The Annual Afda Experimental Festival

The dictionary definition of the adjective 'experimental' reads: "(of a new invention or product) based on untested ideas or techniques and not yet established or finalised. Or (of art or an artistic technique) involving a radically new and innovative style." Afda third-year film, television, live performance and business innovation students have not let the Covid-19 lockdown deter them from stepping into the 4th industrial revolution, but stuck true - by hook or by crook - to the definition.

Yes, the future has imploded onto the present. Students from our Johannesburg, Cape Town, Durban and Port Elizabeth campuses have, however, taken the bull by the horns and transformed into creative cyborgs, they have developed their own subcultures and designer crews with their own languages, codes and lifestyles and created over 80 experimental productions.

To paraphrase Gill Scott Heron, the Afda Experimental Festival 2020 will not be televised, the festival will be no re-run, the festival will be brought to you online, worldwide and live.

In accordance to Covid-19 protocols, crews from the School of Motion Picture Medium have shot films and documentaries, remotely, with actors filming and playing their roles from their bedrooms and gardens while being directed from the far side of town. Crews have taken the hybrid approach and shot in studios on campus as well as remotely, while others have chosen to shoot in isolated spaces.

From the School of Live Performance, theatre plays are being rehearsed in a virtual space with costume and make up from mothers cupboard and music performance students have been recording in make-shift studios in garages.

Our tech-savvy Business Innovation and Technology students took full advantage of the lockdown and very successfully launched the Afda Experimental Festival on the 19 June 2020, presenting their 2030 business models to a judging panel of industry experts as well as potential customers via Zoom.

The festival promises to be an eye-popping and mind-boggling experience in which the students explore experimental concepts and present their outcomes from their own course, which, ultimately, embodies the scope of the future of the creative economy.

Watch this space for all the direct links you will need to sit back, relax and enjoy the Afda Experimental Festival 2020.