Jali Movie Weekender Edinburgh’s New Black, Africa and Diasporan Competition …
Jali Collective launches its inaugural Jali Movie Weekender, a brand new movie pageant celebrating Black, African and diaspora tales to be held in Edinburgh from thirtieth October to 2nd November 2025 on the metropolis’s newly reopened Filmhouse Cinema.
The theme of this pageant is Desires and Apparitions, which is able to weave by the programme’s movies and occasions, exploring topics reminiscent of grief, reminiscence, creativeness, new and alternate futures, and the seen and unseen within the African and diasporic expertise.
The Weekender is rooted in fostering group, connection and illustration, with a give attention to platforming a variety of voices, kinds and tales from throughout the African continent and its international diaspora. A key ambition of the brand new collective and pageant is to construct intentional relationships with Black, African and diaspora audiences in Edinburgh and Scotland.
The showcase will open with the Scottish Premiere of Reminiscence of Princess Mumbi, the ground-breaking new afro-futurist movie from Swiss-Kenyan director Damien Hauser. Recent from its World Premiere at Venice Movie Competition’s Giornate degli Autori in September, the movie unfolds in a post-technological future African continent and is a joy-filled love letter to cinema, showcasing a fantastically distinctive, imaginative strategy to filmmaking and use of AI.
The Weekender will shut with the Scottish Premiere of Promised Sky (Promis le Ciel), the acclaimed drama by Tunisian director Erige Sehiri that opened this 12 months’s Un Sure Regard part on the Cannes Movie Competition. Promised Sky follows the intertwined fates of three girls from sub-Saharan Africa dwelling in Tunis and has drawn worldwide reward for its humanistic storytelling and highly effective portrayal of sisterhood and resilience.
The inaugural version may also showcase a particular Prolonged Actuality (XR) exhibition, which is able to run alongside movie screenings. The exhibition is supported by the British Council and The Africa Centre as a part of the UK/Kenya Season, a cultural programme celebrating creativity and innovation in each international locations. The XR exhibition will likely be free to entry through the pageant. It options the primary Scottish presentation of two immersive works by Kenyan artists, particularly:
- Enkang’ Ang’ – Created by Kenyan multimedia artist Naitiemu, Enkang’ Ang’ (that means “Our Dwelling” in Maasai) is an immersive VR expertise that transports viewers into a standard Maasai enkang’ (homestead). Via digital actuality and recorded conversations, Naitiemu’s challenge shares the wealthy indigenous Maasai tradition with tales collected from girls of the Twala Tenebo village. Enkang’Ang’ asks the poignant query, “How will we study from our traditions and re-imagine our future?” Audiences will have the ability to nearly step inside a Maasai manyatta homestead, accompanied by video interviews with Maasai girls elders sharing information of their historical past, each day life and sustainable practices.
- ARGO– Developed by XR sport designer Joanna Oluoch, in collaboration with Nairobi’s Fallohide Studio, ARGO is Africa’s first public environmental augmented actuality sport. This cutting-edge AR expertise transports gamers into the guts of Nairobi’s Oloolua Forest, permitting them to discover its serene nature trails, encounter wildlife, and uncover hidden gems like a 20-foot waterfall and historic caves. Utilizing a pill or telephone based mostly app, guests of all ages can take a digital “nature stroll” by digital recreations of the forest, work together with its natural world, and find out about conservation. ARGO was launched in Kenya earlier this 12 months as an modern solution to join younger folks with nature, and the Jali Movie Weekender will host considered one of its first public exhibitions outdoors the African continent.
Based earlier this 12 months, Jali Collective is a brand new grassroots collective based mostly in Edinburgh, Scotland, with the mission to widen entry to African cinema and to have a good time and elevate Black, African, and diaspora tales by movie and tradition. The collective curates movie screenings, festivals, workshops and associated occasions that convey Black, African and diaspora cinema to audiences.
Jali Collective was based by three core members – Tomiwa Folorunso, Isabel Moura Mendes and Carmen Thompson – every of whom are long-standing producers, programmers and cultural organisers with deep roots within the movie, pageant and humanities sectors in Scotland and past.
“Our purpose with Jali Collective and the Weekender is to create a welcoming house for group and dialog round Black, African and diaspora cinema,” say Tomiwa, Isabel and Carmen. “These first bulletins give a way of the imaginative and prescient we need to share shifting ahead. By bringing these unimaginable works to Edinburgh, we hope to encourage audiences – particularly Black and African diaspora communities – and spark dialogues that resonate lengthy after the Weekender.”
Jali Movie Weekender 2025 is supported by Display Scotland and Movie Hub Scotland (a part of the BFI’s Movie Viewers Community, awarding funding on behalf of Display Scotland and the BFI Nationwide Lottery), in addition to British Council, the Africa Centre and different companions.