Sunni Peterson will be honored at the Fest.

The New Orleans Afrikan Film and Arts Festival returns this weekend with a new, innovative lineup of films, music, dance and literature at Café Istanbul.

The festival, founded in 2008 by Senegalese filmmaker Joseph Gaoamake and New Orleanian professor of French, comparative literature and African diaspora studies at Indiana University, Eileen Julien, allows attendees to experience diverse strains of life and culture, and film isn't the only medium.

“We first began with a monthly series of screenings,” says Julien.  “To celebrate Nelson Mandela’s birthday we decided to focus on South Africa.  In August [of 2008] we invited Charles Burnett who had just done Namibia.”   

It wasn’t until the next year that they held a one-day multi-media festival, screening Gai Ramaka’s Karmen and featuring music.  After obtaining an Andy Warhol Grant, the festival expanded even further.  

“We showed films in many different neighborhoods like the Ninth Ward and Treme and we showed a range of films: Cuban, South African and Haitian,” says Julien.  “We target an audience that is somewhat neglected; that has been neglected historically in New Orleans, [so] we try to hold our screenings in diverse neighborhoods.”

This Friday, the festival honors influential poet and activist, Sunni Patterson. Musician Harold Battiste Jr., received last year’s honors. The night continues with the sounds of African Diaspora and authentic Jamaican cuisine.  An orchestra headed by Dr. Jean Montes starts off the night, along with a solo by Colette Handy.  The music theme keeps going with a screening of Catherine Murphy’s film Maestro, which follows the story of young women teaching literacy across rural Cuba.      

“Our main criteria are high quality films that are beautiful, powerful, new, provocative, and magical,” says Julien.  “It is an event which combines music, sometimes dance and film.”  

Saturday's program explores the themes of violence, community and survival with screenings of Ian Padron’s Habanastation, which looks at the relationship between two Cuban children of different social economic backgrounds, Stephen James’ documentary,The Interrupters, about gang members in Chicago and Fernando Meirelles’ feature City of God, which examines a housing project in Rio de Janeiro from a child’s point of view. The night ends lighter with the musical stylings of Tank and the Bangas.  

“We try to do things that have a serious interest in social justice and resonate with issues that touch the community,’ says Julien.  

The last day of the festival brings a series of short films, such as Ghanian Baff Akoto’s Afterglow, celebrating late New Orleans jazz musician, Abram Wilson.  Other short films include On the Line, Details, Statue, She is Alex and Modern Romance.  After a roundtable discussion with the filmmakers, the fest closes with a special screening of Shell Shocked, which focuses on growing up with violence in New Orleans, and a performance by Caesar Brothers Funk Box.  

Individual screenings are $5, while a full festival pass is $20.