Accra to host 2011 African and Caribbean cartoon festival

Accra, Sept. 30, GNA - The 2011 African and Caribbean Cartoon Festival (ANIMAFRIK) is scheduled for Accra, Ghana, from October 25th to 28th. The third edition of the four-day Animation Film Festival will be held on the theme, 94Our Life, Our Stories".

A statement issued in Accra on Friday by Sam Quartey, Director, Animation Africa, and copied to Ghana News Agency, said the festival would project films by Africans and Caribbean animators on the continent and the Diaspora.

The festival has workshops, screening sessions and conferences. The workshops are to bring to the festival practicing animators who would direct and share their experiences to help to build capacities and raise awareness of the art of animation.

The statement said this year, Ecole des Metiers du cinema d'animation D'Angouleme, Angouleme, a leading animation school in France would run workshops for television designers, visual art and multimedia students, and in addition have a presentation.

The festival has four evenings of film screenings, an Ananse evening screening of some Ghanaian animation films and yet to be released televisio= n animation series, a night of 22 short Caribbean animations and the best of French animation. The 2011 edition would be hosting Godfrey Mwampembwa (GADO) from Kenya= , an internationally recognised cartoonist, animator and creator of the popular East Africa puppet television show, XYZ.

In addition, it would host three animation conferences with contributors from CFI, France, local television networks and academia, to offer a platform for critical discourse of the animation and digital media industry in Sub-Saharan Africa. These are Anansi Mission-African Folklore for Animation, Developing Animation Content for Children, Africa Animation Content Over Digital Broadcast Platforms.

The statement said these conferences would offer an opportunity for discourse between academia and industry. The events would take place at the Alliance Francaise and three other locations in Accra to be announced later. The statement said in November, with sponsorship from France Embassy and Alliance Francaise, the festival would begin a month-long road show bringing films discussions and workshops to students, enthusiast and the general public.