Angola Roberto Berliner 1991, 55 min., Color, Brazil/Angola This documentary from a Brazil captures the tenacity and diversity of Angolan society. Beginning with a brief history of Angola's war for independence from Portugal, the documentary's up-beat pacing p...
Bamako Sigi-kan Manthia Diawara 2002, 76 min., Color, US This original documentary shot by Arthur Jafa brings a new look to the modern African city and enables a better understanding from the inside of how democracy takes root in Mali. Discover how politics...
Between the Cup and the Election Monique Mbeka Phoba & Guy Kabeya Muya 2008, 56 min., Color/BW, DRC/Belgium Inspired by the 2006 elections in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, formery Zaire, a group of film students sets out to make a film. With the help of veteran filmmakers Monique Mbeka Phoba and Guy...
Body and Soul (De Corpo e Alma) Matthieu Bron 2011, 54 min., Color, Mozambique Victoria, Mariana and Vasco are three young Mozambicans with physical disabilities living in Maputo, Mozambique’s capital city. The film explores how they see themselves, raising questions about self-...
Conakry Kas: The Conakry People Manthia Diawara 2003, 82 min., Color, US In January 2003, Director Manthia Diawara visited Guinea-Conakry to see what was left of the artists (Ballets Africains, Bembeya Jazz National) and intellectuals (D.T. Niane, Telivel Diallo) of the Gu...
Democracy in Dakar Ben Herson, Magee McIlvaine & Chris Moore Producer: Nomadic Wax and Sol Productions 2007, 66 min., Color, US/Senegal "Democracy in Dakar" explores the transformative role of Hip-Hop in politics in Senegal, West Africa during the 2007 presidential election campaign. This documentary mixes interviews, freestyles, and ...
Diamonds in the Rough: A Ugandan Hip Hop Revolution Brett Mazurek 2009, 53 min., US/Uganda From the ashes of four decades of war, AIDS and corruption in Uganda, The Bataka Squad artists, Babaluku and Saba Saba, rise to forge a revolutionary path using music. They are on a mission to empower...
Diaspora Conversations: from Goree to Dogon Manthia Diawara 2000, 47 min., Color, US Actor Danny Glover and director Manthia Diawara travel through West Africa from Goree to Dogon, creating conversations that link different sides and accounts of the African diaspora. "Diaspora Convers...
Edouard Glissant: One World in Relation Manthia Diawara 2010, 50 min., Color, US In 2009, filmmaker Manthia Diawara, along with his camera, documented his conversations with Martinican philosopher, writer, and poet Édouard Glissant aboard the Queen Mary II on their transatlantic j...
From Mali to Michigan: A Musical Bridge Louise Bourgault Producer: Louise Bourgault & Robert Thomson 2006, 28 min., Color, US/Mali A documentary about musical collaboration in the global age, From Mali to Michigan follows African World Music pop diva and griotte (traditional female bard) Naïny Diabaté during her 2005 visit to the...
I Love Hip Hop in Morocco Joshua Asen & Jennifer Needleman Producer: Rizz Productions, Inc. 2007, 80 min., Color, US/Morocco This feature-length documentary follows the creation of Morocco's first-ever Hip-Hop festival, from inception all the way to the stage. Along the way we meet DJ Key, a self-taught turntable prodigy wh...
In My Genes Lupita Nyong'o 2009, 78 min., Color, Kenya What is it like to be 'white' in a 'black' society? IN MY GENES shares the lives of 8 people with albinism in Kenya. It reveals the uplifting life story of Agnes, a woman with albinism of few means wh...
Indochina: Traces of a Mother Idrissou Mora-Kpai 2011, 72 min., Color, France/Benin INDOCHINA: TRACES OF A MOTHER documents a little-known chapter in African, Asian and French colonial history and the personal story of Christophe, a Beninese-Vietnamese orphan that returns to Vietnam ...
Is It Sweet? Tales of an African Superstar in New York Jesse W Shipley Color, US Reggie Rockstone is a celebrity rap musician in Accra, Ghana, where he inspired a young generation of musicians and continues to draw huge crowds. But when he comes to New York to play for the Ghanaia...
The Keepsake Adaeze Elechi Producer: Adaeze Elechi 2024, 32 min., Color, United States After living with relatives in fast-paced Lagos City, Nigeria, 14-year-old Amarachi returns to her home village to live with her mother Ikechi for the first time in eight years. When Ikechi learns Ama...
L’Esprit Prêt-à-Partager Jamika Ajalon 2009, 28 min., Color, Germany/Senegal Documents an art workshop held in Dakar, Senegal, in 2008, where artists from Africa and Europe explore issues surrounding fashion, sport and diasporic art and identities. The artists collaborate with...
A Letter from Yene Manthia Diawara 2022, 50 min., Color A LETTER FROM YENE emerges from conversations with the community in the seaside town of Yene, Senegal, where Diawara lives for part of the year. The area was traditionally and primarily occupied by f...
Living the Hiplife Jesse W Shipley 2007, 61 min., Color, US/Ghana This film is a musical portrait of street life in urban West Africa. It follows the birth of Hiplife music in Accra, Ghana, a mix of various African musical forms and American hip hop. Archival footag...
Madina Boe Jose Massip 1969, 40 min., BW, Cuba/Guinea-Bissau Filmed in the liberated areas of Guinea Bissau during its war of independence from Portugal, Madina Boe follows the activities of the People's Army for the Independence of Guinea Bissau/Cape Verde. It...
Maison Tropicale Manthia Diawara 2008, 58 min., Color, Republic of Congo/France In 2008, filmmaker Manthia Diawara and artist Angela Ferreira travelled to Brazzaville, Republic of the Congo to “search through the debris left behind by those who took away the [Maison Tropicales]....
Masizakhe: Building Each Other Angelica Macklin and Scott Macklin Producer: Open Hand Reel 2008, 80 min., Color, South Africa/US "Masizakhe, Building Each Other" explores the role of art, social activism and Hip-Hop in education and presents students, teachers, artists and principals working to support each other while re-estab...
Mr. Devious John Fredericks 2006, 73 min., South Africa MR. DEVIOUS is an exploration of the life and impact of South African Hip-Hop artist Mr. Devious on the youth and community of Cape Flats in Cape Town, South Africa. The film traces Mr. Devious' intro...
The Mseyas Gustavo Vizoso 2007, 72 min., Color, Tanzania/Spain AIDS kills more than two million people every year in Africa. As a result of this epidemic, there are more than 11 million orphans. This documentary is the story of the Mseyas, AIDS orphans from Iring...
Namibia: Independence Now! Christine Choy & Pearl Bowser Producer: Third World Newsreel 1985, 55 min., Color, US/Namibia This moving film was shot inside refugee settlements in Zambia and Angola. It examines how exiled Namibians worked to free their country from illegal South African exploitation and prepare for their c...
Negritude: A Dialogue Between Wole Soyinka and Senghor Manthia Diawara 2015, 59 min., Color, USA/France/Germany/Portugal This imagined dialogue between Léopold Sédar Senghor, one of the founding fathers of Negritude, and Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka was reconstructed almost entirely from archival materials. It probes the...
Nelson Mandela: the Struggle is My Life Lionel Ngakane 1985, 45 min., Color "Your freedom and mine cannot be separated" are the words written by Nelson Mandela from his prison cell to the people of South Africa in 1985. Through interviews with leaders of the African National ...
Nossa Terra Mario Marret 1966, Color, Guinea-Bissau Mario Marret's film NOSSA TERRA (1966) evolved from a close connection with the PAIGC (African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde) during the Guinea-Bissau war of independence.
In ...
An Opera of the World Manthia Diawara 2018, 70 min., Color Manthia Diawara’s film is based on the African opera Bintou Were, a Sahel Opera, which recounts an eternal migration drama. The Bintou Were opera, filmed on location in Bamako, in 2007, serves as a mi...
Ọya: Something Happened On The Way To West Africa! Seyi Adebanjo 2015, 30 min., Color, US/Nigeria In this documentary, Queer Gender-Non-Conforming Nigerian media artist Seyi Adebanjo tells a tale not often heard about gender and indigenous Yorùbá spirituality. ỌYA follows Seyi's journey to Nigeria...
Politics from a Black Woman's Insides Yuko Edwards 1997, 26 min., Color, US Follow one woman's search for the Hottentot Venus, the legendary link between ape and human and icon of black female subjectivity. Edwards's film explores the construction of race through both scienti...
Promised Land Yoruba Richen Producer: Yoruba Richen 2010, 57 min., Color, South Africa/US Though apartheid ended in South Africa in 1994, economic injustices between blacks and whites remain unresolved. As revealed in Yoruba Richen’s incisive PROMISED LAND, the most potentially explosive i...
The River Where We Live Sylvain L'Espérance 2006, 92 min., Canada/Mali The Niger River in Mali crosses a vast plain in the heart of the Sahel. It is a vivid patchwork of canals, rivers, lakes, islands, seas, prairies and flood zones. Throughout this territory, human soci...
Rouch in Reverse Manthia Diawara 1995, 52 min., US/UK Malian filmmaker and scholar Manthia Diawara critiques visual anthropology through the work of Jean Rouch....
Sembene: the Making of African Cinema Manthia Diawara & Ngugi Wa Thiong'o 1994, 60 min., Color, UK This rich documentary follows the legendary Senagalese filmmaker Sembene Ousmane from the Pan African Film Festival in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso back to the streets of Dakar and his Galle Ceddo home a...
Slave Routes: Resistance, Abolition and Creative Progress Jayne Cortez Producer: Manthia Diawara 2009, 100 min., Color, US From the 1400s to the 1800s millions of Africans were forcefully removed from Africa and shipped across the Atlantic to the so-called "New World". In 1808, the passage of the Transantlantic Slave Trad...
Tunisian Women: We Will Stand Up Hajer Ben Nasr 2013, 56 min., Color, Tunisia On December 18, 2010 Tunisians of all ages took the streets of Tunis to demand better living conditions and the end of President Ben Ali's repressive dictatorship, starting what would become the 2011 ...
Twelve Disciples of Nelson Mandela Thomas Allen Harris Producer: Thomas Allen Harris 2005, 73 min., Color, US In the wake of his stepfather’s death, Thomas Allen Harris embarks on a journey of reconciliation with the man who raised him as a son but whom he could never call "father." As part of the first wave ...
Viva Frelimo Newsreel/Dutch Television Producer: Newsreel/Dutch Television 1971, 45 min., Color, US This film shows the development of the Frelimo party during Mozambique's struggle for independence from Portugal. Traveling throughout Northern Mozambique with several of the provincial leaders includ...
Who's Afraid of Ngugi? Manthia Diawara 2006, 83 min., Color, US/Kenya Novelist, essayist, playwright, journalist, editor, academic and social activist Ngugi wa Thiong'o was born in Kenya, in 1938 into a large peasant family. In 1977 his novel Petals of Blood was publish...
Women of the Sand Ricardo Lobo Producer: Chaim Litewski 2003, 52 min., Color "Women of the Sand" is a documentary about nomad Islamic women in the Sahara desert. Filmed in Mauritania, it follows the day-to-day activities of women, documenting their work, family and community l...
Yari Yari Pamberi: Black Women Writers Dissecting Globalization Jayne Cortez 2007, 75 min., Color, US Globalization, now a buzzword in the West, has been a phenomenon that has shaped the culture and politics of Africa and its diaspora for centuries. YARI YARI PAMBERI brings together women from across ...
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