A portrait of the mythical band Bembeya Jazz, which contributed hugely to the blossoming of the cultural renaissance of President Sekou Toure’s Guinea. Bembeya Jazz was created in 1961 in the city of Beyla in the rainforest of Guinea, and rapidly became Africa’s greatest orchestra. The president recognised sport and culture as some of the […]
After the destruction of colonialism, Atharaka (those of Tharaka) are remembering the power of their identity by teaching the next generation, reviving customs and enabling nature to regenerate. Sacred sites are protected as potent places of the ancestors. All of this is “rethreading a complex bio-cultural system that brings balance, autonomy and joy.” The young […]
This is the story of Joseph Shabalala, of Ladysmith Black Mumbaza fame. It covers the singer’s life from his early years in rural South Africa to his global success and later life, and recounts the difficulties he had to overcome against the apartheid regime, as well as his huge impact on world music. Filled with […]
Two Kenyan women transform an old, decrepit library in Nairobi which is full of ‘white man’s books’ dating from the colonial period, with the broader aim of de-colonising the libraries of Kenya. They have many obstacles to overcome, but they have the support of people of influence in the city, and are committed to the […]
A documentary about the quest for freedom of five residents of Khartoum: two men, a woman and two boys. Khartoum begins before the latest outbreak of war in Sudan, when life was good and democracy had arrived at last. And then something different happened and the shooting started……It follows them through their survival and flight […]
“Culture is by essence the alpha and omega of all development….. For a society culture is as vital as the heart to the human body. The director’s goal is to use cinema as a tool for preserving Malian cultural heritage, placing it at the core of community resilience” – director Fatow follows the story of […]
An historian from New York University in Madrid, director Antumi Toasije takes us on a journey through African history, culture and identity. With intellectual rigour and beautiful imagery, he explores the Africanness of ancient Egypt, with its pyramids and famous sphinx, and visits the mausoleums of modern Ghanaian and Ethiopian leaders. He travels to the […]
Ntare Mwine’s chance encounter with photographer Kibaate Aloysius Ssalongo, when his car breaks down in Kibaate’s village, becomes a 22 year journey exploring Kibaate’s life and photography. Simultaneously the relationship between the two hugely impacts Ntare himself, as well as the community whose photographic portraits Kibaate made a generation ago. A complex and intimate picture […]
Wanjuga Kimathi searches for the burial place and remains of her father, a leader in the Mau Mau uprising against British colonial rule in the 1950’s. Her story plays out like a thriller as she begins to investigate colonial atrocities, concentration camps and land theft, and she and her mother spark a larger movement for […]
Congolese Rumba has been presented in the past as a masculine creation and women’s role in this rich vein of Congolese music and dance has until now been hidden or ignored. And yet women’s contribution has been crucially important. This documentary looks at the history of the Rumba through its heroines and the contribution of […]
This film documents the trials of a group of adolescent girls in a small Coptic town in upper Egypt who form a street theatre group to challenge gender roles and express their frustrations and dreams. Their passion is disrupted by the hard reality of what is in front of them: the pressure to submit to […]
“This is bigger than yourselves” Germaine tells her students in this documentary on the life and work of ‘the mother of contemporary African dance’, Germaine Acogny. She could well be describing her own work. In 2021 she received the Golden Lion for Dance at the Venice Dance Festival. At 80 years old she still plays […]
