Private Project

Weaving Knowledge

Weaving Knowledge is a film about making, material culture and childhood in West Africa. In four episodic narratives called 'weaving knowledge', 'transforming matter', 'making patterns', and 'constructing designs' the film poetically depicts the forms of knowledge embedded in children's everyday lives.

  • Anita Afonu
    Director
  • Karen Wells
    Producer
  • Bartek Dziadosz
    Producer
  • Project Type:
    Documentary
  • Runtime:
    1 hour 4 minutes 28 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    March 31, 2023
  • Production Budget:
    10,000 GBP
  • Country of Origin:
    Ghana
  • Country of Filming:
    Ghana, Senegal, Togo
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
Director Biography - Anita Afonu

Anita Afonu is an award winning documentary filmmaker with over a decade of experience in directing and producing films that explore the hidden histories and everyday lives of people in West Africa. She earned her Bachelors Degree in Film and Television Production from the National Film and Television Institute, NAFTI in 2010.

She is an alumna of The Berlinale Talent Campus, the Durban Talent Campus and the Moving Africa Program. Her work has screened at FESPACO, Eugene Film Festival, Herb Alpert School of Music (UCLA), University of Michigan, the Visions of Life Symposium at University of Oxford, CinemAmbiente Film Festival, Dak’Art Bieniele and the British Academy Summer Showcase.

Anita is part of a new generation of African artists who are creatively reckoning with their nations’ pasts in order to understand the political and social realities of the present. Apart from filmmaking, she has a deep interest in the film archives of her country, Ghana and has passionately advocated for the repatriation of Ghana’s Film Archives.

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Director Statement

Directing Weaving Knowledge was a real eye opener for me. As a Ghanaian, It was a great experience to learn about other West African cultures and seeing the various similarities within these cultures. In Togo, I realised that although they spoke a similar language as mine, I had a few challenges articulating myself partly because I spoke a slightly different dialect, but I caught on quickly and so did the families and it felt like a second home to me.

Filming children learning crafting was truly a learning moment for me; an opportunity to experience and observe the creative process of these children and how they see the world around them. I never once thought that one needed some amount of mathematical acumen to weave a basket or weave a cloth pattern for instance, or needed to understand some basic amount of chemistry to know when to separate the nut from the oil in making shea butter. These are things that are not necessarily taught in the classroom and it gave me a deep appreciation of our traditional home education.

Due to Globalization and modernity, it is easy to conclude that traditional home learning isn’t as important as it once was; but making this film made me realise that it forms some of the core aspects of knowledge for many rural children. While watching this film, you are probably watching the next biggest cosmetic or food manufacturer to emerge from Africa in the next 20 years or the next engineer or guitarist.

It has truly been a great experience for me, having the opportunity to observe and film with these children and It is my hope that this film gives the viewer a sense of how children try to understand the world around them and although they may not be using the latest iPhones or latest tablets or computers, how they are able to do what they do is equally very important.