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

MADE IN BANGLADESH

Shimu, 23, works in a clothing factory in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Faced with difficult conditions at work, she decides to start a union with her co-workers. Despite threats from the management and disapproval of her husband, Shimu is determined to go on. Together the women must fight and find a way.

By Rubaiyat Hossain, Bangladesh/France/Denmark/Portugal, 2019, 95min, social drama, English & Bengali w/English subtitles

WINNER, Public Award Best Film Directed by a Woman of Color ADIFF 2019.

SHE HAD A DREAM

She Had a Dream Trailer - ArtMattan Films from ArtMattan Productions on Vimeo.

Ghofrane, 25, is a young Black Tunisian woman. A committed activist who speaks her mind, she embodies Tunisia’s current political upheaval. As a victim of racial discrimination, Ghofrane decides to go into politics.  In its own unique way, this documentary sheds light on the place of women and Black people in Tunisia’s changing society.

By Raja Amari, Tunisia, 2020, 90min, documentary, Arabic and French w/English subtitles.

WINNER, Public Award Best Film Directed by a Woman of Color ADIFF 2021.

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.”

|Burkina Faso|2003| 90min | comedy in French/Moore with English subtitles | Daniel Kollo Sanou, Dir. |
Winner Bronze Yennenga Stallion, FESPACO 2005

"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.

| Burkina Faso/France |2001 | 96min |Epic Drama in Bambara with English subtitles |Dani Kouyaté, Dir. |
Winner “Special Prize of the Jury” FESPACO 2001 - Official Selection Cannes 2001.

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

THE LAST TREE tells the compelling coming-of-age story of a Black British boy of Nigerian descent in London.  In GLORIOUS EXIT Jarreth Merz, a Swiss-Nigerian actor living in Los Angeles, is summoned to Nigeria to bury his father.

THE LAST TREE

Femi, a British boy of Nigerian descent who, after a happy childhood in rural Lincolnshire with his white foster mother, moves to inner London to live with his Nigerian mum.

Struggling with the unfamiliar culture and values of his new environment, teenage Femi has to figure out which path to adulthood he wants to take, and what it means to be a young black man in London.

Going back home to Nigeria with his mum to find his Nigerian roots will help adolescent Femi find grounding and hope for a better future.

Directed by Shola Amoo, 2019, UK, 98 min, drama, English.

Second film in DVD:

GLORIOUS EXIT

Two films that explore the life of black people in Latin America.  BLACK MEXICAN / LA NEGRADA is the first Mexican feature film about the Afro-Mexican community, THE VALLEY OF THE BLACK DESCENDANTS / EL VALLE DE LOS NEGROS is a documentary about Afro-Chilean struggle to organize the first African census in the history of Chile.

BLACK MEXICANS / LA NEGRADA

Black Mexicans Trailer Eng Sub - ArtMattan Films from ArtMattan Productions on Vimeo.

Black Mexicans (La Negrada) is the first Mexican feature film about the Afro-Mexican community, filmed entirely with people from different towns around the Costa Chica in Oaxaca.

Neri, a fisherman, splits his time between two women: his wife Juanita with whom he has a daughter and his lover Magdalena, mother of three additional children. Things are about to change for Neri as Juanita falls gravely ill and Magdalena prepares to take her place.

Shot entirely in the beautiful beaches of Corralera in Oaxaca and featuring a cast of non-professional actors from the nearby communities, Black Mexicans explores the social mores of and the discrimination faced by Mexico’s little known black community.

THE VALLEY OF THE BLACK DESCENDANTS / EL VALLE DE LOS NEGROS

In the Azapa Valley (Chile), an oasis in the driest desert in the world, a group of descendants of enslaved men and women brought from Africa are organizing the first African census in the history of Chile. Their aim is to get official recognition from the State that has concealed their culture and African identity for more than 200 years.

Directed by  Ric.hard Salgado, Chile, 2017, 52 min, documentary, Spanish with English subtitle.

From the new South Africa comes this double feature focusing on the struggle of Black South Africans - both those who lived in exile and those who stayed home - to find their place in their country after apartheid.

NOTHING BUT THE TRUTH

Nothing But the Truth (John Kani, 2008, 78 mins.), which is based on the award-winning, long-running play by director and actor John Kani, explores the complex dynamic between those who risked their lives to remain in South Africa to end apartheid and those who lived in exile to bring attention to the cause. In New Brighton, librarian Sipho Makhaya prepares for the return of his brother’s ashes. His brother had gained a reputation as a hero of the anti-apartheid movement while Sipho spent most of his life on the front lines.

HOMECOMING 

Homecoming (Norman Maake, 2005, 90 mins.), a film version of the hit mini-series, follows three veteran soldiers of the African National Congress who return to South Africa after years in exile to pick up the pieces of their lives and careers. Charlie wants to open a club; Thabo struggles to reacquaint himself with his wife and family; and Peter remains in politics to uncover the hard truths about those who betrayed the ANC. In English.

John Kani/Norman Maake---South Africa---2008/2005---168 mins.

Race and its impact on the art and history of Brazil are highlighted in this two-disc set with Joel Zito Araujo's documentary Denying Brazil (A Negacao do Brasil, 92 mins) and Geraldo Santos Pereira's Aleijadinho: Passion, Glory and Torment (Aleijadinho: Paixao, Gloria e Suplicio, 100 mins.)

Denying Brazil
A Negacao do Brasil

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

Aleijadinho: Passion, Glory and Torment
Aleijadinho: Paixao, Gloria e Suplicio

Set in 18th century Brazil - a time when slavery was still 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.
“[DENYING BRAZIL is] a strong and significant work of intelligence."
– Phil Hall, FILM THREAT

“[Aleijadinho is an] ambitious biopic of 18th century black Brazilian sculptor/architect Antonio Francisco Lisboa (aka Aleijadinho).”
– Ronnie Scheib, VARIETY

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.

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."

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

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.

This special 2-DVD set brings together two powerful films that shed light on Afro-Latino experiences in Latin America and the Caribbean — from a vibrant urban coming-of-age story in Colombia to a searing documentary about Haitian sugarcane workers in the Dominican Republic.

SUGAR CANE MALICE

A hard-hitting documentary that exposes the harsh, semi-slavery conditions endured by Haitian workers on sugar plantations in the Dominican Republic. With striking visuals and intimate storytelling, the film lays bare the human cost of exploitation while highlighting resilience in the Caribbean. Directed by Juan A. Zapata, Dominican Republic/Spain, 2021, 76min, Documentary, Spanish w/English subtitles

LA PLAYA D.C.

Tomas, a young black boy driven from Colombia’s Pacific coast by the war, tries to get by in Bogota, a city of exclusion and racism. Looking for Jairo, his younger brother and closest friend lost in the streets, Tomas sets out on an initiatory journey that will test his courage, nostalgia and the wounds of the past.  Directed by Juan Andres Arango, 2013, Colombia, Drama, 90 min, Spanish, English subt

CARIBBEAN LEADERS

This two-DVD set features two documentaries exploring the life stories and political impact of two significant figures in Caribbean history:   "Walter Rodney: What They Don't Want You To Know" and  "Barrow, Freedom Fighter".

Walter Rodney: What They Don't Want You To Know

“Walter Rodney” is a compelling documentary that delves into the life and legacy of Dr. Walter Rodney, a prominent historian, activist, and champion for civil rights. Through a series of enlightening interviews and footage captured across Guyana, Barbados, Jamaica, Tanzania, the United States, and the United Kingdom, the film presents a comprehensive portrait of a man who dedicated his life to fostering unity in the face of adversity. Rodney’s ideals and struggles continue to resonate with contemporary global movements for social justice and equality.

Directed by Arlen Harris and Daniyal Harris-Vajda, UK, 2023, 72min, Documentary in English. Special thanks to The Walter Rodney Foundation and the Ameena Gafoor Institute.

Barrow: Freedom Fighter

“Barrow: Freedom Fighter,” narrated by former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, chronicles Barbados’ transition from a British colony to an independent nation. The docudrama highlights Errol Walton Barrow’s leadership during this pivotal period and explores the socio-political climate of mid-20th century global decolonization.

Directed by Marcia Weeks, Barbados, 2016, Documentary in English, 74 min

BLACKS IN BRAZIL - Double DVD

EXECUTIVE ORDER
(Medida Provisória)

DANCING THE TWIST IN BAMAKO 

DANCING THE TWIST IN BAMAKO is a romance fraught with the drama of political change and infused with the musical energy of the 60s in Mali, only recently independent from French colonial rule. 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.

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

THE MALI CUBA CONNECTION

In the midst of the Cold War, ten young promising musicians from Mali are sent to Cuba to study music and strengthen cultural links between the two socialist countries. Combining Malian and Afro-Cuban influences, they develop a revolutionary new sound and become the iconic ensemble ‘Las Maravillas de Mali’. 

By Edouard Salier and Richard Minier, France/Cuba/Mali, 2020, 81 mins, Documentary, Spanish, French with English subtitles.

Experience the essence of jazz and blues in two captivating documentaries! Music Pictures: New Orleans by Ben Chace features legends like Irma Thomas and Ellis Marsalis, while Mary Lou Williams: The Lady Who Swings the Band by Carol Bash delves into the life of the groundbreaking Mary Lou Williams.

Music Pictures: New Orlean Trailer Art from ArtMattan Productions on Vimeo.

MUSIC PICTURES: NEW ORLEANS

Music Pictures: New Orleans gives us legacy portraits and a rare backstage access into the lives and craft of four New Orleans music legends: Grammy-winning vocalist known as “The Soul Queen of New Orleans” Irma Thomas; Little Freddie King, one of the last original bluesmen who at the age of 81 still performs live; the world renowned Tremé Brass Band, a fixture in the New Orleans jazz community; and Ellis Marsalis - father of internationally acclaimed musician, composer and bandleader Wynton Marsalis - the patriarch of the famed jazz family who helped found the modern jazz scene in the 1950s. 

Directed by Ben Chace, 2022, USA, 72 Min, Documentary, English

MARY LOU WILLIAMS TRAILER from ArtMattan Productions on Vimeo.

MARY LOU WILLIAMS: THE LADY WHO SWINGS THE BAND

THE ESMERALDAS BEACH 

In today’s Ecuador, the black population, the descendants of enslaved Africans, continue to experience strong racial and social discrimination. Yet people in the community still strive to value their specific culture and transmit the rebellious memory of their ancestors who fought for freedom. The Es­meraldas Beach sets out to expose the invisibility of Afro-Ecuadorians and rectify the narrative of the country’s history with the film’s central protagonist, Juan García, who has worked on that project for years. He developed a school book that presents black Ecuadorians prominently since the only Afro-descendants shown in local school books are portrayed next to a marimba and football.  The documentary also addresses the 1999 assassination of Prime Minister Jaime Hurtado, the first Black to hold this office.

Directed by Patrice Raynal, 2020, France/Ecuador, 58 minutes, documentary, French and Spanish with English subtitles.

AFRICAN MOTHERS

Two films that explore the commitment of motherhood by looking at the life of two African women, in "Seasons of Life," a housemaid, who is sexually abused is forced to give up her child but comes back for him years later, in "Joy" A Nigerian mother living in the USA struggles to convince her traditionalist husband not to circumcise their ten-year-old daughter.

SEASONS OF A LIFE

A housemaid, who is sexually abused by her boss and made pregnant, is forced to give up her son in order to go on with her education. Six years later she comes back to claim her son. From Malawi comes this moving story about sexual abuse, women rights and the legal justice system in Malawi. This film tackles universal themes in an African setting giving an understanding of some of the modernization and democratization processes in Africa.

Directed by C. Shemu Joyah, Malawi, 2008, 102 min, Fiction in English.

JOY

A Nigerian mother living in the USA struggles to convince her traditionalist husband not to circumcise their ten-year-old daughter. This short film explores the clash of cultures in a modern society.

Directed by Solomon Onita Jr., USA, 2017, 15 min, Short Fiction in English.

STORIES IN EXILE: THE CITIZEN & BLACK DJU: Two fiction films that explore life in exile. Set in Hungary, THE CITIZEN follows Guinea-Bissau political refugee Wilson. BLACK DJU is a drama set in Luxembourg about a young man from Cape Verde looking for his father.

THE CITIZEN

In his late fifties Wilson, whose family was killed during an outbreak of civil war in Guinea-Bissau, enters Europe as a political refugee and settles for a sedate life as a security guard in a Budapest shopping center. Wilson's main desire is to acquire Hungarian citizenship. The story follows Wilson as he attempts to find his place in Hungarian society in his daily life, at work, with Mari, a history teacher who helps him study for the citizenship and Shirin, a young Iranian woman whose only hope to avoid deportation is to marry a Hungarian citizen. The Citizen is an Award-winning drama that poignantly dwells on some of the most complex issues of contemporary modern European society.

Directed by Roland Vranik | Hungary | 2018 | Drama | 109 min

BLACK DJU

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.

Double DVD with Two African Stories: TAZZEKA (Morocco) & BILATENA: THE GOLDEN CHILD (Ethiopia)

TAZZEKA 

Growing up in the Moroccan village of Tazzeka, Elias learned the secrets of traditional Moroccan cuisine from his grandmother who raised him. Years later, meeting a top Paris chef and a young woman named Salma inspires him to leave home.

Directed By Jean-Philippe Gaud / France and Morocco / 2018 / French, Arabic w/ English Subtitles / 95 min

BILATENA, THE GOLDEN CHILD

Abi, a dynamic and resourceful twelve year old boy, lives with his mother Degua and his 26 year old university graduate unemployed brother Zelalem (Zele). Abi, who is a a hyper-industrious hard working 12-year-old boy with two jobs, supports his poor mother and his older unemployed brother through their day to day lives.

But when their mother dies of Hepatitis B and Abi is also infected with the virus, Zele must face the big challenge of supporting his own life and keeping his younger brother alive by earning the 20,000 Ethiopian birr per month needed for his brother's medication.

Directed by Kinfe Banbu, 2014 | Ethiopia | Drama | 105 min | Amharic w/ English subtitles

The African Women Behind The Camera double DVD highlights the work of two very different contemporary African women filmmakers:

2 Weeks in Lagos by Nigerian director Kathryn Fasegha is a socially conscious Christian based romantic comedy drama set in upper class Lagos, Nigeria.

Childhood Destroyed by Chadian director and journalist ZARA M. YACOUB is a short fiction film that denounces the living conditions of young girls in Chad in a delicate yet powerful way.

2 WEEKS IN LAGOS

 2 Weeks in Lagos is a turbulent and thrilling journey into the lives of Ejikeme and Lola. Their lives collide when investment banker Ejikeme comes home to Nigeria from the US with Lola’s brother Charlie and falls in love with her. He must then defy his parents’ plan to marry him to the daughter of a wealthy politician.

2 Weeks in Lagos captures the excitement, vibrancy, and complexity of everyday life in Lagos, a dynamic city where anything is possible in 2 Weeks.

Directed by Kathryn Fasegha | CANADA, NIGERIA | COMEDY, ROMANCE | ENGLISH | 2019 | 115 MINS

CHILDHOOD DESTROYED

Eleven year old Mariam works as a domestic to provide for her guardian, her unemployed Uncle Djimet, and his family. Mariam wakes up early each day to go to work as an all-purpose maid, housekeeper, cook and baby sitter for the Nadji family. With her many tasks, she is constantly under pressure from Nadji and his son Moussa, and must answer to the whims of his wife, and young children. One day, Mariam is arrested for having unwittingly thrown rubbish in a prohibited place. She is detained for five days in prison without her uncle or employer even inquiring of her whereabouts.
Zara M. Yacoub / Chad / 1999 / 26 Min / Arabic Dialect w/ English Subtitles

Two coming of age stories that explore the life of 2 young women on 2 islands.

Set in Puerto Rico, ANGÉLICA is a drama about a young Afro- Latino woman who must fight to find her voice.

THE CATHEDRAL, from Mauritius, follows free spirited Lina as she faces an important decision that will impact her life.


ANGÉLICA

Angélica, after a long absence from Puerto Rico, returns home when her father, Wilfredo, suffers a stroke. This unexpected return and her father’s illness force Angelica to re-evaluate her relationship with her mother and family members who don’t accept her because of her skin color. She must face herself and discovers that she does not know who she is. After her father’s death, Angelica must decide whether to return to the comfort of her previous life, dissatisfied, but secure, or set on an adventurous path to rediscover herself as an independent, modern, strong, black, and Puerto Rican woman.

Directed by Marisol Gómez-Mouakad, Puerto Rico, 2016, 100min, Drama, English & Spanish w/English subtitles

THE CATHEDRAL

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... The Cathedral is based on a short story by Ananda Devi.

Directed By Harrikrisna Anenden , Mauritius, 2006, 78 Min, drama in Creole With English Subtitles. 

OTOMO

A powerful film portraying institutionalized racism and police brutality, Otomo provides a convincing look at the everyday world of refugees, who are continuously surrounded by tension and insecurity.

In the summer of 1989, a Stuttgart newspaper reported the true story of a West African asylum seeker who physically assaulted an intolerant subway ticket-taker; fled, and became the target of a city-wide manhunt. Otomo is a sober, fictionalized reconstruction of a tale that shocked Stuttgart, and a gripping portrait of how institutionalized racism drives a disempowered individual to violence and inhumanity.

West African immigrant Frederic Otomo (Isaach de Bankole) lacks the proper papers to be hired for the most menial of jobs; he has survived for eight years with the help of a Catholic charity. Otomo is the target of verbal abuse, is thrown out of his boarding house, and even scorned by neighborhood dogs. He feels and looks out of place. A stoic bubbling pot of wrath on the run, de Bankole's performance establishes Otomo's essence without words-language cannot express the gravity of his situation. As a ticking soundtrack counts down his fated minutes, Otomo is helped by a kind, aging hippie and her granddaughter, establishing the potential for an inclusive German society….if it is not too late...

|Germany|1999|84 mins|drama|German with English subtitles|Frieder Schlaich, dir.|

"I was impressed by the decision to make Otomo a bit of an anti-hero, seeming aware that in desperate times, good people may say or do things outside the norm." -- Greg Dean Schmitz, Greg's previews at Yahoo!Movies

"Documents the institutionalized racism and xenophobia that painted one man into a corner, while never excusing the terrible means by which he took his final escape." -- Jessica Winter, Village Voice

"Much of the sense of size in this account of an immigrant worker, who is only one among many thousands in Germany, comes from the performance by Isaach de Bankole." -- Stanley Kauffmann, New Republic

WAALO FENDO: WHERE THE EARTH FREEZES
Senegal / Switzerland, 1998, 65 mins, drama in Wolof and Italian with English subtitles, Mohammed Soudani, dir.

Milan, like Paris or Stuttgart, and like many other European cities, is the theater of the drama of immigration. Demba reconstructs his story and that of his brother Yaro, both Senegalese immigrants in Italy, in a long and fragmentary flashback that begins with Yaro’s murder and recounts their departure from the village, arrival in Europe, the work they find selling lighters and picking tomatoes in the south of Italy: the stages every “non-EEC citizen” goes through in Italy. It is a story of immigration like so many others but that most people are unaware of. Waalo Fendo illustrates the dehumanization faced by so many immigrants all over the world.