More than 400 people gathered to celebrate this year’s CinemAfrica Film Festival at the opening ceremony that was held on March 23 at Sture in Stockholm.

The lobby of the cinema was packed with festival-goers, and the atmosphere was joyful.

“This festival is a wonderful place to come and be inspired,” said one festival attendee, Miriam Sio-Ladenius. “For many of us who are of African descent, its good to be able to see films and be reminded that there is another world out there”, she said. “A world that has African actors, African directors, and African stories. These films have cultural importance as well.”

“This festival is a great antidote to American films”, said Marit Kapla, creative director, Göteborg International Film Festival. “Events like this are helpful in showing that there is a commonality of experience in stories from around the world”, she said.

His Excellency Ambassador S R (Zeph) Makgetla of South Africa opened the event, and welcomed the 12 visiting African filmmakers in attendance by noting that: “These cultural workers are the true ambassadors of Africa. The work that they do to document, explain and interpret life in Africa brings much that happens in daily life to a far wider audience”.

Urbanlife.se was able to speak to two of South Africa’s most famous actors, Kenneth Nkosi and Rapulana Seiphemo during the event.

Paradise Stop, their film about friendship and loyalty, opened CinemAfrica 2011.

“We are happy to be here at the CinemAfrica Film Festival, it’s a great opportunity for us. Platforms like this are important,” says Rapulana Seiphemo.

“Paradise Stop is a film about two guys, and what happens to them because of circumstances. This is a fun and entertaining story from South Africa”, he says.

“It’s good to be able to come (to Sweden) and meet people and present our work. We are hoping for distribution deals that will help us make money for our investors, so that they will give us more money to make more films. For us, that’s what its all about. Being able to make films,” explains, Kenneth Nkosi.

More than 40 films are to be shown at 4 locations around Stockholm from 23-28 March. The films to be screened at the festival range from documentaries to drama, comedy and shorts. This year, there are two special focus areas; African animated films and works by female filmmakers from the African continent.