Montreal: Forty international filmmakers, industry guests and journalists are attending this year’s 15th annual Journees Africaines et Creoles film festival, April 23 to May 2 in Montreal.

Festival highlights include a presentation of new works from young filmmakers by a representative from M-Net, the private English-language tv network in South Africa; the North American premiere of the Abdelkader Lagtaa’s feature Les Casablancais, the first Canada/France/Morocco coproduction; and a screening of Destin de Femmes, the latest film from award-winning director Hakim Noury (Voleur de reves, Un simple fait divers).

Toronto director Christene Brown is also attending and will present her film Another Planet. Brown is touted as the first Canadian black woman to direct a feature film.

There are more than 150 short films, television productions and feature films from 40 countries on this year’s program, organized by Vues d’Afrique.

‘M-Net is very active in the development of filmmaking in South Africa and they have a program for young directors,’ says Francoise Wera, a founding member of Vues d’Afrique and the festival’s program director. ‘The festival is screening four of their short works as well as a feature, Ntshaveni Wa Luruli’s first film, a comedy called Chikin Biznis – The Whole Story.’

Shot entirely on location in Casablanca by a Quebec and French crew, Les Casablancais is a trilogy of caustic stories of repression. The film has been described as a strong example of ‘the renewal of Arab cinema’ and was coproduced by Ian Boyd of Montreal’s Films de l’Ile.

The film was developed with funding from the Vues d’Afrique-managed Programme d’incitation a la coproduction Nord-Sud, and is the first official Canada/France/ Morocco coproduction. It screens April 23 and will be released commercially April 30 by Remstar Releasing.

Nord-Sud coproduction

The $100,000 annual Nord-Sud coproduction fund is financed by l’Agence de la francophonie and, for the first time this year, by Telefilm Canada and sodec, which have picked up half the cost.

Filmmakers attending include Noury, Wa Luruli, Algerian director Ahcene Osmani (L’Homme de paix), Egyptian director Radwan El-Kashef (La Sueur des plamiers), African actor Sotigui Kouyate (L’Heritage du Griot) and Burkina Faso-based Polish-French director Henryk Janusz Mrozowski (La Revanche de Lucy).

The English-language Crossroads Africa section includes Mark Daniels’ Classified X and Marcia Donalds’ The Return. Cuban-born Donalds currently lives in the u.s. and is one of three American women filmmakers attending this year’s festival, says Wera.

The Regard Canadien section features shorts from the Radio-Canada youth adventure series La Course Destination Monde, Famadihana from directors Christophe Goyen and Real Barnabe, and Robert Lang’s Mali Adventure River of Sand, shot with singer Bruce Cockburn. La Course completed its final season earlier this month.

This year’s Vues d’Afrique tribute goes to Senegalese director Djibril Diop Mambety.

Screenings are being held at Concordia University’s Salle Alexandre de Seve Theatre, at the Cinematheque Quebecoise and at Cinema onf/nfb.

The festival’s best short and feature-length film prizes are awarded by Radio-Canada, which acquires the films for subsequent broadcast.