African Movie Channel - Watch the latest Nollywood & African movies on line

Welcome to another Yuletide edition of the African Movie Channel newsletter. Even more movies and quality drama serials than ever before are a mouse-click away, for you to enjoy on your PC and TV whenever you like at this special time of the year…

The African Movie Channel is available on-demand 24/7 anywhere in world, and provides the best picture quality for Nollywood and other African films, with every movie selection available to watch instantly at full-screen and crystal-clear TV quality.

And now there is a further reason to watch - from now until the end of January 2010, all movies will be a third off – that’s only £1 a movie! So now you can watch more for less. Simply purchase your credits as normal - you still get your bonus credits, and as usual, the more you spend the more bonus credits you get - so your films actually cost you less than £1 if you spend £10 or more!

It’s still extremely easy to enjoy the African Movie Channel; all you need is an internet connection together with a laptop or PC, no more! Registration is free and no subscription is required. Your computer must have the following installed: Microsoft Internet Explorer web browser and Windows Media Player. Please do not use Mozilla, Firefox, Google Chrome or AOL’s integrated web browser, or any other browser. If the adverts/trailers play, but your purchased movie does not, then go to the Microsoft Security Upgrade page, and click on the Upgrade button.

Watch award-winning drama serials and the best African movies this Christmas season only on the African Movie Channel.

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Arugba delves into the life of Adetutu, a beautiful young priestess selected by the oracle to carry the sacred calabash at the Osun Osogbo festival. The calabash can only be carried by a virgin, and after being abducted by three men, Adetutu’s chastity and suitability as the chosen one is questioned. Interwoven with themes of balance, love, loyalty, and loss, her tale also explores issues of governance, political corruption, HIV/AIDS and the influence of modernity over convention, all within the context of a culture that is rich with traditional values yet marred by traditional viewpoints.

BFI is the British Film Institute. Its world-renowned archive, cinemas, festivals, films, publications and learning resources are there to inspire you.

This Kelani masterpiece is showing at the BFI on Sunday 8th November @ 15:50. Click here to book your seats now, or visit the BFI website for more info.

The African Movie Channel continues to blaze the trail as the home of Africa’s top creative talent and most captivating entertainment. From Friday, 26th June, AMC will make available on-demand, the epic 11-part tale of Mary Slessor, the Scottish missionary whose service to the people of Calabar is remembered and honoured to this day.

With backing from the BBC, the series was produced and directed by top Nollywood director Jeta Amata, with help from long-time friend Nick Moran, star of the cool British gangster flick Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels.

Mary Slessor features Jeta’s father Zack Amata and uncle Fred Amata, two of the leading members of Nollywood’s ‘royal’ Amata family. The real star of this production is British actress Alison Pargeter, who rose to fame in British BAFTA-winning soap opera, Eastenders. Her portrayal of Mary Slessor brings the heroine of Calabar to life.

This compelling drama series recounts the colourful and courageous story of Mary Slessor, who lived and worked among the people of Calabar in the late 19th Century. By learning their language and culture, she spread the Christian faith and persuaded those with long-held traditional beliefs to abandon cruel practices, such as the killing of twins at birth, and adopt new ones, like modern medicines for the cure of various tropical diseases. She also crusaded for women’s rights and social justice in the context of communities that had been torn apart by the slave trade over many generations.

Mary Slessor of Calabar her story, so entrenched in the Calabar cultural heritage, is a poignant recount of a woman’s strong commitment and selfless service to humanity with rich moral values. Her story is so touching as to bring Queen Elizabeth II to her gravesite in Calabar in the year 1953 to pay homage to this great woman.

AMC’s co-director, Lola Onigbogi said, “Mary Slessor of Calabar is one of the most significant recent developments in African television production. With international funding, an international cast and crew and shot on location where actual events took place, it brings an African story to life for audiences all over the world. With AMC, we have created a platform that ensures audiences the world over can share in this inspiring story”.

Watch this gripping series on-demand exclusively only on the African Movie Channel www.africanmoviechannel.tv. And for a limited period only, watch the first three episodes for the price of two!

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AMC continues to shine as the home of Africa’s top creative talent and most captivating entertainment.  From Saturday, 26^th June, AMC will start showing on-demand the epic 11-episode tale of Mary Slessor, the Scottish missionary whose service to the people of Calabar is remembered and honoured to this day.

With backing from the BBC, the series was produced and directed by top Nollywood director Jeta Amata, with help from long-time friend Nick Moran, star of the cool British gangster flick Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels. 

‘Mary Slessor’ features Jeta’s father Zack Amata and uncle Frank Amata, two of the leading members of Nollywood’s ‘royal’ Amata family.  The true star of this production is British actress Alison Pargeter, who rose to fame in British BAFTA-winning soap opera, Eastenders.  Her portrayal of Mary Slessor brings the heroine of Calabar to life.

This compelling drama series recounts the colourful and courageous story of Mary Slessor, who lived and worked among the people of Calabar in the late 19th Century.  By learning their language and culture, she spread the Christian faith and persuaded those with long-held traditional beliefs to abandon cruel practices, such as the killing of twins at birth, and adopt new ones, like modern medicines.  She also crusaded for women’s rights and social justice in the context of communities that had been torn apart by the slave trade over many generations.

AMC’s co-director, Lola Onigbogi said, “‘Mary Slessor of Calabar’ is one of the most significant recent developments in African television production.  With international funding, an international cast and crew and shot on location where actual events took place, it brings an African story to life for audiences all over the world.  With AMC, we have created a platform that ensures audiences across the continent and the world over can share in this inspiring story.”

Watch this gripping series on-demand exclusively on the African Movie Channel. And for a limited period only, watch the first three episodes for the price of two!

Clinic Matters is a comedy series that dramatizes the everyday experience of a busy doctor, his committed nurses and their “interesting” patients. Starring AMAA award winner, Emeka Ossai, Clinic Matters is a unique story as it comically depicts real situations in an every day hospital. It is the first original medical comedy series in Nigeria. 

Clinic Matters focuses on a professional doctor and nurses, who are faced with the challenges of attending to their numerous patients with crazy medical problems. The very pretty nurses are also a bunch of interesting characters as they interpret their roles adding so much fun to the show. Each episode is educative and extremely spiced with humor as its unique brand of humor lies mostly in real life situations. 

Clinic Matters teaches moral lessons and healthy living. It educates on pre-marital sex and its consequences and campaigns against extra-marital affairs. It encourages unity in the family and discourages gender discriminations.  

With genuine characters and a gentle pace, Clinic Matters is a comedy that is instantly likeable. It’s educative, entertaining and most importantly, hilarious. It’s a must watch for every home as every character displays serious humor at its best. Clinic Matters will be showing soon exclusively on the African Movie Channel.

Welcome to another special Yultide edition of the AMC newsletter. There are now over 1000 of only the best African films and, hundreds of hours of award-winning drama serials and documentaries, on-demand for you to watch wherever you are and whenever you want at this special time of the year.

The African Movie Channel continues to be:

Universally Available AMC is available on-demand 24/7 anywhere in world, and provides the best picture quality for Nollywood and other African films, with every movie selection available to watch instantly at full-screen and crystal-clear TV quality.

Of Outstanding Quality No other outfit in the world delivers Nollywood and African films anywhere near the same quality. All AMC movies are sourced direct from the original master versions (not VCD’s!), thus guaranteeing exceptional audio and visual quality, far exceeding what you get anywhere. And too, you can fast-forward, rewind, and pause your selection - it’s just like watching a DVD!

Regularly Updated “Friday Latest Additions” A minimum of six movies are added every Friday. This Friday’s latest additions include some excellent recent releases, carefully selected for your enjoyment over the festive season.

Easy To Watch Anywhere All you need to watch movies on AMC is an internet connection together with a laptop or PC. You simply sign up to the African Movie Channel www.africanmoviechannel.tv (if you do not already have an account) – registration is free, and no subscription is required – you only pay for what you watch.

We thank you for your support throughout 2008 – we couldn’t have done it without you. We wish to thank all those we have worked with in 2008. To all our clients, sponsors, advertisers, and in particular our viewers, we thank you - all your comments and suggestions were always welcome and invaluable.

Join us through 2009 as we go from strength to strength on the African Movie Channel online www.africanmoviechannel.tv and other soon to be announced platforms.

African Movie Channel …delivering Real African drama on-demand to your home.

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A multimillion-dollar business, a beautiful young wife, and all the trappings of success should make any man happy, but Ansu, Modou Musa, is a serial adulterer and it is breaking Amie, Awa Gassama, his young wife’s heart. For Ansu, “Prevention” is the key when playing around with other women, but he fails to realise that what he fears the most will haunt his heart forever… because one wrong move is all it takes…

Arrou (Prevention) is an award-winning film from the stables of Vinasha Productions of The Gambia. Directed by Segun Oguntola, and starring Modou Musa Ceesay, Awa Gassama, Alagie Saihou Saar, Habibatou Jallow, Arrou won Best Contribution to African Film and TV Development at the African Movie Academy Awards (AMA Awards) in 2006, and screened at the 2007 Pan African Film Festival in Los Angeles.

Arrou is in Wollof with English Subtitles. Watch it only on the African Movie Channel - www.africanmoviechannel.tv.

Vinasha Productions is currently raising finance for its new motion picture Drum Bass and Piano, an urban music drama that follows Osborne Hawthorne, a white bankrupt classical pianist who, through midlife crisis unwittingly joins forces with Leo Burgess, a young, black renegade music producer. In an unlikely partnership, Leo and Osborne run Sub FM, a pirate radio station, and together they must overcome a violent turf war, corrupt cops, personal conflict, the credit crunch, and terrorist advances if they are to revitalise their waning careers, and revolutionise London’s classical and urban music scenes. www.drumbassandpiano.com.

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The Africa in Motion (AiM) film festival is delighted to announce the shortlist for their film competition, which consists of eight short films by young and emerging African filmmakers who have not completed feature-length films yet.

The films on the shortlist span fiction and documentary genres: a magic realist tale from Tunisia; a Moroccan story of childhood nostalgia; a single-setting short from Egypt; an edgy tale about two gangsters set in the high-octane Nigerian capital Lagos; a heart-warming love story from Mozambique; and three films from South Africa: a stylistically experimental documentary on anti-apartheid activist Steve Biko; an innovative stop motion animation short; and a fascinating documentary on two lovers and community activists in the Cape.

All selected short films will be screened during the Africa in Motion film festival (23 October - 2 November 2008), and the winner will be announced at a special awards ceremony after the screenings. There will also be an Audience Choice Award, voted for by the viewing public at the AiM film festival, to be announced at the end of the festival.

The winning film will be selected by a jury consisting of acclaimed Burkinabe filmmaker Gaston Kaboré; writer, presenter and filmmaker Zina Saro-Wiwa; Director of the Scottish Documentary Institute Noe Mendelle; and high-profile film critic, writer and producer Mark Cousins. The winning filmmaker will receive £1,000 prize money to assist them in their filmmaking career.

Jury member Mark Cousins says of the competition: “Short films are the spurts of life, the new shoots, of the film world. It is great that Africa in Motion is focusing on them. That’s where the discovery and vitality is. The short film competition, and its considerable prize, is a brilliant way of putting the festival’s money where its mouth is, and giving a fillip to the zingy and daring new African directors. I am delighted to be part of it.”

“We were impressed with the overall quality and standard of the entries”, says festival director Lizelle Bisschoff. “We received films all over the continent – from almost 20 African countries. This competition is part of the festival’s commitment to support filmmaking talent on the continent and it is our hope that the competition will contribute to making it a bit easier for aspiring African filmmakers to fulfil their dreams.”
ENDS

Notes to Editors
The shortlist consists of the following eight films:
 Red & Blue, Mahmood Soliman, Egypt, 2007
 Sellam and Demetan, Mohamed Amin, Morocco, 2008
 I Love You, Rogério Manjate, Mozambique, 2007
 Area Boys, Omelihu Nwanguma, Nigeria/UK, 2007
 Magic Crop, Anis Lassoued, Tunisia, 2006
 Agenda, Diek Grobler, South Africa, 2007
 Biko’s Children, Vuyisa Breeze Yoko, South Africa, 2007
 Pam & Ashraf, Robyn Rorke, South Africa, 2007

The AiM short film competition is kindly sponsored in part by Total Black TV, an online film distributor based in New York www.totalblacktv.com.

For all press queries, please contact Press Officer Leo Wood leo@africa-in-motion.org.uk 07876 403 648.

The final programme for AiM will be released mid-September, please visit www.africa-in-motion.org.uk for full details. Concessionary discounts and ticket deals will be available.

AiM is organised by Stop and Stir Arts Ltd, www.stopandstir.org, a not-for-profit arts company that aims to make marginalised and underrepresented art more widely available to Scottish audiences. Lizelle Bisschoff is the artistic director of both AiM and Stop and Stir Arts Ltd, lizelle@africa-in-motion.org.uk.

The filmmakers are:
Anis Lassoued: Born in Tunisia in 1972, Lassoued received a Bachelors Degree in Film Production from the Institut Maghréb in Tunis. He pursued further training in script writing at Fémis in Paris and has worked as an assistant and casting editor on many Tunisian and international films. He has directed three short fiction films and documentaries to date, and Magic Crop has won several awards at film festivals worldwide.

Mohamed Amin: Amin has studied various cinema courses in Belgium and worked with a number of Belgian directors. He has made several short films and his work has been screened in festivals in Belgium and Morocco.

Mahmood Soliman: Born in Minia (Upper Egypt) in 1976, Soliman graduated from the Higher Cinema Institute in Cairo in 1997 and has written, directed and produced three short films to date. He is currently working on the screenplay of his first feature film and has published essays in several Arab publications as well as three collections of short stories.

Omelihu Nwanguma: Nwanguma was born in London to Nigerian parents in 1977 and spent  his early childhood growing up in Lagos and Eastern Nigeria. He has received funding from the UK Film Council for short film production, and his second short film, Seeker, was produced in  2005 and has won a host of awards at international film festivals. His third short film, Area Boys, was entirely self-funded and shot on a low budget.       �

Rogério Manjate: Manjate was born in Maputo, Mozambique, in 1972 and is a professional actor and director of theatre, a writer and a filmmaker. He has studied Agronomy at Eduardo Mondlane University and he currently lives in Maputo. I Love You is his second short fiction film, and he has worked as an actor in several Mozambican films.

Diek Grobler: Grobler obtained a Masters Degree in Fine Arts from the University of the Witwatersrand in South Africa in 1996. His animations have won several awards and he has also work in the production of animation television series for children. Agenda is his second independent film.

Vuyisa Breeze Yoko: Actor, graphic designer, hip-hop MC and graffiti artist Breeze started his career in the film and television industry as a runner on commercial shoots. While working on a  show as presenter for the South African Broadcasting Corporation, Breeze developed an interest in directing. Biko’s Children has been screened at film festivals in South Africa and India and has won a best short film award at the Tri-Continents Film Festival in 2007.

Robyn Rorke: Rorke is currently working towards her PhD at the University of Cape Town in the fields of democracy, governance and civic activism. She is a social scientist who is interested in stories and she primarily employs a method of participant observation in her research. Rorke has worked with the Anti-eviction Campaign in Cape Town since 1994, and has close contact with the two activists represented in Pam & Ashraf.

Every movie £1 Throughout August

Summer proper is finally here, and for the month of August only, ALL movies will be £1!  No catch – simply spend £10 or more buying credits in the month of August, and you will immediately receive enough bonus credits to make every film you watch cost you only £1, that’s it! 

spend £10 and get 50 bonus credits FREE, instead of the usual 4 bonus credits!

spend £20 and get 100 bonus credits FREE, instead of the usual 10 bonus credits!!

spend £30 and get 150 bonus credits FREE, instead of the usual 22 bonus credits!!!

You can use your bonus credits to watch any movies you like whenever you like and wherever you are. 

And now, ALL drama series will only cost you 7 credits, that’s only 70p!

Watch Tade Ogidan’s BEHIND THE SEIGE and other popular and exciting African drama serials - Dear Mother, Rough Edges, Ya Ma’Afrika, Family Ties, Cyberia and Households, all on-demand, only on the African Movie Channel. 

The African Movie Channel continues to provide a truly amazing viewing experience with every selection available to enjoy instantly at superb full-screen TV quality as standard. Our films will remain of superior standard compared to anything available on VCD or anywhere online; we have said this before - don’t take our word for it; see for yourself. 

All you need to enjoy AMC is an internet connection together with a laptop or PC; that’s it! You can if you want, connect your PC or laptop to your TV, and sit back and indulge in a truly amazing viewing experience with all the family. 

African Movie Channel – delivering the best African films and drama on-demand to your home…

Every movie £1 Throughout August

Summer proper is finally here, and for the month of August only, ALL movies will be £1! 

No catch – simply spend £10 or more buying credits in the month of August, and you will immediately receive enough bonus credits to make every film you watch cost you only £1, that’s it! 

spend £10 and get 50 bonus credits FREE, instead of the usual 4 bonus credits!

spend £20 and get 100 bonus credits FREE, instead of the usual 10 bonus credits!!

spend £30 and get 150 bonus credits FREE, instead of the usual 22 bonus credits!!!

You can use your bonus credits to watch any movies you like whenever you like and wherever you are. 

And now, ALL drama series will only cost you 7 credits, that’s only 70p!

Watch Tade Ogidan’s BEHIND THE SEIGE and other popular and exciting African drama serials - Dear Mother, Rough Edges, Ya Ma’Afrika, Family Ties, Cyberia and Households, all on-demand, only on the African Movie Channel. 

The African Movie Channel continues to provide a truly amazing viewing experience with every selection available to enjoy instantly at superb full-screen TV quality as standard. Our films will remain of superior standard compared to anything available on VCD or anywhere online; we have said this before - don’t take our word for it; see for yourself. 

All you need to enjoy AMC is an internet connection together with a laptop or PC; that’s it! You can if you want, connect your PC or laptop to your TV, and sit back and indulge in a truly amazing viewing experience with all the family. 

African Movie Channel – delivering the best African films and drama on-demand to your home…

click here for more