In more than a decade of presenting films both about and from the continent that inspired it, the New York African Film Festival has concerned itself with connecting what has come before even as it trains a spotlight on the continent’s current condition.

But as the festival reconvenes for its 15th year, kicking things off Wednesday with a screening of the new Charles Burnett film, “Namibia: The Struggle for Independence,” there’s a heightened sense of the way the past informs the future. If the last 14 festivals have offered a contemporary view of Africa, and then taken a step back to examine what has brought the continent to the modern day, this year’s celebration is more interested in taking that historical arc and following it over the horizon — that is, in contemplating more centrally what is to come.

“We come from an oral tradition of storytelling, and independence gave us this possibility to translate these stories onto the screen,” the festival’s founder and executive director, Mahen Bonetti, said. “So it wasn’t just us sharing the story with ourselves, but that the world could hear them. This year, we’re celebrating the milestone of Guinea’s independence, but also turning to works that look into the future, at the way Africans envision their place in a future world.”

This isn’t the first time that the festival has pegged itself to an important African milestone. Last year, it commemorated the 50th anniversary of Ghana, the first sub-Saharan African nation to triumph over colonialism. It feels appropriate, then, that the 2008 festival is honoring the 50th anniversary of Guinea-Conakry, one of the nations that followed in Ghana’s footsteps, ensuring that independence would not be an isolated victory, and that the future of the continent would be one of rebuilding. This excitement of the turning tide jumps off the screen in “Namibia,” the latest work from Mr. Burnett (“Killer of Sheep,” “To Sleep With Anger”). Chronicling the multi-decade struggle of Sam Nujoma (Carl Lumbly), the leader of the South West Africa People’s Organization, in his fight for freedom across Southern Africa, “Namibia” vividly depicts how the rebellions in other African nations inspired one young Namibian to transform his frustrations into a passionate political agenda at the United Nations. Upon returning to Namibia years later, Mr. Nujoma helped his countrymen learn from the combat lessons of their African neighbors, converting their sporadic guerrilla warfare into more sophisticated military maneuvers. At its essence, Mr. Burnett’s ambitious epic is really a story of Africans inspiring other Africans.

Preceding Mr. Burnett’s opening night gala, Ms. Bonetti seeks to put this notion of newfound freedom into context, with a special presentation of archival footage from the Russian State Archive — a special screening of 50-year-old footage that depicts an Africa that few Americans have ever seen.

“That was something I really had to fight for,” Ms. Bonetti, a native of Sierra Leone, said. “As you might imagine, an archive is hesitant to lend something like that out. But it helps bring that bit of history to life, that it’s not being described or recreated, but can be seen in these films firsthand.”

Pointing to this year’s theme, “Cinema and History: Africa and the Future,” Ms. Bonetti said that the 2008 festival is filled with cutting-edge works eminently aware of their historical roots. The issue of slavery is re-examined in “The African Slave Trades: Across the Indian Ocean,” a documentary isolating episodes of the slave trade that differ widely from what is taught in most American schools. Narrated by the Nobel Laureate Wole Soyinka, who will appear in person for the festival’s “Centerpiece Celebration” on Saturday, April 12, “Slave Trades” focuses its attention not on the slaves of Western Africa but Eastern Africa, and a major slave route that took imprisoned Africans up the Red Sea to the Indian Ocean. Daniel Junge and Siatta Scott Johnson’s “Iron Ladies of Liberia” (April 10) relates how one nation shattered the glass ceiling when Liberia elected Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf as Africa’s first female leader in 2006. Mohamed Ismail’s “Goodbye Mothers” (April 12) defies religious and geographical stereotypes in telling the story of Moroccan Jews who, in the 1960s, made the journey to Israel and came to realize that the ties binding Jews and Muslims are tighter than some might imagine.

Historical dramas aside, Ms. Bonetti singled out a trio of films that she regards as notable breakthroughs for African cinema. Isaac Julien’s experimental short “Fantome Afrique” (April 11) is a story told through dance, music, and landscape. Zina Saro-Wiwa’s “This Is My Africa” (April 11) is more explicit in its accounting of modern viewpoints, asking 18 prominent celebrities to complete an 18-part questionnaire, revealing 18 different visions of the continent both as it exists today and how it may appear 50 years from now. Finally, Jean-Pierre Bekolo’s “Les Saignantes” (showing May 24 at the Brooklyn Academy of Music) has been described as a “sci-fi-action-horror-hybrid” about a futuristic world in which two femme fatales set out to rid the world of the corrupt men who hold the strings of power.

“Much as movies have broken down the stereotypes some Americans have of Africa, now we’re starting to see filmmakers breaking down the stereotypes of what sorts of films come out of Africa,” Ms. Bonetti said. “There’s a new voice in African cinema that is looking forward, aware of where we started but also challenging audiences to think about where we’re going.”

ssnyder@nysun.com

The New York African Film Festival occurs in three installments. From April 9 through 15, screenings take place at the Film Society of Lincoln Center’s Walter Reade Theater. Additional screenings are then scheduled for each Tuesday in May at the French Institute Alliance Française. The festival concludes with a three-day series at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, from May 23 through 26. For more information, visit www.africanfilmny.org.