Films from Africa made by Africans offer restorative images and a new film language. The beautiful and sometimes challenging films in this collection not only showcase the works of master filmmakers but also innovative new talents who are embracing video technology. To see Africa through African eyes will break stereotypes and enlighten viewers about life in Africa.
Articles to help you view and teach African cinema written by African filmmakers and scholars are also available.
Several of our newest releases touch upon the most urgent issues in world affairs that confront the African continent, specifically, war, human rights and the AIDS pandemic. We have prepared Advocacy for Africa , an exclusive new section of our website to provide you with critical information and to encourage you to join with groups taking action. Click here for information on the new South Africa-based African Film Library on-line subscription service.
VHS and DVD, 94 minutes, Cameroon, 1991, in French with English subtitles
A story about a village teacher who introduces education for local self-development explores the relationships between progressive activists, entrenched social interests, traditional belief system and rural Africans. MORE...
In 1994 over 800,000 men, women and children were massacred in Rwanda. Canadian General Roméo Dallaire, head of the UN peacekeeping mission, pleaded unsuccessfully for reinforcements to help stop the genocide. 10 years later he returns to Rwanda, reflects on his inability to convince the UN and the Clinton administration to intervene and how the world community could prevent a similar occurrence in another part of the world. MORE...
VHS and DVD, 63 minutes, Benin, 2003, in Bariba and French with English subtitles
This documentary film was intended as a tribute to the filmmaker's late father, a member of a royal family in northern Benin. But in the course of his investigations, the director discovers the lives of his mother and sisters, which had previously been invisible to him, and he decides to make a film about them instead. Si-Gueriki examines partriarchy and the role of women in a polygamous society. MORE...
DVD, 93 minutes, Caberoon / Central African Republic / Gabon, 2003, In Diaka, French and Sango with English subtitles
This film, the first from the Central African Republic, takes us inside the world of the ’pygmies’ or more properly BaAka. A well-intentioned school reformer, disgusted by the corruption in his country, attempts to bring modern learning to what appear to him as the last remaining ’noble savages.’ But these superbly adapted rain forest hunter gatherers want none of his knowledge. MORE...
VHS and DVD, 83 minutes, South Africa / USA, 2003, , in English, Sotho and Zulu with English subtitles
South Africa is the country with the highest number of HIV+ people in the world. State of Denial puts a human face on the millions affected by introducing us to six South Africans involved with the AIDS epidemic. It shows how they must fight not only the disease but the greed of the drug cartels and the incomprehensible inactivity of their own government in order to get treatment. MORE...
VHS only, 25 cassette series, Lesotho / Mozambique / Namibia / South Africa / Zambia / Zimbabwe, 2002, in English and multiple African Languages with English subtitles
This unique collaboration between filmmakers from Southern Africa and broadcasters from the Northern countries looks at how individuals are coping and societies are changing under the impact of HIV/AIDS. MORE...
DVD and 35mm, 95 minutes, Mali, 1997, in Bambara and Kaado with English subtitles
A gender-bending farce set among the cliff-dwelling 18th century Dogon people, makes serious points about the status of women in Africa. It shows how ancient mythology can still shed light on modern issues. MORE...
DVD and 35mm, 85 minutes, Senegal, 1997, in French and Wolof with English subtitles
The story of an idealistic young politician's rise and fall in a small town, Tableau Ferraille ("scrap heap") paints a picture of a corrupt post-colonial elite. MORE...
DVD and 35mm, 90 minutes, 2 titles on 1 DVD, Senegal, 1994, 1999, In Wolof with English subtitles Facilitator Guide Available
For the first time on DVD, these two now classic shorts, Le Franc and La petite vendeuse de Soleil (The Little Girl who Sold the Sun) by the iconoclastic Senegalese filmmaker Djibril Diop Mambety were originally intended as a trilogy under the title, Tales of Ordinary People. Mambety's untimely death in 1998 prevented the completion of the third film. MORE...
DVD, 45 minutes, Tanzania, 1992, in Kimakonde and Swahili with English subtitles
Without plot or narration, this mesmerizing documentary records the dehumanizing monotony of a day in the life of women chipping rocks by hand in a Tanzanian quarry while discovering the communal warmth and joy that defies this spirit-breaking labor. MORE...
, in English, Sotho and Zulu with English subtitles
