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Angano . . . Angano
Femmes aux Yeux Ouverts (Women with Open Eyes)
Finzan
Kukurantumi: The Road to Accra
Saarabe
Wend Kuni
Women with Open Eyes (Femmes aux Yeux Ouverts)
Yeelen
Zan Boko
1973 Directed by Ross Devenish, South Africa. 102 minutes.
The first of Athol Fugard's plays to be filmed, this remains unfortunately theatrical and wordy but nevertheless an extremely moving tale of a "Cape Coloured" couple on the road after their shanty is destroyed by government action. Fugard plays the lead role.
1977 Directed by Ousmane Sembene, Senegal. 120 minutes.
In Wolof with English subtitles.
Source: New Yorker Films
This film is a national epic that bears the same definitive relationship to its culture that Griffith's The Birth of a Nation, Renoir's La Marseillaise and Eisenstein's Potemkin do to theirs. Ceddo is an exciting political thriller that examines the confrontation between opposing forces in the face of Moslem expansion. The ceddo&emdashor feudal class of common people&emdashcling desperately to their customs and their fetishistic religion. Set loosely in the 19th century, Ceddo is not strictly a historical film. It includes philosophy, fantasy, militant politics and electrifying leaps across the centuries. In this, his most ambitious and remarkable film, Sembene evokes the whole of the African experience.
1988 Directed by Robert Bilheimer and Ron Mix, South Africa. 56 minutes.
Source: Southern Africa Media Center, California Newsreel.
This documentary traces the life of the Reverend C.F. Beyers Naude and his transformation from pillar of the Afrikaner establishment to outcast supporter of the freedom movement. Nominated for an Oscar.
1985 Directed by Désiré Ecaré, Côte D'Ivoire. 105 minutes.
In French and indigenous languages with English subtitles.
Source: New Yorker Films
This politically and stylistically adventurous film explores the links between feminism, economics and tradition in modern-day Africa. The film creates a rich tapestry of the textures and rhythms of village life as well as pointing out wryly ironic comparisons between the eonomic and sexual stratagems adopted by African women in a patriarcal society.
Femmes
aux Yeux Ouverts
(Women with Open Eyes) Top of Page
1994 Directed by Anne-Laure Folly, Togo. 52 minutes.
Source: California Newsreel
A film about African women is a rarity, even more one made by an African woman. In Women with Open Eyes, award-winning Togolese filmmaker Anne-Laure Folly presents portraits of contemporary women in four West African countries: Burkina Faso, Mali, Senegal, and Benin. The film asks: what role are women playing in Africa's current opening to democracy? It shows how African women are beginning to speak out and organize to reshape key aspects of their lives including marital rights, sexual health and reproduction, women's role in the economy, female genital mutilation, and more.
1990 South Africa.
A documentary about writer-director, Mbongeni Ngema, explores the tremendous power of black theatre in South Africa from its township roots to productions that have become international hits such as Woza Albert, Sarafina and the new musical, Township Fever.
From
Today No More Top of Page
1988 Directed by Manie van Rensburg, South Africa.
Originally titled The Native Who Caused All the Trouble, this feature film tells of a "cheeky" black African who challenges the 1913 Land Act that reserves 87 percent of South Africa for white ownership. With John Kani, Venessa Cooke and Graham Hopkins (Winner of Best Performance in a Supporting Role; S.A. Film Awards).
South Africa
Documentary of two teenage girls, one white, one black, growing up in South Africa and the differences in their expectations of life determined only by the privileges bestowed or not by their respective skin color.
1992 Directed by Ousmane Sembene, Senegal. 115 minutes.
In Wolof and French with English subtitles.
Source: New Yorker Films
On the morning of the funeral the political activist Guelwaar, his friends and family discover to their horror that his body has disappeared from the morgue. Because he died violently, theories on the whereabouts of the corpse multiply wildly before the truth is revealed: the remains of this baptized Catholic have been mistakenly buried in a Muslim cemetery. The confusion that ensues due to this bureaucratic mix-up and the amazing attempts to rectify this error add up to a razor-sharp critique of contemporary politics and the fractious religious dogma that still exists in many places, including the sahel, a drought-stricken belt in Senegal, where the film takes place. Inspired by a true story, Sembene uses the death of this champion of an independent, unified Africa to symbolize the petty jealousies and deeply rooted conflicts that are the enemies of that cause.
Guimba:
The Tyrant
Top of Page
1995 Cheick Oumar Sissoko, Mali, 93 minutes.
Source: California Newsreel
This epic allegory contrasts Africa's tremendous wealth and potential with its present poverty and plunder. Director Cheick Oumar Sissoko comments, "Guimba is a political film, a fable about power, its atrocities and its absurdities."
1992 Directed by Djibril Diop Mambety, Senegal. 113 minutes.
In Wolof with English subtitles.
Source: California Newsreel
Hyenas opens with a close-up of the plodding feet of elephants, whose dusty deliberateness is echoed in the lonely village of Colobane, where the film's action takes place. Dramaan Drameh is the generous-to-a-fault grocer who allows everyone in town to buy everything from rice to liquor on credit, under the watchful eye of his scowling wife. Indebtedness is soon shown to be a village habit; in the next frames we see the town hall being relieved of its furniture by stern-faced repo men. Hope soon arrives, however, in the form of Linguere Ramatou, Dramaan Drameh's childhood sweetheart and the town's aging prodigal daughter. But, like the elephants whose image frame the narrative, Linguere Ramatou doesn't forget. Her ability to hold a grudge, combined with her wealth (she is rumored to be "richer than the World Bank," that ubiquitous creditor of Third World nations) means that Colobane quickly becomes even deeper in the red than before, with selling its soul the only way out. With this adaptation of Swiss author Frederich Durrenmatt's play The Visit of the Old Woman, acclaimed Senegalese filmmaker Djibril Diop Mambety triumphantly returns to the movies after a more than 20 year hiatus. Mambety manages to turn Durrenmatt's bizarre revenge tragi-comedy into a postmodern allegory of the neocolonial dependency complex. The lush cinematography and the superb acting make this film a must-see. &emdashJeannine DeLombard
1993 Directed by Michael Raeburn, Zimbabwe. 98 minutes.
Source: Films, Incorporated
The exuberant beat of African jit (a form of Zimbabwean pop music) reflects the spirit of UK, an optimistic youth who's determined to win the heart of the beautiful woman he loves. UK's efforts are hilariously helped and hindered by his Jukwa, an ancestral spirit who wants him to provide for his aging parents-and keep her supplied with beer!
JOM, The
Story of a People Top of Page
1982 Directed by Ababacar Samb, Senegal. 80 minutes.
In Wolof with English subtitles.
Source: New Yorker Films
Senegalese filmmaker Ababacar Samb says, "Jom is a Wolof word which has no equivalent in English or French. Jom means courage, dignity, respect... It is the origin of all virtues." To celebrate the concept, Samb uses the griot as the nexus of multiple stories and Senegal's collective memory. To inspire striking workers, the griot tells of a legendary prince, Dieri Dior Ndella, who sacrificed his life during colonialism, and Koura Thiaw, an entertainer who took up the cause of oppressed domestics in the 1940s, both becoming heroes to their people. Though this strangely lyrical film deals with a contemporary crisis, critic Roy Armes notes that "the film travels exuberantly through time to capture situations linked only by their common concern with the concepts of honor and dignity, the importance of keeping one's word and not being bought or corrupted."
Kukurantumi:
The Road to Accra Top of Page
Directed by King Ampaw
Ghana, 83 minutes
Source: African Diaspora Images
Kukurantumi, a small village near Accra, translates as "the place where everything is too heavy to pick up." In this compelling film, director King Ampaw explores the tensions between village and city life in the story of one family's struggle with joblessness, ambition, and pride.
1987 Directed by Ngangura Mweze and Bernard Lamy, Zaïre/Belguim. 85 minutes.
In French with English subtitles.
Source: California Newsreel
La Vie Est Belle takes us inside the vibrant music scene of Kinshasa, Zaïre's exhilarating and exasperating capital. Its back alleys and night clubs pulsate to the beat of some of the most influential music in the world today. The film stars on of the legendary figures of Zaïrean music, Papa Wemba. It tells 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 Kinshasa he uses his wit and talent to win a beautiful wife, trick his greedy boss, and succeed in singing his "theme song" on national television. This lively farce has an infectious spirit that affirms life in the face of seemingly overwhelming obstacles, capturing an essential part of contemporary African reality.
1985 Directed by Mira Hamermesh, South Africa. 52 minutes.
This powerful documentary describes the double life of the domestic servant in South Africa, whose desperate need to earn wages to support her children often means depriving them of her time and her love which then goes to the children of her employer.
Directed by Ousmane Sembene
Senegal, 1968, 90 minutes
Source: New Yorker Films
Sembene's second feature unlocked for the first time the complex daily world of modern Africa. A deceptively simple story of a man who receives a money order and, in his attempts to cash it, encounters an intimidating barrage of Third World bureaucracy, Mandabi is a deeply moving, witty, masterful portrait of an ancient civilization in the throes of change. A warm, subtle, heartbreaking comedy.
1988 Directed by Oliver Schmitz. 104 minutes.
In English, Zulu, Sotho and Afrikaans with English subtitles.
Source: California Newsreel
Mapantsula is the first anti-apartheid feature film by, for and about black South Africans. Filmed in Soweto and scored to the urban beat of "Township Jive," it tells of a petty hoodlum, Panic (played by Thomas Mogotlane), caught up in the events of the student riots in Soweto and his transformation from irresponsible loner to someone compelled to take a stand. Winner of seven South African Film Awards but originally banned in that country.
1993 Directed by Mgozi Onwurah, Nigeria. 50 minutes.
In Waikiriki and English with English subtitles.
Source: California Newsreel
Monday's Girls provides a uniquely nuanced look at tradition in today's Africa through the eyes of two young Waikiriki women from the Niger delta. Although both come from leading families in the same large island town, Florence looks at the Iria initiation ceremony as an honor, while Azikiwe, who has lived for ten years in the city, sees it as an indignity. They represent sharply divergent views of the relationship between the individual and traditional society in a changing Africa. The Iria ceremony itself dates from the 13th century and has marked the passage of well-bred Waikiriki girls into womanhood. The film's real interest is the young women's response to the rituals. Florence, who is Monday's granddaughter, welcomes the ceremony as admitting her to adulthood. For her, the Iria conveys status and provides an honorable identity within the larger community. Azikiwe, sees it differently. Her parents have promised her money to return for the ritual but she has agreed to participate only in the parts she likes. When she refuses to bare her breasts in public, the whole community feels attacked; the bowler-hatted chiefs meet, her father is fined and she is flown back to the city the next day. Azikiwe, distant behind her tinted glasses, defines herself through her freedom to make individual choices not her status in the community. "There are some traditions people should forget," she concludes.
Monday's Girls challenges the idea of a single, "ethnographically correct" representation of tradition. Rituals are revealed as fluid, polysemous texts, dynamic social contracts continuously renegotiated between individuals and communities. But for Azikiwe and millions of other young Africans, tradition is increasingly seen as coercive compared with the often illusory freedoms offered by consumer society.
1993 Directed by Isaac Mabhikwa, Zimbabwe. 90 minutes.
In English.
Source: KJM3 Entertainment Group, Inc.
Thandi is only a teenager, ready for anything and ripe for falling in love. She's a girl flirting with womanhood and the township beckons. But, she still has to find out the dangers when David, the schoolboy Mister Magic, coolly sweeps her off her feet. As her life spins out of control and beyond her parents' reach, Thandi has to learn that playing with love may mean playing with her life. More Time is the story of what happens to a girl when she realized that falling in love is not so simple. The danger of love is not just about unwanted pregnancies. In a time of AIDS, it is about life itself. And that means changing the way teenagers like Thandi think and feel; about sex and sexuality.
Directed by Goodwin Mawuru
Zimbabwe, 1992, 103 minutes
Source: KJM3 Entertainment Group, Inc.
Based on events in director Goodwin Mawuru's own life. Neria ruefully illustrates deliberate perversion of traditional customs for the sake of personal greed. Neria, beautifully played by Jesesi Mungoshi, together with her husband Patrick, has built a solid, comfortable life in the city. But, when Patrick is tragically killed, Neria finds herself caught in the clutches of her husband's family. Invoking "tradition," her brother-in-law first takes all of her money and possessions and then tries to take her children-leaving her with little more than her clothes. Feeling helpless at first, Neria gathers the will to fight back for the sake of her children and finds that both law and tradition are on her side. Another impressive feature debut, Neria is a fascinating portrait of a society in transition as well as a powerful feminist statement.
1986 Directed by Darrell Roodt, South Africa.
The first feature film, strongly critical of apartheid, to be released for general distribution to both black and multiracial cinemas in South Africa, Place of Weeping tells of a black farmhand killed by his brutal Afrikaner employer.
1992 Directed by Jean-Pierre Bekolo, Cameroon. 80 minutes.
French with English subtitles.
Source: California Newsreel
Quartier Mozart is the story of 48 hours in the life of a working class neighborhood in Yaounde, the capital of Cameroon. As in Touki Bouki, director Bekolo is attempting to connect with Africa's young urban population. The film explores the sexual politics of the neighborhood through both male and female perspectives. With the help of a sorceress, a schoolgirl enters the body of a young man so that she can discover for herself the real "sexual politics" of the quarter.
Directed by Idrissa Ouédraogo
Burkina Faso, 1993, 85 minutes
Source: New Yorker Films
A universal morality tale set in the austerely beautiful plains of the African Sahel region. Samba Traoré, on the run after a gas station hold-up, returns to his native village a rich man and becomes both benefactor and enigma to his neighbors. What starts as a crime story at times resembles an American western in its lean, landscape-shaped style, but at its core are timeless issues brought to life by a master of humanist cinema.
Sango
Malo (The
Village Teacher) Top of Page
1991 Directed by Bassek ba Kobhio, Cameroon. 93 minutes.
French with English subtitles.
Source: California Newsreel
A young teacher comes to a rural village with radical ideas for changing the school and power relations in the community. Local authorities and traditionalists are alarmed and try to suppress his activities. The film offers a complex portrait of characters, social change, and everyday life in Cameroon.
1988 Directed by Darrel Roodt, South Africa. 98 minutes.
Set during the border war with SWAPO and Angola, The Stick describes the horrors resulting from loss of morale and reason encountered by a group of South African soldiers while on a mission to investigate the disappearance of a platoon of their compatriots. Originally banned in South Africa.
Ta
Dona (Fire!) Top of Page
1991 Directed by Adam Drabo, Mali. 100 minutes.
Bambara with English subtitles.
Source: New Yorker Films
Ta Dona is a film about regeneration, about how a new Africa can grow organically out of the old. Sidy, an educated agricultural expert, is a man of high integrity and genuine concern for the common people. He exemplifies the blend of tradition and modernity that offers the greatest hope for rural development. Yet, Sidy stands in sharp contrast to Mali's elite of power and privilege who jump at every opportunity to enhance their personal wealth and power at the expense of Mali's people and the environment. Just as fire periodically sweeps the old growth cleansing the environment, is a revolutionary "fire" necessary to purify society?
1992 Directed by Flora M'mbugu-Schelling, Tanzania. 45 minutes.
In Swahili and Kimakonde with English subtitles.
Source: California Newsreel
Who would have suspected that a 45 minute documentary about women crushing rocks, with no narration or plot, would provide one of the most unforgettable experiences of recent African cinema? Flora M'mbugu-Schelling's quiet tribute to women at the very bottom of the international economic order deepens into a profound mediation on human labor itself. These Hands stimulates viewers to rethink the documentary, their role as its consumers and, indeed, as consumers in a global industrial system.
1990 Directed by Idrissa Ouedraogo, Burkina Faso. 81 minutes.
In Mooré with English subtitles.
Source: New Yorker Films
Winner of the Special Jury Prize at Cannes 1990, director Ouedraogo's follow-up to the widely fêted Yaaba is a moving tale of honor and family ties on the plains of Burkina Faso. The story follows a man who returns home after two years to be told that his fiancée has been married off to his father. Secretly, the young man resumes his relationship with his new step-mother despite the fact that this incestuous liaison is punishable by death. Once discovered, the lovers narrowly escape to try to live happily ever after, and would were it not for ya tilaï, or code of honor. As in his earlier film Yaaba, Ouedraogo contrasts the lively villages of his homeland with the empty open plains, painting all in gorgeous earth-colored hues and composing each scene without contrivance. The marvelous warm and relaxed performances are perfectly complemented by the sparse and poignant score of the great jazz musician, Abdullah Ibrahim.
Touki
Bouki (The
Journey of the Hyena) Top of Page
1973 Directed by Djibril Diop Mambety, Senegal. 85 minutes.
Wolof with English subtitles.
Source: California Newsreel.
What are the values of young Africans in the rapidly changing urban life of Dakar Shantytowns? What should they be? For Mory and Anta, a couple desperate for the glittering images of Western consumer culture, migration to France seems the path to material success unattainable at home. But even the fare is beyond their means, leading them to drastic measures.
Women
with Open Eyes
(see, Femmes aux Yeux Ouverts) Top of Page
1988 Directed by Chris Meyers, South Africa. 113 minutes.
The story of May Krabbe, (a pseudonym for screenwriter, Shawn Slovo, daughter of Joe Slovo and Ruth First) tells of what it means to a teenager to have to constantly share her activist parents with their commitment to the anti-apartheid cause. Starring Barbara Hershey.
1982 Directed by David Thompson, BBC, UK. 55 minutes.
Source: Southern Africa Media Center, California Newsreel
Originally developed by two black actors and a white director at the Market Theatre in Johannesburg, the play re-enacting the story of Christ in a South African setting won acclaim around the world. This documentary, made by the BBC, uses clips from the play while the two actors show us the people and places that inspired their work.
Directed by Ousmane Sembene
Senegal, 1974, 123 minutes
Source: New Yorker Films
A ferocious political satire, Xala examines the foibles of the African bourgeoisie in newly-independent countries. After a hilarious beginning, in which the new African leaders are shown capitulating de facto to neo-colonialism, we follow the amorous endeavors of El Hadji Abdoukader Beye, a prosperous businessman with two wives, El Hadj is about to marry his third. During his wedding night, however, El Hadji is the object of a xala, a curse rendering him impotent. His efforts to rid himself of the xala introduces him to a hoard of crippled beggars and homeless peasants, the very kind of people his profiteering has dispossessed. It is only through a painful ritual humiliation that El Hadji can hope to be reborn and regain his virility.
