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, 2000 Facilitator Guide Available
A documentary of South Africa's quest for restorative justice following four cases that come before the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC). 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, 118 minutes, South Africa, 2005, in English and Afrikaans with English subtitles
A moving and complex films on the seminal theme of truth and reconciliation. A former South African policeman seeks forgiveness from the family of an ANC activist that he tortured and killed. Will the family forgive or renew the cycle of violence? MORE...
VHS and DVD, 100 minutes, South Africa, 2004, in English and Zulu with English subtitles
The Truth and Reconciliation Commission could not heal all the wounds left behind by the apartheid era. Thandeka, a journalist, is still traumatized by the murder of a schoolgirl, which she witnessed years before. She can find no peace before tracking down the perpetrators and finding the body of the schoolgirl so it can have a decent memorial. MORE...
VHS and DVD, 52 minutes, South Africa, 2004, In English and Zulu with English subtitles
Born into exile in Britain as the daughter of political emigres, Kethiwe Ngcobo and her family returned to South Africa in 1994. She struggles to find her place in the new South Africa. In her quest for identity, this hip young woman decides to embrace Zulu traditions by going through an initiation ritual - one rejected by her older sister as meaningless. MORE...
VHS and DVD, 58 minutes, South Africa, 2004, In English and Afrikaans with English subtitles
Poorly paid garment workers in the Coloured townships around Cape Town have for years made clothes so that other women could dress up. But each year, after working for weeks on glamorous dresses, one woman among them will be crowned in the Annual Spring Queen pageant. MORE...
This engaging film depicts what is perhaps the most wide-ranging movement for human rights in recent history: the international anti-apartheid movement spearheaded by African American activists spawned by the Civil Rights Movement. MORE...
VHS and DVD, 49 minutes, South Africa, 2004, In English with English subtitles
Ivy is a big, bubbly black woman living in the poor township of Alexandra, who managed to surreptitiously run her own beauty salon during the apartheid years. Her loyal and considerably more privileged white clients live in the Johannesburg suburbs. In a personal way, this engaging documentary reveals how much has changed after the end of apartheid - and how much has not. MORE...
DVD, 100 minutes, South Africa, 1988, in Afrikaans, English, Sotho and Zulu with English subtitles
Mapantsula was the first anti-apartheid feature film, for and about black South Africans. Filmed inside Soweto, it tells the story of Panic, a petty gangster who becomes caught up in the growing anti-apartheid struggle and has to choose between individual gain and a united stand against the system. MORE...
