WICHITA, KANS—Wichita Association for the Motion Picture Arts and Tallgrass Film Festival announces the latest film in the Tallgrass Third Thursdays screening series. “Nollywood Babylon,” will be presented at 7 p.m., Thursday, Nov. 19 in the CAC Theater at Wichita State University’s Rhatigan Student Center. Co-Director, Samir Mallal, will be in attendance to introduce the film and participate in a Q & A after the film. The screening is one of three film events taking place in celebration of International Education Week, Nov. 16-20 at WSU. Tickets are $9 general admission, $7 for seniors and free for WSU students and high school students with I.D.

“Nollywood Babylon,” directed by Ben Addelman and Samir Mallal, a 2009 Canadian production filmed in Nigeria, was nominated for Sundance Film Festival’s 2009 Grand Jury Prize for World Cinema Documentary. The film delves first-hand into Nigeria’s explosive homegrown movie industry, Nollywood, where Jesus and voodoo vie for screen time.

Nollywood, which just began in 1992, is now the third largest film industry in the world, “an unstoppable economic and cultural force that has taken the continent by storm and is now bursting beyond the borders of Africa. Nollywood cinema was born of the street markets of Lagos, Nigeria’s largest metropolis. Unfazed by low production values and shoe-string budgets, enterprising filmmakers created a brash, inventive and wildly popular form of cinema that has Nigerians Nollywood-obsessed. In these films, voodoo and magic infuse urban stories, reflecting the kinetic collision of traditional mysticism and modern culture that Nigerians experience every day. Propelled by a booming ’70s soundtrack of African underground music, the film drops viewers into the chaos of the Idumota market. Here, among the bustling stalls, films are sold and unlikely stars are born.” —Museum of Modern Art catalog

This Tallgrass Third Thursday screening is co-sponsored by the WSU Office of International Education.

Two 2008 Tallgrass Film Festival favorites will also be shown in conjunction with International Education Week and are both FREE and open to the public:

“The Edge of Heaven,” 7 p.m., Monday, Nov. 16 at the CAC Theater. Directed by Fatih Akin, this 2007 film hails from Germany, Turkey and Italy and is the winner of twenty-one international film awards, including Best Screenplay at Cannes International Film Festival.
“A beautiful, unexpectedly enrapturing story about a world in transition and both the closeness and unbridgeable divide between generations and cultures. —Carina Chocano, Los Angeles Times.

”Captain Abu Raed,” 2 p.m. matinee screening, Tuesday Nov. 17 at the CAC Theater. Directed by Amin Matalqa, “Captain Abu Raed” was Jordan’s submission to 2009 Academy Awards. It is the winner of fifteen international awards including World Cinema Audience Award at Sundance Film Festival.
“Such a subtle yet global view of human struggle—the whole world viewed through the prism of a single poor neighborhood—is a mark of extraordinary promise from this remarkable new filmmaker.—F.X. Feeny, The Village Voice

The films are part of a weeklong celebration of international education on the Wichita State campus and around the country. International Education Week was founded in 2000 by the Clinton Administration to celebrate and promote International Education and Exchange and multi-culturalism.

Tallgrass Third Thursday special screenings are a program of Wichita Association of the Motion Picture Arts which also produces Tallgrass Film Festival. For more information about the festival, visit tallgrassfilmfest.com or contact Teri Mott at teri@tallgrassfilm.com or (614) 506-9307.