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Director:Nick Hughes, dir.
From:Rwanda/U.K
Year: 2001 Minutes:96
Language: English
Genre: short drama
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This film premiered
at the 2001 Toronto Film Festival and continued
its career by screening at more than 40 international
film festivals.
Set in the breathtaking natural beauty
of the Rwanda countryside, this fist ever fiction film
made about the Rwanda civil war tells a powerful story
of genocide and human survival with compassion and integrity.
The film centers on a pair of young lovers; Bapiste
is more than ready to have sex with his girlfriend Josette,
but she refuses, arguing that when they are married
they can have all the sex they would like. Meanwhile,
powerful Hutu leaders have had enough of Tutsi rebels
and call on all Hutus to kill their Tutsi neighbors.
As chaos breaks out, the Tutsis flee and the lovers
are separated. Josesette and her family find solace
in a Catholic church run by a Hutu priest. The Catholic
Church, the state, and the French army look the other
way as bloodshed ensues. When the Belgian army sent
in to protect the church is called away on an emergency,
the Hutus attack and massacre hundreds of women and
children. Josette is saved by the priest who obliges
her to become his concubine and repeatedly rapes her.
She miraculously survives, but she is only a husk of
the woman that she was. As the Tutsis regroup, they
exact terrible revenge. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide
“It’s the images in “100 Days”
that graze the soul… There’s nothing anonymous
about this nightmare” ~ Wesley Morris, Boston
Globe
“Docudrama filmmaking at its finest” ~ Dennis Harvey, Variety
“100 Days succeeds as drama, and succeeds
in telling the truth” ~ Mark Doyle, BBC
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DVD sale: $195
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Director: Ntandazo "Didi" Gcingca
From: South Africa
Year: 1999 Minutes: 17
Language: English
Genre: short drama
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Aces is the story of a
young man who fights against the battering of his mother by
his drunken father. The situation escalates until Ace desperately
stabs his father to death, and is sent to jail for a period
of 15 years. Nine years later he is out on parole. He kills
again within a day's time of his release.
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video sale: $70
DVD sale: $145
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Director: Amadou Thior
From: Senegal
Year: 2002 Minutes: 85
Language: Wolof/French
Genre: Comedy
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Sometimes distasteful practices
are most effectively criticized with a good sense of humor.
Meet Modou, a young, courageous and determined talibé - a
pupil in a Koranic school - who manages to escape from his
corrupt and abusive teacher to find a better life in contemporary
Dakar, Senegal.
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| DVD sale: $195 |
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Director: Ramos Lisboa
From: Cape Verde/Portugal
Year:2001 Minutes: 52
Language: Portuguese with English Subtitles
Genre: Historical Documentary
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Amilcar Cabral was the leader of the Liberation Movement of Cape Verde and Guinea Bissau and the founder of the African Party for the Independence of Guinea Bissau and Cape Verde (PAIGC). He was born in Guinea in 1924 and assassinated in Conakry in 1973. Regarded as a true icon of African history, this documentary provides considerable background to this revolutionary giant and reveals Cabral in several dimensions: as a man, a father, politician, humanist and poet.
The documentary is skillfully produced and uses a wealth of rare archive footage, balanced inclusion of varied testimonies of important African personalities and the credible recreation of notable episodes of Cabral's life.
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DVD sale: $245
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Director: Tunde Kelani
From: Nigeria
Year: 2008 Minutes: 97
Language:Yoruba with English subtitles
Genre: Fiction film |
In “Arugba,” the latest film from leading Nigerian filmmaker Tunde Kelani, the king of a small town in south-western Nigeria makes much publicized statements against corruption while instituting economic reforms and embracing foreign investors. But the reforms don’t appear to be trickling down to the people and the king trusts no one and has a weakness for women, which compromises his leadership. Meanwhile, preparations are being made for a traditional ritual in which a young virgin – the arugba – carries a sacrificial calabash. With superb performances from Awoyemi and some of Nigeria’s leading actors, “Arugba” is a beautifully executed film which functions as an allegory for contemporary Nigeria. Set against the backdrop of a corrupt society seeking cleansing, rebirth and nationhood, with all its attendant intrigues, the film intimately presents a world in which modernity and tradition exist alongside each other but seldom in equilibrium.
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DVD sale: $245
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Director: Nouri Bouzid
From: Tunisia
Year: 1992 Minutes: 100
Language: French with English
subtitles
Genre: Drama
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"Bezness" takes place in one of
Tunisia's beautiful coastline tourist cities. it tells the
contemporary story of a young man trapped between Arab tradition
and prostitution. Through this young man who dreams of escape,
the Director, Nouri Bouzid, criticizes both the restrictions
associated with what he calls "the hypocrisy of Islam" and
the European ruling on Arab society.
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Official selection,
Cannes 1992
35mm rental: $250
DVD sale: $195
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Director: Mostefa Djadjam
From: France/Algeria
Year: 2002 Minutes: 102
Language: French with English
subtitles
Genre: Drama
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Six men and a woman set out on the hazardous journey from Senegal to Morocco in a bid to slip illegally into Europe to escape from the poverty and internecine warfare of Africa. All are lured by the promise of a better life, but the challenges are numerous. Passing through the hands of various smugglers, they cross the desert of Mauritania and Algeria, first in a pick up, then in the back of refrigerated fish trucks, and are finally dumped and forced to walk to the Moroccan border. Though each is lured by a different reason, they unite to overcome obstacles and finally reach the coast of Morocco, where they stand looking at Spain across the narrow Straits of Gibraltar. On reaching Tangiers, the invisible travelers go their separate ways and prepare to attempt the fateful crossing to Spain.
Mostefa Djadjam's beautiful debut feature confronts the global controversy of refugees while examining the complexities of human nature. Djadjam, originally trained as an actor, gives a restrained, compassionate account of what is at stake for illegal immigrants, fashioning a stunning film for its subtleties about identity. He presents consistent moral questions, demanding judgment on the decisions and actions of his characters when even the most sympathetic become ruthless and callous in their quest for a better life. The trip in Borders is not easy for either the travelers or the viewer who must watch these sad all–too human beings endure physical and psychological hardships before attaining “freedom.” Not all the travelers succeed. Some find love – some manage to laugh. The viewer, meanwhile, gains a new understanding of the problems which confront Africa-and more importantly, Africans-today.
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35mm rental: $250
video sale: $90
DVD sale: $195
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Director:Ana Lucia Ramos Lisboa
From: Cape Verde
Year: 2007 Minutes: 77
Language: Creole with English
subtitles
Genre: Drama
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Praïa, Cape verde. Laura, Flavia and Bela are childhood friends. Each leads her own life and they sometimes meet to dance, dine and have fun. But one day the calm rivers of their lives break their banks and become wild torrents: Ricardo, Flavia's husband, rapes his pupil Indira, Laura's 13-year old eldest daughter. A film that takes a critical look at the lives of women in Cape Verde. |
DVD sale: $90
DVD sale: $245
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Director: Harrikrisna Anenden
From: Mauritius
Year: 2006 Minutes: 78
Language: Creole with English subtitles
Genre: drama/comedy
The Cathedral is a lyrical narration set in the beautiful and unusual setting of Port-Louis, capital of Mauritius. Lina, a young woman in search of her identity interacts daily with friends and family in a carefree happy manner that will be challenged when one day her dancing catches the eye of a photographer...
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DVD sale: $195
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Director: Khady Sylla
From: Senegal/France
Year: 1999 Minutes: 52
Language: Wolof with English
subtitles
Genre: Docu-Drama
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Public vans provide the traditional
and sole means of city transportation in Dakar, Senegal.
In a frenzy of activity, from the outskirts to downtown,
people from all walks of life as well as fruits, vegetables,
chickens, etc. are transported daily in these public vans.
Colobane Express opens a window on a slice of life in
the busy urban metropolis where drivers and their trainees
are always on the go, managing relationships, incidents
and conflicts, dealing with the competition and providing
an invaluable service to demanding yet loving customers.
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DVD sale: $195
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Director: Bakupa Kanyinda Balufu
From: Democratic
Republic of Congo (former Zaire) & Gabon
Year: 1996 Minutes: 40
Language: French w/ English
subtitles
Genre: comedy
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A wicked political satire about
African dictators, this film tells the story of the president
of a fictitious African nation who spends a sleepless night
playing checkers with a pot-smoking vagabond who is claimed
to be the "all-around champion". However the rules
of the game entail opponents howling vulgar and foul obscenities
at one another. The Champion proceeds to insult, and trounce
the President. His reward - and fate - are not exactly unexpected
in this hilarious send-up of living under tyranny.
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FESPACO 1997, Competition.
Winner Best Short.
35mm rental: $195
16mm rental: $145
video sale: $90
DVD sale: $195
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Director: Mohamed Chouikh
From: Algeria
Year: 1997 Minutes: 90
Language: Arabic with English
subtitles
Genre: Epic Drama
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Romeo and Juliet in the Algerian
desert. Amin and Myriam are secretly in love. Their families
are rivals and when their relationship is discovered, conflict
is inevitable. In the quiet atmosphere of the palm groves,
the two communities have long nurtured the seeds of discord
and hatred. The persecution is the first signal of inevitable
evil. From inside the cave where they have taken refuge, the
two young people hear the cries of a senseless murderous raid.
A universal metaphor to denounce the horror of all extremist
violence, The Desert Ark is a splendid and terrifying metaphor
for a burning contemporary reality.
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Best Image, FESPACO
1999
35mm rental: $250
DVD sale: $295
Part of 2 DVD set Great African Films Vol 3 with Daratt (Dry Season)
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Dry Season / Daratt
Director: Mahamat-Saleh Haroun
From: France / Chad
Year: 2006 Minutes: 95
Language: French & Arabic with English subtitles
Genre: Drama
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Chad, 2006. The government has granted amnesty to all war criminals. Atim, 16 years old, is given a revolver by his grandfather so that he may kill the man who killed his father... Atim leaves his village for N’djamena, seeking a man he does not know. He quickly locates him: former war criminal Nassara is now married and settled down as the owner of a small bakery... With the firm intention of killing him, Atim gets closer to Nassara under the guise of lookin for work, and is hired as an apprentice baker… Intrigued by Atim's attitude toward him, Nassara takes him under his wing and teaches him the secrets of making bread... Over the weeks, a strange relationship evolves between the two. Despite his disgust, Atim seems to recognise in Nassara the father figure he has always needed, while Nassara sees the teenager as a potential son. One day, he suggests adoption...
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35mm rental: $400
DVD sale: $295 - Now available in DVD set: Great African Films Vol 3 with The Desert Ark |
Director: Ossama Fawzi
From: Egypt
Year: 1999 Minutes: 80
Language: Arabic with English
subtitles
Genre: dramatic comedy
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A homeless man dies of an overdose
in a popular Cairo neighborhood. He was once an ideal husband
and represented security for his family. Then one day, everything
changed. Upon his death his friends from the underworld drag
the corpse around for a whole night of madness, drinking and
hallucinating situations. A game with death where the dead
man becomes more alive than the living and fallen angels live
according to their own rules, laws and desires in the chaos
of the Egyptian capital. The film is based on a famous short
story written by the Brazilian writer Jorge Amado.
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Best Director and Best
Actor, festival of Egyptian Cinema 2000
35mm rental: $250
video sale: $90
DVD sale: $195
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Director: Abbdoulaye Ascofaré
From: Mali
Year: 1997 Minutes: 90
Language: Songhoï with English
subtitles
Genre: drama
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Zamiatou is the mother of two
quarrelsome boys and a depressed teenage girl. She is also
the wife of a man arrested for political reasons who returns
from prison mentally and physically destroyed. She struggles
hard to survive in a poor and desolate area. She is ready
to face anything to keep the family alive except prostituting
her beautiful daughter. Her determination will take her far
from her family…
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Best Actress, FESPACO
1997
International Critics Week, 1997 Cannes Film Festival
35mm rental: $250
video sale: $90
DVD sale: $295
DVD entitled GREAT AFRICAN FILMS - VOL 1 - also includes feature film Haramuya
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Director: Licinio Azevedo
From: Mozambique
Year: 2005 Minutes: 58
Language: Portuguese with
English subtitles
Genre: Comedy
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In the suburb of an African city, 12 years-old
Paito sells fritters outside his house. One day, a band
of young robbers takes his money. He decides he’s
not going to go home until he recovers what he lost. With
this in mind, he heads out for the big city on the same
train as the thieves. Looking for work, he begins to live
in a market square that at night becomes a dormitory for
homeless vendors. There he meets Xano, a boy his age,
whose insolent behavior and fearlessness attract him.
Unlike Paito, Xano despises work and he steals. Despite
this, they become friends. Together, they reinvent the
world.
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VHS sale: $90
DVD sale: $195
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Director: Drissa Toure
From: Burkina Faso
and France
Year: 1995 Minutes: 87
Language: French with English
subtitles
Genre: comedy
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Ouagadougou, its buildings and
shantytowns... Wealth in a modern town and poverty in the
suburbs. Through Fousseini -- a Muslim firmly attached to
his faith and traditions - and his family HARAMUYA draws a
picture of Ouagadougou in the traps of modernism and traditionalism.
Fousseini tries to take care of his family according to the
old precepts and the code of honor inherited from his ancestors.
One of his sons is a cinema projectionist and supports all
the family against the will of his wife. The other son idles
around all day long in Ouagadougou, looking for a girlfriend.
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FESPACO 1995, official
selection Cannes 1995 "Un Certain Regard"
35mm rental: $250
video sale: $90
DVD sale: $295
DVD entitled GREAT AFRICAN FILMS - VOL 1 - also includes feature film Faraw! Mother of the Dunes
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Director: Norman Maake
From: South Africa
Year: 2005 Minutes: 90
Language: English
Genre: Fiction
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Charlie, Thabo and Peter, three "MK" veterans from the armed branch of the African National Congress, return to post-apartheid South Africa in 1996 after years of exile. It will not be easy for them to find their place in society again. Charlie dreams of opening a club, Thabo has to patch up his relationship with his wife and son and Peter continues to work in the Party and investigate the traitors of the ANC. Continuously hampered as he delves into the Government's files, his ensuing investigations provide shocking revelations of the identities of the traitors. Pared down from a successful mini series for the South African Broadcasting Corporation, Homecoming draws its plot from the real life experiences of acclaimed filmmaker and writer, Zola Maseko, a former "MK" soldier of the ANC. Morman Maake (26) is perhaps the most promising young director from South Africa. He studied at ADFA, a dynamic young film- and drama school in Johannesburg. He has several films to his name, amongst which Sweet Home (1999), Soldiers of Rock (2003), and Homecoming (2005).
DVD sale: $245
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Kukurantumi:
The Road to Accra
Director: King Ampaw
From: Ghana
Year: 1983 Minutes: 95
Country: Ghana
Language: English
Main Cast: George Wilson
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In a routine melodrama that contrasts the hectic life in Accra, the capital of Ghana, with the relative peace of Kukurantumi, a rural town, a truck driver makes runs between the two locations with few problems until he is forced to replace his truck. In order to raise the money to get a new vehicle, he sells some stolen watches and promises his daughter in marriage to a rich merchant. Rebelling against this fate, the daughter runs off to Accra with her boyfriend -- but then nothing turns out quite like she had planned, and the rich merchant looks better with each passing day.
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DVD sale: $245
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Director: King Ampaw
From:Ghana/West Germany
Year:2006 Minutes: 95
Language: English
Genre: Drama
Official selection, African Diaspora Film Festival 2007
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Death and funeral traditions play a significant role in African culture. No Time to Die is director King Ampaw’s contribution to passing the tradition onto the next generation.
A hearse driver meets and falls in love with a young, beautiful dancer who is planning an elaborate homegoing celebration for her mother. This love and comedy feature length film follows David as he does everything to win her affection.
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DVD sale: $245
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Director: John Kani
From: South Africa
Year:2008 Minutes:78
Language: English
Genre: Drama
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Nothing But The Truth is a gripping investigation into the complex dynamic between those blacks who remained in South Africa and risked their lives to lead the struggle against apartheid and those who returned victoriously after living in exile. In New Brighton, South Africa, 63-year-old librarian Sipho Makhaya prepares for the return of the ashes of his brother Themba, recently deceased while in exile in London after gaining a reputation as a hero of the anti-apartheid movement. Internationally recognized, multiple award-winning actor John Kani is the lead actor in this film version of the internationally acclaimed award-winning play Nothing But The Truth which he also authored. |
DVD sale: $295
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Director: Merzak Allouache
From: France/Algeria
Year: 2001 Minutes: 90
Language: Arabic and French
with English subtitles
Genre: Romantic Drama
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Yasmine and Rachid, two young
Parisians children of Algerian immigrants, are in love and
live a quiet life in France. One day, Rachid disappears and
Yasmine learns that he is in Algeria. She decides to follow
him, in that country that she does not know, that is filled
with violence. As she travels looking for Rachid, she falls
deeper into the horror of a country where nothing seems normal,
another world, where death is ever present. She learns that
Rachid was in a military convoy that was attacked by terrorists.
Only two soldiers in the convoy survived. She can't believe
Rachid is not one of them...
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35mm rental: $250
DVD sale: $195
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Director: Ahmed Hassouna
From: Egypt
Year: 2002 Minutes: 14
Language: Arabic with English
subtitles
Genre: surrealist comedy
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Sami and his wife Sarah are packing
to move to the USA where they intend to open a restaurant.
Rania, Sarah's sister, goes to their house to take them to
the airport, but some unexpected and unforeseeable events
take place in the apartment: games of seduction, murder and
dead bodies to be disposed of. A surrealist comedy by Ahmed
Hassouna who belongs to a new group of young promising Egyptian
filmmakers.
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video sale: $70
DVD sale: $245 - DVD also includes film 100% Arabica
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Director: Dani Kouyate
From: Burkina Faso/France
Year: 2001 Minutes: 96
Language: Bambara with English
subtitles
Genre: Epic Drama
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Kombi is a poverty-stricken city
dominated by a tyrant king. In order to bring back prosperity,
the king is advised by his priests to make the traditional
human sacrifice of a young virgin to a mystical snake god.
Sia, the most beautiful young woman of the village, has been
designated. Lieutenant Mamadi, her fiancé, rebels against
the decision to perform this ritual and the village becomes
divided. Struggles and revelations follow as the characters
confront issues of honour, corruption and power.
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35mm rental: $250
video sale: $90
DVD sale: $295
DVD entitled GREAT AFRICAN FILMS - VOL 2- also includes
feature film Tasuma, The Fighter
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Sotigui Kouyate:
A Modern Griot
Director:Mahamat-Saleh Haroun
From:Chad/Burkina Faso
Year:1998 Minutes:58
Language:French with English subtitles
Genre: Documentary
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Through testimonies by Peter Brook, Jean-Claude Carriere, Jean-Pierre Guigane, and Sotigui Kouyate himself, Sotigui Kouyate: a Modern Griot dresses the portrait of one of Africa’s greatest actor now based in Paris. From Africa to Europe, the film unveils the multiple facets of Sotigui Kouyate, actor, musician and modern griot. |
DVD sale: $245
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Director: Nawfel Saheb-Ettaba
From: Tunisia
Year: 1999 Minutes: 52
Language: Arabic/French with
English subtitles
Genre: documentary
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Stambali is an annual tribute that
the disciples of Sidi Saad pay to their master during an initiatory
journey and rite of purification that lasts three days. This
Tunisian religious ritual, brought into the country by sub-Saharan
Africans, is a healing ceremony led by musicians who are also
healers as they enter into a trance to the mesmerizing rhythm
of the "gombri" and "chkachek," and incarnate
a deity that takes possession of their body. In Stambali,
the camera follows the rhythm of the possessions and dances
of the healing ceremony as it develops into an individual
and collective hypnosis and takes the audience into the trance
of the eroticism that is released by this physical and spiritual
representation.
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DVD sale: $195
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| Tasuma, The Fighter
Director: Daniel Kollo Sanou
From: Burkina
Faso
Year: 2003 Minutes: 90
Language: French and Djula
with English subtitles
Genre: Comedy
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A comedy set in contemporary
Burkina Faso, Tasuma tells the story of
a World War II veteran who has been trying for more than
50 years to obtain his well-deserved military pension. Convinced
that he will be paid shortly, Sogo buys a mill on credit
for the village. But the money does not arrive. When Sogo
is put in prison because he cannot reimburse his loan, the
women of the village rally to set him free.
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35mm rental: $250
DVD sale: $295
DVD entitled GREAT AFRICAN FILMS - VOL 2- also includes
feature film Sia, the Dream of the
Python
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Director: Balufu Bakupa Kanyinda
From: Democratic
Republic of Congo
Year: 1991 Minutes: 26
Language: French w/ English
subtitles
Genre: documentary
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Captain Thomas Sankara was the
leader of the Burkinabe Revolution. In the former Upper Volta
known today as Burkina Faso, a group of men decided to launch
a revolution that would enable the country "to accept
the responsibility of its reality and its destiny with human
dignity". Thomas Sankara belongs to the group of African
leaders who wanted to give the continent in general and their
countries in particular a new socio-political dimension.
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DVD sale: $195
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