18TH AFRICAN, ASIAN AND LATIN AMERICAN FILM FESTIVAL
Milan, 7nd-13th April 2008

The rendezvous is now traditional for all enthusiasts of cinema from the South of the world, the only festival in Italy entirely dedicated to the cinema and cultures of the countries of Africa, Asia and Latin America.
More than 50 nations are represented, with more than 100 films and videos being screened.

Festival Centre
This year the Festival has an important new feature, a Festival Centre, a meeting place/bar for the Festival guests and members of the public where there will be various initiatives: exhibitions and multidisciplinary activities inspired by the cultures of the three continents.
The Festival Centre, a crossroads of the cultures of the South of the world, will be in the west bastion of Porta Venezia and will be open from Tuesday 8th April to Sunday 13th April from the morning until 8.30 p.m.
The activities for the public will include.

-At 5.30 p.m. Teatime : Conversations with the festival's guests, sipping teas from the three continents.

-At 6.30 p.m. Ethno hour : the festival will offer drinks and samples of different foods every day from Eritrea, Mali, India, Peru and China.

-Exhibition: Africa all'Affiche. An exhibition of an original collection of original African film posters which covers the history of the continent's cinema. An impressive and colourful journey through different styles and periods: compositions of photographs, drawings and graphic creations that have livened up the streets of African capitals and the Festivals of Ouagadougou and Carthage. A unique collection and the result of meticulous research which has lasted 18 years, the age of the Festival.

-A workshop on new Egyptian dancing, by Alessandra Orlando Ghezzi. Dancer and researcher into the new styles of Middle Eastern dancing.

-Mandala (Rangoli) by Urmila Chakraborty. A workshop inspired by the popular art of the mandalas of India to create in the Festival Centre coloured designs on the round using natural materials (sand, flowers, special Indian colours, rice flour).

-Enter the world of Tagore. Dance, poetry and images inspired by the work of Tagore. By Urmila Chakraborty.

-Performances of Senegalese dancing and percussion, with Ousman Touré, dancer and choreographer of Youssou N'dour and Afra Crudo, an Italian dancer from the school of Pina Bausch.

-The games room. To learn the most popular traditional parlour games in Africa, Asia and Latin America (Awele, Go) with the help of our experts.

-A workshop to create jewellery and embroidery inspired by the colours, shapes and craft traditions of Africa and the Middle East. By Francesca Grazzini and the Lebanese designer Mona Mohanna

All the activities are free of charge and on a first come first served basis. No reservations required.

Film programme
The programme of the 18th African, Asian and Latin American Film Festival includes the usual two "competitive" sections open to fiction feature films and documentaries from Africa, Asia and Latin America (Windows on the World Competitions) and three sections dedicated exclusively to Africa (the Competition for the Best African Film and the competitions for the best short fiction films and documentaries).

The Festival will pay a Tribute to Sembène Ousmane screening all the films by the Senegalese director who recently passed away. Considered the father of African cinema, with his films (and his novels), Sembène was always an attentive observer of African reality, showing the whole world the struggles and problems of Africa before and after independence. Through his complete filmography, it will be possible to go back over 50 years of African history. Sembène always accompanied the unquestioned artistic quality of his works with a great social and moral commitment which pushed him to use the cinema as an educational instrument for his people and for the community. Each film deals with an issue of particular educational value: in Borom Sarret (1963) and Camp de Thiaroye (1987) he denounces the injustices of colonization, in La noire de…(1966) he relates the problems linked with female immigration to France, in Mooladé (2003) he approaches the problem of female genital mutilation, in Faat Kiné (2000) he deals with the emancipation of women in Africa.

Following the great success with the public and the press of last year's section "Musalsalat and terrorism on Arab screens", this year the Festival is again taking an interest in Arab television and the point of view of Middle Eastern and North African TV writers on the major topics of current affairs. This year, the section Al Jazeera: an Arab eye on the world offers a selection of TV programmes produced by this satellite network which, since its birth, has revolutionized Arab (and other) televisions. In addition to the news in CNN style, Al Jazeera which today has 7 channels, one of which is in English, produces and broadcasts documentaries and political and cultural programmes of an excellent professional level and offers the public an alternative entertainment, challenging hundreds of Arabic satellite channels of propaganda or junk TV and looking tot he West without complexes or prejudices.
With its sole slogan: the Opinion and the Other Opinion and its hundreds of correspondents all over the world, it brings thousands of news items to its audiences every day and offers viewers highly popular programmes such as the heated debate "The opposite direction" or the weekly "From Washington", a programme broadcast live from the USA every Monday: a sort of X-ray of the political life of the so-called largest democracy in the world.

The attention to the cinema from Arab countries continues with the ARABICA Week, which will offer a selection of recent films, including the Italian premiere of The Aquarium which marks the return of Yousry Nasrallah three years after the success of La Porte du soleil. The film was presented at the Berlinale in the Panorama section.

The NON-COMPETITIVE section of the Festival reserves special attention to Italian filmmakers with the EXTRA section which presents works addressing the three continents which are the protagonists of the Festival and which deal with problems relative to immigration in Italy.
The films scheduled include some Italian premieres:
Padre nuestro by Christopher Zalla (USA) Jury's Prize at Sundance. The heart-breaking story of immigration to New York by young Latinos; from the festival of Rotterdam, Zimbabwe by the famous South African director Darrell Roodt on the illegal immigration between Zimbabwe and South Africa.

The collaboration with FNAC is again confirmed for this 18th Festival and it will be the venue for the usual meetings with the directors and guests of the Festival. Not to be missed is the meeting with the Moroccan writer Tahar Ben Jelloun who will be at the festival in the capacity of President of the Jury of the "Windows on the World" Feature Film Competition. During the Festival, FNAC will also hold the photographic exhibition Mama Masai, by Swedish photographer Ewa-Mari Johansson, who in two months in a Masai village portrayed the women, at grips with their daily activities.

This year again, the films from the Festival will travel around Italy, being screened in no fewer than 20 cities, thanks to the Travelling Africa and Dopofestival initiatives.

The Festival is supported by the Ministry of National Heritage and Culture, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Lombardy Regional Council, the Milan Provincial Council, the Milan City Council, Med Screen-Euromed, ENI, CEI, Diocese of Milan, Fondazione Cariplo, Centre Culturel Français de Milan, Fnac and Groupama.
Venues and dates of the event

The Festival will be held in Milan from 7th to 13th April 2008

The venues are:
Auditorium San Fedele
Multisala Arcobaleno (sala 1)
Spazio Oberdan
Espace Cinéma del Centre Culturel Français
FNAC
Casello di Porta Venezia ovest - Casa del pane

All the films have electronic subtitles or are translated simultaneously into Italian. The directors of the films in competition are present.

Questi i luoghi coinvolti:
Auditorium San Fedele
Multisala Arcobaleno (sala 1)
Spazio Oberdan
Espace Cinéma del Centre Culturel Français
FNAC
Casello di Porta Venezia ovest - Casa del pane

SINGLE TICKET: EURO 5
PASS FOR ALL SCREENINGS: EURO 30 (euro 15 for students and over 65s)

For further information
COE - Centro Orientamento Educativo
02 6696258
www.festivalcinemaafricano.org
www.coeweb.org
email: festival@coeweb.org

Press Office
Lorena Borghi - 348 5834403
Alice Wetzl - 339 4504012
Studio Sottocorno - 02 20402142
email: info@sottocorno.191.it; lorenaborghi@email.i