SUDDENLY TV
AFRIKAMERA SHORTS– DIRECTORS’ CHOICE
SUDDENLY TV
Roopa Gogineni
Sudan 2022 I Original Version with English Subtitles I 19 min
WED 13 NOV
20:30 CITY KINO WEDDING
In April 2019, after the fall of President Omar al-Bashir, Sudanese from all over the country make their way to Khartoum to demand a civilian government. The protesters occupy the military headquarters. Weeks pass and the protest develops into a utopian settlement with library tents, communal kitchens, concerts and health clinics. In this border area, a group of young revolutionaries set up an imaginary television station to meet other demonstrators: Using a cardboard replica of a camera and a “microphone” made from a plastic bottle, young revolutionaries interview demonstrators at the mass protests against the Sudanese military regime, giving the demonstrators a sense of public attention that they are denied internationally. What begins as a game becomes an urgent invocation of a new Sudan.
ROOPA GOGINENI is a filmmaker and photographer based in Paris. She lived in Nairobi for a decade, where she developed a collaborative practice and worked with communities of resistance in the region. Her films have premiered at festivals such as IDFA, SXSW, Hot Docs and Sheffield Doc/Fest. I AM BISHA (2018), her documentary about a satirical puppet show in rebel-held Sudan, won the Oscar-qualifying Full Frame Award for Best Short Film and a Rory Peck Award. Her recent short film SUDDENLY TV (2022) won the 2023 SXSW Special Jury Award and the 2023 IndieLisboa Short Film Grand Prize. She has directed documentaries for The New York Times, BBC and Al Jazeera and has directed projects supported by CatchLight, Logan Nonfiction, FRONTLINE/Firelight and Chicken & Egg Pictures.