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Afro-Cuba:
Yesterday and Today
Two exciting, colorful films spotlight the African roots of Cuba's culture by focusing on two legendary artists -- Rumbero Papa Montero and Filmmaker Sara Gomez -- in this unique box set.
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THE LAST RUMBA OF PAPA MONTERO /
LA ULTIMA RUMBA DE PAPA MONTERO
Get ready to rumba! The life of Cuba s last great rumbero is detailed in THE LAST RUMBA OF PAPA MONTERO, a bold story that captures Cuban traditions and culture through beautiful imagery, sensual music, and the most scorching Latin dance ever invented. Afro-Cuban mythology serves as the force behind the narrative as mythic figures guide the characters through the events of the story.
SARA GOMEZ: AN AFRO-CUBAN FILMMAKER
Acclaimed filmmaker Sara Gomez comes to life in the rich, multilayered documentary SARA GOMEZ: AN AFRO-CUBAN FILMMAKER. Though trained in ethnography, Gomez became the first female Cuban filmmaker. Her background shaped her films, which reflect her interests in Afro-Cuban cultural traditions and women's issues. Friends and family members recall her talent, intelligence, and generosity. Ultimately SARA GOMEZ is a love story between Sara and her husband (filmmaker Germinal Hernandez), Sara and her family, and Sara and her culture.
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DVD sale: $295 |
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. Cabral is 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. |
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: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. |
VHS sale: $90
DVD sale: $245
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DANY LAFERRIERE:
Films from a Poet's Imagination
The mystery and wonder of modern-day Haiti come alive in this two-film set based on the work of writer-director Dany Laferriere with the two films How to Conquer America in One Night (96 mins) and On the Verge of a Fever (88 mins).
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HOW TO CONQUER AMERICA IN ONE NIGHT / COMMENT CONQUERIR L'AMERIQUE EN UNE NUIT
Newly arrived in Montréal, and determined to conquer North America by charming blonde-haired women, Gégé, a Haitian in his thirties, lands up at Fanfan's - his nostalgic uncle who has given up poetry for a good old taxicab and dreams of returning to his homeland. Over the course of one night filled with humor and friendship -- highlighted by a party attended by twins Andrée and Denise, two Quebecers with contrasting charms -- the two fun-loving guys take stock of their lives, memories and fantasies.
ON THE VERGE OF A FEVER / LE GOUT DES JEUNES FILLES
Against a backdrop of poverty, fear, and the brutal dictatorship of Haiti in 1971, ON THE VERGE OF A FEVER (Le Gout des Jeunes Filles) tells the story of Fanfan, a 15-year-old boy who wants to experience life for himself with his streetwise friend Gégé. Having lived a sheltered life with his overprotective mother, Fanfan experiences a bizarre, terrifying incident with Haiti’s secret police, the Tonton-Macoute. He decides to hide out at the house of his beautiful neighbors. There, he is trapped between his fear of getting caught and his desire to fulfill his deepest fantasy. This colorful drama is based on Haitian novelist Dany Lafèrriere’s Le Gout de Jeunes Filles.
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DVD sale: $295
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Family Motel
Director: Helene Klodawsky
From: Canada
Year: 2007 Minutes: 88
Language: English
Genre: Drama
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Raising teenaged daughters is not easy, especially for Ayan, a Somalian refugee living in Canada who also supports a husband and two sons left behind in Somalia. Living in her small Vancouver apartment with her daughters -- Nasrah, 17, and Leila, 15 -- Ayan is trying to keep everything together, but is evicted from her apartment for late payment. Because Ayan is unable to afford the soaring rents on her two service jobs, and the Canadian social services are unable to assist in placing her, she and her two daughters must move into a Family Motel. Ayan keeps her faith and dignity throughout these challenging times and, with great fortitude, strives to make the best of her difficult situation. Further drama ensues when Nasrah and Leila begin to rebel against their mother and start developing close relationships with the neighbors, who present characteristics quite different from what Ayan, a devout Muslim, is accustomed to. |
DVD sale: $245
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Director: Kevin Merz
From:Nigeria/Switzerland
Year:2008 Minutes: 75
Language:English and German with English subtitles
Genre: Documentary
Winner “Festival Real Life” Accra 2008. Official selection, African Diaspora Film Festival 2008
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Jarreth Merz, a Swiss-Nigerian actor living in Los Angeles, is summoned to Nigeria to bury his father. Nigerian tradition mandates the eldest child to take charge of a father’s burial. Although he accepts the responsibility, he struggles with why he feels morally responsible toward Nigerian tradition and a family whom he hardly knows. Jarreth starts a journey of self-discovery. |
DVD sale: $245
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Homecoming
Director: Norman Maake
From: South Africa
Year: 2005 Minutes: 90
Language: English
Genre: Fiction
Opening Night Film , African Diaspora Film Festival 2006
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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).
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VHS sale: $90
DVD sale: $245
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Jacques Roumain:
Passion for a Country
Director: Arnold Antonin
From: Haiti
Year:2008 Minutes: 111
Language:Creole and French with English subtitles
Genre: Historical Documentary
WINNER Paul Robeson Award FESPACO 2009. Official selection, African Diaspora Film Festival 2008.
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This exploration of Haitian society of the late 19th and early 20th centuries focuses on the tormented life of one of Haiti’s most important authors and prominent political figures, Jacques Roumain. In his perceptive writings, Roumain raised questions about the issues facing Haiti that remain relevant today.
Some of Jacques Roumain’s best writings were translated by the legendary African-American poet Langston Hughes. The question is raised: what legacy has Jacques Roumain left for the future of Haitian youth.
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DVD sale: $245
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Jamaican Music & Soul
New 2 DVD set featuring: Made in Jamaica and The Journey of the Lion
MADE IN JAMAICA
Director: Jerome Laperrousaz
From: Jamaica/France
Year: 2006 Minutes: 110
Language: English
Genre: Musical Documentary
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MADE IN JAMAICA is a powerful portrait of the leaders of the Jamaican music movement and how Reggae in particular became a worldwide phenomenon. It is the story of how a small island nation in the Caribbean of only three million people took their human experience and turned it into songs full of emotions that resonate around the world.” Reggae is Jamaica’s blues: a music of both desperation and hope.
Never before has a single feature film presented the leaders of the Reggae music movement with the intensity that MADE IN JAMAICA does. The film features Grammy Award Winner Toots, Gregory Isaacs, Bunny Wailer (Bob Marley’s brother), 2006 Grammy Award Nominees Third World, Shia and Cat Core, Beres Hammond, Sly Dunbar and Robbie Shakespeare, Alaine Laugthon, Tanya Stephens, Bounty Killer, Blessed, Elephant Man, Lady Saw, Joseph Current, Vybz Kartel, Brick and Lace, Dr. Marshall, Capleton, Koolant, and Left Side & Esco.
THE JOURNEY OF THE LION
Director: Fritz Baumann
From: Jamaica and Germany
Year: 1992 Minutes: 90
Language: English
Genre: docu-drama
Brother Howie is a Jamaican Rastifari who dreams of the land of his ancestors: Africa. On a journey in search of his roots and his identity he travels through three continents and - with great humor and sensitivity - discovers the world...and Africa.
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DVD sale: $295
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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 this revealing African comedy-drama 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.
"''Kukurantumi: the Road to Accra,'' a co-production of Ghana and West Germany, is a comparatively lively, good-humored film about a very sad subject - the breakdown of family relationships under the pressures of what's called progress".- The New York Times.
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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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Winner Silver Stallion -
Fespaco 2009.
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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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On the Verge of a Fever
Director: John L'Ecuyer
From: Haiti/Quebec-Canada
Year: 2004 Minutes: 88
Language: French with English sub.
Genre: Drama
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Against the backdrop of poverty, fear and the brutal dictatorship of Haiti in 1971, On the Verge of a Fever (Le goût des jeunes filles) is about Fanfan, a 15-year-old boy who just wants to experience life for himself with his streetwise friend Gégé. Having lived a somewhat sheltered life with his protective mother, Fanfan experiences a bizarrely terrifying incident involving a Tonton-Macoute. As a result, he decides to hide out at his beautiful neighbor's house for the weekend. There, he is trapped between his fear of being caught and the fulfilling of his deepest fantasy. Based on the Book Le Gout des Jeunes Filles by famous Haitian novelist Dany Laferriere.
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DVD sale: $195
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Title: The President Has AIDS?
Running Time: 110 Minutes
Year: 2007
Country: Haiti
Language: Creole/French with English subtitles
Director: Arnold Antonin
Screenplay: Gary Victor
Cinematography: Camilo Widmaier
Editor: Oldy Auguste
Producer: Arnold Antonin
Music: Boulot Valcourt and John Mogène
Sound: Lazaro
Cast: Jimmy Jean-Louis as Dao; Jessica Geneus as Nina
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AWARDS
FESPACO 2007 Winner Paul Robeson Award Best Film by a Director from the African Diaspora Arnold Antonin
Special Mention Vues d’Afrique , Montreal, 2007
Special Award of the Burkina Faso’s Comitteee of struggle against AIDS |
Jimmy Jean-Louis -- featured among the cast
of the television phenomenon “Heroes,” -- stars as musician extraordinaire in denial, President, in this Haitian comedy-drama about the HIV/AIDS epidemic. Dao is the biggest movie star in Haiti, the self-proclaimed "President of Compas." He has women falling at his feet and men emulating him. He feels invincible-living the life of a rock star--sex, drugs and alcohol--except that he can no longer hide his illness which is threatening to derail his career. Despite pressure from his manager, he refuses to get tested for AIDS, turning instead to rituals, spells, and the church. At one of his concerts, he rescues Nina from the leery advances of Larieux, a wealthy and powerful businessman, who Nina's mother wants her to marry. As romance blossoms between Dao and Nina, who likes Dao despite his fame, not because of it, Larieux plots his revenge. Also starring Riccardo Lefeuvre and Jessica Geneus.
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DVD sale: $245
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Sotigui Kouyate:
A Modern Griot
Director:Mahamat-Saleh Haroun
From:Chad/France
Year:1996 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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White Like the Moon
Director: Marina Gonzalez Palmier
From: USA
Year: 2001 Minutes: 23
Language: English
Genre: Drama
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A Mexican-American girl struggles to keep her identity when her mother forces her to bleach her skin. White Like the Moon is a revealing film about a dilemma not very well known outside Latino communities; that of the myth of the light skin superiority in Indigenous and Indigenous descendant communities.
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DVD sale : $145
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