AFMAC at the Marrakech International Film Festival

The African Film and Media Arts Collective (AFMAC) marked a major milestone with the Collective's first public presentation at the 22nd Marrakech International Film Festival. AFMAC's appearance at the festival followed completed workshops in Lagos, Tangier, and Nairobi, where filmmakers and visual artists collaborated to explore new approaches to storytelling, filmmaking, and cultural expression.

The AFMAC Cinema Club’s debut at the festival saw works from lead artists Jim Chuchu, Wanuri Kahiu, Zeresenay Berhane Mehari, and The Otolith Group presented alongside Julie Mehretu’s BMW Art Car #20. Open to the public, Cinema Club is intended as a gathering space to share rarely-seen cinematic works and to restore connections and deepen engagement between cinema and the fine arts.

“The magic of bringing people together starts with us. AFMAC creates forums for conversations in small, critical masses and surfaces resources to take the next steps.”

– Mehret Mandefro

Films that were screened at Cinema Club during the opening weekend were Jim Chuchu’s “Invocations: Release” (2015) and “Carrying Capacities” (2025); previews of Wanuri Kahiu’s Sci-Fi short film “Pumzi” (2009) and Zeresenay Berhane Mehari’s “Difret” (2014); and The Otolith Group’s “The Message of the Forest” inspired by the poet Rabindranath Tagore's 1921 lecture of the same name.

AFMAC also collaborated with the film festival’s Atlas Workshops, an industry and talent development program taking place alongside the festival events. Mandefro and Berhane Mehari shared insights into their work with the panel “Beyond the Gaze: Authentic African Stories and the Creative Journey,” a discussion exploring the promise and perils of authentic storytelling as part of the creative process building the African Film and Media Arts Collective over the past year.