There is a point between the frames (see what I did there), somewhere around film number seventy-three, where they all begin talking to each other.
A woman in Lagos asks a question that somehow gets answered by a boy in Kigali. A fisherman in Ghana quietly nods at an activist in Kenya. A grandmother whispers something in Wolof and somehow, an animator in Cairo seems to have been listening all along.
That is my favourite part of curating Frame by Frame. I love films, and honestly, I have found myself selfishly curating this festival from the perspective that I need to consume more African content. What better way than to sit through hundreds of films, sift through them, and then present them to a room full of hungry audiences, showcasing the incredible talent that exists across Africa?
Most people imagine curation as choosing films. I think of it as eavesdropping on a continent. It is noticing the same questions appearing in different languages. It is discovering that two filmmakers who have never met are wrestling with the same memory.
Now, in its third edition, I have stopped thinking of it as a festival and started thinking of it as a living archive. Every submission is a timestamp. A love letter. A protest. A joke only Africans would understand. A document of who we are becoming before someone else decides to tell the story for us.
I look for films that refuse to leave me alone. The ones I keep thinking about while making a lovely cup of milo. The ones that interrupt my sleep. The ones that make me text someone (or create a festival) and say, "You have to watch this."
This edition reminded me that African cinema has never been one thing. It is playful and political. Tender and furious. Quiet and completely unhinged. It carries our humour, our grief, our contradictions, our accents, our silences, our beliefs and our impossible imaginations.
Every festival, I finish curating convinced I've watched enough films for a lifetime. Then another submission arrives. Another filmmaker says something I have never heard before, and I fall in love with cinema all over again.
About Frame by Frame Festival
Frame by Frame Festival is a bi annual independent film festival based in Nairobi, Kenya, dedicated to showcasing bold African short films, documentaries, experimental cinema, animation, and emerging storytelling formats. Created by Kalabars and Creatives Garage, the festival exists to amplify authentic African voices, nurture emerging filmmakers, and create accessible cinematic experiences that connect audiences through powerful storytelling.
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