“I contend that diaspora always already encompasses and transcends nation and that diasporic film festivals are, at best, both lived experiences and imagined communities. Furthermore, the complexities, engagements between diasporians, transnational formations and transcendence of (state) borders that Iordanova and Cheung explore are in fact core constitutive elements of diasporic film festival spaces. In this line of thinking, I adopt a two-pronged approach aimed at suggesting how diasporic film festivals could be perceived anew. First, I correlate two debates: ‘diaspora’ as theoretical construct and the current state of African cinema. Second, by scrutinizing the work of a high-profile Edinburgh-based African film festival (Africa in Motion (AiM)), I identify possible blind spots of an African film festival outside Africa as well as suggest possible ways forward for diasporic (African) film festivals.” [
Our distinctive typeface, Format-1452, was designed by Frank Adebiaye, a French-Beninese type designer and founder of the experimental Velvetyne Type Foundry.