarity.

Other venues across the city are joining in too, some of them for the first time. On Monday, November 8, Easton Community Centre hosts a screening of Sarah Gavron’s BAFTA-winning Rocks, followed by a Q&A led by Bristol-based Rising Arts, which helps 16- to 25-year-olds to achieve their creative ambitions.

The Movement

The Cube has a brace of double-bills. On Wednesday, November 10, they’re showing two films about migration: The Last Shelter and The Movement.

The following night, the microplex plays host to an Afrika Eye collaboration with Kiki and Queer Vision to showcase two films exploring the black and queer experience: Difficult Love, a portrait of South African photographer and lesbian rights activist Zanele Muholi; and Beyond: There’s Always a Black Issue, Dear, focussing on queer black Londoners in the 1970s and 1980s.

The Old Picture House in Totterdown opens its doors on Monday, November 15 to show Sandra Krampelhuber’s documentary Mane, which follows the struggles of two young Senegalese women – Toussa the rapper and Emodj the wrestler – in a male-dominated society.

The programme also includes a supporting selection of short films directed by two black Bristol film-makers who received early career mentoring from Afrika Eye:  UWE graduate Pierre Amiral and recent Royal Television Society award-winner Michael Jenkins.

Thank You For the Rain

The festival closes at the historic Curzon cinema in Clevedon on Tuesday, November 16 with a timely screening of Thank You For the Rain, which explores climate change through the story of Kenyan farmer Kisulu Musya, who became a spokesperson for communities at the sharp end of its impact.

For the full Afrika Eye programme and ticket details, visit www.afrikaeye.org.uk.

Main photo: Rooted in Bristol. All images supplied by Afrika Eye.

Read more: Totterdown’s historic Old Picture House bounces back with two screenings

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