Love stories showcase Africa's film diversity and creativity

There is a diversity to African love stories and the different ways people across the continent express their love, with representations in the familial, platonic and romantic lenses. 

This past Valentine’s Day, Docubox, the East African Film Fund, showcased a handpicked variety of these stories, at an event that promised to showcase this diversity through films created by Africans in the different stages of affection. 

Shorts, Shorts and Shots is an event where guests are invited to watch award-winning short films from across Africa while wearing shorts and taking shots of their beverage of choice. Docubox has been hosting this event since March 2018. Since its inception, it has evolved into a quarterly event, with themes ranging from Valentine’s, Mzalendo, Halloween and Special Festive editions.

This year’s Valentine's edition was the first to be held outdoors since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic. As such, the experience fused elements of indoor life with a special screening of “Morning After”, a Kenyan film directed by Brian Munene that recently made its debut on global entertainment streaming platform Netflix. 

The 13-minute film starring Charlie Karumi, Foi Wambui and Millicent Ogutu, was also funded and supported by Docubox. Projected on the big screen for the first time since its Netflix debut, it was also a treat designed especially for guests at the event to meet and greet the cast and crew that brought the film to life. 

“Morning After” is a hilarious comedy that explores the intricacies of a one-night stand where everything that could possibly go wrong comes to pass. Karumi’s face journeys take the audience down a road where every turn seems more embarrassing than the last. As a short film, it delivers a relatable narrative that roped in audiences with the promise of a romantic tale, only to end with damning consequences for the lovebirds as they are forced to be accountable for their actions. 

While Karumi and Wambui carry the film with their hilarious reactions, Ogutu’s sassy performance as Joe’s staunch Christian mother punctuated each moment with gasps and roars of laughter as she deceived them with her calm demeanour, never letting on about her next move. Two types of love were depicted here: the budding affection shared between new lovers, and parental love, which often comes with stern consequences for misbehaviour.

Five other films were screened that afternoon, including director Karanja Ngéndo’s “Hypnagogia”, starring Brian Ogola, Grace Njeri and Dru Muthure. The premise of the film follows two lovers trying to mend fences as they cast their burdens onto a notebook-wielding psychotherapist. The film’s title reflects on the lucid state between wakefulness and sleep, where imagined scenes and sensations seem real to the person perceiving them. 

As the audience followed Ogola’s character through his loving memories before things turned sour, they are plunged into his hypnagogic state almost instantly, where the line between his reflection of the events leading up to their heartbreak and the true outcome of the situation seems blurred. 

As a short film, Ngéndo’s directorial approach appears to mirror psychologist Andreas Mavromatis’ four stages of hypnagogia, where Muthure’s performance heightens the confusion, leaving audiences to decide what outcome was real versus what was imagined.

Suzzannah Mirghani’s “Al-Sit” is a Sudanese film that follows a young girl’s uncomfortable silence as elders in her village decide her marital fate. A suitor has come from Dubai to ask for 15-year-old Nafisa’s hand, with promises of prosperity and a dress woven from his family’s flourishing cotton business. Her grandmother, the titular character Al-Sit, has her own plans for Nafisa’s future, in conflict with her budding crush on the handsome suitor. 

The film carried undertones of internalised misogyny in the female characters, delivered through gestures that deny the girl her autonomy in making this life-changing decision. Her discomfort throughout the film is palpable as her eyes darted across the screen before her frustration bubbled to the surface towards the climax of the film. 

The narrative in “Al-Sit” centred a familiar story in the African context, with brilliant acting and camerawork building on the non-verbal dialogue among the characters. Created through a grant from the Doha Film Institute, “Al-Sit” is a stunning Arab short film, reported as having the highest number of awards in 2021, including the Canal+/Cine+ Award.

The remaining films featured different narrative viewpoints, each as interesting as the last. “Pace”, a Kenyan dance film directed by Mohamed Ayieko, followed two lovers rhythmically moving through the picturesque Magadi landscape. With stunning visuals, drone shots and sound design by Coco Em, the film captured what it is like to have someone by your side during life’s ebbs and flows. 

Dancers Chibayenzire and Maulid Owino illustrated the development of affection through “thoughts, emotion and physical contact” as they performed live at the event, bringing their on-screen presence to the amusement of the audience present.

South African short film “Belovely”, directed by Hallie Haller, explored the theatrics of flirtation through the eyes of a young woman fantasising about her crush. The film, followed by US short “Black Love” (directed by Julien Christina Lutz), were both shot to give a point-of-view experience to the audience. “Black Love” featured several frames of black people describing what love feels like, a visual and emotional experience to behold.

Finally, a Docubox special presentation called “Womanizer” featured a man who, seated against a pitch-black backdrop, regaled the audience with a hilariously tragic tale of womanising gone wrong. Following the screening, guests were invited to participate in a director’s lounge, as well as screenings of African films in the virtual reality genre presented by Black Rhino VR.

The event was the culmination of Kenyan cultural phenomena, including musical performances by filmmaker-musician Maia Von Lekow and a special performance by rapper Big Pin, who excited fans with his interpretation of “Bandana ya E-Sir”. DJ Sir M was on the decks playing his selection of Kenyan pop and alternative music, tying together this multipronged cinematic experience. 

As Docubox programmes director Peter Mudamba said: “It’s a one of a kind event in the East African region where films made by Docubox are screened with a holistic offering for filmmakers and non-filmmakers alike to enjoy films, music and interact with local creators. 

“If you want a one-stop-shop for films created by authentic voices in the region telling their stories, it can only be at Shorts, Shorts and Shots.”  

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