The organisation of the African Film Festival of Tarifa depends on the Centre of Cultural Diffusion of the Strait Al Tarab, which is a non-making profit cultural association. Its main objective is to serve as a forum of exchange between the different cultural expressions of the African continent. Its activities cover every art and are carried out through different events throughout the year: conferences, meetings, concerts, expositions, workshops, African film series and the African Film Festival of Tarifa, FCAT.

The FCAT is already consolidated as a cultural forum and it focuses all of its initiatives on the diffusion of the numerous artistic expressions coming from Africa, putting a special emphasis on its cinema not only as an art but also as an extraordinary tool of knowledge and cooperation.

We know that the current economic situation of the world entails a real danger for cultural diversity. The big commercial agreements tend to question the support of the governments to cultural services and products. This dynamic jeopardizes the different forms of expression, especially those whose diffusion depends on cultural industries (including, of course, the film industry). This favours artworks that enjoy the more important means of production, distribution and commercialization, over and against others who do not have this privilege. Because of this, the African Film Festival of Tarifa supports one of the more disadvantaged cultural industries of the world: the cinematography of the African continent.

Therefore, the FCAT represents a desire for research and promotion of the common identities between Europe and Africa through movies, using cinema as a tool of work and communication, of “re-education” and information.

And, because we believe that the unawareness of the culture of our neighbours of the South is one of the reasons of mistrust towards the Other, we keep working every day to show that, through this exchange, between Europe and Africa there are more bridges linking us than cliffs keeping us apart.

Tarifa

Spain