African Cinema Expands Continental Perspectives, Says Msangi: St. Louis NPR

School of Film, Television, and Media Arts Assistant Professor Ekwa Msangi has shown her films at the St. Louis Film Festival through the years. At this year’s festival she provided a different element to the festival by offering a masterclass and moderating a post-show discussion.

Held March 27-29 at Washington University in St. Louis, the 20th Annual St. Louis African Film Festival featured 12 short and feature films.

Msangi lead a masterclass workshop on building a career in film, and moderated a post-show discussion with filmmaker Nicolas Cisse, who’s movie La Memoire Du Manguier was shown.

Msangi spoke with St. Louis NPR about the importance of African cinema.

(Cinema) gives you the ability to sort of step into somebody else’s shoes for a few hours and look at life from their perspective, and what a great gift to be able to do that from all these different perspectives across the continent of Africa.

One of Msangi’s films screened at the festival in the past was the award-winning Farewell Amor. Check out the movie’s trailer: