CONGO: WHITE KING, RED RUBBER, BLACK DEATH + BOMA TERVUREN, THE JOURNEY

$245.00

CONGO: WHITE KING, RED RUBBER, BLACK DEATH

DIRECTED BY PETER BATE

CONGO AND BELGIUM / 2003 / ENGLISH / 90 MIN

SYNOPSIS

This true, astonishing story of what King Leopold II did in the Congo was forgotten for over 50 years. “ Congo:White King, Red Rubber, Black Death” describes how King Leopold II of Belgium turned Congo into its private colony between 1885 and 1908. Under his control, Congo became 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.

"(a) stunning indictment of Belgium's brutal colonization of the Congo in the late 19th century. "~VARIETY

"Evokes the ignorance of a country that would rather look up to its ugly past than down." ~ SLANT MAGAZINE

"A journey into the original “Heart of Darkness”."~ NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

DIRECTOR AND CAST

Director: Peter Bate

Starring: Roger May

Starring: Nicholas Fraser

Starring: Steve Driesen

GENRES

Documentary
Bonus Documentary with DVD: BOMA TERVUREN, THE JOURNEY

BOMA TERVUREN, THE JOURNEY

DIRECTED BY FRANCIS DUJARDIN

BELGIUM / 1999 / FRENCH WITH ENGLISH SUBTITLES / 54 MIN

SYNOPSIS

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?"

DIRECTOR AND CAST

Director: Frances Dujardin

GENRES

Documentary

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DANCING THE TWIST IN BAMAKO

$395.00

Dancing The Twist in Bamako - Trailer - ArtMattan Films

DANCING THE TWIST IN BAMAKO

The 1960s were a time of change everywhere, and that includes Bamako, the capital city of Mali, a nation only recently independent from French colonial rule.

DANCING THE TWIST IN BAMAKO is a romance fraught with the drama of political change, infused with the musical energy of that decade. Samba, a young, idealistic socialist, works toward creating a more just nation by day and dances with girlfriend Lara to the Beach Boys, Otis Redding, and the Supremes by night.

The film’s sensibility is inspired by the vibrant images, patterns, and compositions of famed Malian photographer, Malick Sidibé. Lara’s orange silk dress and Samba’s dazzling white suit, shot against the striped backdrop of their dance club and the black and white checked dance floor they cut up — all suggest that change is coming rapidly, that life is for living.

by Robert Guédiguian, France / Canada / Senegal, 2021, 129min, Romantic Drama, French with English subtitles.

"Inspired by the photographs of Malick Sidibé, Dancing the Twist in Bamako (the screenplay of which was written by Robert Guédiguian and Gilles Taurand) does not claim to moralise or substitute for an African perspective. The film relies on the universality of love stories that defy (at the risk of their lives) traditions and ideologies, to weave a story nourished by simplicity, enthusiasm, and even the touching naivety of youth, against the backdrop of a utopia of class struggle confronted by "realpolitik." A dive into the past, punctuated by a multitude of hits from the early 60s whose fragrance of effervescent happiness is tinged with nostalgia and tragedy, like a challenge to time and the dictates of the mind." ~ Fabien Lemercier, Cineuropa

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DENYING BRAZIL

$245.00

DENYING BRAZIL

DIRECTED BY JOEL ZITO ARAUJO

BRAZIL / 2000 / PORTUGUESE WITH ENGLISH SUBTITLES / 92 MIN

SYNOPSIS

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.

"As a sociological dissection on how popular entertainment can shape racial prejudice and help to build racial justice, 'Denying Brazil' is a strong and significant work of intelligence." - Phil Hall, Filmthreat

DIRECTOR AND CAST

Director: Joel Zito Araujo

GENRES

Documentary

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DESIREÉ

$245.00

DESIREÉ

DIRECTED BY FELIX DE ROOY

NETHERLANDS AND USA / 1984 / ENGLISH SUBTITLES / 96 MIN

SYNOPSIS

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...

DIRECTOR AND CAST

Director: Felix de Rooy

GENRES

Drama

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DRY SEASON / DARATT

$295.00

DRY SEASON / DARATT

DIRECTED BY MAHAMAT-SALEH HAROUN

CHAD / 2006 / FRENCH AND ARABIC WITH ENGLISH SUBTITLES / 95 MIN

SYNOPSIS

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 looking 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...

DIRECTOR AND CAST

Director: Mahamat-Saleh Haroun

Starring: Ali Barkai

Starring: Youssouf Djaoro

Starring: Aziza Hisseine

GENRES

Drama
Now available in DVD set: Great African Films Vol 3 with The Desert Ark

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Executive Order (Medida Provisora)

$395.00

EXECUTIVE ORDER
(Medida Provisória)

Set in a dystopian near future in Rio de Janeiro, a lawyer (Alfred Enoch) sues the Brazilian government for reparation of all descendants of African slaves in the country. The authoritarian government responds by signing an executive order sending all black citizens to Africa as an excuse to repay the debts of slavery.

Directed by Lázaro Ramos, 2020, Brazil, 101min, Drama, Portuguese w/ English subtitles.

"A chilling believability creeps into this dystopian debut from actor-turned-director Lázaro Ramos that’s hard to shake off." ~ Cath Clarke, Guardian

"[Executive Order] is Bacurau on a global scale, Get Out without the humor. It's Armee Guineenne unleashed in movie form, a melancholic prophecy of a coming war and a sendoff to those brave African soldiers who dared to fight for their heartland." ~ Asher Luberto, L.A. Weekly

"The directing is excellent, the cast is giving it their all, and the themes are relevant and need to be discussed." ~ Bobby LePire, Film Threat

"Politically and culturally driven it may be, Executive Order still ultimately aims for entertainment and education in equal measure." ~ Peter Gray, The AU Review

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FALLEN ANGELS PARADISE (GANNAT AL SHAYATEEN)

$195.00

FALLEN ANGELS PARADISE (GANNAT AL SHAYATEEN)

DIRECTED BY OUSSAMA FAWZI

EGYPT / 1999 / ARABIC WITH ENGLISH SUBTITLES / 80 MIN

SYNOPSIS

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.

DIRECTOR AND CAST

Director: Oussama Fawzi

Starring: Mahmood Hemaidah
Starring: Lebleba

Starring: Caroline Khalil

GENRES

Dramatic Comedy

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FARAW! MOTHER OF THE DUNES

$295.00

FARAW! MOTHER OF THE DUNES

DIRECTED BY ABBDOULAYE ASCOFARÉ

MALI / 1997 / SONGHOÏ WITH ENGLISH SUBTITLES / 90 MIN

SYNOPSIS

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…

DIRECTOR AND CAST

Director: Abbdoulaye Ascofaré

Starring: Aminata Ousmane

Starring: Balla Moussa Keita

Starring: Safiatou Mahamane

GENRES

Drama
DVD entitled GREAT AFRICAN FILMS - VOL 1 - also includes feature film Haramuya

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FEMININE DILEMMA

$195.00

FEMININE DILEMMA

DIRECTED BY ZARA M. YACOUB

CHAD / 1994 / ARABIC ND FRENCH WITH ENGLISH SUBTITLES / 22 MIN

SYNOPSIS

Images presented in Feminine Dilemma are almost unsustainable to watch. One witnesses the circumcision operation performed on two young girls as women surrounding them in a courtyard clap their hands, dance and sing "you will not cry or we will never forgive you". Following this harrowing sequence, the film presents a series of interviews with religious leaders, women group representatives, health workers, everyday people and the girls themselves and asks the question: why female circumcision? Should it be performed and how? And what are the consequences? Following the making of this film, scandal broke and threats and attacks against the filmmaker followed. But once the dust settled, a debate started in Chad which allowed for open discussions of a topic that is still taboo in many parts of the world today. As for the filmmaker, Zara M. Yacoub, she will remain marked for life by her experiences making and defending this very courageous and disturbing documentary.

DIRECTOR AND CAST

Director: Zara M. Yacoub

GENRES

Documentary

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FEVERS / FIEVRES

$295.00

Fevers / Fievres

Directed by Hicham Ayouch, 2014, 90 min, France/Morocco/UAE/Qatar, French, drama, English subt.

Fevers, winner of FESPACO - Africa's largest film festival - 2015 grand prize, the Golden Stallion of Yennenga, is a French version of We Need to Talk About Kevin about a disturbed young man raised on foster care who enters his father's Muslim household in the suburbs of Paris and becomes a major source of disruption in the family.

At only thirteen, Benjamin is a little soldier at war with life, adults and with himself. Since the age of five, the troubled kid goes back and forth into foster homes. But when his mother goes to jail and reveals to Benjamin the existence of his father, the young boy is determined to get out of foster care. So when the social worker gives him the choice, he decides to go live at his unknown father's place.

Director's creative statement

Fevers could have been, filmed in any city, but I chose to shoot this story in a working class neighborhood. In terms of writing and directing the movie breaks stereotypes, it has a more modern and contrasted vision of that world.

In the suburbs, everything is intense, extreme and violence prevails as well, however there's also poetry and a great joy for life and as a storyteller that's what inspired me about it. The people living in this neighborhood are funny, easy to become attached to and especially human. That humanity is a beautiful cinematographic tool, because it holds emotions and, as a director, I only strive towards emotions.

The work on the picture has been carried out in the same poetical approach, I gave the image a soft grain noise in order for it to work in contrast with the story's toughness; I built a rather polished image with very well arranged shots so as to transport the audience to another dimension. Graphically. I worked a lot on the buildings architecture and on the lines in order to enhance their geometry. The idea was to make the tall buildings seem like living beings following the rhythm of the characters pulses.

The story is naturalistic, but I decided to go with very firm viewpoints in terms of light with a lot of contrasts and vivid colors. Work on the set decoration was carried out in that same optic, some walls were painted in green, blue or red, this way every character had a color that attunes to him. Lastly, the work on sound and music was also based on that same need for contrast, with the aim, here again, to transport the viewer to another universe.

Hicham Ayouch

DIRECTOR AND CAST

Director: Hicham Ayouch

GENRES

Drama

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Fighting for Respect: African-American Soldiers in WWI

$395.00

Fighting For Respect - Art Trailer from ArtMattan Productions on Vimeo.

FIGHTING FOR RESPECT: AFRICAN-AMERICAN SOLDIERS IN WWI

Directed by Joanne Burke

USA/FRANCE / 2021 / 54 MIN / DOCUMENTARY / ENGLISH

SYNOPSIS

Fighting for Respect captures the plight of African American soldiers who fought in WWI, receiving the Croix de Guerre military decoration from France, while still fighting discrimination and hatred at home in America.

DIRECTOR AND CAST

Director: Joanne Burke

GENRES

Documentary

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FILLING THE GAP

$395.00

FILLING THE GAP

DIRECTED BY TYRONE YOUNG

USA / 2010 / ENGLISH / 83 MIN

SYNOPSIS

Conceived as an effort to alter the way African-American children see themselves and their ancestors, this docu-drama highlights the inventive and inspired contributions of African-Americans in the 1840s, the period leading to the Civil War in American History.

Developed in collaboration with Florida-based historian Mary Fears to produce a historically accurate portrayal of the brave, compelling lives of African American skilled craftsmen, artists, inventors, and Union spies, the film is certain to enthrall young audiences with this overlooked facet of history.

"This is an incredibly powerful piece for kids to see. Black kids, white kids, whatever. . . they need to see this. It really does fill the gap. It reminds us all of the incredible intelligence, artistry, craftsmanship, and heart of the people of color who were subjected to all kinds of horrors. The emphasis on this movie is not about the horror of slavery, though it is obviously a factor, but about the contributions and skills of the black population dealing with that horror. We can all use the message that we can rise above our surroundings. Children, especially children of color but whites as well, need to see and experience these stories that will make them proud and remind them of their heritage. Well done Tyrone Young and the rest of all those involved." - Dr. Scott Sheperd

DIRECTOR AND CAST

Director: Tyrone Young

GENRES

Docu-drama

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FOREIGN BODY (CORPS ETRANGER)

$395.00

FOREIGN BODY

DIRECTED BY RAJA AMARI

TUNISIA AND FRANCE / 2016 / ARABIC AND FRENCH WITH ENGLISH SUBTITLES / 92 MIN

SYNOPSIS

Seeking refuge from her Islamist radical brother whom she informed on, a young woman arrives in France illegally following Tunisia's Jasmine Revolution and discovers a new world of both hope and danger, in the fourth feature from writer-director Raja Amari (Satin Rouge, Buried Secrets).

In the turbulent aftermath of the Tunisian revolution, young Samia (Sarra Hannachi) flees her homeland. She braves hostile seas in the crossing to France, but once there she finds that her struggles have only just begun. With no friends, no family, and - most crucially - no immigration papers, Samia has to figure out how to make a life and a living in a foreign land.

She meets a young man, Imed (Salim Kechiouche, Blue is the Warmest Color), and soon finds work in the employ of the elegant Leila (the inimitable Hiam Abbass, subject of an In Conversation With event at the Festival this year). But her presence in Leila's middle-class household triggers a shift in its dynamics, and soon Samia is enmeshed in a web of sexual tension.

Timely as it is, Foreign Body seems to typify a media narrative of forced mass migration: desperate, distressing, impossible. The film transcends this sweeping, reductive thinking due to the way director Raja Amari immerses her camera in Samia's new reality. She shoots with a close, handheld aesthetic that makes abstraction and generalization all but impossible, bringing us the story of a unique young woman.

Hannachi portrays her character's inner turmoil brilliantly. Samia is sometimes ragged and sometimes refined, ranging from stoic to sensual, but this is not because she's unstable. Rather, it's because of her ability to change in response to different situations and environments - an ability born of necessity. This is a woman determined to survive at all costs.

DIRECTOR AND CAST

Director: Raja Amari

Starring: Sarra Hannachi

Starring: Salim Kechiouche

Starring: Hiam Abbass

GENRES

Drama

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GLORIOUS EXIT

$245.00

GLORIOUS EXIT

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.

DIRECTOR AND CAST

Director: Kevin Merz

Starring: Jarreth J. Merz

From:Nigeria/Switzerland

Year:2008 Minutes: 75

Language: English and German with English subtitles

GENRES

Documentary

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GREAT AFRICAN FILMS: VOLUME 1

$395.00

GREAT AFRICAN FILMS: VOLUME 1 : Haramuya & Faraw! Mother of the Dunes - Two films are included in the package, making for an entertaining and edifying double feature experience: Drissa Toure’s Haramuya (1995) is a dramatic comedy about several generations of a traditional Muslim family scraping up against various temptations (crime, movies, drugs, music) of modernity in the city of Ouagadougou, the capital of Burkina Faso, and Abbdoulaye Ascofare’s Faraw: Mother of the Dunes (1997), from Mali is about a mother of three who struggles to support her family while saving her daughter from becoming the concubine-maid of a French colonialist.

FARAW! MOTHER OF THE DUNES

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… Detail by detail, this finely lensed first feature salutes the triumph of human ingenuity over terrible odds.

“One of the strongest portraits of female determination to come out of Africa in recent years.” ~ VARIETY

HARAMUYA

Ouagadougou, its buildings and shantytowns... Wealth in a modern town and poverty in the suburbs. Through Fousseini — a Muslim firmly attached to his faith, traditions and family, Haramuya draws a picture of Ouagadougou trapped between 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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GREAT AFRICAN FILMS: VOLUME 2

$395.00

GREAT AFRICAN FILMS, VOLUME 2: Tasuma / Sia, the Dream of the Python - The second installment in this series of award-winning films from Africa includes Kollo Sanou's Tasuma, the Fighter (2003, 90 minutes, French and Jula with English subtitles), a look at the impact of French colonialism on Africa; Former Senegalese tirailleurs, Burkinabe soldier Sogo Sanou waits patiently for his pension, which he plans to use to build a grain mill for the women of his village; Inspired by the seventh-century myth of the Wagadu people of Western Africa is Dani Kouyate's Sia, the Dream of the Python (2001, 96 minutes, Bambara with English subtitles): To bring back prosperity to his village, a King decides to make a human sacrifice to the mystical snake god; Sia, the most beautiful woman in the village, is chosen for the ritual, but she runs away in revolt. - 186 minutes.

TASUMA, THE FIGHTER

Sogo Sanou, a.k.a. Tasuma, is a former French soldier, a part of the African troops better known as “tiralleurs senegalais” who fought in the French wars in Europe and its colonial territories. He was a soldier in the wars of Indochina and Algeria. Although an honored veteran, Tasuma spends decades painfully waiting for his small pension, an amount that in his native Burkina Faso represents a fortune, even though it will equal only a small fraction of the amount paid to his French counterparts.

In a scene that takes us back to another African classic, The Money Order by Ousmane Sembene, Tasuma impulsively buys a treadmill for the women in his village with the money represented by his future pension payment, although he doesn’t know exactly when it will come through.

The money does not arrive, and our hero is in trouble and out of patience. With his old rifle he walks into the pension plan administrator’s office and demands his money. He ends up in jail, and it is up to the women from the village to come down to the city to free Tasuma. Tasuma the Fighter, is a portrait of a bureaucratic adventure that, even 60 years after World War II and 44 years after the independence movement in Africa, is not yet resolved.

As Kollo Daniel Sanou, the director of Tasuma, points out: “The story of Tasuma is also the narration of a historic mismatch, that of the particular status of those former combatants of the African troupes in the French Army.”

"Tasuma camouflages its razor-sharp indignation with warmth and disarming grace" ~ VILLAGE VOICE

"Director and writer Kollo Daniel Sanou is in a becalmed, idyllic state of mind, as he leans back and lets this mildly satiric parable unfold." ~ THE NEW YORK TIMES

SIA: THE DREAM OF THE PYTHON

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 honor, corruption and power.

“A delightful, pointed fable of religious and political extremism that's extra-relevant at present” ~ Dennis Harvey - VARIETY

"Delivers a powerful commentary on how governments lie, no matter who runs them" NEW YORK POST

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GREAT AFRICAN FILMS: VOLUME 3

$395.00

GREAT AFRICAN FILMS, VOLUME 3: Daratt (Dry Season) & The Desert Ark - The third installment in this series of award-winning films from Africa includes Mahamat-Saleh Haroun's Dry Season (2006, 95 minutes, French and Arabic with English subtitles), a subtle and often surprising film from Chad about the relationship between a young man and his father’s killer set at the end of the country’s civil war when the government has granted amnesty to war criminals - and Mohamed Chouikh's The Desert Ark (1997, 90 minutes, Arabic with English subtitles), Two teenagers from opposite sides of the tracks fall in love, their forbidden relationship pitting family against family - 185 minutes.

DARATT (DRY SEASON)

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 looking 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.

| Chad | 2006 | 95min | drama in French and Arabic with English subtitles | Mahamat-Saleh Haroun, Dir. |
Winner "Special Jury Prize" Venice Film Festival 2006
Winner Bronze Yennenga Stallion, FESPACO 2007

“Haroun is an uncommonly precise filmmaker who guides Daratt to an unusually satisfying ending.” - TIME OUT NEW YORK

THE DESERT ARK

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. 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 visualization of contemporary reality..

| Algeria | 1997 | 90min |Epic Drama in Arabic with English subtitles | Mohamed Chouikh, Dir. |
Winner “Best Cinematography" Special Jury Prize FESPACO 1999.

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GREAT AFRICAN FILMS: VOLUME 4

$395.00

GREAT AFRICAN FILMS: VOLUME 4 The fourth installment in this series of award-winning films from Africa includes Moussa Toure's impressive "The Pirogue" and Khady Sylla's incisive docs "Colobane Express" and "The Silent Monologue."

THE PIROGUE / LA PIROGUE

Director: Moussa Toure
From: Senegal / France / Germany
Year: 2012
Minutes: 87mins
Language : French and Wolof with English Subtitles
Genre: Drama

In Moussa Toure's powerful epic fiction film, a group of 30 men and a woman sail to Europe in a pirogue, facing the sea - and the possibility of never reaching their destination - in exchange for the myth of a better life in Europe.

"Senegal, a West African nation on the Atlantic Ocean, was home to Africa's greatest movie-maker, Ousmane Sembene. Today, Moussa Toure follows in the master's footsteps with this drama of 30 men (and one woman, a stowaway) who set out on an illegal 7-day voyage to Spain - making the perilous trip in a pirogue - a boat resembling a vastly oversized dinghy. While sharing a common desire to build a better future, these men hail from different ethnic and religious backgrounds. The story grows from a finely delineated mosaic of personalities - reactions to the journey's mounting danger - that span the emotional panoply of human experience. Toure's compelling tale says as much about the universal nature of courage and perfidy as it does about the economic realities faced by so many of the world's people. THE PIROGUE was featured in Cannes 2012, in the Un Certain Regard section." ~ Film Forum.

* Festival international du Film de Cannes, Un Certain Regard, 2012
* Tanit d'or award, Carthage Film Festival, 2012
* Award for best direction, people's choice award, Angouleme, 2012
* Prix Lumieres award for best French-language film, Locarno International Film Festival

WATCH THE PIROGUE ON VOD HERE

COLOBANE EXPRESS

Director: Khady Sylla
From: Senegal/France
Year: 1999
Minutes: 52
Language: Wolof with English subtitles
Genre: Docu-Drama

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.

THE SILENT MONOLOGUE / LE MONOLOGUE DE LA MUETTE

Director: Khady Sylla and Charlie Van Damme
From: Senegal / Belgium
Year: 2008 Minutes:48mins
Language : French and Wolof with English subtitles
Genre: Docu-drama

In a voice-over, we hear the thoughts of Amy, a girl from a rural area of Senegal who works as a domestic for a well-to-do family in Dakar. She complains about her employer, who continuously criticizes her and gets on her case, and she talks about her dream of one day opening her own eatery. Meanwhile, we see her sweep the pavement, prepare the food and clean the house. The contrast with her vast and barren native region is enormous. In Dakar, some 150,000 young women work as housekeepers for families whose daughters can go to school. "Why does the emancipation of some result in the servitude of others?" Amy wonders. The filmmakers interview other young maids who dream of going to school, and they film a woman who shouts her furious lyrics straight into the camera in rapper-like fashion: "I keep your houses squeaky clean, but you all think I'm dirty!" In a dramatized scene in a slum, the women demonstrate how they'd like to deal with a woman who doesn't pay her housekeeper enough. In response to the situation, the filmmakers make an appeal to change the rules of the world economy.

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GREAT AFRICAN FILMS: VOLUME 5

$395.00

GREAT AFRICAN FILMS - Vol 5 The fifth installment in this series of award-winning films from Africa includes award winning films A Son (Un Fils) by Mehdi Barsaoui and Wulu by Daouda Coulibaly.

A SON (Un Fils) / Bik Eneich

An intense family drama starring French-Tunisian actor Sami Bouajila, winner of the Orizzonti Award for Best Actor, Venice Film Festival 2019 and winner of the César Awards, France for Best Actor in 2021.

11 year old Aziz needs a liver transplant after being seriously injured during a terrorist ambush while on holiday in 2011. At the hospital, a family secret will be revealed.

A drama that expertly captures complex human emotions within their socio-cultural, historical and political context. ~ Hollywood Reporter

Directed By Mehdi Barsaoui / Tunisia/ 2019/ Drama/ Arabic With English Subtitles/ 96 Min

WÙLU

Shot for a good deal of the time using hand-held cameras, WÙLU is an African thriller that has an urgency and a vibrancy most Western made films lack.

Ladji, (a beautifully understated Ibrahim Koma), is the young man who, after losing his job on the cross-border taxis, takes up smuggling cocaine with lucrative if highly dangerous results.

A social commentary about the impact of corruption on intelligent, hard working African youths looking to improve their standard of living at home.

Official Selection TIFF 2016. Winner Ousmane-Sembene Prize and Best Actor Award for Ibrhim Koma at FESPACO 2017.

Directed by Daouda Coulibaly, 2016, France/Mali, 95min, crime drama, French w/ English subtitles

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GULPILIL: ONE RED BLOOD

$245.00

GULPILIL: ONE RED BLOOD

DIRECTED BY DARLENE JOHNSON

AUSTRALIA / 2003 / ENGLISH / 56 MIN

SYNOPSIS

Legendary Aboriginal actor and Australian icon David Gulpilil's life has been one of dueling lifestyles, with his jet-setting movie star life on a completely different plane from his life as an Aboriginal village elder, and director Darlene Johnson manages to capture intimate details from both lifestyles in her 2003 biographical documentary Gulpilil: One Red Blood. At the age of 17, Gulpilil made history as the first Aboriginal actor to appear on film -- in Nicolas Roeg's 1971 Walkabout -- which, in turn, led to an historic acting career that culminated in his receiving numerous awards and an Order of Australia medal. All the while, Gulpilil remained true to his culture by accepting his tribal responsibilities, which include living in a primitive house and procuring his household's daily food and water. As Johnson films a number of very candid encounters with the actor in both settings -- David lives in a tent shed and is quite open about the lack of facilities in his abode and the exploitation he’s experienced during his career -- she documents the class differences that still exist between the indigenous population of Australia versus the relatively new white population.

DIRECTOR AND CAST

Director: Darlene Johnson

Starring: David Gulpilil

Starring: Rolf de Heer

Starring: Phillip Noyce

GENRES

Documentary
DVD also includes feature film The Tracker

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GURUMBÉ: AFRO-ANDALUSIAN MEMORIES (GURUMBÉ. CANCIONES DE TU MEMORIA NEGRA)

$395.00

Gurumbe Trailer - ArtMattan Films from ArtMattan Productions on Vimeo.

GURUMBÉ: AFRO-ANDALUSIAN MEMORIES

DIRECTED BY M. ÁNGEL ROSALES

SPAIN, MEXICO, PORTUGAL, AND SENEGAL / 2016 / SPANISH WITH ENGLISH SUTITLES / 72 MIN

SYNOPSIS

Flamenco is synonymous with Spanish culture.
Yet, since its inception, theorists have sidelined the fundamental contribution of Afro-Andalusians to this art form.

Commercial exploitation of the American colonies brought hundreds of Africans to Spain to be sold as slaves, forming a population which, over time, managed to gain space in a society wrought with racial prejudices. Music and dance were a fundamental part of their expression and the most important affirmation of their identity. As the black population began to disappear from Spain in the late 19th century, so too did their contribution to this extraordinary art form. In Gurumbe: Afro-Andalusian Memories, their story is finally told.

"There are a number of musical performances in Gurumbe, but the tone of the film is surprisingly measured, authoritative, and at times something close to academic. As a result, it is highly credible and convincing." - j.b. spins
Read Full Review HERE

DIRECTOR AND CAST

Director: M. Ángel Rosales

GENRES

Documentary

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HARAMUYA

$295.00

HARAMUYA

Director: Drissa Toure
From: Burkina Faso and France
Year: 1995 Minutes: 87
Language: French with English subtitles
Genre: comedy

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.

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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HOMECOMING

$295.00

HOMECOMING

DIRECTED BY NORMAN MAAKE

SOUTH AFRICA / 2005 / ENGLISH / 90 MIN

SYNOPSIS

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).

DIRECTOR AND CAST

Director: Norman Maake

Starring: Mark Cabus

Starring: Margot Jones

Starring: Mike Montgomery

GENRES

Fiction

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HUMAN BEHAVIOR

$145.00

HUMAN BEHAVIOR

DIRECTED BY FLAVIO LEANDRO

BRAZIL / 1995 / SILENT FILM / 12 MIN

SYNOPSIS

In 1993, death squads opened fire on a group of sleeping street children camped on the steps of a cathedral in Rio de Janeiro’s central financial district, killing six. This event, later called the Candelaria massacre, is vividly depicted in this short film about the plight of street children in Brazil.

DIRECTOR

Director: Flavio Leandro

GENRE

Drama

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CONGO: WHITE KING, RED RUBBER, BLACK DEATH

GENRES

BOMA TERVUREN, THE JOURNEY

SYNOPSIS

GENRES

DENYING BRAZIL

DESIREÉ

SYNOPSIS

GENRES

DRY SEASON / DARATT

GENRES

EXECUTIVE ORDER (Medida Provisória)

FALLEN ANGELS PARADISE (GANNAT AL SHAYATEEN)

SYNOPSIS

GENRES

FARAW! MOTHER OF THE DUNES

SYNOPSIS

GENRES

FEMININE DILEMMA

SYNOPSIS

GENRES

Fevers / Fievres

FIGHTING FOR RESPECT: AFRICAN-AMERICAN SOLDIERS IN WWI

SYNOPSIS

GENRES

FILLING THE GAP

SYNOPSIS

GENRES

FOREIGN BODY

SYNOPSIS

GENRES

GLORIOUS EXIT

GENRES

FARAW! MOTHER OF THE DUNES

HARAMUYA

GULPILIL: ONE RED BLOOD

GENRES

GURUMBÉ: AFRO-ANDALUSIAN MEMORIES

SYNOPSIS

GENRES

HARAMUYA

HOMECOMING

SYNOPSIS

GENRES

HUMAN BEHAVIOR

GENRE

EXECUTIVE ORDER
(Medida Provisória)