AFMAC

Change doesn’t start with grand gestures. It often begins with conversation, with artists coming together to imagine what’s possible. This is where the true magic of AFMAC lies: in creating intentional spaces where filmmakers, artists, and cultural workers can meet, exchange, and grow. From these gatherings come new pathways, shared resources, and the networks that make creative freedom sustainable. AFMAC is more than a collective. It’s a living infrastructure of collaboration that is strengthening the connective tissue of the continent’s creative future. Join the journey. @bmwgroupculture #afmac #jointhejourney

Across Africa, the cultural wealth is vast. Yet too often, artists see only a fraction of the value they generate. As co-founder Mehret Mandefro reflects, this cultural extraction mirrors the continent’s historical patterns of resource extraction. But finding ways to work together can break this pattern. This is the space where AFMAC intervenes: to reimagine how African and Afro-diasporic artists can meaningfully connect, experiment, and grow stronger, together. @bmwgroupculture #afmac #jointhejourney

What if art could travel a continent? 🌍 The African Film and Media Arts Collective (AFMAC) began as an idea sparked by artist Julie Mehretu’s vision for her BMW Art Car #20, a project that redefined what art in motion can mean. Julie imagined the car not as an object to be displayed, but as a mobile site of creation, a moving workshop journeying the Pan-African highway from Cairo to Cape Town. Through this idea, AFMAC was born: an artist-led collective imagining new conditions of creation to create sustainable infrastructures and strengthen the artist community in Africa. #afmac #jointhejourney

What happens after the frame stops explaining Africa and starts listening? Before Aristotle’s Plot challenged the machinery of cinema, Malick Sidibé offered another kind of response: images alive with rhythm, style, and self-possession. In 1960s and ’70s Bamako, his portraits captured the spirit of a generation stepping into independence, dancing, posing, gathering, and imagining themselves joyously. For the Portraits of Liberation, Sidibé reminds us that freedom is not only declared. Sometimes, it is worn, danced, and photographed. #afmac #panafricanism #malicksidibe

Commissioned by the British Film Institute for the hundredth birthday of cinema, Bekolo turned the assignment into a philosophical boxing match. The film, Aristotle’s Plot, stages a confrontation between “Cinema” (a masked figure armed with Hollywood tapes) and “Africans” (a group of young men at an outdoor screening) to ask whether the Western grammar of storytelling has colonized the African screen. It is playful, confrontational, and totally its own thing. It answers the question: what happens when African cinema turns the gaze back on Hollywood? Sign up for the AFMAC newsletter for a monthly dose of Pan-African cinema, art, and cultural learnings. Film Director: @jeanpierrebekolo #afmac #panafricancinema #jointhejourney

A narrative shapeshifter moving between satire, sci-fi, and political critique, Jean-Pierre Bekolo bends genre, time, and narrative until they reveal something deeper about power, identity, and the African imagination. A pioneering voice in contemporary African cinema, Bekolo is known for rejecting linear storytelling and Western genre constraints. His work lives at the intersection of politics, philosophy, and experimentation, positioning African cinema not as a response, but as an origin point for new cinematic language. Featured films: Les Saignantes — A futuristic, neon-drenched satire where two women navigate power, corruption, and the grotesque elite in a dystopian African state. Le Complot d’Aristote — A meta-cinematic rebellion that questions authorship, storytelling, and the very structure of African film narratives. Quartier Mozart — A playful, gender-bending coming-of-age story set in Yaoundé, blending humor with sharp social commentary. La Grammaire de ma grand-mère — A poetic reflection on memory, language, and the invisible threads connecting generations. Le Président — A political fiction imagining the sudden disappearance of a long-standing African president—and the chaos that follows. Naked Reality — A futuristic anthology exploring African identities through speculative and genre-defying lenses. Les Choses et les Mots de Mudimbe — An intimate portrait of philosopher V.Y. Mudimbe, tracing thought, language, and decolonial inquiry. Afrique, la pensée en mouvement — A dynamic exploration of African intellectual thought as living, evolving practice. Foumban: Is Wakanda — A cultural excavation linking the real histories of Foumban to the imagined world of Wakanda. Le Goût du Vin de Palme — A sensory, symbolic journey through tradition, desire, and storytelling rooted in African folklore. Bekolo doesn’t just make films, he redefines what African cinema can be. #afmac #panafricancinema #jeanpierrebekolo

🙋🏾‍♀️One of my golden rules is never work alone. I entered the film business with a production company I built with my best friend and another I built with my husband. Seventeen years later I am still in deep partnership. Every single thing I’ve made in this life has been made working deeply with other people. Truth Aid Impact. Truth Aid Media. Haile Addis Pictures. A51 Films. Kana TV. Ethiopia Creates. Realness Institute. East African Screen Collective. African Film and Media Arts Collective. Nine partnerships. Nine containers for shared dreams. When you work deeply over the long haul, your work multiplies. The secret is not some productivity hack. It’s choosing the right people and building with them over time. It’s trust. It’s messy. It’s not easy. It’s showing up over and over again. It’s also a lot of love and care. That’s why medicine was the best training ground to prepare me for this work. EDIT: And this post also lives on the @a.f.m.a.c page because collective practice is foundational to what we are building. #BuildTogether #InterdependentCinema #creativepartnerships #collaborationovercompetition

What happens when genre stops being a category and becomes a way in? This April, we’re moving through the world of Jean-Pierre Bekolo, watching Aristotle’s Plot, reading his sharp reflections on African cinema, listening with that same spirit of experimentation, and learning from his words at FESPACO. A small invitation to sit with a filmmaker who has always pushed past the expected. Want your monthly dose of Pan-African arts and culture delivered to your inbox? Sign up via link in bio! #AFMAC #PanAfricanCinema #africancinema

🤩🤩🤩🤩🤩 Remember all last year and through December 2025, I kept saying remember this name: @a.f.m.a.c , the African Film and Media Arts Collective, founded by longtime collaborators Julie Mehretu (@juliemehretu ) and Mehret Mandefro (@drmehret )? Lord, what a collaboration!!! Somehow, the gods have landed me in their sublime company, working with them on a project that is so liberatory and inspired, I don’t even know how to think about it half of the time. Every trip to the continent, every country we visit, every city—all the remarkable artists whom we meet, all of it—every single time, I just grow silent by the end of the week, overcome, in complete awe of the work they both are doing, their sharp, vast, gifted minds: so far ahead, so far ahead. Here is one of many, many articles about this inspired collaboration. I swear, trust me, it’s from the future. Check out the full story in @marieclaireuk ‘s bio. But most of all check out Julie Mehretu’s and Mehret Mandefro’s @a.f.m.a.c here on IG and the links in @a.f.m.a.c ’ s bio! Meanwhile, I’ll be pinching myself every day for the rest of life! And so much more very, very soon. Repost from @marieclaireuk • In a first for In the Frame, we bring two voices into conversation: Julie Mehretu and @drmehret — co-founders of a global collective championing African voices in film and art. From navigating double standards to embracing discomfort as a catalyst for breakthrough, they share how their practices intersect—and why collaboration has the power to reshape culture as we know it. Tap the link in bio to read the full interviews. Photos: Josefina Santos, Mehret Mandefro, Jacquie Manni, Tom Powel, Tereze Mudilová, Mubi, Ollie Hammick, Prudence

The market is what we make it to be. This week, filmmakers, industry professionals, and experts are gathering on Reunion Island to not only discuss but to hand make a market that is more sustainable and operates on a human scale. Join us. @juliemehretu @drmehret @fifoi.officiel #afmac #jointhejourney #fifoi2026

For the Dakar workshop we partnered with @fantasy.dkr a film house founded by @matidiop in 2022 in collaboration with Fabacary Assymby Coly and @raw.gram2011 , an arts organization founded by the late Koyo Kouoh. Koyo’s presence loomed large as we gathered, watched films, engaged, and continued the work she started. @bmwgroupculture @juliemehretu @drmehret @raw.gram2011 @matidiop @fantasy.dkr #afmac #jointhejourney #dakar 🎥: @pacific_pacific

In Dakar, art and culture are central threads in the fabric of society. The city is world renown for its music, art, tasty cuisine, and history. Experiencing all of it left us wanting to return sooner than later. @juliemehretu @bmwgroupculture @drmehret @fantasy.dkr #afmac #dakar #jointhejourney 🎥: @pacific_pacific