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note: click on film graphics to see larger
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Director: Mahmoud Zemmouri
From: France
and Algeria
Year: 1997
Minutes: 85
Language: French with English
subtitles
Genre: comedy
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| In a housing project located on
the outskirts of Paris renamed “100% Arabica” by
its inhabitants, African immigrants live side by side. The
residents are united by their struggle for recognition in
a society where immigrants are often regarded as second class
citizens. In a world of exiles, poverty is the common denominator.
Against this backdrop, director Zemmouri has brought together
two of the biggest and most charismatic stars of the cross-cultural
musical form known as Rai, Cheb Mami and Khaled, who play
the leaders of a band called Rap Oriental. As the band of
musicians starts to gain in popularity, the Imam of the local
mosque (Mouss) tries to destroy them by stirring up racial
and cultural tensions. However, no one can stop the infectious
popularity of the songs in this story of music triumphing
over bigotry and violence. |
35mm rental: $250
DVD sale: $245
DVD also includes Bonus Short Rotating Square
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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: Sozimo Bulbul
From: Brazil
Year: 1988
Minutes: 150
Language: Portuguese with English
Subtitles
Genre: documentary
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| Aboliçao is a startling
look at the racial situation of Black Brazilians in contemporary
Brazil. The director asks the following question to Black
Brazilians from diverse walks of life -- musicians, politicians,
activists, people in government, ambassadors, social workers,
sport stars, actors, street kids, farmers, etc… -- “We are
celebrating 100 years since the abolition of slavery in Brazil,
what does the abolition of slavery mean to you?”… Divided
in sections addressing political, economic, social and cultural
issues, Aboliçao contributed to a new analysis of the
Black experience in Brazil. An indispensable title to have
in a library for the study of the Black presence in Latin
America.
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DVD sale: $245
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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: Geraldo Santos Pereira
From: Brazil
Year: 2001
Minutes: 100
Language: Portuguese with English
subtitles
Genre: drama
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| Set in 19th century Brazil - at
a time when slavery was still at the foundation of the Latin
American economy - this fascinating historical drama is loosely
based on the life of Black sculptor Antonio Francisco Lisboa
"Aleijadinho," one of the greatest sculptors of Latin America.
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35mm rental: $250
DVD sale: $195
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Director: Felix De Rooy
From: Curacao
Year: 1986
Minutes: 100
Language: Papamientu with English
subtitles
Genre: drama
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| Based on old legends, the film
depicts a fictional agricultural community in an isolated
part of Curaçao at the turn of the century. The central theme
of the film is the struggle between creative and destructive
forces.
In the village of Desolato, Solem, the priestess protects
the villagers from Alma Sola, the symbol of evil, the patriarch
of the "shons", the white landowners. Alma Sola has the power
to transform into male, female or animal and always strikes
when vigilance of Desolato weakens.
Solem has sacrificed her fertility for the welfare of the
community. Therefore she is not allowed to have a relationship
with a man. Her longing for physical love provides Alma Sola
with an opportunity to lead her stray.
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Paul Robeson Prize for
Best Diaspora Film, FESPACO 1991
35mm rental: $250
video sale: $90
DVD sale: $195
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Director: Amadou
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.
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: Gérard Louvin
From: Burkina-Faso,
Togo, Switzerland, and France
Year: 1991
Minutes: 90
Language: French with English
Subtitles
Genre: comedy
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| Set in Togo, West Africa, Ashakara
is a modern African tale. An African doctor finds a cure to
a deadly virus and decides to mass produce the drug at low
cost in Africa. However, a pharmaceutical multinational does
not want the doctor to succeed and sends an agent to Africa
first to buy the drug then to destroy it...Mixing action,
suspense, good humor, and a lucid depiction of the contemporary
African continent, Ashakara entertains and educates
all at once.
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Official Selection, Cognac
International Festival of the Thriller, 1992
35mm rental: $250
DVD sale: $195
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Director: Felix de Rooy
From: Holland/Curacao
Year: 1990
Minutes: 100
Language: Dutch and Papamientu
w/ English subtitles
Genre: drama
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| The story takes place on the island
of Curacao in the late Forties.Upon request of Father Fidelius,
parish priest of St. Anna's, the Surinam painter Gabriel Goedbloed
arrives from Holland to paint a mural of the Virgin Mary in
St. Anna's Church. The drama unfolds from different angles.
First the clergy and locals are confused by the fact that
the painter is black, originating from Surinam, but resettled
in The Hague, where he received a Fine Art education.
The close knit Antillian society did not welcome strangers
who would not conform to their colonial way of life in those
days. Contributing factors arise when he chooses a young teacher,
Miss Ava Recordina, who is from mixed origin, to be his model
for the painting of the Virgin Mary. Ava is engaged to the
white police major Carlos Zarius who is not too happy with
his fiancé posing for the painter.
The fact that the Dutch Governor's wife, Louise van Hansschot,
is interested in Gabriel also fuels the tension. In the end,
Gabriel Goedbloed falls victim to the controversies, hypocrisies
and intrigues that have arisen around his person and his paintings.
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Jury Prize, Festival
International de Cine Latino Americano, Havana Cuba, 1990
35mm rental: $250
DVD sale: $195
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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: Pol Cruchten
From: Cape Verde
and Luxembourg
Year: 1995
Minutes: 80
Language: Portuguese & French
with English subtitles
Genre: drama
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| From the sea and sun of the Cape
Verde Island, it's a very big step to rainy, gloomy, land-locked
Luxembourg, but that's the journey 20-year-old Dju Dele Dibonga
must take to track down his dad, whose yearly visits and monthly
guest worker checks have stopped. But it's not just the weather
that's not welcoming, Dju also has to face overzealous immigration
cops intent on filling deportation quotas and the noisy outrage
of a hard-boozing police lieutenant (veteran actor Philippe
Léotard). Dad's trail looks cold, until lieutenant decides
to join in the hunt and to become Dju's partner in this tale
of love and friendship. With the exceptional participation
of Cape Verdian singer Cesaria Evora as Dju's mother and Manu
Dibango as himself.
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35mm rental: $250
video sale: $90
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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| Seven Africans, one woman and six men, decide to enter Europe clandestinely to start a new life. Together, they face dangers and obstacles, but as they get closer to Tangiers, the last stop before they reach Spain and "liberty", their inter-group solidarity starts to fall apart.
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35mm rental: $250
video sale: $90
DVD sale: $195
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Director: Francis Dujardin
From: Belgium
Year: 1999
Minutes: 54
Language: French with English
subtitles
Genre: documentary
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| The extraordinary and tragic saga
of 267 Congolese, brought to Brussels for the 1897 World's
Fair. After some four months of travel towards Belgium, they
are exhibited before a million visitors. Subjected to the
crushing gaze of the "Whites" and the cold climate, many fell
prey to disease and even some lost their lives. The dead were
hastily dispatched in a common grave, sparking a fierce debate
in Belgian society. The project was overblown, but necessary
in the eyes of the first colonizers, who presumed to have
tamed the far-flung savages. One hundred years later, Congolese
compatriots return to the scene of these events and question
the "Whites" of today on the incredible story of that "human
zoo". They carry out the ritual of "a return to the earth"
by way of reparation for too great a hurt… A film that revisits
a century of stereotyped conceptions about the Africans. And
running through it, the almost aching question: "How is today
different?"
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video sale: $90
DVD sale: $245
DVD also includes powerful documentary Congo: White King, Red Rubber, Black Death |
Director: Menelik Shabazz
From: UK
Year:
1981
Minutes: 107
Language: English
Genre:
drama
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| A young British woman comes of age questioning her middle-class aspirations and security through marriage. Her realization of her status both in her personal relationship and within a racist society gradually leads her to political enlightenment and the possibility of responding to the problems and pressures she encounters.
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DVD sale: $195
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Director: Rafael Deugenio
From: Uruguay
Year: 1993
Minutes: 16
Language: Spanish with English
subtitles
Genre: docu-drama
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| More than two hundred years ago,
there was an influx into Uruguay of slaves from Africa whom,
after being freed, continued to make up the poorest and most
marginalized strata in society. Fernado Nunez, a black man,
a musician, and a maker of drums, sees himself as the heir
to "Candombe", an important social and cultural legacy
from his slave forefathers. The official history and culture
of Uruguay, on the other hand, which has never acknowledged
this contribution to the degree which it deserves, continues
to marginalize expressions of black culture. Fernando Nunez
and his friends from the Barrio Sur back street quarter of
Montevideo have decided to fight to keep these important cultural
roots alive in the consciousness of the Uruguayan people.
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16mm rental: $145
DVD sale: $245 bonus title in Adios Momo
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Director: Menelik Shabaz
From: Jamaica and
UK
Year: 1995
Minutes: 30
Language: English
Genre:
docu-drama
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| Catch a Fire tells the story of
Deacon Paul Bogle, often described as a 19th century Malcom
X. 30 years after the end of slavery in Jamaica, the Morant
Bay Rebellion of 1865 provoked outrage in Victorian Britain
shaping race and land attitudes. The story is constructed
using extensive interviews with Paul Bogle's grand son as
well as archive material.
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DVD sale: $145
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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
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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...
DVD sale: $195  |
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 appreciative customers.
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DVD sale: $195
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Director: Peter Bate
From: Belgium/UK
Year: 2004 Minutes: 100
Language: English/French/Duch w/ English subtitles
Genre: Documentary
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This true, shocking, astonishing story of what the Belgians did in the Congo was forgotten for over 50 years. Congo: White King, Red Rubber, Black Death describes Leopold II, King of the Belgium's private colony of the Congo between 1885 and 1908 as a gulag labor camp of shocking brutality. Leopold posed as the protector of Africans fleeing Arab slave-traders but, in reality, he carved out an empire based on terror to harvest rubber. Families were held as hostages, starving to death if the men failed to produce enough wild rubber. Children's hands were chopped off as punishment for late deliveries. The Belgian government has denounced this documentary as a "tendentious diatribe" for depicting King Leopold II as the moral forebear of Adolf Hitler, responsible for the death of 10 million people in his rapacious exploitation of the Congo. Yet, it is agreed today that the first Human Rights movement was spurred by what happened in the Congo.
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video sale: $90
DVD sale: $245
DVD also includes Bonus Documentary Boma Tervuren: The Journey
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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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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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Daratt / Dry Season
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
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Director: Joel Zito Araujo
From: Brazil
Year: 2000
Minutes: 92
Language: Portuguese with English
subtitles
Genre: documentary
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A documentary film about the taboos,
stereotypes, and struggles of Black actors in Brazilian television
"soaps." Based on his own memories and on a sturdy body of
research evidence, the director analyzes race relations in
Brazilian soap operas, calling attention to their likely influence
on Black people's identity-forming processes.
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35mm rental: $250
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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Director: Felix de Rooy
From: Netherland/USA
Year: 1984
Minutes: 96
Language: English subtitles
Genre: drama
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| Set in Brooklyn, New York this
Dutch film is based on a true story that appeared on a New
York newspaper in 1980.
Desirée lives in the past. A series of flashbacks expose us
to her psychologically troubled childhood very much affected
by a promiscous mother. Her present life evolves around three
people: her employer Mrs. Resnick, Freddy, her lover and Father
Siego, leader of the church "The True Confessors".
Desirée's relationship with each one of these characters is
at the origin of her falling apart. Freddy is an insecure
black man who finishes their love affair with a sad note,
Father Siego is the leader of a rigid narrow-minded religious
sect and Mrs Resnick is a racist, prejudiced white woman who
feels black people are inferior and incapable of living their
own live.
Rejected by all because of her pregnancy, Desirée blames her
child as the source of evil. She is then possessed by evil
and wants to exorcise it. The only way is to get rid of her
daughter...
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35mm rental: $250
DVD sale: $195
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Director: Joel Zito Araujo
From: Brazil
Year: 1997
Minutes: 38
Language: Portuguese with English
subtitles
Genre: documentary
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| On March 13, 1992, Vicente Francisco
do Espirito Santo, a Black Brazilian who worked in a government-owned
electricity company, was fired from his job. It did not take
long for him to realize that his dismissal was directly linked
to his skin color. Encouraged by his union and a strong Black
empowerment movement, he began a judicial process which he
won, and as a result was reinstated in his former position.
This informative documentary about an unknown victory illustrates
how the courts of Brazil did recognize the company's prejudice
and racism in a country where such realities are usually dismissed
as atypical.
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DVD sale: $145
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