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About Braids | Agogo Eewo | Babymother | Cosmic Africa | Dirt for Dinner | Kounandi Madame Brouette | Moolaade | My Footsteps in Baragua | Oggun: The Eternal Presence Paul Robeson: Here I Stand | Po di Sangui (Tree of Blood) | Pour La Nuit | Some Kind of Funny Porto Rican | The Governor's New Clothes | Viva L'aldjérie |
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| About Braids (Histoire de Tresses) | Top | |||
Director: Jacqueline Kalimunda |
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| Agogo Eewo | Top | |||
Tunde Kelani Director: Tunde Kelani |
In this sequel to Saworide, the death of Lagata, the military usurper of the Jogbo throne, allows the corrupt chiefs to install Adebosipo, a retired police officer whom they think will not rock the boat of greedy exploitation of Jogbo resources. To their surprise, Adebosipo’s resolve to serve the people and his refusal to loot the treasury set him on a collision course with the powerful chiefs who are bent on bringing down his rule. With this critical allegory of Nigerian politics, Tunde Kelani grabbed the top prize at the Nigerian National Film Festival. |
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| Babymother | Top | |||
Julian Henriques Director:Julian Henriques |
A single mother (Anjela Lauren Smith) determined to make it as a singer puts together an all girl reggae group named Neeta, Sweeta, & Nastie with her friends (Caroline Chikezie, Jocelyn Esien). Living in a housing project with little support, the odds are obviously against her. Emotionally she struggles too as she learns at her mother's death that her actual mother is the woman she had thought was her older sister (Suzette Llewellyn). With the help of a female agent (Diane Bailey), the group starts to get some exposure and rises above their setting. |
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| Cosmic Africa | Top | |||
Craig Foster and Directors: Craig & Damon Foster
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An extraordinary personal odyssey of African astronomer, Thebe Medupe, who journeys into this ancient continent’s astronomical past unveiling the deep connection humans have with the cosmos. “I know so much about the stars, yet I know so little about my own continent and how my people are connected to the sky.” With these words, astronomer Thebe Medupe embarks on a quest to reunite his science with the origins of celestial knowledge in Africa. His journey takes him to the ancestral lands of the Ju/’hoansi in Namibia, whose ancient creation myths link terrestrial mysteries with the movements of the stars; to the Dogon people of Mali, whose night sky maps provide signposts on how to live on earth; and deep into the Sahara, where a cosmic clock attests to the African origins of astronomy. A beautifully shot, densely layered meditation on the influence of the cosmos on our daily lives. |
“Ambitious in scope and intent… fascinating and studded with sumptuous imagery” -Variety, USA
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| Dirt for Dinner (Dreckfresser) | Top | |||
Branwen Okpako
Director: Branwen Okpako |
Sam Meffire is the son of an African father and an East-German mother living in the former GDR. In 1992 he was the first black East German policeman and became famous thanks to an advertising campaign in a local newspaper featuring his face under the headline "A Saxon.” Unfortunately, East Germany wasn’t ready for multiculturalism, and Sam had a hard time in the police force. In 1996, Sam picked up a gun and chose a career of crime, committing several armed robberies and blackmail. He is now serving a 10-year prison sentence. This documentary tries to find answers to the intriguing question of how a man who was once seen as the poster boy of a new Germany could ultimately sink so deep. |
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| Kounandi | Top | |||
Apolline Traore Director: Apolline Traore |
Orphaned and rejected by her village for being a dwarf, Kounandi gradually falls in love with the only person to offer her aid and kindness, Karim. This love is greatly complicated, however, by the fact that he is already married.
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Winner of Best Short at the 2004 Los Angeles Pan African Film Festival. |
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| Madame Brouette | Top | |||
Moussa Sene Absa Director: Moussa Sene Absa |
"Men make our lives impossible," lament the village women. But enough to exterminate a life? In Niayaes Thiokeert, a Senegalese shantytown, the day after the crazy transvestite festival of "Tajaboom" (in which males dress as females, and vice-versa), gunshots ring out. The victim: Naaga the policeman, an ever-jovial go-between at the ghetto's shadowy border of law and the criminal underworld. Half bully, half protector, all charm, and slicker and sweeter than molasses; he was, in short, what Americans might call a "playa." The suspect: Mati, a proud, divorced single mother who earns her livelihood and nickname by selling goods out of a push cart. Having encouraged the wives of Niayes Thiokeert to stand up to their domineering husbands, it was Mati herself who ultimately fell for the charismatic rascal Naaga. Sene Absa employs a storytelling style that mixes an age-old chorus of tribal griots with modern sensationalist newscasters (and a native detective named Columbo) to recount a loopy saga of passion, ambition, chauvinism, corruption, gangsters and betrayal, African-style, in the most colorful case of playa-hating since " Chicago ." |
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| Moolaade | Top | |||
Ousmane Sembene Director: Ousmane Sembene |
Six girls escape from an African ceremony of female circumcision. Two flee to the city while Colle Ardo Gallo Sy, one of the wives of a village tribesman, takes four in. Colle puts the spell of Moolaade, protection, over the girls, to keep them safe. |
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| My Footsteps in Baragua | Top | |||
Gloria Rolando |
Migration has been and is a constant theme in the life of the people of the Caribbean. In this documentary Rolando gives us a view of Baragua, Cuba, through the stories and customs of the English speaking West Indians and their descendants. For some, there is always the nostalgia for the country to which they will never return; others express their total rootedness in today's Cuba. The youngest will nevertheless be able to learn of their ancestry and better understand the origins of the English surnames they have. Direct testimony does not preclue the poetry present in the environment of the old sugar barracks, the re-creation of traditional music and dance such as the Maypole, and the use of old photos that allow us an imaginary approach to that past. These immigrants represent two cultures: that of the English colonizers and the genuine one born under the Caribbean sun with the mixing of African rythms. In Baragua, all the roots merge into a common trunk. "My Footsteps in Baragua" is an important contribution to the history of Africans in Cuba, and to the study of the African diaspora at the end of the 20th century. |
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| Oggun: The Eternal Presence | Top | |||
Gloria Rolando |
In Oggun: The Eternal Presence director Gloria Rolando skirts the edges of enchantment, enters Yoruba philosophy, and, especially, pays homage to the singer Lazaro Ros, one of the most important living personalities in AfroCuban culture. Rolando relates the patakin or mythical story of Oggun, the tireless warrior who, enamored of his mother, decided as punishment to imprison himself in the mountains. The film includes chants, dances, a "tambor" (Yoruba religious ceremony with the bata drums), and Ros' life experiences singing around the world. |
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| Paul Robeson: Here I Stand | Top | |||
St.Clair Bourne Director:St.Clair Bourne |
Paul Robeson: Here I stand presents the life and achievements of an extraordinary man. Athlete, singer and scholar, Robeson was also a charismatic champion of the rights of the poor working man, the disenfranchised and people of color. This comprehensive documentary portrait of singer, actor, activist Paul Robeson, was made with the full cooperation of his family. The two-hour biography, directed by veteran filmmaker St. Clair Bourne and written by Lou Potter, combines footage filmed in London, Wales and the United States, film footage from German and Russian archives and contemporary interviews with Harry Belafonte, Pete Seeger, Ossie Davis, Uta Hagen as well as some of Robeson's surviving friends. |
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| Po di Sangui (Tree of Blood) | Top | |||
Flora Gomes Director: Flora Gomes Review and synopsis: Cannes 1996 |
In the village of Amanha Lundgu every time a child is born a tree is planted. These trees grow as the children grow up and outlive them thus becoming the souls of the village people. But day after day, out of necessity, the villagers cut the trees and wood becomes a rare commodity. One day drought and death will come. When Dou returns to the village, his twin brother Hami has just died. Tensions are running high but Dou doesn’t understand what is going on. What did Humi die of? What evil is eating away at Amanha Lundgu? In the eyes of the community Dou must take the place of his twin brother and become a husband to the dead man’s wife and a father to his daughter. Saly, to whom he is engaged, goes mad and falls in love with the sun. When the lumberjacks from the city arrive in the village to exploit the forest everything is precipitated. Calacalado, the old witch doctor, looks for a way of dealing with this new threat. He orders the villagers to go into exile, he entrusts Dou with the mission of leading them and asks Saly to guide them by the sun. |
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| Pour La Nuit | Top | |||
Isabelle Boni-Claverie Director: Isabelle Boni-Claverie |
On the eve of two events that mark an emotional and rapid departure from all that is familiar, Muriel and Sam are thrown together in a chance encounter. With her mother's funeral the next morning, Muriel, the daughter of a French father and African mother, struggles to escape her sorrow and unrest. Meanwhile, Sam faces an equally emotional and daunting event: his wedding day. As the evening unfolds, both characters try to find comfort in the face of monumental changes, even if that comfort only lasts "For the Night."
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| Some Kind of Funny Porto Rican | Top | |||
Claire Andrade-Watkins Director: Claire Andrade-Watkins |
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| The Governor's New Clothes | Top | |||
Mweze D. Ngangura |
The Hans Christian Andersen tale, The Emperor's New Clothes [1835], has now been set in an African village. Director Ngangura, whose previous promise shone in Pièces d'identité and La vie est belle, crafts an accessible cultural and |
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| Viva L'aldjérie | Top | |||
France/Algeria, 2004 113 min.
Director: Nadir Mokneche |
Winter 2003; following fundamentalist threats in and around Algiers Goucem and her mother Papicha, a once-famous cabaret dancer reminiscent of an Almodovar character, are forced to live in a downtown hotel. Goucem tries as best she can to live an emancipated life, working in a photo shop and spending weekend in the clubs. Her mother stays in their one room watching television and eating pizza, reminiscing about her past life as a celebrity. Populated with intense and powerful characters, this film is a poignant look at resilience and complex social relations. |
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About Braids | Agogo Eewo | Babymother | Cosmic Africa | Dirt for Dinner | Kounandi Madame Brouette | Moolaade | My Footsteps in Baragua | Oggun: The Eternal Presence Paul Robeson: Here I Stand | Po di Sangui (Tree of Blood) | Pour La Nuit | Some Kind of Funny Porto Rican | The Governor's New Clothes | Viva L'aldjérie |
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Last update:
April 8, 2005
Brown University | Department of Africana Studies