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Pumzi:
A Screening & Conversation
with Director Wanuri Kahiu

5 PM, March 15, 2016
Ustler Hall Atrium
University of Florida

ICC’s Spring 2016 events conclude with a public screening of Kenyan filmmaker Wanuri Kahiu’s science fiction short film. Set in an East African subterranean society “35 years after World War III, the ‘Water War,’” Pumzi (2009) tells the story of a female scientist’s effort to envision a new way of relating to the outside world, believed to be void of all life. Pumzi (Swahili for “Breath”) has been praised for its treatment of afrofuturistic and ecocritical themes, and for its depiction of a climate changed world that includes Africa.

Pumzi premiered at the Kenya Film Festival in 2009, was screened at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival as part of its New African Cinema program, and is included in Focus Features’ Africa First short film program. Starring Chantelle Burger and Kudzani Moswela, the film was written and directed by Kahiu, with music by Siddhartha Barnhoorn, cinematography by Grant Appleton and editing by Dean Leslie. It was produced by Simon Hansen, Amira Quinlan, Hanna Slezacek, and Steven Markowitz, for Inspired Minority Pictures. Kahiu hopes to expand the short into a full-length feature.

All ICC events are free and open to the public. No advance registration is required.

For additional information, contact Terry Harpold <tharpold@ufl.edu> or Alioune Sow <sow@ufl.edu>.

 

About Wanuri Kahiu

Selected Filmography of Wanuri Kahiu

  • For Our Land (2009)
  • From a Whisper (2008)
  • Ras Star (2007)
  • The Spark that Unites (2006)
  • Ama’s Mama (2005)
  • Reflection (2005)

“Imagining Climate Change” is sponsored by the France-Florida Research Institute, the Center for African Studies, the Center for European Studies, the Center for the Humanities and the Public Sphere (Yulee Fund), the Department of English, the Florida Climate Institute at the University of Florida, the George A. Smathers Libraries, the Science Fiction Working Group, the UF Water Institute, and Storm Richards and Jeanne Fillman-Richards. Colloquium events are made possible with the support of the Cultural Services of the French Embassy in the United States.


“Pumzi” poster by Madeline Gangnes