Projects

Stop and Stir Arts Ltd is an equal opportunities company.

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Current projects

Africa in Motion (AiM) 2007

We have started preparations for the second Africa in Motion film festival. Provisional dates are set for 18-27 October and the festival will again take place at Filmhouse Cinema. For AiM 2007 we are planning to bring a similarly broad range of brilliant African films and complementary events to Edinburgh, including films from even more African countries and covering more genres. We will continue our goal to showcase the best African films, past and present.

We are opening a call for entries for next year's festival, inviting in particular young, emerging African filmmakers to submit shorts and documentaries. As another exciting development for AiM 2007 we are planning to invite filmmakers to talk to audiences about their work. We are also hoping to expand our touring programme to other parts of the UK in order to allow even larger audiences to enjoy brilliant African films.

Past projects

Africa in Motion (AiM): Edinburgh African Film Festival - 20-29 October 2006

We have organised a film season devoted to African cinema, entitled Africa in Motion (AiM), which took place in Edinburgh from 20-29 October 2006. Screenings of African features, documentaries and shorts took place at Filmhouse Cinema, and were accompanied by discussions and talks presented by high-profile film theorists and critics.

The Dukes at the Fringe Festival - August 2006

We co-ordinated a Fringe peformance run for The Dukes, a group of 17 male singers from Johannesburg, South Africa. Their show was called "Vela! African Greetings!" and included gum boot dancing, African games, and folk songs in Zulu, Sotho and Afrikaans. This talented group of singers have performed for Mandela and toured internationally. Their wide repertoire captures the spirit and diversity of the rainbow nation.

The Dukes' performance run at the Fringe went very well, with an average of 60 audience members per performance and lots of very positive feedback. The Dukes were selected as a "Pick of the Fringe" show.

Dada Screenings at Filmhouse - June 2006

Rhythmus 21 (Hans Richter, 1921), The Seashell and the Clergyman (Germaine Dulac, 1928), and Ghosts Before Breakfast (Hans Richter, 1928)

"I am in love with the flickering muse, though not as she is, but as I would like her to be." Walther Ruttmann, circa 1915.

We commissioned a number of musicians to create new soundtracks to silent Dada films, which were screened at the Filmhouse on 8 June. The screenings were so popular that the event was completely sold out with people queueing in the foyer for returns and bartering for tickets in true black market style - very fitting for the screening of films regarded as "degenerate art" when they first shown in public.

Under the name Funkspiel, Edinburgh-based duo Nick Prior and Bill Walsh write, record and perform electro-acoustic music. Formed in 2005, they have written several scores for stage productions and short films, released a demo CD and have received national airplay on BBC 6 Music. They draw on diverse influences from the fields of contemporary music, film and the visual arts – from Hitchcock and Lynch to Brian Eno and Lali Puna – blending digital technologies with traditional instruments. For their scores, Rhythmus 21 and The Seashell and the Clergyman, they have tried to remain faithful to some of the techniques of avant-garde artists, including disjuncture, simultaneity and juxtaposition, but have rendered this in contemporary form using digital instruments. Find out more at: www.myspace.com/funkspiel

The third soundtrack was composed by Imp, an entity currently producing work in the domain of sonic media. The soundtrack for Ghosts Before Breakfast is a reinterpretation of a piece of cinema through sound. Without attempting to contextualise the film historically or in terms of its initial intention the soundtrack explores the possibility of a surrealism for the digital age.

Download a poster for the event here.

BFI Black World Mama Africa - October 2005

We collaborated with the Edinburgh Filmhouse on putting together and publicising the British Film Institute's Black World Mama Africa season of films. This touring programme consists of feature films, documentaries and shorts by African directors, many of them young and emerging female filmmakers.

To complement the Mama Africa season we organised a seminar of talks that took place in Cinema 2 at the Filmhouse at 1pm on Saturday 15 October. At this free event Dr David Murphy, Senior Lecturer in French at the University of Stirling, gave an overview of recent trends in African cinema. Professor Paul Nugent, Director of the Centre of African Studies and Professor of Comparative African History at the University of Edinburgh, delivered a talk entitled Gender, Generation and Ideas about National Liberation in Africa. Tamara Mhura, member of Samaritan Esther Community Care, discussed the impact of HIV/AIDS on mother/daughter relationships in African communities, in a talk entitled My Mother’s Keeper. Mukami McCrum, CEO of the Central Scotland Racial Equality Council, spoke about the links between Africa and its diaspora with emphasis on the impact of remittances and challenges faced by African women of the diaspora. The talks were be followed by an open floor discussion.

The season was very well attended with most screenings more than 75% full and positive feedback from a wide range of perspectives. The market research conducted during the season indicated unanimously that Edinburgh audiences would welcome more opportunities to see African cinema. You can view the results of the market research here.

Many thanks to our faithful volunteers who helped out at the screenings: Emma, Hanna, Robert, Adrian, Dean, Charlotte, Wezi, and Jess.