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Films
FILMS (All the films have English subtitles, except for those in English) Borom Sarret (Ousmane Sembène, Senegal, 1963, 20 minutes). A classic narrative about a day in the life a horse-drawn cart driver in the streets of Dakar. This short film is regarded as a masterpiece of early African filmmaking and it set a template on which much of the subsequent work of Sembène and other African filmmakers was built. A Drink in the Passage (Zola Maseko, South Africa, 2001, 29 minutes). Based on the Alan Paton short story of the same name, this film by one of South Africa’s emerging young Black filmmakers, Zola Maseko, relates the story of a young man (Edward Similane) who wins a top prize in a sculpture competition that was supposed to be reserved for whites only. A glimpse at the nightmare that was apartheid South Africa in the 1960s. Conversations With Ousmane Sembène (Samba Gadjigo, Senegal, 2004, 26 minutes). Samba Gadjigo follows and works with Sembène in various settings during the production and post-production of Moolade. Faat Kine (Ousmane Sembène, Senegal, 2001, 110 minutes), Ousmane Sembene, the unquestioned father of African cinema, calls his fellow Africans to a reckoning of the post-independence era at the beginning of a new century. At 77, he sums up 40 years of path-breaking filmmaking with a penetrating analysis of the interplay of gender, economics and power in today's Africa. Sembene accomplishes all this through the deceptively light domestic drama of Faat Kine, a gas station operator born, significantly, the same year as Senegalese independence, 1960. Femmes Aux Yeux Ouverts (Anne Laure-Folly, Togo, 1994, 52 minutes), award-winning Togolese filmmaker, Anne-Laure Folly presents portraits of contemporary African women from four West African nations: Burkina Faso, Mali, Senegal and Benin. The film shows how African women are speaking out and organizing around five key issues: marital rights, reproductive health, female genital mutilation, women's role in the economy and political rights. Keita: Heritage of the Griot (Dani Kouyaté, Burkina Faso, 1995, 94 minutes) creates a unique world where the West Africa of the 13th Century Sundjata Epic and the West Africa of today co-exist and interpenetrate. Director Dani Kouyaté frames his dramatization of the epic within the story of Mabo Keïta, contemporary boy from Burkina Faso, learning the history of his family. During the film, Mabo and his distant ancestor, Sundjata, engage in parallel quests to understand their destinies, to "know the meaning of their names." In so doing, the film makes the case for an "Afrocentric" education, where African tradition, not an imported Western curriculum, is the necessary starting point for African development. Madame Brouette (Mrs. Wheelbarrow, Moussa Sène Absa, Senegal, 2002, 104 minutes). A divorced mother who's sworn off men, Mati is a spirited survivor selling bric-a-brac out of her wheelbarrow to scrape by. Into her life walks Naago, a smooth-talking, crooked yet irresistible policeman. When he's found dead, all fingers point to Mati. But did she pull the trigger? Part detective story, part parable, this jab at shantytown chauvinism seamlessly blends storytelling styles. A nouveau African cinema gem. Ndeysaan (The Price of Forgiveness, Mansour Sora Wade, Senegal, 2002, 90 minutes). A deeply moving, beautifully acted, visually stunning story of love, betrayal and redemption, Ndeysaan is also an attempt, conscious or unconscious, to reconcile or negotiate traditional and modern sensibilities, a film whose ambiguities are often as fascinating as its certainties. Adapted from a novel, Le Prix du Pardon, by Senegalese writer and educator Mbissane Ngom, this film by Mansour Sora Wade has been hailed as one of the best films from Africa in the last ten years. Ouaga: African Cinema Now (Kwate Nee Owoo and Kweisi Owusu, Ghana, 1989, 60 minutes). A documentary on the state and directions of African cinema. Ousmane Sembène: The Making of African Cinema (Manthia Diawara and Ngugi wa Thiong’O, 1993. 60 minutes). A documentary profile of Ousmane Sembène and his work as a filmmaker, writer and cultural icon. Pièces d’Identités (ID, Ngangura Mweze, Democratic Republic of Congo, 1998, 93 minutes). More than a decade ago Mweze Ngangura delighted the cinema world with one of the most accessible and entertaining African films ever made, La vie est belle, the rags to riches story of a Congolese musician played by soukous super star Papa Wemba. Now he returns with a modern fairy tale set in the vibrant African emigré demi-monde of contemporary Europe. It was the winner of the most prestigious award in African cinema the Etalon de Yennenga at FESPACO '99. At first glance Pièces d'Identités is the timeless story of an old king, his beautiful if wayward daughter, a dragon of sorts and the prince charming who rescues them; it even has a happy ending. At the same time, Ngangura's simple fable raises some of the most troubling issues of identity facing people of African descent in the ever-widening Diaspora of the late 20th century. Tableau
Ferraille (Moussa Sène Absa, Senegal, 1995, 85 minutes)
offers an intimate view of how modernization, at least as practiced
in today's Africa, corrodes traditional communities and retards
grassroots development. Like such past Senegalese masterpieces
as Ousmane Sembene's
Xala and Djibril Diop Mambety's Hyenas, it deplores a corrupt post-colonial
elite's exploitation of the promise of African independence. Moussa
Sene Absa's film dissects the social chaos engulfing much of Africa
through the story of an idealistic young politician's rise and
fall. Ubuntu’s Wounds (Sechaba Morojele, South Africa. 2001, 30 minutes). The disturbing emotional journey of a Black South African as he tries to come to terms with the decision of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission to grant amnesty to the man responsible for his wife’s death. A chance meeting in Los Angeles between the two men and the result of this encounter provides valuable insights into questions of memory, history and reconciliation. Un Amour d’Enfant (A Childhood Love, Ben Diogaye Bèye, Senegal, 2004, 102 minutes). Veteran Senegalese filmmaker Ben Diogaye Bèye draws on his childhood memory to construct a highly lyrical and entertaining story of love among young people in present day urban Senegal while at the same time commenting on the interplay of tradition and modernity and the challenges, pitfalls and opportunities of globalization. Waiting for Valdez (Dumisani Phakhati, South Africa, 2001, 29 minutes) A young boy is driven by a burning ambition to see the latest movie on the circuit, Valdez is Coming, but he does not have enough money. He and his friends pool their resources, and two of their number go to see the film promising to relate the story to the rest of the gang. A Walk in the Night (Mickey Madoda Dube, South Africa, 1998, 78 minutes) is one of the first films from a new generation of talented young black South African filmmakers who have become active since the overthrow of apartheid in 1994. Mickey Madoda Dube's debut feature adapts Alex La Guma's celebrated 1962 novella of the same name into a fast-paced crime thriller set in present day Johannesburg. The fact that this story could be so convincingly updated to the present indicates how little racial power dynamics in South Africa have changed. The fact that this program was produced and broadcast by the government-owned South African Broadcasting Corporation shows how much they have. Xala (Ousmane Sembène, Senegal, 1975, 123 minutes). A wealthy importer named El Hadji Abdou Kader Bèye, a member of Senegal's post-colonial elite, decides to take a third wife. But on his wedding day he finds that he is unable to consummate his marriage. Someone has put a curse on him and made him impotent. Sembene, a distinguished writer as well as film director, is rightly considered the father of sub-Saharan African cinema. His influential and provocative films have fearlessly addressed many political and social issues facing Senegal and Africa in general. Xala is a biting satire of the "independence" supposedly enjoyed by Senegal after the end of French rule. Zan Boko (Gaston Kaboré, Burkina Faso, 1988, 94 minutes) explores the conflict between tradition and modernity, a central theme in many contemporary African films, such as Keita and Ta Dona. It tells the poignant story of a village family swept up in the current tide of urbanization. In doing so, Zan Boko expertly reveals the transformation of an agrarian, subsistence society into an industrialized commodity economy. Zan Boko is also one of the first African films to explore the impact of the mass media in changing an oral society into one where information is packaged and sold. The film provides viewers with a unique opportunity to see our own televised civilization. In addition to these films that are scheduled for screening, participants will be encouraged to make use of the film library of the Association of Senegalese Filmmakers and WARC. |