Synopsis of Africa Light / Gray Zone!
Africa is full of nature’s colors. A colorful experience! The social, political and economical problems of the continent, however, are unsaturated. Neither black nor white, but endless gray.
"Africa Light" - as white local citizens call Namibia. The name suggests romance, the beauty of nature and promises a life without any problems in a country where the difference between rich and poor could hardly be greater. Namibia does not give that impression of it. If you look at its surface it seems like Africa in its most innocent and civilized form. It is a country that is so inviting to dream by its spectacular landscape, stunning scenery and fascinating wildlife. It has a very strong tourism structure and the government gets a lot of money with its magical attraction. But despite its grandiose splendor it is an endless gray zone as well. It oscillates between tradition and modernity, between the cattle in the country and the slums in the city. It shuttles from colonial times, land property reform to minimum wage for everyone. It fluctuates between socialism and cold calculated market economy.
The traditional communities of the country are recently almost available for sale. They perish as a tourist attraction in an entertainment park of the First World. The progress is entering.
The film "Africa Light - Gray Zone" tells the story of a country, which is a representative of an entire continent and its development. And finally this is even a story of our entire world.
Download as PDF in English, appr. 800 KByte
Festival Submission Package
This package includes everything a film festival desires: our entire press kit with 300 dpi hi-res images of the team members, a full synopsis in English, French & German, 300 dpi hi-res film stills, extended CVs, the crew's filmography, the Director's Statement and the official trailer as a MP4 for public use. You will find the documents saved as diverse formats, as a PDF and a DOC. Images are saved as JPEGs.
Download ZIP archive, appr. 33 MByte
Important Package Download Note: For reasons of privacy, this ZIP archive is protected by password. Just send your password request to our Africa Light / Gray Zone Webmaster with subject: ZIP Password. You'll get your personal pass properly! Thanks for your patience and your understanding!
Appointments
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10 to 13 August 2011 - at The Lucania Film Festival 2011 in Pisticci, Italy |
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8 to 12 June 2011 - at The Human Rights Film Festival 2011 in Barcelona, Spain |
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9 to 13 June 2011 - at The ISFF 2011 / International Short Film Festival in Detmold, Germany |
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31th May to 5th June 2011 - at the 14th Environmental Film Festival CinemAmbiente 2011 in Torino, Italy |
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13 to 17 April 2011 - on The International Pan-African Festival 2011 in Cannes, France |
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3 April 2011 - during The Max Kurz Special: Africa of The Casablance Film Art Theater in Nuremberg, Germany |
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23 to 28 November 2010 - nominated for The Peer Raben Music Award 2010 during Soundtrack Cologne 7.0 |
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20 to 24 November 2010 - nominated for the festival's category "Professional International Short Film" by The Sleepwalkers Film Festival 2010 in Tallinn / Estonia |
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4 to 6 November 2010 - in the contest section "The Political Film" of The VideoFilmDays 2010 in Koblenz |
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28 October 2010 - Opening film of The German African Movie Night at Babylon Cinema Berlin, initiated by The German Department of State, The German Namibian Association etc. |
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6 to 10 October 2010 - Shnit International Short Film Festival in Bern (Switzerland) as part of the festival's category "Documentary Films". Additional venues will take place in Cologne and Cape Town. |
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28 September to 4 October 2010 - EcoVision Film Festival - Festival Internazionale di Ambiente e Cinema - in Palermo, Italy. Further events in Brazil and China will follow. |
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20 to 23 September & 26 to 29 October 2010 - Long Island Film Festival, New York. United States premiere in the YMCA Boulton Center For The Performing Arts and in The Bay Street Theater. |
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4 to 10 July 2010 - Ischia Film Festival - Italian premiere screening on this extra-ordinary 1st class venue in the Mediterranean Sea. This event will take place together with the Ischia Global Fest. |
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23 to 30 May 2010 - International Short Film Festival Curtocircuito - Spanish screening in the festival's special category "Explora - the best innovative productions from all over the world". |
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20 to 25 April 2010 - Sehsuechte Festival - 1st German screening in the festival's highlight section "Focus: South Africa". |
- 30 January 2010 - official release of AFRICA LIGHT / GRAY ZONE
- 4 December 2009 - orchestration by Film Orchestra Babelsberg
Director's Statement
"The majority of German movies could be published as well as a radio play!"
Statement by Tino Schwanemann on AFRICA LIGHT / GRAY ZONE
Lately, there have been many questions about the film. Why is sucha dramatic story like this being told in such beautiful pictures? How does my desired target group look like? Is the film only aligned to intellectuals? Are only representatives of film studies allowed to understand it? How could the film be available for a wide audience? Interested parties contacted me to get my opinion on political issues in Africa and my personal intention of the film.
The following lines should be kind of a summary. (...)
I would like to resume my experience with this project lyrically with the following words: Sometimes a film project is a long, difficult path on a large field. To walk this path, means to focus on its end, and to appreciate the distance to this point as well. It means, not to get influenced by any obstacles and to go on further. While being on this way across the field, rain and storms appear. This separates the sheep from the goats as so often. After all those difficulties, as kind of challenges, you lose your unnecessary burden. Then, in the moment of reaching the destination, you immediately get a view on the next target in a wide distance. Now, let's get started again with more foresight! Tino Schwanemann, December 2009
