WOMEX 20 Announces Its Official Film Programme Selection, Online From 15-25 October 2020

The WOMEX 20 Film Programme features a curated selection of 21 documentaries.
This year's selection is an urgent sonic reflection on deeper themes and pertinent questions emerging at this time. With topics ranging from the representation of Africa, female empowerment, inclusivity & diversity, the Black lives matter movement, grassroots community actions, ecology and spirituality; the programme pushes forward stories left out of mainstream narratives - revealing opportunities to connect through progressive storytelling. The programme features new releases, preview screenings and premieres.

For the digital edition of WOMEX 20, the entire selection of films will be available online via streaming on the virtualWOMEX platform from the 15 - 25 October 2020 accessible to all WOMEX 20 digital participants worldwide.

A retrospective of filmmaker Jeremy Marre's films Konkombe, Roots Rock Reggae, Rhythm of Resistance and Salsa from his award-winning series Beats of the Heart is also available to all WOMEX 20 digital participants as bonus content from 24 September to 8 October 2020.

"Powerful stories for powerful times - this is what we have strived for with this year's programme. As curators of a film programme within a music expo, we continue to explore the threads connecting film and music, pushing forward an innovative and engaging platform used both by the film and global music community to speak to each other. We hope the 2020 film selection resonates with the WOMEX community, and they enjoy it as much as we did putting it together."
Luca Jacob & Sana Rizvi, Curators, WOMEX Film Programme

The WOMEX Film Programme provides a platform for the film industry to reach new markets while exploring additional distribution and production channels. The programme also creates an immersive experience for bookers, curators, label managers and publishers, among others to discover music, artists, and cross-cultural collaborations, while reflecting on alternative programming opportunities.

Here is the complete list of films in the WOMEX 20 Film Programme (in alphabetical order)
- 240BPM++ directed by Bagas Oktariyan Ananta (Indonesia, 2019)
- A Sonic Pulse directed by Dororthy Allen-Pickard & Antoine Marinot (UK, 2019)
- Berlin Bamako Allstars directed by Markus Schmidt (Germany, 2020)
- Birth of Afrobeat directed by Opiyo Okeyo (USA, 2019)
- Breaking Barriers: The Casteless Collective directed by Maja Meiners (Germany/India, 2019)
- Breaking the Circle directed by Tobias Nathan (Brazil, 2019)
- Contradict directed by Peter Guyer & Thomas Burkhalter (Switzerland, 2020)
- Dark City Beneath the Beat directed by Tedra "TT The Artist" Wilson (USA, 2019)
- Fly Bird Fly: The Hungarian Dance House Story directed by Simon Broughton (Hungary, 2020)
- Khamsin directed by Grégoire Couvert & Grégoire Orio (France/ Lebanon, 2019)
- Kinshasa Beta Mbonda directed by Marie-Françoise Plissart (Belgium, 2019)
- Lisbon Beats directed by Rita Maia & Vasco Viana (Portugal, 2019)
- Naja directed by Jan Beddegenoodts (Belgium, 2019)
- Rave and Resistance: The Birth of Club Culture in 90s Johannesburg directed by Zandile Tisani (South Africa, 2019)
- River City Drumbeat directed by Anne Flatté & Marlon Johnson (USA, 2019)
- Sama' Abdulhadi directed by Jan Beddegenoodts (Belgium, 2019)
- Sounds of Tehran directed by Aleksandra Bilic & Victoria Fiore (UK, 2019)
- Taxi Waves directed by Mike Calandra Achode & Tommaso Cassinis (Italy, 2019)
- Uproar directed by Moe Najati (UK, 2020)
- When You Listen directed by Sergi Cameron (Bolivia/Spain, 2019)
- Wild Honey directed by Ava Porter & Farhad Akhmetov (Russia/USA, 2019)