The African Film Festival (TAFF) Newsletter

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DEAR FILMMAKER

The African Film Festival is coming July 1st - 3rd, 2016!

Exciting times are ahead as we prepare for the first installment of The African Film Festival (TAFF), a platform created for you, the African filmmaker. We want to celebrate your painstaking efforts in addressing issues that affect Africa. We want to use this opportunity to create a global awareness and greater appreciation for African culture and encourage the love of the arts. We would create avenues to publish more African films in libraries and to attract distributors for global distribution of our films. Premiere event will take place in the Dallas Metroplex, Texas USA. We couldn't have chosen a better time than the weekend of America's Independence to celebrate Independent films about Africa. Our goal is to reach out to African filmmakers all over the world. If you have a film produced within the last two years we encourage you to submit your it for consideration.

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*Submit Your Films*
	Film submissions begin November 1st. More than thirty films will be showcased during the festival. Twelve of the best films that meet the selection criteria will be entered into a competition.
Awards will be given to nine of the best films during the Gala Awards night. Submissions will be open via Film Freeway. Selection Criteria • Films that promote African culture • Films that address issues affecting Africa • Films about historic African leaders • Films about historic African landmarks • Films made by independent African filmmakers Award categories • Best Narrative Feature • Best Documentary Feature • Best Narrative Short • Best Documentary Short • Best Director • Best Actor • Best Actress • Best Emerging Filmmaker • Best Cinematography • Best Original Soundtrack • People’s Choice: Best Poster • People’s Choice: Best Trailer *read more}*

*Get Involved*
	TAFF welcomes sponsors. An effort such as this is not without strong collaborators and supporters who share our vision. Please contact us if you would like to be a sponsor.
TAFF welcomes volunteers. Volunteers are a vital part of The Festival and volunteering comes with many privileges, including ALL ACCESS PASS to all our events. Volunteers have opportunities to help shape the event, making it a memorable experience for our filmmakers and attendees. In exchange for their time, they are given the opportunity to attend ALL Festival events. *read more}*

WHY TAFF IN DALLAS METROPLEX?

Dallas Metroplex is a cultural and arts hub, an epicenter of cultural diversity. Part of TAFF’s mission and vision is to bridge cultures through films by creating a greater appreciation of African history and culture.

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FROM THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

The African film industry is growing by the day. New creative filmmakers are emerging; better quality film production is on the rise. Yet we do not have enough platforms to showcase African films and celebrate our filmmakers. There are several other challenges that African filmmakers face, ranging from lack of adequate finances to fund a film – to lacking distribution after managing to complete one – to piracy when the film finally makes it out there. These facts make it discouraging for African filmmakers to even bother to produce another motion picture. But the passion and drive that many of us have continue to push us to not quit.

Good quality films need a large budget for production and marketing just like we observe from our Hollywood counterparts where millions of dollars are spent in making one film. This makes their films unbeatable with quality in the film market. And to compete with such productions in various film festivals, makes it look as though we do not have films that are good enough. We do. In fact, some of our story lines are better. But we do not have the luxury to pay for the best visual effects. If given a quarter of the funds used to make good films like Selma and 12 years a Slave, the African filmmaker could probably make three equally quality films. It is therefore difficult to compete with such films in a given festival.

Hence, TAFF is born to showcase and celebrate some of our best films that would normally be overshadowed by the wealthier Hollywood productions. Potential distributors will have a better focus on films to select. Planning a movie premiere out of town can be a daunting task, having done it in twelve different cities (which is the most for African filmmakers in the United States) and sometimes not pulling enough crowd to cover costs. TAFF will serve as a Dallas premiere ground for selected movies. I invite you to join in this effort to create a spotlight festival that focuses on African films.

Kelechi Eke, MBA
Executive Director
The African Film Festival

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THE AFRICAN FILM FESTIVAL 4475 TRINITY MILLS ROAD #701632 DALLAS, TEXAS 75370 Email: info@theafricanfilmfestival.org Powered By BIGOBI