‘Over the Bridge’ premieres at African Film Festival

Opening Night of the 31st edition of the New York African Film Festival (NYAFF) on Thursday featured an engaged crowd of culture lovers and the North American premiere of “Over the Bridge,” Nigerian Tolu Ajayi’s feature about corruption in Lagos.

The festival is presented by Film at Lincoln Center (FLC) and African Film Festival, Inc. (AFF).

The film sees Folarin, a successful investment banker whose company is contracted by the government to oversee a high-profile project search for answers when the project goes awry, leading him to a remote fishing village to put the pieces of the mystery together.

After the screening, Ajayi was joined for the Q&A by filmmaker Kenneth Gyang, whose film “This is Lagos” will also screen at the festival.

Since its inception in 1993, the festival has been at the forefront of showcasing African and diaspora filmmakers’ unique storytelling through the moving image.

This year’s theme, “Convergence of Time,” explores the intersection of historical and contemporary roles played by individuals representing Africa and its Diaspora in art.

With 91 films from more than 30 countries, the festival invites audiences to delve into the convergence of archival and modern experimentalism, transcending both space and time.

“The 31st New York African Film Festival has so much to offer in terms of honoring the origins of homegrown, beloved African and Diaspora film industry, as well as celebrating their references in modern masterpieces,” Mahen Bonetti, NYAFF founder and AFF executive director, told Caribbean Life.

The festival ran at FLC through Tuesday, continues at Maysles Documentary Center in Harlem from May 17 to 19 and culminates at Brooklyn Academy of Music under the name Film Africa from May 24 to May 30 during Dance Africa.