Nominee for Golden Eye, Cannes Houlaye is a 12-year-old girl who lives in the small semi-nomadic settlement of Tatis in Niger, in the region of the Sahel, an arid belt of land running between the Sahara and the tropical zone whose population and livestock is increasingly threatened by climate change and water crisis. Every day […]
Traditional storyteller and filmmaker Valerio Lopes, from Cape Verde, has created this highly original, a futuristic documentary on African history, science, and technology. Using both traditional story-telling in its role as a carrier of culture, tradition, and belief, computer graphics, and the results of his own research from the 16 African countries he has visited, […]
Premiered at Berlin IFF Akuol is the daughter of Rebecca de Mabior, and both are subjects of this very personal film about the family’s connections with the formation of South Sudan and her mother’s continuing vital role in its leadership. Akuol was 16 when her father, leader of the South Sudanese Liberation Movement, was killed […]
An insightful study of over 40 years of an interracial marriage between a Ghanaian and a German offers many different views on the politics of African-European marital relationships. The couple’s children recount the history of their marriage from when they first met in England post-WW2, to their later years and the legacy they left their […]
Best Musical Film Cannes 2021, selected at Harlem IFF 2022 Filmed before the pandemic struck France, this is a tribute to Manu Dibango, one of the great icons of African music who died of Covid in 2020. In the five years or so before his death the film records and reveals Manu in all his […]
Old women play Rock ‘n Roll! In the last 40 years, the pioneering Hasna elBecharia has brought about a small revolution in Algerian traditional Gnawa music. Originally the preserve of the men of the Gnawa culture of ex-southern slaves in Algeria, Gnawa has been taken over by women, led by the indomitable 60-somethingHasna. The documentary […]
Four ethnographers led by Marcel Griaulefrom the Paris Museum of Mankindtravel on a famous/infamous expedition from west to east across 1930’s Africa, with the express idea of gathering traditional artifacts from the supposedly ‘dying cultures they encounter en route. Thus they rationalise the buying and stealing of the people’s sacred objects for exhibit back in […]
*The Rumba Kings has won at least 16 awards at international film festivals, including Best Feature Length Documentary, at Cannes. This is truly a feast of Congolese Rumba and a revelation of Congolese history, set in the years of liberation from colonial rule and afterward. “The Rumba Kings celebrates the epic quest of the Democratic […]
In an attempt to get the public to care, four Nigerian women take on a symbolic adventure to the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro to raise awareness for the plight of millions of women and children living in deplorable conditions in camps set up for Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) children who have lost their homes and […]
In the world of mining and big dam construction, women are the first to be affected by the pollution, loss of land and displacement. This is the story of women in Congo DR, Uganda and South Africa standing up for their rights against the multinationals destroying their environment and livelihood. Journeying between these three countries, […]
The ocean covers the major part of our planet, accommodating a quarter of all known species, influencing our climate and offering a coastal habitat for half of the world’s population – and despite this, we are destroying it. The overuse of the ocean leads to the destruction of the ecological balance. Simultaneously the coastal populations […]
The price of vanilla has increased exponentially in recent years. The demand too. A fight for the world’s most expensive spice has broken out. A film that takes you into the fascinating world of vanilla, but also shows the dark sides of this wonderful spice. […]
