Be aware that the Fourth Annual Galway African Film Festival kicks off today at the Nuns Island Theatre in Galway Arts Centre on Dominick Street, in the city.

A principal aim of this festival is to put genuine unmediated versions of African life before the punters.

"Mainstream Hollywood films such as Tears of the Sunusually depict the continent from the perspective of the victimised or oppressed," Heike Vornhagen, one of the directors of the event, explained.

“The festival will give people a chance to access high-quality cinema from a continent that is consistently ignored by mainstream releases.”