Sub-Saharan Africa Broadcast Presents: Day By Day: Femi Kuti

A world first will betaking place this month when a full week of African documentary films are broadcast across sub-Saharan Africaon 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 17th - 27th.

One of the films to be screened during the week explores the music and life of the incredible Femi Kuti - billed as a journey into the heart of making music, Day By Day: Femi Kuti is more than a biopic, but rather gives real insight into every aspect of the creative process.

As the film follows the development of a track from Femi Kuti's latest album, it sets out to explain the artistic decisions. These choices are inseparable from Femi's involvement in the political situation in his home country, Nigeria.

Correct arrangements and bold choices involving one guitar strumming patterns over another, woven together with a choir's harmony, come together to bring forth the artist's message. The film then also sheds light on the unsung work of the record producer, Sodi, in the specific context of urban and anti-establishment music :Afrobeat.

Day by Dayexplores this musical journey through the Parisian studio. The documentary shifts between the object of the artist's struggle; his fight to lift Nigeria and Africa as a whole out of the despondent poverty, and the proof of his commitment and tools of his trade: haunting, catchy songs.

Step by step, the viewer is immersed in the fascinating world of the Femi Kuti -, from the initial recordings to the album's release, from the artist's financial problems to his nomination for a Grammy Award,

Day By Day: Femi Kuti will screen on Wednesday July 23rd at 21:00 (GMT + 2).

ABOUT AFRIDOCS FILM WEEK
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, SaniElhadj, LicinioAzevedo, Rehad Desai, Judy Kibinge, AndreySamouteDiarra, together with filmmakers Mika Karismäki, Thierry Michel, Roger Ross Williams, Abby Ginsberg and Göran Olsson amongst others, will be seen for the first time by a wide audience through this collaboration.

Seven 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 MoiseKatumbi, Coach Zoran, Plot for Peace 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 Sibidé (Dolce Vita Africana), to political / historical films on leaders Patrice Lumumba and Liberian President Sirleaf Johnson, as well as films about revolutionaries, farmers, gangsters, and illegal immigrants.

This weeklong 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),AfriDocsscreens 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.

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

Contact:
Social Media & Publicity: Patrice Carter
URL: www.steps.co.za