Luxor African Film Festival, First Edition 21-28 February 2012 (Joint Press Release: AfricAvenir & The Embassy of the Arab Republic of Egypt in Windhoek)

The Luxor African Film Festival is due to start with its first edition, taking place from 21-28 of February in the city of Luxor, Egypt. Luxor is described as the "Biggest Open Museum of the World", since it contains a big share of the world’s historical monuments, which includes the temples of Thebes, Luxor, Karnak, and lady pharaoh Hatchepsut. Luxor is also famous for the Valley of the Kings with the grave of the Boy-King Tutenchamun.

The festival has given itself the mission, to support and encourage African film productions and partnerships between the countries of the continent through strengthening the humanitarian and political ties between the peoples of Africa in general and African artists in particular.

The Egyptian Embassy in Windhoek and AfricAvenir are proud to announce, that Mr. Hans-Christian Mahnke, chairperson of the Namibian section of AfricAvenir, has been invited as guest of honour to this festival. Moreover, AfricAvenir is the only non-Egyptian co-organizer of the festival.

AfricAvenir was instrumental in setting up this first edition of the festival. The contribution of AfricAvenir, an official partner to the festival, has been, amongst others, contacting filmmakers to submit their films, pre selecting of films, suggesting and making contacts to selection committees, jury members, and workshop participants. Furthermore, AfricAvenir helped the festival organizers to establish contacts to key stakeholders within the African film industry, and the film media houses.

Besides Mahnke’s attendance as special guest, Namibia will be further represented by two Namibian films from Perivi Katjavivi with his two short films "Love Is" and "Eembwiti". Furthermore Namibia’s cinematic presence will further be felt by the film "Captor and Captive", a documentary from South Africa, dealing with the story of Danger Ashipala and Johan van de Mescht.

The idea of the festival was drawn up by Egyptian scriptwriter Sayed Fouad, who then associated the idea with the Independent Shabab Foundation (I-Shabab), an Egyptian NGO, which is the organizer of the festival. The team thought of Luxor to encourage decentralization of cultural events to move a bit away from Cairo and Alexandria, which are piling up with different festivals, and finally, to contribute to the promotion of tourism to the city of Luxor. The budget for the festival comes mostly from the Egyptian Government and the Luxor Governorate.nFor further information please see the website: www.luxorafricanfilmfestival.com/Inquiries: Hans-Christian Mahnke
Email: moc.liamelgoog@khw.rinevacirfan|+| Press release featured in the Namibia Economistn|+| What AfricAvenir means to African Film (Article and Interview in the Windhoek Observer (10 February 2012))