Jali Collective brings African cinema to Edinburgh

Early in 2025, Tomiwa Folorunso, Isabel Moura Mendes and Carmen Thompson collectively voiced a lack of spaces for African cinema in Scotland – specifically in Edinburgh. From there, the Jali Collective was born: an Edinburgh-based grassroots collective that seeks to widen access to African cinema and to celebrate and elevate Black, African, and diaspora stories through film and culture. This autumn brings the collective’s inaugural programme, the Jali Film Weekender (30 Oct-2 Nov), a vibrant four days of film screenings, conversations, workshops, and much more, taking place under the theme of Dreams and Apparitions.

The Collective’s name speaks to the jalis of West Africa: travelling poets, musicians, and storytellers, and holders of cultural heritage. In Swahili, the jali root verb means to care for or pay attention to. In Arabic, the word means greatness and majesty. In such multiplicity, the name resonates with the Collective’s platforming of pan-African cinema, as well as their core values.

Taking place at Edinburgh’s Filmhouse, the Jali weekender will welcome audiences in the very heart of Scotland's capital, which was key for the collective. It was imperative for them that African cinema is recognised for its value and not confined to the margins – location is integral. Likewise, by using the Filmhouse, they're directly inviting African, Black and diaspora audiences into this much-loved arthouse venue. Speaking on the programming of African film in the UK, Thompson says, “The audiences don't tend to represent the communities that are on the screen and the stories that are on the screen – and I think that's to do with how the work is done.” In other words, when programme teams don’t reflect or actively involve certain communities, those communities don't tend to be reflected in the seated audience.

And so, the collective knew from the outset that they had to work differently. “We're not calling it a festival; we’re calling it a weekender, because we want to allow some breathing space for things to be done in a different way,” says Mendes. The collective wants us to rethink how we share films – both within and outwith our communities.

Similarly, the three founding members aren’t interested in hierarchies, especially ones in which their own egos are prioritised. Upon founding the Jali Collective, they began developing a constitution that lays out their commitment to operating in a collaborative manner and doing so with honesty and transparency. “There's also a thinking of longevity,” continues Mendes, “that hopefully this will exist beyond us.”

Still from Khartoum. Image: Jali Collective.

Community underpins all that the Jali Collective do. As their constitution signals, the needs and perspectives of the communities the collective serves are prioritised above industry clout, financial incentive or personal gain. They also decided on the roles of Cultural Advisors fairly early on. These are three individuals – of the African, Black or diaspora community in Edinburgh – who'll support the collective through acting as “critical friends”. The ethos being that professional experience is not superior to lived experience, and the Cultural Advisors will ensure that the community has an active voice within the very programming of the weekender. The result is that the collective resists the traditional hierarchies of programming within the film industry, while also building connections and relationships across the city. “What does meaningful and intentional engagement look like?” asks Folorunso. “Trust is a big part of that.”

The Jali Film Weekender will open with the Scottish premiere of Memory of Princess Mumbi, a beautiful and brilliant new Afro-Futurist film from Swiss-Kenyan director Damien Hauser. To close, the collective brings us the Scottish premiere of Tunisian director Erige Sehiri’s Promised Sky. This acclaimed drama – which opened this year’s Un Certain Regard section at the Cannes Film Festival – follows the interconnected lives of three women from sub-Saharan Africa, now living in Tunis.

In a partnership with Maona Art, an England-based African cinema initiative, the weekender will also screen Amakki, an Ethiopian documentary directed by Celia Boussebaa, which looks at a community of women against the backdrop of a coffee ceremony. A Sudanese focus throughout the programme will include the new documentary Khartoum, screening in collaboration with Scottish Documentary Institute. Before the weekender, on 14 October, an East African short film programme titled Manyatta Mengi Mashariki – curated by filmmaker Hawa Essuman, producer Fibby Kioria and filmmaker Wanjeri Gakuru – will screen, laying the foundations for the forthcoming event.

Running alongside the film screenings will be an extended reality (XR) exhibition, in collaboration with the British Council, featuring two works by Kenyan artists. In Enkang’ Ang’ (meaning Our Home in Maasai), multimedia artist Naitiemu takes viewers to a traditional Maasai enkang (homestead) and considers the role of tradition in re-imagining our futures. Meanwhile, Africa’s first public environmental augmented reality game, ARGO – developed by XR game designer Joanna Oluoch, in collaboration with Fallohide Studio – transports audiences to Nairobi’s Oloolua Forest, offering the opportunity to meet its wildlife while learning about conservation. Welcoming thoughtful and innovative uses of new technology from the African continent, the weekender encourages us to collectively imagine (perhaps, even, enact) a hopeful future.

For Folorunso, it’s particularly meaningful to reflect on what she needed in the city, having grown up in Edinburgh, and how the Jali Collective will now begin to bring this to audiences. “[We are] wanting and hoping that the audiences in this city take it and hold it and know that it’s here – and that this is for them.”

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Jali Film Weekender, Filmhouse, Edinburgh, 30 Oct - 2 Nov; full details at jalicollective.co.uk