Africa: Expectations and Anxieties toward the Future
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- DirectorBenoît LamyMweze NganguraStarsPapa WembaBibi KrubwaLandu Nzunzimbu MatshiaKourou comes from a village to Kinshasa, Zaire's capital and the center of World Beat; music is in his heart and he has big dreams. Right away he gets a job as a domestic for Mamou, the loud wife of a club owner, and he falls in love with Kabibi, a virginal young woman who wants to be a secretary. Meanwhile, Nvouandou, the club owner, childless after twenty years of marriage, wants a second wife and determines to marry Kabibi. Mamou pretends to approve of the match, but behind her husband's back, she pushes Kabibi into the arms of Kourou. Can Kourou win Kabibi's hand and fulfill his dreams of being a singer; can Mamou recapture the affections of Nvouandou?
- DirectorJean-Pierre BekoloStarsAdèle AdoDorylia CalmelEmile Abossolo M'boIn Jean-Pierre Bekolo's barbed political satire, an infectious hybrid of horror and science fiction, vampiric femmes fatales emasculate high-ranking Cameroonian officials through ancient rituals of Mevoungou.
- DirectorGahité FofanaStarsMamoudou CamaraSory Kandia KouyatéAmy BoiroYaguiné and Fodé, schoolboys who try in vain to find work to help their poor families. Lured by the symbols of Western affluence and power that surround them, the two stow away on a flight to Europe.
- DirectorMoussa TouréStarsMakena DiopBernard GiraudeauPhilippine Leroy-BeaulieuThe TGV? No, it is not the famous French high-speed train, but instead the rickety and colourful bus operated, driven, repaired and, if need be, pushed by the intrepid "Rambo". This time, the trip between Dakar, the capital of Senegal, and Conakry, the capital of Guinea, is outright dangerous: the road crosses the territory of the Bijagos, who have launched an unexpected and violent insurrection. Rambo finds several odd passengers (with a handful of sheep) who are ready, for various legitimate or untold reasons, to take every risk to reach Conakry. And the TGV sets off on an eventful journey...
- DirectorImunga IvangaStarsMichel NdaotNadège Kyara BongoLaurent OwondoCaptain Ekumu has a lot on his mind: his son Ika is dying and he does not have the means to find treatment for him, which is driving his wife Ezéni to despair. A mysterious radio broadcast interrupts the speech of President Baby Zame. It talks of a golden mango tree, of a day to come, of the freedom of poets. Liberty holds sway on the airways it pirates for fifteen minute periods from its hiding place in a truck. Colonel Paturau is ordered to announce a bounty prize to anyone able to arrest pirate Liberty. But how can you arrest a voice that has no body? A culprit must be found. For Ekumu, this could be the solution to his family tragedy.
- DirectorKamal DehaneStarsSid Ali KouiretNadia KaciKamel RouiniMahfoud is a young professor at a technical school in Algiers. With his technical and computer knowledge, he renovates an old weaving loom which he plans to show at an international inventor's convention in Germany. His travel plans though are frustrated by administrative obstacles. Meanwhile his neighbors have their eye on him - especially old M'nouar who has been scarred by terrible memories from the Algerian War. He views everything and everyone with suspicion. As far as he's concerned, Mahfoud is up to no good, maybe he's even involved in subversive activities! Of course it doesn't help that Mahfoud is having a love affair with Samia, a young psychiatrist who has returned to the country after her studies to Belgium. She fights against conforming to the local norms and breaks taboos which don't please the people. Finally Mahfoud succeeds in obtaining his visa to go to the international Fair. His invention wins an award there and when he returns home there is a very different welcome for him!
- DirectorAbderrahmane SissakoStarsKhatra Ould Abder KaderMaata Ould Mohamed AbeidMohamed Mahmoud Ould MohamedThe story of two people who cross paths in Nouhadhibou.
- DirectorAlain GomisStarsDjolof MbengueDelphine ZinggSamir GuesmiEl Hadj is studying in Paris. He is one of the young Senegalese men who have come to Paris since the French colony became independent to get a good education so that he can serve his fatherland on his return. Unexpectedly he is suddenly confronted by a problem with his residence papers, just because he has arranged an extension too late. His pleasant life filled with good prospects has gone in one fell swoop. He faces a dilemma. He can stay illegally in France, the country where he feels at home, where he has his friends, has fallen in love and can drink water from the tap. Or he can return (without graduating) to the 3rd-world country of Senegal to use the knowledge he has acquired. It is not only a practical choice. It comes down to the question of who he is, who he thought he could be. Gomis' impressive feature début looks at the theme of uprooting both on an existential and emotional level. The everyday confrontation with a different culture makes an apparently simple project difficult and chaotic. Gomis: 'Exile means distancing oneself: abroad you are confronted with yourself. Who are we and which of our thoughts can resist the obtrusiveness of the other world? Probably only that which is really our own essence.'
- DirectorMahamat-Saleh HarounStarsAhidjo Mahamat MoussaHamza Moctar AguidZara HarounTahir (15) and Amine (8) wake up one morning to learn that their father has left home. The brothers decide to go looking for him. One day, they see their father on the big screen and decide to steal the reel.
- DirectorNabil AyouchStarsMounïm KbabMustapha HansaliHicham MoussouneA group of children living on the street leave their gang, prompting retribution from the gang's leader. After one of the children dies, the rest try to come up with the resources to give their friend a proper burial.
- DirectorFanta Régina NacroStarsAlima SaloukaHyppolite OuangrawaBintou is beaten by her husband Abel, for using housekeeping money to pay for her daughter to go to school. He believes that only his sons should be educated. Bintou is determined to earn the money herself, but the only skill she knows is growing millet sprouts. She has to find the pots, and obtain sacks of millet from the storekeeper, while her husband continually sabotages her efforts.
- DirectorAbderrahmane SissakoStarsAbderrahmane SissakoNana BabyMohamed SissakoIn the last days of 1999, after a few shots of a French supermarket, abundant in food and color, we hear Dramane compose a letter home to his father in Mali whom he then visits in the village of Sokolo. He meets the lovely Nana, and there are possibilities. People place long-distance calls from the post office. "Reaching people," says the postmaster, "is a matter of luck." Contrasts between Paris and Sokolo - between Mali and France and between Africa and Europe - are underscored by voice-over poems and comments by Aimé Césaire. A man dictates a letter to a brother in France: what is the nature of their hardships? People look for their place on this earth.
- DirectorDjibril Diop MambétyStarsDieye MaAminata FallDemba BâA broke and dopey musician, constantly harassed by his exasperated landlady, glues his lottery ticket to his door and when it turns out to be a winner must carry his door to the lottery office.
- DirectorLéonce NgaboStarsJoseph KumbelaMarie BunelAoua SangareGito is a young African intellectual returning home from France with numerous academic degrees and ministerial ambitions. Gradually his ambitions are crushed by the daily realities of his country. Gito is tested further by the alliance between his French girlfriend and his old sweetheart who join forces to teach Gito an unforgettable lesson.
- DirectorIdrissa OuedraogoStarsMoussa BlogoAoua GuiraudAssita OuedraogoPoverty and misery are rife in Gourga, a village in the Sahel. The inhabitants must choose: stay and await international assistance or leave for more fertile regions in the country.
- DirectorSouleymane CisséStarsFousseyni SissokoGoundo GuisséBalla Moussa KeitaFinye tackles the generation gap in post-colonial West Africa. Its heroine is the pot smoking daughter of a provincial military governor who falls in love with a fellow university student, the descendent of one of Mali's chiefs.
- DirectorJamie MeltzerStarsIzu OjukwuChico EjiroDon Pedro ObasekiThe Nigerian film industry, known as Nollywood, has exploded in the last ten years. Now the most popular cinema in all of west Africa--even more popular than imports of Hollywood or Bollywood films--the Nigerian film industry has distinguished itself by shooting all films (called video films) on digital video. This has allowed production schedules to be compressed (films are shot in several days) and immediately brought to market (distribution consists of bringing films to Idumota electronics market in Lagos and selling them for home viewing). The sheer volume of Nigerian video films is staggering: one estimate has a film being produced for each day of the year. Nollywood is now the third-largest film industry in the world, generating US$286 million a year for the Nigerian economy. And yet this vibrant, profitable industry is virtually unknown outside of Africa. Jamie Meltzer, director of "Off the Charts: The Song Poem Story," which premiered on PBS' prestigious Independent Lens series has created a fascinating look into this newly emerging film industry, exploring its peculiar inner workings, economic challenges, and diverse array of colorful films. Traveling to the country's chaotic capitol, Lagos, Meltzer spent six weeks following three of Nigeria's hottest directors, each different in personality and style, as they shot their films about love, betrayal, war, and the supernatural. "Welcome to Nollywood" tells the stories of these three directors and their latest productions, while also using interviews with scholars, actors, and journalists who celebrate the industry in insightful and often humorous ways, the Nigerian video-film industry as a whole, its unique character and genres, as well as its impact on the culture of west Africa and Africans at home and abroad.
- DirectorKatherine Fairfax WrightMalika Zouhali-WorrallStarsDavid BahatiLou EngleLong JohnIn Uganda, a new bill threatens to make homosexuality punishable by death. David Kato - Uganda's first openly gay man - and his fellow activists work against the clock to defeat the legislation while combating vicious persecution in their daily lives. But no one, not even the filmmakers, is prepared for the brutal murder that shakes the movement to its core and sends shock waves around the world.
- DirectorLicínio AzevedoStarsManuel AdamoChico AntonioBento CastigoTwo boys with different experiences and goals meet up in a sprawling African market. One is looking for a job, to get back what was stolen from him and return home. The other will do anything to avoid having to go back with his family. They become friends and together they reinvent the world.
- DirectorDjibril Diop MambétyStarsMagaye NiangMyriam NiangChristoph ColombMory, a cowherd, and Anta, a university student, try to make money in order to go to Paris and leave their boring past behind.
- DirectorAhmed El MaanouniStarsLarbi BatmaNass-El GhiwaneAbderrahman PacoThe very popular Moroccan group Nass-El Ghiwane are filmed, in performances, meetings, interviews, and collaborations with other musicians.
- DirectorPeres OwinoStarsIsaiah WashingtonPeres OwinoJoy DegruyBOUND: African versus African Americans (AVAA) is a hard hitting documentary that addresses the little known tension that exists between Africans and African Americans. AVAA uses personal testimonials to expose this rift, then it takes us on a journey through the corridors of African and African American historical experiences as it illuminates the moments that divide and those that bind Africans and African American.
- DirectorNuotama BodomoStarsDiandra ForrestYolonda RossHoji Fortuna16th July 1969: America prepares to launch Apollo 11. Thousands of kilometers away, a ragtag group of Zambian exiles is trying to beat America to the Moon.
- DirectorMário PatrocínioKuduro (literally meaning 'hard arse') is an urban cultural movement that was born in Angola during the last decade of the Civil War. Created in discos and raves in downtown Luanda through a mixture between House and Techno beats and traditional Angolan rhythms, Kuduro spilled over from the center to the suburbs. It rapidly spread throughout Angola, through Africa and now all over the world. 'I LOVE KUDURO' follows the most idolized stars of this urban phenomena that today influences scores of young Africans.
- DirectorDaniel JungeSiatta Scott JohnsonStarsEllen Johnson SirleafBeatrice Munah SiehAntoinette SayehA look at the achievements and struggles of Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, the first woman elected as President of the African nation of Liberia.