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.
DVD, 52 minutes, France, 2006, In French with English subtitles
Thomas Sankara rose to power in Burkina Faso in a popularly supported coup in 1983. To symbolize this rebirth, he renamed his country from the French colonial Upper Volta to Burkina Faso, "Land of Upright Men" and launched the most ambitious program for social and economic change ever attempted on the African continent. MORE...
A story from the burgeoning video industry of Nigeria combines melodrama and issues of ethnicity, gender, culture and identity in post-colonial Africa. MORE...
Thomas Allen Harris' bittersweet eulogy to his stepfather, Benjamin Pule Leinaeng (Lee) and to the thousands of other South Africans who went into exile to keep the freedom struggle alive during the harshest years of apartheid. MORE...
VHS and DVD, 74 minutes, South Africa, 2004, In English and Xhosa with English subtitles
Sipho is a former political prisoner on Robben Island who decides to return to his home town to complete the Xhosa initiation ritual he began while in prison. But his younger brother, Vuyo is quite reluctant to have his own ceremony, partly because he is gay and is conflicted about adopting traditional practices. This film explores a family and a country trying to embrace both modernity and tradition. MORE...
DVD, 85 minutes, Congo / Belgium, 1987, in French with English subtitles
Soukous music legend, Papa Wemba, stars in the rags to riches story of a poor country musician who seeks fame in the vibrant music industry of Kinshasa. MORE...
DVD, 78 minutes, South Africa, 1998, in English and Afrikaans with English subtitles Facilitator Guide Available
Drawing references from Richard Wright's portrait of black rage in Native Son and Shakespeare's Hamlet, this crime thriller set in Johannesburg recounts one night when a young Coloured man is driven to an act of brutality by a racist society. MORE...
VHS and DVD, 70 minutes, Burkina Faso, 1982, in Moré with English subtitles
This retelling of an ancient fable about a mute, memory-less orphan, renamed "God's Gift" by the grateful village which adopts him demonstrates the continuing relevance of traditional African values such as hospitality and communal child rearing. MORE...
VHS and DVD, 79 minutes, USA and Ghana, 2005, in Dagbani and English with English subtitles
Across Africa, a belief in witchcraft continues to terrorize women: the denunciation, brutal beating, the banishment to an unknown village without family or friends. Witches in Exile is the first film to tell their story and the story of the human rights struggle to find a solution to a practice deeply embedded in tradition and gender economics. MORE...
