Miami University is bringing a little piece of Africa to Ohio.
Starting next week, Miami is hosting an Africana Film Festival where students from all three campuses will have the opportunity to watch 17 films from 11 different African nations.
The debut festival is meant to help expose Miami students to diverse cultures through films, according to Babacar Camara, associate professor of black world studies and French at Miami University's Middletown campus.
"This is a much needed event and a great opportunity for promoting Africana, supporting interaction and collaboration across disciplines, and enhancing diversity on campus," Camara said. "I believe the festival will offer a unique platform for conveying African artistic styles and craft in film."
Although many films are going to be shown, the central theme of identity will run throughout all of them.
"The theme is based on the reality that post-colonial Africa defies its own continental borders," Camara said. "It means traditions and modernity overlap to produce new identities."
The films all reflect the individual personalities and ideas of the filmmakers, and yet are tied together by common themes.
"These transitional visions of Africa ... challenge Africa as a monolithic site of origin and authenticity," Camara said. "Themes of alienations, daily life, prostitution, gays, women and children not only stress individual creativity rather than a fidelity to negritude - the affirmation of black cultural values - but also reflect African filmmakers' desire to transcend the national and reach the continental, and eventually be universal."
Mary Jane Berman, director of Miami's Center for American and World Cultures Center, said this festival is very important to have at Miami because it focuses so specifically on Africa.
"The media tends to emphasize only the negative attributes of the continent like the genocides and we also associate Africa with its natural beauty," Berman said. "Our ideas are therefore very limited and misrepresent African peoples. This is an opportunity to enlighten the community about the positive creative accomplishments of contemporary peoples of Africa."
Olivia Dolan, a first-year, shared the same sentiments as Berman.
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"It sounds like it would be an interesting thing to attend," said Dolan. "I've never seen any African films so it would be a cool experience."
Berman also said the film festival will expands students awareness of the African continent in general.
"Africa is a continent with a rich history that goes back thousands of years," Berman said. "This film series will allow us to learn about how Africans represent Africa through their own cinematic lenses in today's world."
Camara said he wants to raise awareness among the Miami community and hopes that the festival will be meaningful and enlightening, as the images that audiences will be exposed to are unavailable elsewhere.
"While the images of stereotypes, myths and depressed cultural experiences continue to be drawn out in the media and curricula, the festival will show films with positive messages and educational value," Camara said. "I would like to see an informed Miami community come together to exchange ideas and strategies to improve our respective cultures."
The festival will be on Oxford's campus March 26 and 29, Middletown March 27 and Hamilton March 28.
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