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 […]
On Becoming a Guinea Fowl is a bold, captivating film that exposes the silence surrounding taboo issues like sexual abuse within families, while exploring Zambia’s powerful mourning rituals. Rungano Nyoni weaves humour into hard truths, making the story both engaging and confronting. What stands out above all is the power of women in Zambian society, […]
Tolerance between the three main religions of Mali, Islam, Christianity and Animism, has always been a proud feature of Malian culture, in a country which focuses on fostering social harmony. Sanko-God’s Dream explores this tolerance in the context of a succession struggle for a new imam of Sanko after the death of its loved and […]
This is a dramatised version of the work/life of Ibrahim Traore, the president of Burkina Faso, in protest against the realities of West African politics today. Ibrahim Traore’s vision to free Africa is shaking the ruling class of Africa and mobilising the African youth to free themselves of the post-colonial economic yoke of Europe. Ibrahim […]
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 […]
In this extraordinary modern rendering of Macbeth, director Dani Kouyate has combined both traditional and modern West African flavours to create the atmospheric tragedy that Shakespeare’s Macbeth requires. Dani himself is a filmmaker, musician and storyteller from a lineage of Griots, traditional West African storytellers and keepers of history, as well as being a professor […]
Here is a heartwarming, wise, and quirky comedy from Ghana, a tale of family, spirit and resilience. When fisherman Atta Oko is forced suddenly into retirement, he teams up with a talking fish to try and continue with his livelihood and save his pride. The result is a journey of infectious joy and laughter, as […]
Megnot means ‘two hearts’ in Amharic, and this delightful Rom-com which premiered in New York this year gives us a passionate, spirited young student who must negotiate in her own heart between the two men she loves, as they are put through an Ethiopian-style lovers’ test which takes us from Addis Ababa to the beautiful […]
“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 […]
This is a story of cultural exchange, respecting values and learning from each other. A Berlin big band sets out on a road trip to explore the infamous brass sections of the seventies together with legendary musicians from Mali. Popular music has its roots in West Africa, and especially in Mali. In Berlin, a big […]
