The Cinema of Senegal1978. 27 min. Video/C 4610
Sembene: The Making of African Cinema. 1994? Video/C 9820
- Abouna(France / Chad / Netherlands, 2002)
- Directed and written by Mahamat-Saleh Haroun. Cast: Ahidjo Mahamat Moussa, Hamza Moctar Aguid, Zara Haroun, Mounira Khalil, Kously Lamko. After two young Chadian boys discover their father has abandoned them, they embark on a desperate quest to bring him home. French and Arabic with English subtitles. 84 min. DVD 4732
Credits and other information from the Internet Movie Database - Africa Dreaming
- Sophia's homecoming / directed by Richard Pakleppa ; produced by Bridget Pickering (28 min.) -- Sabriya / written and directed by Abderrahmane Sissako ; produced by Dora Bouchoucha Fourati (28 min.) -- So be it / written, directed and produced by Joseph Gai Ramaka (28 min) -- The gaze of the stars / directed by Joao Ribeiro ; produced by Pedro Pimenta (28 min.).
Four television shorts produced in four different African countries to be shown on the African television series Africa Dreaming. In Sophia'sHomecoming (Namibia) a woman who has worked as a domestic returns home to a terrible discovery: the ruptures caused by apartheid can never be repaired. In Sabriya (Tunisia) a modern woman disrupts the patterned mosaic of male Maghrebi society. So Be It (Senegal), based on a play by Wole Soyinka, follows the destruction of a well intentioned foreign doctor confronting fear, rage and powerlessness in a remote Senegalese village. The Gaze of the Stars (Mozambique) is a story about machismo in Mozambique, so powerful that it drives away whatever it loves. 51 min. Video/C 5400
- African Jim (Aka Jim Comes to Jo'burg) (1949)
- Made on the eve of apartheid's inception, this is the first full length feature film made in South Africa with an all native African cast. Featuring top African singers and music of the 1950's, this is a unique record of a lost era. 51 min. Video/C 4008
- Ainsi meurent les anges (Senegal, 2001)
- Director: Moussa Sene Absa. Mory is a troubled Senegalese poet living outside Paris with his French wife and their children. His marriage falls apart under cross-cultural pressures, specifically his father's demand that he take a second wife in Senegal. Homeless in winter, separated from his children, his poems scattered over a Paris street, Mory returns to Senegal, penniless and with uncertain prospects. In French and Wolof with English subtitles. 57 min. 999:3240
- Ashakara (Togo / Switzerland, 1991)
- Directed by Louis Mouchet. In this modern African tale set in Togo, an African doctor finds a cure to a deadly virus and decides to mass produce the drug at low cost in Africa. However, a pharmaceutical multinational does not want the doctor to succeed and sends an agent to Africa, first to buy the drug, then to destroy it. In African dialects and French with English subtitles. 94 min. 999:1988
- Black Dju! (Luxembourg, 1996)
- Directed by Pol Cruchten. From the sun of the Cape Verde Island, its a very big step to rainy, land-locked Luxembourg, but that's the journey Dju Dele Dibonga takes to track down his dad, whose yearly visits and monthly guest worker checks have stopped. Dju has to face overzealous immigration cops and an outraged police lieutenant who eventually joins in the hunt, becoming Dju's partner in this tale of love and friendship. In Portuguese and French with English subtitles. 80 min. 999:1987
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- Black Girl (La Noire de--) (Senegal/France, 1966)
- Directed by Sembene Ousmane. A young Senegalese servant girl accompanies a white family in its move to France. Harsh treatment leads her to lose all self-esteem and she commits suicide. The couple returns to Dakar to offer the girl's parents money, but they refuse it. The film raises questions on neo-colonialism, migrant workers and passivity vs. protest. In French with English subtitles. 56 min. DVD 5341; vhs 999:3114
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- The Blue Eyes of Yonta (Udju Azul di Yonta) (Guinea-Bissau, 1992)
- A film by Flora Gomes. Uses the device of a young woman's search for the author of a love letter to explore the political and social environment in the former Portuguese overseas province of Portuguese Guinea, now the independent country of Guinea-Bissau. In Crioulo with English subtitles. 92 min. 999:1371
- Gray, Christopher. "The Blue Eyes of Yonta." (movie reviews)American Historical Review v101, n4 (Oct, 1996):1144 (3 pages).
- Boesman & Lena (South Africa, 1999)
- Directed by John Berry. Cast: Danny Glover, Angela Bassett, Willie Jonah. Examines the devastating effects of racism on the human spirit through the progress of one couple's life together under Apartheid, as they are pushed from the bucolic Eden of South African farmlands into a makeshift shelter on the mudflats near Cape Town. Based on the play by Athol Fugard. 84 min. DVD 693
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- Borom Sarret (The Wagoner) (Senegal, 1963)
- Directed by Sembene Ousmane. Tells the story of a cart-taxi driver who goes to the city to make a living, but out of sympathy with other poverty-stricken people, works for free and goes hungry himself. In Wolof and French with English subtitles. 20 min. DVD 5341; vhs 999:3110
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- Bye Bye Africa (Chad, 1998)
- A film by Mahamat Saleh Haroun. In this reflexive docu-drama about the difficulties of making films in Africa (the first feature film from Chad), an exiled film director returns to Chad after the death of his mother. There he discovers, as a result of wars, that motion picture theaters have been abandoned in favor of makeshift video theaters often in private homes. Haroun visits a producer who suggests that he make a film using a video camera and concludes that the important thing is to continue to produce films no matter what the circumstances. In French and Arabic with English subtitles. 86 min. Video/C 8259
- Ca Twiste a Poponguine(Senegal, 1993)
- A film by Moussa Sene Absa. A comedy set in Senegal during the last week before Christmas, 1964, in a remote beachside village, where the local teenagers are divided into rival cultural camps. In French with English subtitles.
90 min. 999:1322
- Camp de Thiaroye (Algeria/Senegal/Tunisia, 1987)
- Directed by Sembene Ousmane. A fact-based film which deals with African troops in the French army at the end of World War II, a turning point in African history when the colonial myth of white superiority began to collapse and an African consciousness emerged. The film opens with repatriated Senegalese infantrymen being placed in a transit camp ostensibly for temporary internment before discharge. The real purpose, however, is to reestablish the structures of white oppression disrupted by the war. A dispute over pay soon escalates into full-scale rebellion, culminating in a massacre. In French with English subtitles. 152 min. 999:3109
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- Ceddo (Senegal, 1978)
- Directed by Sembene Ousmane. A religious conflict characterizes this drama set in late 19th century Senegal when the local king becomes a Muslim and decides to break up the small Catholic congregation in the village of the Ceddo. The people revolt against the change and kidnap a princess. Eventually the kidnappers are killed and the princess is brought back to the village to confront the Imam, as all the villagers are being given Muslim names. This film was banned in Senegal because the government disagreed with the director's spelling of the word "Ceddo," which they insisted should be spelled with one "d." In Wolof and French with English subtitles. 112 min. 999:3113
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- Clando (Clandestine). (Cameroon, 1996)
- A film by Jean-Marie Teno. Sobgui, a former computer programmer, drives a "clando" cab in Douala, Cameroon's streets. He is clandestine, not just because his cab is unlicensed, but because he is hiding from his past. When a radical political group involves him in a revenge slaying of an informer, Sobgui knows that it is time to get out of Douala. He gets his chance when he is asked to find a wealthy villager's son in Germany. The film represents a dilemma facing educated Africans: whether to work to change the autocratic regimes at home or seek their fortunes abroad. In French with English subtitles. 96 min. 999:1841
- Description from California Newsreel catalog
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- Dakan (Destiny) (Guinea, 1997)
- Directed by Mohamed Camara. Dakan is the first feature film on homosexuality from sub-Saharan Africa. When Sori and Manga tell their parents they are in love they try to "cure" their sons by separating them. Manga is even subjected to a traditional purification ceremony in his ancestral village. The two sons dutifully try to live heterosexual lives. Sori marries a village woman and Manga becomes engaged to a white woman but Manga and Sori inevitably reunite to live out their "destiny". In French and Mandikan with English subtitles. 1997. 87 min. 999:1840
- Description from California Newsreel catalog
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- Le Damier Papa National Oye! (The Draughtsmen Clash) (Gabon, 1996)
- Directed by Balufu Bakupa-Kanyinda. A wicked political satire about African dictators, this film tells the story of the president of a fictitious African nation who engages in a game of checkers with his political opponents. When he looses the game, the fate of the winners is not exactly unexpected in this hilarious send-up of living under tyranny. In French with English subtitles. 40 min. 999:1989
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- Daresalam (Burkina Faso, Chad, France, 2000)
- Directed by Issa Serge Coelo. This feature film focuses on two young men caught up in the Civil War in Chad. It begins in the 1970s with the story of Koni and Djimi as the central government invades their village and insists on buying the farmer's millet at below market and then browbeats the villagers into paying taxes to help fight the war. When they resist the government burns the village and massacres the inhabitants. Djimi, wounded, remains behind with the hard-liners, while Koni joins a faction which supports compromise with the government. In French and Arabic with English subtitles. 100 min. DVD 3570; also VHS 999:3061
- Description from California Newsreel catalog
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- Dark City. (South Africa, 1990)
- Directed by Chris Curling. A political thriller set in South Africa in the mid 1980s. 98 min. 999:938
- Divine Carcasse.(1998)
- Directed by Dominique Loreau. Fictional documentary which follows the life of a car imported to Benin, Africa, by a European expatriate. Intersecting cultures are seen when the car passes to his African cook who uses it as a taxi service, and finally, village life and traditions are shown when the scraps from the car are made into a divinity commissioned by the villagers. In French, Fon and Yoruba with English subtitles. In French, Fon and Yoruba with English subtitles. 60 min. 999:2128
- Credits and other information from the Internet Movie Database
Description from California Newsreel catalog
- Dôlè (Gabon, 2001)
- Directed by Imunga Ivanga. The action takes place in Libreville, the capital of Gabon. This is where Mougler and his friends Baby Lee, Joker, Akson and Bezingo, four fifteen-year-old boys, live. These boys have to fend for themselves, except for Mougler who lives with Maradou, his mother. The gang is tired of thieving and is full of dreams of more ambitious jobs. The opportunity is given to them with the extremely popular betting kiosks in Dole. The temptation is great, and so are the risks. In French with English subtitles. 80 min. 999:3239
- Credits and other information from the Internet Movie Database
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- Emitai (Senegal, 1971)
- Directed by Sembene Ousmane. Depicts the clash between French colonialists and the Diolas, an African tribe, in the closing days of World War II. The film highlights the history and myths of this Senegalese tribe. In Diola and French with English subtitles. 101 min. 999:3112
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- Ezra (France / Nigeria / USA / UK / Austria, 2007)
- Directed by Newton I. Aduaka. Cast: Mamoudu Turay Kamara, Mariame N'Diaye, Mamusu Kallon, Richard Gant, Mercy Ojelade, Emile Abossolo-Mbo, Merveille Lukeba, Abubakarr Karim Sawaneh, Ilario Bisi-Pedro, Cleophas Kabasiita, Wale Ojo, Yao Yankey Yankson.
Tells the story of Ezra, a young boy kidnapped and forced to become a soldier with a rebel faction in the Sierra Leone Civil War. Ten years later, he is brought before a truth and reconciliation commission and made to revisit and understand his crimes so as to begin the process of psychological healing. 105 min. DVD 9205
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- Faat Kine (Senegal, 2000)
- Directed by Sembene Ousmane. This deceptively light domestic drama of Faat Kine, a gas station operator, is in reality a tribute to the everyday heroism of African women. It follows her through several average days, interspersed with brief flashbacks that recall the struggles that made her quiet achievements possible. Not so much a drama of events, as a drama of recognition, it becomes clear that traditional roles between African men and women no longer apply and that it is time to start calling things by their real names. In French and Wolof with English subtitles.
121 min. 999:3062
- Description from California Newsreel catalog
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- Faces of Women (Visages de femmes) (France / Ivory Coast, 1985)
- Directed by Desiré Ecaré. Cast: Sidiki Bakaba, Kouado Brou, Albertine NGuessan.
Two politically and stylistically adventurous films exploring the links between feminism, economics and tradition in modern-day Africa. In these intriguing stories about women in today's Africa, the first film centers on a young woman who is unhappily married and is attracted to her visiting brother-in-law. The second story centers around a successful businesswoman who tries to open a new restaurant, but runs into difficulties that only her daughter's traditional wiles can solve. 103 min. Video/C 999:2105
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- Faraw! Une Mère des Sables (Mother of the Dunes)(Mali, 1997)
- Directed by Abdoulaye Ascofare. With three difficult children, a crippled, mentally unbalanced husband and no steady income, Zamiatou is poorest woman in an impoverished desert village in Mali. She could have plenty of money to survive if she would sell her daughter as a prostitute to nearby French settlers, but she refuses to do so. Unfortunately, her family situation continues to spiral downward and she is finally forced to seek outside help. In Songhai with English subtitles. 90 min. 999:1985
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- Fathers
- The father / a Richard Green and Associates, Ahadu Films production ; a film by Ermias Woldeamlak ; producer, Maji-da Abdi ; writer, Manyazewal Endashaw ; director, Ermias Woldeamlak (29 min.) -- Surrender / a Richard Green and Associates/Zenj Films production ; a film by Celine Gilbert ; producer, B. Nasra Hillal ; screenplay, Kiiza Kahama, Celine Gilbert ; director, Celine Gilbert (28 min.) -- A barber's wisdom / a Richard Green & Associates ; a film by Amaka Igwe ; producer, Tajuddeen Adepetu ; screenplay, Paul Emema ; director, Amaka Igwe (28 min.).
Presents three films each offering a critical look at the relationships between fathers and their children in contemporary Africa. In The father, the patriarch in question is ultimately the military dictatorship which terrorized Ethiopia in the '70s and '80s, telling the story of a painter who must paint the portrait of the national leader, who's regime has brutalized his family. Surrender shows the traditional face of paternal tyranny, a father controlling his son's life by driving away his friends. Isolated the son eventually surrenders to the demands of paternal authority, marries and produces the grandson his father wants. A Barber's Wisdom shows a modern father who is not traditional enough who compromises his two daughters in his relentless pursuit of money. The father is in Amharic with English subtitles. Surrender is in Swahili with English subtitles. A barber's wisdom is in English. 999:3241
- Fintar o Destino (Dribbling Fate) (Cape Verde, 1998)
- Directed by Fernando Vendrell. A sports film with a distinctly African twist. On the Cape Verde islands a small-town grocery-store owner Mane recalls his past glories with the national soccer team Benefica during the '50's. Obsessed with the sport, Mane attempts to train a local team without much success, so when he sees promise in young Kalu he goes for broke, spending his wife's savings on tickets to Lisbon in hopes of connecting Kalu with Benefica. In French and Creole with English subtitles. 77 min. 999:2225
- Description from California Newsreel catalog
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- Finzan: A Dance for the Heroes. (Mali, 1990)
- A film by Cheick Oumar Sissoko. Tells the story of two women's rebellion. Nanyuma, a young widow, refuses her brother-in-law, the village fool, when he asserts his traditional right to "inherit" her. Fili, a young girl sent from the city by her conservative father, is brutally circumcised by the village women who are scandalized that she resists the age old custom. In Bambara with English subtitles. 107 min. 999:498
- Description from California Newsreel catalog
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- Flame. (Zimbabwe, 1996)
- Directed by Ingrid Sinclair. One of the most controversial films ever produced in Africa (seized by the police during editing), this feature film not only exposes past abuses but continuing divisions within Zimbabwean society, especially against women and peasants. It is the story of two close friends, Florence and Nyasha as they train and fight as soldiers in the Zimbabwean liberation struggle, but after liberation find their lives little changed. 85 min. 999:1847
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- Flame Trees of Thika. (1981)
- Directed by Roy Ward Baker. A dramatization of the memoirs of the author Elspeth Huxley, this is the story of a young British girl and her parents who journey to the unspoiled wilderness of East Africa in 1913 where they struggle to transform a rugged plot of land into a coffee plantation. Her reminiscences are replete with encounters with the incredible beauty and cruelty of nature, with friendships with both Africans and British expatriates and reminiscences of the Masai and Kikuyu tribes that were a major part of her childhood years. Contents: Part 1. The promised land -- Part 2. Hyenas will eat anything -- Part 3. Happy New Year -- Part 4. Friends in high places -- Part 5. A real sportsman -- Part 6. Safari -- Part 7. The drums of war. 6 tapes; 353 min. 999:2160
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- Forgiveness (South Africa, 2004)
- Directed by Ian Gabriel. Tertius Coetzee, a white former South African policeman who tortured and killed black anti-apartheid activists including the African National Congress member Daniel Grootboom, seeks out the Grootboom family to ask for forgiveness. 113 min. DVD 9206
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- Genesis (La Genese) (Mali, 1999)
- Directed by Cheick Oumar Sissoko. Genesis is given a new spin which recasts a famous story by relocating it in the nation of Mali and using a cast of African actors. Covering Chapters 23-37, it recounts the story of Esau whose birthright is stolen by his brother Jacob in exchange for a plate of beans. This allegorical tale combines an accurate interpretation of the Biblical story with relevant allusions to African history and culture. In Bambara with English subtitles. 102 min. DVD 3571; also VHS 999:2219
- Description from California Newsreel catalog
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- Diawara, Manthia. "New Perspectives in African Cinema: An Interview with Cheick Oumar Sissoko." Film Quarterly 41:2 (1987/1988:Winter) 43
- The Gods Must Be Crazy (Botswana, 1984)
- Directed by Jamie Uys. An empty Coke bottle drops from the sky near an African San hunter and is brought into his camp, but after causing much trouble to the group, he tries to return the bottle to the gods who must have dropped it. On his journey he encountes a romantic microbiologist, a school teacher and a band of terrorists all enmeshed in a plot so insane, it could only happen in the "civilized" world. In Afrikaans and Ungwatsi with English subtitles. 109 min. 999:3216
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- Guelwaar (Senegal, 1992)
- Directed by Sembene Ousmane. When Guelwaar, a political activist and a Christian, is mistakenly buried in a Muslim cemetary, family members and political and religious leaders become embroiled in a dispute that mirrors the strained ethnic relations existing in Senegalese society. In French and Wolof with English subtitles. 115 min. 999:3111
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- Guimba, Un Tyrant une Époque (Guimba, the Tyrant) (Mali 1995)
- Directed by Cheick Oumar Sissoko. An epic set in the legendary past of Mali (West Africa) to provide a biting allegory of present-day African politics. Through the story of the downfall of Guimba the tyrant, the filmmaker foretells a similar fate for the many dictators who still pillage the continent. He frames his film with the appearance of a griot, a traditional African storyteller who passes down the "wisdom of the ancestors", looking to the values and legends of the African past for inspiration and guidance in reconstructing well-governed, self-sufficient nations. In Bambara and Peul with English subtitles.1995. 93 min. DVD 3569; Video/C 4466
- Description from California Newsreel catalog
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- Haramuya (Burkina Faso / France, 1995)
- Directed by Drissa Toure.
Through Fousseini, a muslim firmly attached to his faith and traditions, this film draws a picture of Ouagadougou in the traps of modernism and traditionalism. Foussei tries to take care of his family according to the old precepts and the code of honor inherited from his ancestors. One of his sons is a cinema projectionist and supports all the family against the will of his wife, while the other son idles around all day, looking for girlfriends. In French with English subtitles. 87 min. 999:1986
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- Harvest, Three Thousand Years. (Ethiopia, 1975)
- Directed by Haile Gerima. Set in Ethiopia, a peasant family struggles for survival on the farm of a wealthy feudal landowner. The film's pace and visual style is geared to the rhythms of daily life, providing a sensitive portrayal of the details of everyday reality. The drama is set in motion by the peasant teen-age son and daughter who contest traditional social roles, the tyrannical behavior of the landowner and the visionary and revolutionary deeds of the local "madman." In Amharic with English subtitles. In Amharic with English subtitles. 150 min. 999:2103
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- The Hero (O Heroi) (Angola, 2004)
- Directed by Zeze Gamboa. Cast: Oumar Makena Diop, Milton Coelho, Maria Ceica, Neuza Borges, Patrcia Bull, Ral Rosario. Luanda, capital of Angola, is a huge city trying to cope with and overcome the profound legacy of a civil war that lasted for nearly 30 years. Vitorio has just been discharged after almost 20 years of fighting in the war. During his last military assignment he stepped on a land mine and lost a leg. After recuperating, he finds himself alone, unemployed and homeless. He, along with the people that he encounters, attempt to build new lives at the same time as their country reconstructs in the postwar era. In Portuguese with English subtitles. 97 min. DVD 5305
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- Hollow City (Na cidade vazia)(Angola, 2004)
- Directed by Maria Joăo Ganga. N'dala is an orphan from the Angolan province of Bie, a flashpoint in the rebellion that incited Angola's brutal civil war. In 1991 N'dala is airlifted by missionaries to the port city of Luanda, Angola's capital. He slips away from the nuns at the airport, choosing the solitude of the streets of the old city, but he is not prepared for living by his wits. His wandering leads N'dala to the beach where he takes shelter in an old fisherman's shack, but he is haunted by nightmares of the assault that left his family dead, and he soon disappears into the shanty-town neighborhoods of the city. Each step N'dala takes into the dark streets of the city leads him farther from his home. In Portuguese with optional English subtitles. 88 min. DVD 5810
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- Hyenas (Senegal, 1992)
- Directed by Djibril Diop Mambety. An old woman who has become rich returns to create all kinds of trouble. Based on "Der Besuch der alten Dame" by Friedrich Durrenmatt. In French with English subtitles. 113 min. DVD 3572; VHS 999:1152
- Description from California Newsreel catalog
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- ID (Pièces d'Identités) (Belgium / Congo, 1998)
- Directed by Mweze Ngangura. A Congolese king searches for his daughter in Brussels where for a time he loses his royal fetishes, his identity, but finds a friend, a local cabdriver with a secret identity. With his help and a chain of coincidence (it must be destined), Mani Kongo is reunited with his daughter and his regalia and returns to Africa with a circle of friends. In French and Wolof with English subtitles. 93 min. 999:2220
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- In a Time of Violence (South Africa, 1994)
- Directed by Brian Tilley. A story concerning changing values, violent cultural and political clashes and conflict among black families in Johannesburg, South Africa. In Zulu with English subtitles. 151 min. 999:1153 Credits and other information from the Internet Movie Database
- In Darkest Hollywood: Cinema and Apartheid.
- Turns the lens on filmmakers and the South African society they so often misrepresented. Films generally supported the ethos of racial domination that led to apartheid and it was only after Africans insisted on being heard that they began to be portrayed on-screen as more than mere adjuncts of whites. Includes newsreel footage of violence in South Africa and interviews with producers, directors, screenwriters, authors and actors who expound upon films they have been instrumental in producing which explored the conditions of black South Africans. 2 videocassettes. 108 min. Video/C 4010
- Davis, Peter In Darkest Hollywood: Exploring the Jungles of Cinema's South Africa / Peter Davis. Athens: Ohio University Press; Randburg, South Africa: Ravan Press, 1996. (Main Stack PN1995.9.S655.D38 1996)
- Inja(Australia / South Africa, 2001)
- Writer, director, Steve Pasvolsky. A South African landowner goes to great extremes to separate a Black boy and his puppy. 17 min. DVD 6336
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- Jit. (Zimbabwe, 1990)
- Directed by Michael Raeburn. The beat of jit-jive drives the story, set in Zimbabwe, of a fun-loving youth called UK, who is determined to win the heart of Sofi, a stately beauty closely guarded by her gangster boyfriend. UK's efforts are both helped and hindered by Jukwa, a pesty ancestral spirit. 92 min. 999:1093
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- Karmen Gei (Senegal, 2001)
- Directed by Joseph Gai. The first African Carmen, based on Bizet's celebrated opera, and arguably, the first African filmed "musical." Like every Carmen, Karmen Gei is about the infinite desire for freedom and the laws, conventions and human limitations which constrain the desire. Here Karmen transgresses every convention, escaping prison through her lesbian relationship with the warden and then wrecking the marriage and career of a police corporal by making him her lover and co-conspirator in a smuggling ring. She abandons the corporal who in a fit of jealous rage stabs her. Contains much singing and dancing with Bizet's score replaced with indigenous Senegalese music and choreography. In French and Wolof with English subtitles. 82 min. DVD 3568; also VHS 999:3238
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- Grabski, J. "Karmen Gei." African Arts v. 38 no. 4 (Winter 2005) p. 83-4, 96
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Powrie, Phil. "Politics and embodiment in Karmen Geď." Quarterly Review of Film and Video Vol XXI nr 4 (Oct-Dec 2004); p 283-291
- Keita!: L'heritage du Groit.
- Director: Dani Kouyaté. Based on one of the most important works of African oral literature, the Sundjata epic. When a djeliba, a master griot or bard, arrives mysteriously at the home of Mabo Keita to teach him "the meaning of his name," the boy and griot are inevitably brought into conflict with his Westernized mother and schoolteacher, who have rejected African tradition. The griot reveals to Mabo the story of his distant ancestor, Sundjata Keita, the 13th century founder of the great Malian trading empire. In Jula and French with English subtitles. 1994. 94 min. Video/C 4116
- Kirikou and the Sorceress (Kirikou et la Sorcière) (France / Belgium / Luxembourg, 1998)
- Director, Michel Ocelot. Voices: Antoinette Kellerman, Fezele Mpeka, Kombisile Sangweni, Theo Sebeko, Mabutho "Kid" Sithole. Based on a traditional West African folk tale, this animated film exquisitely recounts the tale of tiny Kirikou, born in an African village on which Karaba the Sorceress has placed a terrible curse. Kirikou sets out on a quest to free his village of the curse and find out the secret of why Karaba is so wicked. Original French with English subtitles or dubbed English version. 70 min. Non-US format DVD. DVD 2977
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- The Kitchen Toto. (UK, 1987)
- Directed by Harry Hook. Adult drama set in racially charged Kenya in the 1950s. A young native boy is taken in as a kitchen servant by a white family after the boy's pacifist father is murdered by militant Mau Mau warriors who now demand that the young boy take a blood oath to kill the family he serves ... or he also will die. 96 min. 999:2858
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- Buss, Robin. "The Kitchen Toto." (movie reviews) Times Educational Supplement, n3737 (Feb 12, 1988):29 (1 page)
- Kounandi (Burkina Faso, 2003)
- Directed by Apolline Traore. Cast: Deborah Coty, Noufou Ouedraogo, Aminata Dao, Kamsa Traore, Korotimi Traore, Adama Kone. In this adult fairy tale Kounandi, a young beauty often scorned and overlooked because of her dwarfism, earns her living and finds village favor making delicious cup cakes. Kounandi falls in love with Karim only to discover that he is married to Awa who is dying. Kounandi mystically sacrifices her lifeforce (and cup cake pan) as a gift to the couple. In Jula with English subtitles. 50 min. DVD 5304
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- Life on Earth (La Vie sur Terre) (Mauritania, Mauritius, 1998)
- Directed by Abderrahmane Sissako. A fictional documentary by the filmmaker which points out the significance of the start of the 21st century and our so-called Information Age while the people in his father's village in Mali are still struggling to enter the 20th century. Originally broadcast in 1998 as part of a European television program: 2000 vu par. In French and Bambara with English subtitles. 61 min. DVD 380; VHS 999:2218
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- The Little Girl Who Sold The Sun (La Petite Vendeuse de Soleil) (Senegal, 1998)
- Directed by Djibril Diop Mambéty. A parable which uses the struggles of a young crippled girl in Dakar trying to earn her living in the market place selling newspapers to mirror Africa's role in the international marketplace. In Wolof with English subtitles. 44 min. 999:2224
- Description from California Newsreel catalog
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Program Notes (via California Newsreel)
- Lucky
- Directed by Arvie Luthra. Produced in South Africa, this short film tells the story of Lucky, an AIDS orphan desperate to leave his rural Zulu village for the bright lights of Durban. Full of excitement and hope, he has to learn about life the hard way through an unlikely bond with a racist Indian neighbor. 18 min. DVD 6722
- Lumumba (2000)
- Directed by Raoul Peck. Cast: Eriq Ebouaney, Alex Descas, Maka Kotto, Theophile Moussa Sowie, Andre Debaar. Dramatizes the life of Congolese revolutionary, Patrice Lumumba, who led his country to independence from Belgium in 1960. He served for less than a year as the first elected prime minister, until he was brutally assassinated. In French with English subtitles. 115 min. DVD 1592
Credits and other information from the Internet Movie Database
- See Also: Documentary film by Raoul Peck, Lumumba: Death of a Prophet
- Madame Brouette (L'Extraordinaire destin de Madame Brouette) (Canada / Senegal / France, 2002)
- Directed by Moussa Sene Absa. Cast: Rokhaya Niang, Aboubacar Sadikh Ba, Kadiatou Sy, Nd`eye Seneba Seck, Ousseynou Diop. Madame Brouette is a proud and independent mother and street vendor in Senegal who has aspirations to rise out of poverty by opening a cafe, until her boyfriend is found murdered and she is the only suspect. In French with optional English subtitles. 104 min. DVD 4065
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- Malooned (Kenya, 2007)
- Directed by Bob Nyanja. Cast: Gabriella Mutia (Di), Godfrey Odhiambo (Luther), Charles Bukeko.
Di, 28, beautiful, confident and just a bit spoilt gets trapped in a ladies toilet of the 15th floor of a Nairobi skyscraper with Luther on an Easter weekend of which the Monday would have been her wedding day. From their first meeting, Luther can see nothing makes this woman happy, especially the thought of spending her Easter weekend with him in a toilet. The two have no choice but to make the best of their situation by working together despite their differences finally finding in themselves and eachother unsuspected strengths. 105 min. DVD DVD 9067
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- Mama Africa (Queen Latifah presents 'Mama Africa') (2002)
- Three contemporary fables set in Namibia, Nigeria and South Africa, each introduced by Queen Latifah. Contents: Uno's World (ca. 28 min.), directed by Bridget Pickering, (Namibia): Uno, a beautiful single mother is forced to face overwhelming responsibilities after falling in love with a man who doesn't want commitment. Hangtime (ca. 30 min.), directed by Ngozi Onwurah, (Nigeria): Desperate to impress an American scout, a talented basketball player turns to crime in order to get the sneakers he believes will fulfill his dreams. Raya (ca. 28 min.), directed by Zulfah Otto-Sallies, (South Africa): Having rebelled against her strict Muslim upbringing, Raya returns home from jail, determined to start a new life. But can she truly turn her back on the past? DVD 1815
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- Mandabi. (Senegal, 1968)
- Directed by Ousmane Sembene. This story about a man in Senegal who receives a money order that threatens to destroy the traditional fabric of his life, is used to point out the problems of modern Africa as a civilization struggling to recapture its own rich heritage after colonial corruption. In Wolof with English subtitles. 90 min. 999:2342
Credits and other information from the Internet Movie Database
- Niang, Sada. "Mandabi (The Money Order." (movie reviews)
African Arts Jan 1993 v26 n1 p83(3)
- The Martyrs of Uganda: Fires of Hope (Kenya, c1996)
- Director, Charles Mulekwa. Acted by a cast from the National Theatre of Uganda. This is the story of Alex, a young man with AIDS whose life is full of despair and hopelessness. Everything begins to change when on 3rd June, the Feast of the Martyrs of Uganda, catechist Mr. Wamala, reaches out to him. He starts to journey with Alex, helping him to discover the heroic lives of the martyrs of Uganda. Guided by Mr. Wamala, we relive the arrival of the first Catholic missionaries in Uganda. At the court of the King of Buganda many prominent people like Balikuddembe, Kaggwa, and Mulumba come to believe in Jesus. However due to the intrigues of the Prime Minister (Katikiro) and the traditional priests, the faith is soon severely put to the test. Balikuddembe is beheaded, Denis Ssebugwawo speared to death, and the rest are burnt alive. Alex, confronted with such heroism feels the power of hope and gains the courage to face his own inevitable death. VHS format (PAL). 45 min. 999:3742
- Matamata and Pilipili
- In the 1950s a Belgian missionary and a film fanatic in the Congo, Albert Van Haelst, made twenty films featuring the African Laurel and Hardy -- Matamata and Pilipili. This documentary presents several of these first colonial films to come from the Congo, reclaiming an important episode in the history of Congolese popular culture while exploring the complex terrain of colonial relationships and media representations. 55 min. Video/C 9292
- Mortu Nega. (Guinea-Bissau , 1988)
- Directed by Flora Gomes. "In 1973, independence was proclaimed, ending five centuries of Portuguese colonization and a decade of armed struggle. [This film], Gomes' first feature-length film, portrays this critical period in history through the story of one woman, Diminga, whose husband is fighting on the front lines. The camera captures Cabral's assassination, the ending of hostilities, and the reconstruction of the economically and spiritually devastated country struggling with drought and famine. The term "Mortu Nega" means those that death did not want, and Gomes films a ceremony using 3000 extras, in which survivors call upon the dead, asking them how they can go on living in such terrible conditions." In Portuguese with English subtitles. 93 min. 999:2126 Credits and other information from the Internet Movie Database
- Nagstappie (A Walk in the Night) (South Africa, 1998)
- Directed by Mickey Madoda Dube. Recounts a single terrible night in South Africa when the fragile world of Mikey Adonis, a young coloured steel worker, disintegrates; illustrates how a decent man can be driven to an act of brutality by a racist society which humiliates him at every turn. Adaptation of an Alex La Guma short story. In English and Afrikaans with English subtitles. 79 min. 999:2222
- Naliaka is Going (Kenya, 2003)
- Directed by Albert Wandago. Cast: Benta Ochieng (Naliaka) ; Ken Ambani (Pik). Filmed in Kenya, this film is based on an authentic story about a 14 year old girl (Naliaka) who drops out of school to work as domestic help to sustain her family. She learns typing and improves her spoken and written English with assistance from her employers' children. Moving to the city, Naliaka works as a typist. She grows disenchanted with the job. At the same time her friend, Pik, driven by ulterior motives at first, begins to genuinely care for and fall in love with Naliaka. PAL format VHS tape. 85 min. 999:3741
- The Night of Truth (Burkina Faso, 2004)
- Directed by Fanta Regina Nacro. Cast: Naky Sy Savane, Georgette Pare, Adama Ouedraogo, Rasmane Ouedrago, Moussa Cisse. In an unspecified country in Africa, after ten years of bloody war, the Nayaks, the President's ethnic group, and the Bonandes, rebels supporting Colonel Theo, come together to celebrate the peace agreement. But the reconciliation festivities are overshadowed by the terrible barbarities that have been committed on both sides. In French, Dioula and Moore languages with English subtitles. Non-US (PAL) format DVD. 100 min. DVD 6201 Credits and other information from the Internet Movie Database
- Ndeysaan (Le prix du pardon; The Price of Forgiveness) (Senegal / France, 2001)
- Directed by Mansour Sora Wade. Cast: Hubert Kounde, Rokhaya Niang, Gora Seck, Alioune Ndiaye. In a mythical pre-colonial fishing village on the south coast of Senegal, a strange ocean mist hangs over the waters for weeks and the local fishermen fear to go out to sea. One son of a wise elder decides to take his boat onto the waters and returns when the mist lifts with a full catch. He has become a hero, and has won the heart of the prettiest girl in the village, but has also won the envy of his best friend, who also covets the girl. Based on the book: 'Le prix du pardon' / by Mbissane Ngom. In Wolof with English subtitles. 91 min. Video/C 999:3625
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- Pièces d'Identités (ID) (Belgium / Congo, 1998)
- Directed by Mweze Ngangura. A Congolese king searches for his daughter in Brussels where for a time he loses his royal fetishes, his identity, but finds a friend, a local cabdriver with a secret identity. With his help and a chain of coincidence (it must be destined), Mani Kongo is reunited with his daughter and his regalia and returns to Africa with a circle of friends. In French and Wolof with English subtitles. 93 min. 999:2220
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- O Testamento do Sr. Napumoceno (Napumoceno's will). (Cape Verde, 1997)
- Directed by Francisco Manso. The film is an epic farce from one of the world's least known but most culturally complex societies - Cape Verde. This classic tale of the hollowness at the core of provincial bourgeois life introduces English speaking audiences to Germano Almeida, one of the outstanding writers in Portuguese today. With its novelistic breadth, the film offers a bildungsroman of a man and a society so caught up in the pursuit of conventional success and prestige it overlooks its true self almost until it is too late. In Portuguese with English subtitles. 106 min. 999:2127 Credits and other information from the Internet Movie Database
- Please, Do Not Kill Me (Nakusihi usiniue) (Kenya, c1997)
- Director, Jam Karanja.
Copyright: Archdiocese of Nairobi. Produced by Ukweli Video Productions for Family Life Counselling Association of Kenya (FLCAK). Sara, a school girl, becomes pregnant and is told that she will deliver during her O'Level Examinations. She is in dilemma whether to have an abortion or not. She receives conflicting advice and must struggle to a decision according to her conscience and faith. She finally decides to keep the baby. PAL format video. 33 min. 999:3743
- Quand les Etoiles Rencontrent la Mer (When the Stars Meet the Sea) (Madagascar, 1966)
- A film by Raymond Rajaonarivelo. A drama centering on a boy born during a lunar eclipse, according to tradition, an evil vintana or fate; which endowes him with revolutionary power and condemnes him to be trampled to death in a cattle corral. He is rescued however by a childless woman and the film traces his quest to break free of his destiny by offering love instead of vengeance and fear. In French and Malagasy dialogue with English subtitles. 77 min. 999:1836
- Quartier Mozart. (Cameroon, France, 1992)
- Directed by Jean-Pierre Kekolo. Queen of the 'Hood is a proud young girl who doesn't want to be taken advantage of by men. She befriends a local sorceress who helps her enter the body of a young man, My Guy, so she can discover for herself the real "sexual politics" of the quarter. Meanwhile, the sorceress assumes the shape of Panka, a familiar comic figure in Cameroonian folklore with sexual powers. In this sex farce, women's wisdom and "witchcraft" help to temporarily regain the balance of power in a sexist world. In French with English subtitles. 81 min. 999:2131
Credits and other information from the Internet Movie Database
- Pfaff, Francoise. "New African cinema." Cineaste v 22 no4 1997. p. 58-9.
- Saaraba: Utopia. (Senegal, 1988)
- Directed by Amadou Seck. A young Senegalese returns to his country after 19 years of exile in France. He had hoped to find his roots, but instead is disillusioned by government corruption, alienation among young city dwellers, and apathetic family and friends. In French and Wolof with English subtitles. 81 min. 999:503
- Sango Malo. (Cameroon, 1991)
- Directed by Bassek ba Kobhio. A new high school teacher brings turmoil to a rural Cameroonian village when he introduces sex education and vocational training into the curriculum. He also starts agricultural and marketing cooperatives for villagers that the students work on as part of their education. In French with English subtitles. 93 min. 999:672
- Sisters of the Screen: African Women in the Cinema
- Featuring Safi Faye, Sarah Maldoror, Prudence Uriri, Anne Mungai, Fanta Regina Nacro, Ngozi Onwurah and others.
Explores the extraordinary contributions of women filmmakers from Africa through Interviews with thirty-five women filmmakers from Africa and the African diaspora, interspersed with clips from their films. Also investigates the thorny question of cultural authenticity. A film by Beti Ellerson. 2002. 73 min.
Video/C MM506
- Song of Africa (South Africa, 1951)
- A film by Emil Nofal. In this all Black production directed by an Afrikaner a Zulu band leader, Daniel Makiza, returns to his village with a gramophone and musical instruments determined to start a Zulu jazz band. He takes his band to the city where their jazz contest performance constitutes the body of the film. This film, produced at the inception of apartheid, contains many of the cliches and self-delusions that were to make apartheid tenable. The cosmetic world depicted is completely in harmony with Afrikaner Nationalist philosophy, a mass fantasy indulged by thousands of Afrikaners. 59 min. Video/C 5812
- Soweto Green (South Africa, 1994)
- Directed by David Lister. Dr. Curtis Tshabalala, a South African expatriate living in Beverly Hills with his American wife Cora returns to his Soweto homeland with hopes of planting trees and dreams of a utopian South Africa. Cora's delicate sensibilities are offended when she sees the shanty town Curtis calls home and the goat sacrifice ceremony that welcomes them. A comedy of manners and errors ensues as the doctor attempts to beautify his homeland: Old attitudes and prejudices still prevail and cross-cultural communication faulters in a nation in the throes of an identity crisis. 100 min. 999:2676
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- Ta Dona (Fire!) (Mali, 1997)
- Directed by Adama Drabo. Ta Dona is the story of the quest for secret knowledge by a young Bambara man. While working in a peasant village, the hero, Sidy, searches for the "seventh canari", a forgotten, secret Bambara herbal remedy used in childbirth. Faced with a scorching drought and a corrupt government, Sidy manages to save the village and rediscover the seventh canari. Bambara dialog with English subtitles. 1991. 102 min. 999:1842
- Haynes, Jonathan "Returning to the African Village. Jump Cut /40, Mar 96; p.62-66. On the theme of 'returning to the village' in African cinema by examining first features by directors in their thirties, incl. "Ma Fille ne Sera pas Exise", "Laada", "Sango Malo", "Ta dona".
- Taafe Fanga (Pouvoir de Pagne) (Skirt Power) (Mali, 1997)
- A film by Adama Drabo. A griot in present day Mali tells a story about women in an 18th century Dogon village. Fed up with male arrogance, one captures a powerful Albarga mask and terrorizes the men into assuming traditional women's roles. The humorous results convince everyone that women should be respected as complementary, yet equal, to men if society as a whole is to advance. In Dogon with English subtitles. 95 min. 999:1839
- Tableau Ferraille (Senegal, 1997)
- Director, Moussa Sene Absa. A film set in Senegal which tells the story of an idealistic young politician's rise and fall. Daam, a well-intentioned but vacillating European-trained politician, must choose between two social paradigms exemplified by his two wives; Gagnesiri, a dignified traditional village woman, and Kine, a Western educated woman who chides Daam for not using his position to acquire personal wealth. The film offers a view of how modernization, as practiced in today's Africa, corrodes traditional communities and retards grassroots development. In French and Wolof; subtitles in English. 89 min. Video 999:1838
- Three Tales from Senegal. (Library of African Cinema)
- Le Franc / un film de Djibril Diop Mambety (45 min.) -- Picc mi / un film de Mansour Sora Wade (20 min.) -- Fary l'Anesse / un film de Mansour Sora Wade (17 min.). Le Franc is a parable about the plight of everyday Africans buffeted by the changing winds of the international monetary system. Picc Mi (Little bird) is a story of two destitute boys who escape the predatory demands of adults to spend one day of freedom together. Fary l'anesse (Fary, the donkey) is a tale of a man led into folly by his pursuit of the perfect woman. When he thinks he has finally found her, she turns out to be a donkey. In Wolof with English subtitles. Video/C 4128
- Thunderbolt (Nigeria, 2000?)
- Directed by Tunde Kelani. This feature film focuses on Yinka from the Yoruba tribe and Ngozi, an Ibo, who meet in the National Youth Service Corps in Nigeria. A retelling of the Othello story in an African setting, the seeds of jealousy are planted when a friend of Yinka, suggests that Ngozi is having a secret affair because "Ibo are untrustworthy." The film then becomes distinctly West African as the supernatural comes to the fore; curses and ritual cleansing take the place of psychological explanations. An old man warns Ngozi, who is accused of having AIDS, that her death is imminent and will strike her like a thunderbolt. 105 min. 999:3063
- Tilai. (Burkina Faso, 1990)
- Directed by Idrissa Ouedraogo. Saga returns to his village to find that his fiancee Nogma is now his father's second wife. Still in love, they find each other again--which the village views as incest. His brother supposedly kills him, the villagers think he's dead, but Saga and Nogma escape and live happily--until Saga has to go back to the village because his mother is dying. In Mossi, with English subtitles. 81 min. 999:2104
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- Lequeret, Elisabeth.
"Si je n'ai pas de rails de travelling, j'utilise une brouette!".
Cahiers du Cinema no557 May 2001. p. 81.
- Touki-Bouki. (Senegal, 1973)
- Directed by Djibril diop Mambety. Tells the story of two cousins desperate to escape the Senegal shantytown where they live. Dreaming of winning wealth and power in France, they try gambling, stealing and prostitution to get the money for their passage. At the last moment however they bolt from their ship after concluding that Western consumer culture is just another trap. In Wolof with English subtitles. 86 min. DVD 4308; vhs 999:1323
- Tsotsi (South Africa, 2005)
- Directed by Gavin Hood. Cast: Presley Chweneyagae, Terry Pheto, Kenneth Nkosi, Mothusi Magano, Zenzo Ngqobe, Zola. A young man running with a criminal gang on the streets of Johannesburg, Tsotsi - a nickname meaning thug - is immersed in a world of violence that seems to leave him unaffected, until he discovers an infant in the backseat of a car he has stolen. 83 min. DVD 5803Credits and other information from the Internet Movie Database
- La Vie est Belle: Life is Rosy. (Zaire, 1987)
- Directors: Mweze Ngangura and Benoit Lamy. Tells of the rags to riches story of a poor rural musician who realizes that to succeed in today's music world he must go to the city and break into radio and television. In French with English subtitles. 83 min. 999:504
- Description from California Newsreel catalog
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- Pfaff, Francoise. "New African Cinema." Cineaste v22, n4 (Fall, 1996):58 (2 pages).
- Visages de Femmes (Faces of Women). (Ivory Coast, France, 1987)
- Directed by Desire Ecare. Two politically and stylistically adventurous films exploring the links between feminism, economics and tradition in modern-day Africa. In these intriguing stories about women in today's Africa, the first film centers on a young woman who is unhappily married and is attracted to her visiting brother-in-law. The second story centers around a successful businesswoman who tries to open a new restaurant, but runs into difficulties that only her daughter's traditional wiles can solve. In indigenous languages and French with English subtitles. 103 min. 999:2105 Credits and other information from the Internet Movie Database
- Wend Kuuni: God's Gift. (Burkina Faso, 1982)
- Directed by Gaston Kabori. In the literary tradition of African tale, this film is the story of a little boy whose traumatic experiences cause him to lose one family and find another. The action takes place in Burkino Faso on the West African savannah in pre-colonial times. In Moré with English subtitles. 70 min. 999:502
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- Wooden Camera. (France / UK / South Africa, 2003)
- Directed by Ntshaveni Wa Luruli. Cast: Junior Singo, Innocent Msimango, Jean-Pierre Cassel, Dana De Agrella. From South Africa comes a compelling story of fate and friendship as two boys make a simple choice that alters their lives forever....this richly multilayered story offers an insightful look into the challenges facing post-Apartheid South Africa while telling an enchanting tale of a sweet artistic soul finding his true self. 105 min. DVD 4104
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- Woubi Cheri. (Ivory Coast, France, 1998)
- Directors: Laurent Bocahut and
Philip Brooks. Woubi Cheri is the first film to give African homosexuals a chance to describe their world in their own words. Often funny, sometimes ribald, but always real, this documentary introduces gender pioneers demanding their right to construct a distinct African homosexuality. In French, with English subtitles. 62 min. Video/C 6312Credits and other information from the Internet Movie Database
- Xala (The Curse) (Senegal, 1975)
- Directed by Sembene Ousmane. In a mythical African country, a rich, self-made businessman and member of the post-colonial ruling elite takes on a third wife to show the world his wealth, only to be stricken by a curse resulting in impotency. His efforts at getting cured lead to disasterous yet comical results. Inspired by the novel by Sembene Ousmane (PQ3989.S46 X3; PR9344.5.A4 no.175 Main Stack also other editions). In French and Wolof with English subtitles. 119 min. DVD 4105; vhs PAL format. 999:167
- Yaaba (Burkina Faso, Switzerland, France, 1989)
- Directed by Idrissa Ouedraogo. A young girl and her cousin Bila happen upon an old witch outcast by their village in Burkina Faso many years before. Although forbidden by his parents to have any contact with the old lady, Bila is drawn to her mystique and the fear she brings to the village. In Moré with English subtitles. 90 min. 999:3251 Credits and other information from the Internet Movie Database
- Yeelen: Brightness. (Burkina Faso, Mali, 1987)
- Directed by Souleymane Cisse. Shows the destructive conflict between a father and son who vie with each other for knowledge of the secrets of nature. In Bambara wih English subtitles. 105 min. DVD 3573; also VHS 999:501
- Yesterday (South Africa, 2004)
- Directed by Darrell Roodt. Cast: Kenneth Khambula, Leleti Khumalo, Harriet Lenabe, Lihle Mvelase, Camilla Walker.
After falling ill, Yesterday learns that she is HIV positive. With her husband in denial and a young daughter to tend to, Yesterday's one goal is to live long enough to see her child go to school. Set against the awesome, harsh landscapes of South Africa. 95 min. DVD 5042
Credits and other information from the Internet Movie Database
- Zan Boko: Homeland. (Burkina Faso, 1988)
- Directed by Gaston Kaboré. A rural family's world is brutally disrupted when their ancestral village is absorbed by the expanding boundaries of their country's largest city. In Moré with English subtitles. 92 min. 999:499
- Zonk! (South Africa, 1950)
- Directed by Hyman Kirstein. In the early 1950's, at the beginning of apartheid with its racial segregation and classification, this film was produced by Africans with an all Black African cast. It is a series of musical numbers, relying heavily on American Hollywood stereotypes of the black entertainer. The music ranges from 'Dixie' presentations to Harlem dance-hall, to Broadway top-hat and tie. In imitation of Al Jolson from the American minstrel tradition, one performance presents a black man imitating a white man in blackface. 58 min. Video/C 5813
- Zulu Love Letter (South Africa, 2004)
- Directed by Ramadan Suleman. Cast: Pamela Nomvete Marimbe, Sophie Mgcina, Kurt Egelhof. It is ten years since the last vestiges of apartheid's political regime were dismantled. For the average South African, the notion of the struggle has been all too quickly relegated to the past. But for Thandi, a journalist suffering from writer's block, a more profound struggle continues to rage within. Living in a nation that seems too eager to forget its past, Thandi cannot shake the gnawing sense of guilt that continues to alienate her from her own family. 100 min. DVD 5310
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Films Set In/About Africa
- Across the World with Mr. and Mrs. Martin Johnson (1930)
- The Johnsons, naturalists and explorers, journeyed across Africa in the 1920s and 30s, encountering and filming many forms of native wildlife and people 79 min. DVD 5965
- Africa Screams (1949)
- Directed by Charles Barton. Cast: Bud Abbott, Lou Costello. Starving cannibals, ferocious lions and awesome apes terrorize Abbott and Costello in this African adventure. 79 min. DVD 1299
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- Africa Speaks!
- Narrator, Lowell Thomas. Documentary account of Paul Hoefler's photography expedition through central Africa in 1928-1929. Containing many varied and interesting shots of African tribes and wildlife, the film footage from it was later interpolated into many jungle-themed adventure movies. Originally released as a motion picture in 1930. 60 min. Video/C MM536
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- African Journey (1970)
- Director, George Bloomfield. Luke, a high-school student from Canada, gets more than he bargains for on a trip to East Africa. He and Temba, an African youth, search for their fathers who have been in a mining accident. The two forge a lasting friendship as each discovers how much they have in common despite their vastly different cultures. 173 min. 999:3050
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- Adanggaman (France / Switzerland / Ivory Coast / Burkina Faso / Italy, 2000)
-
- Director, Roger Gnoan M'Bala. Cast: Rasmane Ouedraogo, Albertine N'Guessan, Bintou Bakayoko, Honore Goore Bi Ziable. In West Africa during the late 17th century a strong-willed young man (Ossei) sets out to rescue his mother when their village is raided. His quest leads him to the stronghold of the dreaded King Adanggaman, an arrogant despot who thrives on the slave trade and uses fierce female warriors to enforce his power. One of these Amazons, herself a former slave, falls in love with Ossei, and they escape to the bush. Special feature: Historical viewpoint from Fritz Umbach, Professor of World History, John Jay College, City University of New York. In Bambara, Baule and French with English subtitles. 85 min. DVD 8776
Credits and other information from the Internet Movie Database - Director, Roger Gnoan M'Bala. Cast: Rasmane Ouedraogo, Albertine N'Guessan, Bintou Bakayoko, Honore Goore Bi Ziable. In West Africa during the late 17th century a strong-willed young man (Ossei) sets out to rescue his mother when their village is raided. His quest leads him to the stronghold of the dreaded King Adanggaman, an arrogant despot who thrives on the slave trade and uses fierce female warriors to enforce his power. One of these Amazons, herself a former slave, falls in love with Ossei, and they escape to the bush. Special feature: Historical viewpoint from Fritz Umbach, Professor of World History, John Jay College, City University of New York. In Bambara, Baule and French with English subtitles. 85 min. DVD 8776
- Baboona (Mr. and Mrs. Martin Johnson's Baboona: An Aerial Epic Over Africa
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Early 20th century naturalists and explorers, Martin and Osa Johnson journey across Africa in 1935 in two amphibious airplanes, encountering and filming African natives and many forms of wildlife including lions, rhino, elephants, and especially a large population of baboons. A prime example of the type of popular, wildly exploitative travel film made in the US between 1920 and 1950. 73 min. Video/C MM304
- Besieged (Italy / UK, 1998)
- Director, Bernardo Bertolucci. Cast: Thandie Newton, David Thewlis, Claudio Santamaria, John C. Ojwang. After her husband is arrested in Africa, Shandurai flees to an enchanting villa in Rome where she gains employment working for an eccentric recluse and falls in love. 92 min. DVD 6824
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- Beyond the Gates (aka Shooting Dogs) (UK / Germany, 2005)
- Director, Michael Caton-Jones. Cast: John Hurt, Hugh Dancy, Dominique Horwitz, Clare-Hope Ashitey.
A powerful re-telling of the true events of the 1994 Rwanda genocide. In April 1994 the airplane of the Hutu President of Rwanda crashes and the Hutu militias slaughter the Tutsi population. In the Ecole Technique Officielle, Christopher, a Catholic priest and Joe Connor, an idealistic English teacher give sanctuary to twenty-five hundred Rwandans survivors in the school, which is under the protection of the UN Belgian force and under siege from the Hutu militia. When the Tutsi refugees are abandoned by the UN, they are murdered by the extremist militia. Filmed in the original location of the scenes it portrays with many survivors of the massacre employed as part of the production crew and in minor acting roles.
112 min. DVD 8785
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- Black and White in Color (Noirs et Blancs en Couleur) (France, 1977)
- Director, Jean-Jacques Annaud. A classic farce whose comedy is enlivened by the antic clash of African versus European customs. A French-African settlement's idyllic life is rudely interrupted in 1915 by news of war in Europe. French dialogue, English subtitles. 88 min. DVD 1667; also on VHS 999:333
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- Bo-ru, the Ape Boy.
- This documentary gives an example of a boy who was raised by apes, found by an African tribe and assimilated into their village. Presents remarkable ethnographic photography of Africa in the early 1930s. "Produced and directed in the heart of Africa by Major C. Court Treatt." Originally produced in 1930. 35 min. Video/C MM535
- Breaker Morant (1979)
- Directed by Bruce Beresford. Following the brutal death of a British captain in the Boer War in South Africa in 1901, Lt. Harry Morant leads his unit in pursuit of the Boers, attacks their camp, and has a captive executed. Other executions and deaths lead to the arrest and trial of Morant and two other lieutenants in this dramatization based on true events. 107 min. 999:2744
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- Brutes and Savages (1977)
- Directed by Arthur Davis. Fascinated by forbidden rituals and ceremonies, world explorer Arthur Davis takes a crew with hidden cameras to Africa and South America to secretly record the beauty and horror of the "law of the jungle." Shocking, brutal and repulsive, this film mixes bizarre authentic footage with incredible (and often hilarious) "re-enactments" of his findings. Animal sacrifices, bizarre tribal ceremonies, mating rituals....and more. When first released in 1977, the film was cut to avoid problems with censors. This is the restored full length version.
107 min. DVD 5113
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- Carl Peters (1941)
- Directed by Herbert Selpin (Germany). A docu-drama of the life of Karl Peters, the German Commissioner in East Africa during World War I. It tells of the founding of Deutsch Ostafrika, which covered parts of present-day Tanzania, Rwanda and Burundi. In German without titles. 110 min. 999:2740
- Champagne Safari
- This archival rarity presents the extravagant safari through Africa taken by actress Rita Hayworth and her husband Aly Kahn, in the early 1950's. Traveling by private plane, jeep, limousine and rickshaw, the celebrated couple stops in Tanganyika, Uganda, Kenya and the Belgian Congo among other locales. The film, a fascinating record of neo-colonialism and gaudy excess, offers a rare glimpse into two worlds: old time Hollywood and colonial Africa. 1952. 60 min. Video/C 9472
- Chocolat
- A film by Clair Denis (France, 1980. Frances Dalens has returned to Cameroon to trace her past. Soon the sights, sounds and smells sweep her back to her childhood and memories of the people who populated her youth. This is a mesmerizing memoir of life in colonial Africa in the 1950s, as seen through the unblinking eyes of the young daughter of a French official. 105 min. 999:2088
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- City Lovers, Country Lovers: the Gordimer Stories (1982)
- Two films with inter-racial love in South Africa as their centerpiece. In both stories, the lovers are made to suffer the legal consequences of their violation of the Immorality Act, the South African law which forbids sexual and social relationships between the races. Contents: City Lovers (60 min.; direction, Barney Simon): a middle-aged white geologist and a younger, light-skinned Black cashier develop an intimate relationship. Country Lovers (61 min.; direction, Manie van Rensburg): a young white boy and Black girl grow up together and become lovers. 999:3192
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- Coming to America (1988)
- Directed by John Landis. Featuring: Eddie Murphy, Arsenio Hall, James Earl Jones, John Amos, Madge Sinclair, Shari Headley. Murphy plays a very wealthy and pampered African prince who comes to America in search of a bride. Accompanied by his closest companion, Murphy quickly finds a job, new friends, new digs, new enemies--and lots of trouble. 116 min. DVD 7106; vhs 999:2123
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Movie Review Query Engine- Olaniyan, Tejumola. "'Uplift the Race!' Coming to America, Do the Right Thing, and the Poetics of 'Othering'." Cultural-Critique, 1996 Fall, 34, 91-113.
- Congorilla (Mr. and Mrs. Martin Johnson's Congorilla: Adventures Among the Big apes and Little People of Central Africa
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Follows the fourth trip of naturalists and explorers Martin and Osa Johnson to Africa as they travel in two amphibious airplanes, encountering and filming gorillas, giraffes, lions, rhino, elephants, crocodiles, hippo and other birds and animals of the Serengetti Plains, Kenya and the Congo and pygmies and other native inhabitants. A prime example of the type of popular, wildly exploitative travel film made in the US between 1920 and 1950. 1932. 67 min. Video/C MM306
- The Constant Gardener (2005)
- Directed by Fernando Meirelles. Cast: Ralph Fiennes, Rachel Weisz, Hubert Kounde, Danny Huston, Daniele Harford, Packson Ngugi, Damaris Itenyo Agweyu, Bernard Otieno Oduor, Bill Nighy. In a remote area of Northern Kenya, activist Tessa Quayle is found brutally murdered. Tessa's companion, a doctor, appears to have fled the scene, and all the evidence points to a crime of passion. Members of the British High Commission in Nairobi assume that Tessa's widower, their mild-mannered and unambitious colleague Justin Quayle, will leave the matter to them. Haunted by remorse and jarred by rumors of his late wife's infidelities, Quayle surprises everyone by embarking on a personal odyssey that will take him across three continents. Using his privileged access to diplomatic secrets, Justin risks his own life and will stop at nothing to expose the truth - a conspiracy more far-reaching and deadly than Quayle could ever have imagined. 129 min. DVD 4986
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- Coup de Torchon (1981)
- Directed by Bernard Tavernier. Cast: Philippe Noiret, Isabelle Huppert, Jean-Pierre Marielle, Stephane Audran, Eddy Mitchell, Guy Marchand, Irene Skobline. After Lucien Cordier, the only police officer in a small African village is ridiculed by the local pimp, cheated on by his wife, and suffers his mistresses being beaten, he begins to get rid of the evil ones in his life. 128 min. DVD 1797
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- Cry Freedom. (1987)
- Directed by Richard Attenborough. Stars Denzel Washington and Kevin Kline. Based on books Biko and Asking for Trouble by Donald Woods. Director, Richard Attenborough. Story of South African Black activist Stephen Biko and liberal White newspaper editor Donald Woods who risks his own life to bring Biko's message to the world. 157 min. 999:226
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- Cry, The Beloved Country.(1995)
- Directed by Darrell Roodt. Cast: Earl Jones, Richard Harris, Vusi Kunene, Leleti Khumalo, Charles S. Dutton. The story of two fathers living in South Africa, a black minister and a white farmer, whose lives are bound together by mutual tragedy. Based on the novel of the same title by Alan Paton. 106 min. 999:1467
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- Cry, The Beloved Country.(1951)
- Directed by Zoltan Korda. Cast: Canada Lee, Charles Carson, Sidney Poitier. The story of two fathers living in South Africa, a black minister and a white farmer, whose lives are bound together by mutual tragedy. Based on the novel of the same title by Alan Paton. 100 min. 999:941
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- A Dry White Season.
- Directed by Euzhan Palcy; featuring Donald Sutherland, Janet Suzman, Jurgen Prochnow, Zakes Mokae, Susan Sarandon, Marlon Brando. The politics of apartheid are put into meaningful, human terms in this critically acclaimed film about a prominent White schoolteacher who is awakened to the reality of South African justice. 107 min. 999:474
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- Eau(Belgium, 1997)
- Director, Dominique Standaert. An adaptation of the novel by Jef Gerraerts, this Belgian made drama takes place in the Congo in 1960. The film features the ironic bond between two protagonists, one white, one black, amid the bloodshed around them. 12 min. DVD 6306
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- Friends(South Africa / UK / France, 1993)
- Director, Elaine Proctor. Passion and politics mix in this drama set in South Africa about three young women, Sophie, a white political activist, Thoko, a black school teacher, and Annika, a Afrikaner archaeologist, all close friends. But their friendship is severly tested when Sophie plants a bomb that accidentally kills two innocent people. 105 min. 999:3027
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- Happening in Africa (1969)
- Filmed on location in Tanzania and Uganda. Featuring Darr Poran, Carrie Rochelle, Alice Marie. A model and a writer-photographer travel to East Africa together, where the untamed wilderness and tranquility force them to face their own personal demons. Surrounded by breathtaking nature and wild animals the environment that threatens their lives also strips away their inhibitions and forces them to learn to trust each other. 83 min. 999:2760
- Hotel Rwanda (2004)
- Directed by Terry George. Cast: Don Cheadle, Sophie Okonedo, Joaquin Phoenix, Desmond Dube, David O'Hara, Cara Seymour, Fana Mokoena, Hakeem Kae-Kazim, Tony Kgoroge, Mosa Kaiser. Based on true events tells the deeply moving story of a five-star-hotel manager who used his wits and words to save more than 1,200 lives during the 1994 Rwandan conflict. 122 min. DVD 3715
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- I Dreamed of Africa (2000)
- Directed by Hugh Hudson. Cast: Kim Basinger, Vincent Perez, Eva Marie Saint, Liam Aiken. Epic tale of a woman's quest for adventure and a new life in the majestic, untamed lands of rural Africa. A passionate film about love, loss and personal triumph. 115 min. DVD 2579
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- I Married Adventure(1940)
- Covers Osa Johnson's memoirs of the Osa and Martin Johnson explorations of Africa and the South Seas in the early 20th century and their photography of native people and animals. Describes a failed trip to Borneo that the Johnsons successfully made up for 20 years later. 77 min. DVD 5827
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- In My Country (Country of My Skull) (UK / Ireland / South Africa, 2004)
- Directed by John Boorman. Cast: Samuel L. Jackson, Juliette Binoche, Brendan Gleeson, Menzi "Ngubs" Ngubane.
A Washington Post journalist and an Afrikaans poet strike up a friendship and become romantically involved as they try to come to terms with their feelings about what they've learned at the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission hearings. Based on the book Country of my skull by Antjie Krog. 94 min. DVD 500
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- Inside (1996)
- Directed by Arthur Penn. Cast: Nigel Hawthorne, Eric Stoltz, Louis Gossett, Jr., Ian Roberts, Janine Eser, Louis Van Niekerk. An idealistic university professor is arrested for conspiring to overthrow the racist government in South Africa and is ruthlessly interrogated by a police colonel during his imprisonment. Ten years later, another political prisoner who witnessed the event has become an investigator of crimes of physical and mental abuse by the previous regime. When he confronts the colonel will justice finally be done? 94 min. DVD 500
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- Jack Benny Show: Jack Benny & Bob Hope
- Performers: Jack Benny, Bob Hope, Eddie Anderson, Don Wilson, Jerry Lewis, Dean Martin. In this rare, thought to have been lost kinescope, Jack and special guest Bob Hope set out on "The Road to Nairobi," only to be captured by cannibals! Also includes brief appearances by Jerry Lewis and Dean Martin. Videocassette release of a television program originally produced by CBS Television in the 1950's. 26 min. Video/C 9361
- Jerico (UK, 1937)
- Directed by Thornton Freeland. Cast: Paul Robeson, Henry Wilcoxon, Wallace Ford.
Paul Robeson is in fine voice in this musical drama about a GI who, after he accidentally kills a man, escapes into the desert where he joins an African tribe to avoid punishment. 75 min. DVD 7282 Credits and other information from the Internet Movie Database
- Jungle Girl (serial, 1941)
- Directed by William Witney & John English. Cast: Frances Gifford, Tom Neal, Trevor Bardette, Frank Lackteen, Gerald Mohr, David Sharpe (stuntwork)
Fifteen chapters of a motion picture serial adapted from the Edgar Rice Burroughs' novel jungle girl packed with thrilling cliffhangers as opposing sides fought from chapter to chapter for a fortune in diamonds hidden in the African jungle. Contents: Death by woodoo -- Queen of the beasts -- River of fire -- Treachery -- Jungle vengeance -- Tribal fury -- The poison dart -- Man trap -- Treasure tomb -- Jungle killer -- Dangerous secret -- Trapped -- Ambush -- Diamond trail -- Flight to freedom.
267 min. DVD 6936Credits and other information from the Internet Movie Database
- Jungle Jim (serial, 1936)
- Directed by Ford Beebe and Clifford Smith. Cast: Grant Withers, Betty Jane Rhodes, Raymond Hatton, Paul Sutton, Evelyn Brent, Henry Brandon, Bryant Washburn.
In this motion picture serial, Jungle Jim leads a safari into darkest Africa, to find the whereabouts of Joan, a young heiress who disappeared in the jungle. Joan has fallen under the influence of The Cobra and become the ruler of a small native tribe. Jungle Jim rescues her from the tribe but they still have to get through the jungle without being caught by another safari that wants the girl dead so they can try to get hold of her inheritance. Contents: 1. Into the lion's den -- 2. The cobra strikes -- 3. The menacing herd -- 4. The killer's trail -- 5. The bridge of terror -- 6. Drums of doom -- 7. The earth trembles -- 8. The killer lion -- 9. The devil bird -- 10. Descending doom -- 11. In the cobra's castle -- 12. The last safari. Based on a comic strip by Alex Raymond, the creator of "Flash Gordon."
DVD 7639
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- The King Is Alive. (Sweden / Denmark / USA, 2001)
- Directed by Kristian Levring. Cast: Miles Anderson, Romane Bohringer, David Bradley, David Calder, Bruce Davidson, Brion James, Peter Kubheka, Vusi Kunene, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Janet McTeer, Chris Walker, Lia Williams. A contemporary adaptation of Shakespeare's Macbeth. Follows the trials and tribulations of a busload of tourists who get stranded in an abandoned mining town in the middle of the African desert. After a fine bout of partying, they fall prey to the heat, isolation, and fear of death that pushes them to the extremes of introspection and emotional exploration. And in a beautifully futile gesture, they begin to rehearse a production of Shakespeare's King Lear, which helps pry open a few fragile psyches. 110 min. DVD 2462
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- The Last King of Scotland (UK, 2006)
- Directed by Kevin Macdonald. Cast: Forest Whitaker, James McAvoy, Kerry Washington, Gillian Anderson, Simon McBurney, David Oyelowo, Abby Mukiibi, Adam Kotz, Barbara Rafferty, David Ashton. Chronicles Idi Amin's rise and fall. Amin's despotic reign of terror is viewed through the eyes of Nicholas Garrigan, a Scottish doctor who arrives in Uganda in the early 1970s to serve as Amin's personal physician. His perspective as an outsider causes him to be initially impressed by Amin's calculated rise to power and he grows increasingly monstrous. A pointed examination of how independent Uganda (a British colony until 1962) became a breeding ground for Amin's genocidal tyranny. Amin is both seductive and horribly destructive. Garrigan grows increasingly prone to exploitation. 123 min. DVD 7376
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- Lost in the Stars
- Music by Kurt Weill; book and lyrics by Maxwell Anderson. Directed by Daniel Mann. Performer: Brock Peters, Melba Moore, Raymond St. Jacques, Clifton Davis, Paul Rogers, Paula Kelly, Alan Weeks, Paulene Myers. Stephen Kumalo, a black South African minister searches the unfamiliar back alleys and shanty towns of Johannesburg for his son, Absalom. But Kumalo's unwavering faith is put to the test when he finds Absalom in jail facing a capital murder charge. Courage, dignity and sacrifice fall prey to the whirlwind of racist hypocrisy and hollow justice in Absalom's trial. Absalom's reunion and reconciliation with this father, his jailhouse marriage to his pregnant sweetheart, and his heroic determination to tell the truth set the stage for a tragic climax. Based on the novel "Cry, the Beloved Country" by Alan Paton. 1974. 97 min. DVD 2115
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- Malunde (South Africa / Germany, 2001)
- Directed by Stefanie Sycholt. Cast: Ian Roberts, Kagiso Mtetwa, Winston Ntshona, Mosa Kaiser, Wilmien Roussouw. Wonderboy is a paint-huffing, young black boy living os the streets of Johannesburg. Kobus is a middle-aged Afrikaner soldier who is down on his luck, trying to sell furniture wax. Their paths cross when Wonderboy takes refuge from an angry drug dealer in Kobus's van. Kobus unwittingly drives to Cape Town with Wonderboy in tow. While Kobus is hoping to sell some wax, Wonderboy is hoping to find his mother there. The two soon form a bond in spite of themselves. 113 min. DVD 2713
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- Mister Johnson
- Director, Bruce Beresford, 1990. Set in Nigeria in the 1920's this poignant drama focuses on the clash of cultures in colonial West Africa. It follows the tragicomic exploits of a black African clerk named Johnson, working for British officials who ingratiates himself into the lives and society of the ruling whites. Adaptation from the Joyce Carey novel, Mister Johnson. 105 min. 999:1712
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- Naked Africa(1957)
- Directed by Ray Phoenix. An ethnographic documentary which surveys the manners and mores of "contemporary" Africans in 1957. Reynolds, a noted journalist, observes that parts of the continent have been westernized. However, these scenes are of rural Africa where white men have rarely visited. They focus on native girls performing the "python dance", a rite that celebrates their arrival at womanhood, lions stalking and killing zebras and antelopes, and 18-year old tribal youths undergoing a ritual of manhood. 70 min. Video/C 4904
- Nowhere in Africa (Nirgendwo in Afrika) (Germany, 2001)
- Directed by Caroline Link. Cast: Juliane Kohler, Merab Ninidze, Matthias Habich, Sidede Onyulo, Lea Kurka, Karoline Eckertz. Critically acclaimed, this film is based on the true life story of a Jewish family who fled the Nazi regime in 1938 and learned to cope with their new life, and each other, on a remote farm in Kenya. 142 min. DVD 1997
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- Ohm Krüger(Germany, 1941)
- Director: Hans Steinhoff. Cast: Emil Jannings, Ferdinand Marian, Hedwig Wangel.
A good example of a German anti-British propaganda film produced during World War II. Involving the Boer War, the film is historically not entirely correct and was mainly meant to have the audience sympathize with the South African "boers" representing the German people fighting against the English. Based on themes found in the novel: Mann ohne Volk, by Arnold Krieger. 124 min. 999:2727
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- Hallstein, Christian W. "Ohm Kruger': the genesis of a Nazi propaganda film." (Critical Essay) Literature-Film Quarterly April 2002 v30 i2 p133(7) UCB users only
Klotz, Marcia. "Epistemological Ambiguity and the Fascist Text: Jew Süss, Carl Peters, and Ohm Krüger." New German Critique, No. 74, Special Issue on Nazi Cinema. (Spring - Summer, 1998), pp. 91-124. UCB users only
Lutz, Reinhart C. "False history, fake Africa, and the transcription of Nazi reality in Hans Steinhoff's 'Ohm Krueger'." Literature-Film Quarterly 25.n3 (July 1997): 188(5)
- Out of Africa (1985)
- Directed by Sydney Pollack. Featuring Robert Redford, Meryl Streep, Klaus Maria Brandauer. The true story of Karen Blixen, a strong-willed woman who, with her philandering husband, runs a coffee plantation in Kenya, circa 1914. To her astonishment she soon discovers herself falling in love with the land, its people and a mysterious white hunter. 161 min. 999:2021
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- Cooper,-Brenda; Descutner,-David. "'It Had No Voice to It': Sydney Pollack's Film Translation of Isak Dinesen's Out of Africa." Quarterly Journal of Speech, 1996 Aug, 82:3, 228-50.
- Le Professionnel (France, 1981)
- Director, Georges Lautner. French secret agent Joss Baumont is sent to one of the African countries to kill their president Njala. However, at the last moment the political situation changes and the French secret service turns him in to the African authorities, and he is sentenced to prison. After a daring escape Joss returns to France and deliberately informs his former chiefs of his presence promising them to kill Njala who has just arrived in the country on an official visit. 105 min. 999:3637
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- Proteus (Canada / South Africa, 2003)
- Director, John Greyson. Cast: Rouxnet Brown, Shaun Smyth, Neil Sandilands, Kristen Thomson. A fact-based interracial gay love story of two men incarcerated in the infamous South African Robin Island prison in the 18th century. Claas Blank, a Koi herder was unjustly imprisoned for stealing cattle. Rijkhaart Jacobsz, a withdrawn Dutch sailor, was imprisoned for the crime of homosexuality. The two were placed on trial for sodomy and the film is based partly on court transcipts from the time. 97 min. DVD 3275
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- Roughest Africa (1923)
- Directed by Ralph Ceder. Cast: Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy. Two African Explorers, Stanislaus Laurello and Hans Downe, travel round Africa, from Los Angeles to Hollywood, trying to capture and photograph animals, but have more encounters than they had hoped for. Some animals encountered are bears, emus, an elephant and a family of lions. 21 min. DVD 3559; also on DVD 270
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- Queen Kelly (1929)
- Directed by Erich von Stroheim. Cast: Gloria Swanson, Walter Byron, Seena Owen, Tully Marshall. A gothic romance set in a mythical European kingdom in which a convent girl is seduced by a prince and inherits a brothel in Africa before he finds her again. 101 min. DVD 2247
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- Red Dust (UK / South Africa, 2004)
- Directed by Tom Hooper. Cast: Hilary Swank, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Jamie Bartlett, Ian Roberts, Nomhle Nkonyeni. A political thriller set in a small South African town during the Truth and Reconciliation Commission hearings. Human rights lawyer Sarah Barcant must represent Alex Mpondo, a former political activist, who was held captive and sadistically tortured by a police officer under the apartheid regime in South Africa. 110 min. DVD 7360
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- [Rhodes] Cecil Rhodes (1996)
- A biography of Cecil Rhodes who arrived in Africa at the age of eighteen to join the diamond rush but soon conceived another ambition: to bring the entire land under British rule. By the time he was thirty, Rhodes was one of the wealthiest men in the world and ten years later, a new country had been created and named for him, Rhodesia. A candid vision of the birth of apartheid, and the bitter wars that divided a country and devastated its people. Originally produced for PBS television in 1996. 336 min. Video/C 5519
- Sanders of the River (UK, 1935)
- Directed by Alexander Korda. Cast: Timothy Spall, Brenda Blethyn, Phyllis Logan, Marianne Jean-Baptiste, Claire Rushbrook. After her adoptive parents die, a young black woman seeks out her natural birth mother only to discover her mother is white. Equally shocked to learn her daughter she gave up for adoption is black, Cynthia insists it's a mistake. But she soon realizes it's true and when she springs her newfound daughter on the rest of the family, the resulting chaos leads to a series of secrets and lies being revealed at last. Special features: True Pioneer: the British films of Paul Robeson, a new video program with Paul Robeson Jr. and film historians Stephens Bourne and Ian Christie, including film clips from Song of freedom (1936), King Solomon's mine (1937), and Big Fella (1937). 87 min. DVD 7282 Credits and other information from the Internet Movie Database
- Sankofa. (1993)
- Directed by Haile Gerima. Sankofa is an Akan word that means, "We must go back and reclaim our past so we can move forward; so we understand why and how we came to be who we are today." Written, directed and produced by Ethiopian-born filmmaker Haile Gerima, SANKOFA is a powerful film about Maafa-the African holocaust. Done from an African/African-American perspective, this story is a vastly different one from the generally
distorted representations of African people that Hollywood gives us. This revolutionary feature film connects enslaved black people with their African past and culture. It empowers Black people on the screen by showing how African peoples' desire for freedom made them resist, fight back, and conspire against their enslavers, overseers and collective past through the vision on Mona, who visits her ancestral experience on a new world planation as Shola. We share the life she endures as a slave and experiences her growing consciousness and transformation [description from web site]. 1993. 125 min. 999:1596
- Shaka Zulu. (1986)
- Directed by William C. Faure. Featuring Edward Fox, Robert Powell, Trevor Howard, Fiona Fullerton, Christopher Lee, Henry Cele. A dramatization of true events of 19th century tribal Africa centering around the life of Shaka, a powerful Zulu leader, as he grows up to fulfill an ancient tribal prophecy to unite his people into a bold new nation. Driven by extraordinary intelligence, courage and astounding physical ability Shaka leads his proud warriors in their quest. Set against the spectacular panorama of the Zulu tribal homelands, this film depicts the clash of two cultures as the European colonial expansion begins in Africa. 660 min. (3 discs) DVD 642
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- Simba
- Filmed in East Africa during the second Martin Johnson African Expedition, 1923-1928. Records Martin and Osa Johnson's expedition to East Africa, the chief purpose of which was to capture on film rapidly disappearing African wildlife as well as East African peoples (Samburu, Dorobo, etc.) and their customs. Includes extensive footage of elephants, giraffes and lions. Also shown is the lion-spearing ceremony perfomed by the Lumbwa (part of this sequence was filmed by Carl Akeley and Alfred J. Klein). The film opens with an introduction by Martin and Osa Johnson. Introduction recorded in New York, ca. 1932. 83 min. Video/C 7326
- Sometimes in April(HBO, 2005)
- Director: Raoul Peck. Cast: Oris Erhuero, Eriq Ebouaney, Idris Elba, Debra Winger. A drama of two brothers divided along political lines in the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, where over the course of 100 days an estimated 800,000 people were killed in a terrifying purge by Hutu nationalists against their Tutsi countrymen. 140 min. DVD 4060
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- Stander (Canada / Germany / South Africa / UK, 2003)
- Directed by Bronwen Hughes. Cast: Tom Jane, Dexter Fletcher, David Patrick O'Hara, Deborah Kara Unger. Based on the true story of Andre Stander, a South African police officer who suffers a crisis of conscience after his involvement in a riot in Johannesburg. He goes from law enforcer to law breaker, becoming one of South Africa's most notorious bank robbers. 116 min. DVD 7318
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- Tarzan the Ape Man (1932)
- Directed by W.S. Van Dyke. Featuring Johnny Weismuller, Maureen O'Sullivan, Neil Hamilton, C. Aubrey Smith, Doris Lloyd, Cheetah. The Lord of the Apes sweeps Jane Parker into his life. 99 min. DVD 2724
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- Tarzan and His Mate (1934)
- Directed by Cedric Gibbons. Featuring Johnny Weismuller, Maureen O'Sullivan, Neil Hamilton, Paul Cavanagh, Cheetah. I
Movies by African Filmmakers