In line with the festival's Pan-African subject matter, screenings will be held both in St. Louis, and in Lagos, Nigeria. Screenings in Nigeria will be held at the National Theatre, which housed the Second World Festival of Black Arts and Culture.

Television executives from African networks will be present at the Nigerian screenings, providing the chance for filmmakers to receive distribution in Africa. Additionally, prizes will be awarded to six exceptional documentaries, three feature-length and three shorts, for significantly contributing to understanding of the African World.

The National Theatre will host the first edition of
the University of Missouri- St. Louis' E. Desmond Lee
Africa World Documentary Film Festival. The screenings
of more than 60 original features would take place at
the Cinema Hall 1 of the National Theatre of Nigeria,
in Lagos, Nigeria from Nov. 2 through 11.
This is in association with the West African
Documentary Film
Forum (Nigeria Section). The screenings will take
place at various times throughout each day, from 12 -
7pm, and will be broken down into screening sessions
featuring three or four films. No film will be
repeated during the festival.
The festival is the result of a documentary film
competition at UMSL,
which was open to the public and created to promote
awareness and understanding of African people, culture
and traditions. Prizes were awarded to the top three
winners in the two categories of short films and
full-length features. The awards included cash prizes
ranging from $200 to $1,000. Prizes were awarded at
5:30 p.m. Oct. 7 at the Tivoli Theatre. The E. Desmond
Lee Africa World Documentary Film Festival is directed
and sponsored by Professor 'Niyi Coker, Jr., the
E. Desmond Lee Professorship in
African/African- American Studies at UMSL; Center for
International Studies at UMSL; the Department of
Theatre, Dance and Media Studies at UMSL; and
Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis. The last three days
of the Nigeria showing coincides with the 9th edition
of the Lagos Book and Art Festival, LABAF 07 (November
9-11) organised by the Commitee for
Relavant Arts (CORA)
A complete listing of times and films can be sourced
on http://www.cfis- umsl.com.

For further information please contact the Corporate
and Commercial Services Department of the National
Theatre on 8169038/7611912