FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

AfriDocs Film Week 21-27 July 2014

Sub-Saharan Africa Broadcast
in association with channel ED and the Durban International Film
Festival

A world first will be taking place this month when a full week of African documentary
films are broadcast across sub-Saharan Africa on DStv channel ED (channel 190) and
GOtv (channel 65).

This unique film event will see a diverse and exciting range of films screened across
49 countries of sub-Saharan Africa, to coincide with the Durban International Film
Festival, the largest film festival in South Africa that takes place from July 17
th
27
th
.

The AfriDocs Film Week will connect the largest film festival in Africa through a film
festival at home featuring documentary films from thirteen countries in Africa
D.R.C., Kenya, Liberia, Mali, Mozambique, Niger, Rwanda, Senegal, South Africa,
South Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia.

So many documentary films have been shot in Africa, but very few have been seen
by African audiences, says AfriDocs Executive Producer Don Edkins from Steps in
Cape Town, this heralds a new era of distribution for the continent.

Films by African filmmakers Idrissa Guiro, Sani Elhadj, Licinio Azevedo, Rehad Desai,
Judy Kibinge, Andrey Samoute Diarra, Osvalde Lewat, together with filmmakers Mika
Karismki, Thierry Michel, Roger Ross Williams, Abby Ginsberg and Gran Olsson
amongst others, will be seen for the first time by a wide audience through this
collaboration.

Five of the films screening at the Durban Film Festival (DIFF) will also be part of the
programme, including the award-winning Miners Shot Down, Concerning Violence, I
Afrikaner, The Irresistible Rise of Moise Katumbi and Soft Vengeance.

These African documentaries tell a range of stories; from films about great African
artists, such as singer and activist Miriam Makeba (Mama Africa) and the Malian
photographer Malik Sibid (Dolce Vita Africana), to political / historical films on
leaders Patrice Lumumba and Liberian President Sirleaf Johnson, as well as films
about revolutionaries, farmers, gangsters, illegal immigrants, and gay and lesbian
activists.

This week-long film event is a special broadcast project from AfriDocs, the first
weekly primetime documentary strand broadcasting across Africa. Every Tuesday
night on ED (DStv channel 190) and GOtv (channel 65), AfriDocs screens top African
documentaries to 49 countries by satellite, and terrestrially to an additional 100
cities in 8 countries.

AfriDocs is an initiative of the multi-awarded South African documentary production
and distribution company, Steps, in partnership with the Bertha Foundation.

Rebecca Lichtenfeld, Director of Social Impact Media at Bertha Philanthropies, said
that the Bertha Foundation is proud to partner with Steps to help bring great
documentary films to audiences across Africa, connecting documentary film to
African audiences is something we have been hoping to do for some time now, and
this is an ideal platform for that.

For the full programme schedule and synopses of the films, please go to
www.afridocs.net or www.facebook.com/AfriDocs

You can also follow AfriDocs on twitter: @Afri_Docs
#FilmFestivalAtHome #DIFF2014 #AfricaNotOneStory #AfriDocs #AfricaRising

Weekly Broadcast Times sub-Saharan Africa: Weekly. Primetime. Real Stories.

Tuesday evenings:
6 p.m. Cape Verde Time
7 p.m. Greenwich Mean Time (Mauritania to Benin)
8 p.m. West African Time (Niger to Namibia)
9 p.m. Central African Time/South Africa Standard Time
10 p.m. East African Time (Sudan to Tanzania)
11 p.m. Seychelles Time
From 1
st
August, 2014, the slot changes to one hour earlier in order to allow feature
length documentary films to be screened.
/ ENDS
Contact:
Social Media & Publicity: Patrice Carter
Email: patrice@steps.co.za
Programming: Theresa Hill
Email: theresa@steps.co.za
Phone: +27 21 4655805

URL: www.steps.co.za