SETTLING and ‘The Young Cyclist’, two films by Rwandan filmmakers Amelia Umuhire and Yuhi Amuli respectively, are among 14 short films from 11 African countries selected for the first tranche of Al Jazeera English’s Africa Direct, a distinctive series of compelling and immersive short documentaries produced and directed by all-African filmmaking talent. These character-led films, which are African stories, told by African filmmakers about African lives, are traditional and modern, poignant and flamboyant, with people who are surviving or thriving, poor or powerful. At the heart of each film is a story which makes us think, feel and connect. The two filmmakers are not new in Rwanda’s film industry having had their projects previously nominated and screened in different international film festivals. For instance, Amuli’s film ‘Akarwa’ (The Island) was nominated for the 2018 Zanzibar International Film Festival (ZIFF) awards and the 2018 Durban International Film Festival among others. The films open an authentic window onto a range of ordinary and extraordinary African lives, to present nuanced and complex perspectives of a diverse and multifaceted African continent. The stories give voice to African storytellers, who have so often been drowned out or overwhelmed by outsider mediation. The series comprises around 30 short documentaries, curated into half hour episodes. The first tranche of six half hours starts airing on Al Jazeera English from November 30, until January 4, 2022, featuring the first 14 short films from 11 countries. These slice-of-life stories each centre around a main character who articulates their own narrative, without reporters or other mediators. In Umuhire’s film ‘Settling’, for instance, one character identified as Josephine takes viewers on a journey through the city, including Kigali’s oldest urban settlement, as she explains her ideas of humanising urban design. Woven through this is her own story - of moving countries, challenging gender roles and finding life affirmation after personal tragedy. And in ‘The Young Cyclist’ by filmmaker Yuhi Amuli, a one Aliane Mugisha tells her story with soft-spoken candor. Once a roadside hawker in Rwanda’s capital Kigali, she was intrigued by the local bicycle taxi riders and decided she wanted a new business. Her perseverance served her well and her story has a surprising and uplifting ending, in this quietly charming film. The selected short films, which are produced in a form of documentaries, were commissioned and conceived by Ingrid Falck, Manager of Documentaries at Al Jazeera English. The news agency partnered with Big World Cinema for this project which is entirely based within Africa. Over 300 proposals from 31 countries were submitted to Al Jazeera’s Africa Direct project but only 14 were selected from 11 countries. Two of them are from Rwanda by Umuhire and Yuhi. Al Jazeera has huge audiences across Africa and shows a lot of great Africa-centred content - but the western gaze still casts a long shadow over Africa in a lot of other international media. As a result, the news agency has long championed the idea that those who know their stories best should own them in the media, claim their storytelling space and Africa Direct is one of the initiatives launched by the agency to achieve the milestone. “Africa Direct is a celebration - of African documentary talent and of local stories. I’m deeply grateful to the superb Pan-African teams and filmmakers who’ve delivered these stunning, immersive and thought-provoking short documentaries, for our global viewers, said Ingrid Falck. Documentary storytelling is a hugely influential medium in terms of perceptions of places, people and their power,” he added.
