The first ever Pan-African Festival of Documentary Films has been launched at a ceremony in Accra to project Africa in a more positive way to the international community.

The event, dubbed ?Real Life,? is meant to bring together documentary films that are based on the histories of the people of Africa and Africans in the diaspora.

Filmmakers, scholars, students and film enthusiasts are expected to come together and be inspired to address the arts, politics and social issues relevant to the Pan-African world.

At the function, the associate professor of Tisch School of Arts at the Department of Drama in New York University, Prof Awam Amkpa, said the choice of Ghana for the project was justified because the country had a long-standing documentary in African tradition, adding that ?even prior to the country?s independence, the colonial administration used documentary as part of its propaganda machinery in its civic, health and education programmes.?

He said the festival, which is part of a newly inaugurated West African documentary forum on film production, post production, archiving and scholarly organization, was dedicated to producing and documenting knowledge on contemporary African and African diaspora issues through films.