Community is everywhere – even in Silicon Valley
Hobnobbing with African cinematic legends in the home of American tech capitalism.
Wilfred Okiche in San Jose
San Jose, where black people make up only 2.9% of the residents, is an unlikely place for an African film festival. Yet, from 10 to 13 October, San Jose’s Historic Hoover Theatre is where we were able to pal around with icons like Souleymane Cissé, the Malian who is hailed as Africa’s greatest living filmmaker, and King T’Chaka himself, John Kani (Black Panther).
When the Silicon Valley African Film Festival (Svaff) started, it was a single-day screening of a handful of films by African filmmakers. This year – its 15th year – it served up 85 films from 38 countries.
Festival director and founder, Chike Nwoffiah insists on creating a communal environment, and that is what sets the Svaff apart. Without regard to hierarchies, guests settled into a group dynamic that empowered all voices. Even the big names honoured this spirit. Cissé and Kani attended all the events and mingled freely with the other guests.
“It is an opportunity to talk to each other, know each other, and to ask the elders questions,” said Kani, who – like Cissé – is now in his 80s.
Svaff honoured the icons back, presenting “Cultural Icon” awards to Cissé, whose 1987 masterpiece Yeelen was the first African film to win a jury prize at Cannes; the Tony award-winning Kani; Julie Dash, whose 1991 film Daughters of the Dust remains a landmark of Black cinema; and Nigerian actor Richard Mofe-Damijo.
The films screened ranged from the extremely accomplished to the amateurish. Uganda was well represented: the patchy domestic drama Makula, directed by the duo of Nisha Kalema and Dan Mugisha opened the festival; and Memories of Love Returned, directed by Ntare Guma Mbaho Mwine, won the best documentary prize. Mwine’s film is several things at once: a personal documentary, a celebration of the work of a fascinating artist, and a gentle probe of Uganda’s socio-cultural dynamic.
Beyond the shop talk – panels on topics like African cinema in film studies curricula, the business of film distribution, etc – festival guests were fêted at lavish receptions hosted by Black employee groups at Adobe and YouTube. Improbably, perhaps, a good African time was had at the epicentre of the West’s techbro heartland.