Immigration Studies

JOSEPHINE BAKER: BLACK DIVA IN A WHITE MAN'S WORLD

JOSEPHINE BAKER: BLACK DIVA IN A WHITE MAN'S WORLD

Regular price $245.00
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Josephine Baker: Black Diva in a White Man's World Trailer - ArtMattan Films from ArtMattan Productions on Vimeo.

JOSEPHINE BAKER: BLACK DIVA IN A WHITE MAN'S WORLD 

DIRECTED BY ANNETTE VON WANGENHEIM
GERMANY, U.S. AND FRANCE / 2006 / ENGLISH, GERMAN, AND FRENCH WITH ENGLISH SUBTITLES / 45 MIN

SYNOPSIS

A tender, revealing documentary about one of the most famous and popular performing artists of the 20th century. Her legendary banana belt dance created theatre history; her song “J’ai deux amours” became a classic, and her hymn.

The film focuses on her life and work from a  perspective that analyses images of Black people in popular culture. It portrays the artist in the mirror of European colonial clichés and presents her as a resistance fighter, an ambulance driver during WWII, and an outspoken activist against racial discrimination involved in the worldwide Black Consciousness movement of the 20th century.

DIRECTOR AND CAST

Director: Annette von Wangenheim
 

GENRES

  • Documentary
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THE PIROGUE
THE PIROGUE
THE PIROGUE
THE PIROGUE
THE PIROGUE
THE PIROGUE
THE PIROGUE
THE PIROGUE

THE PIROGUE

Regular price $295.00
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The Pirogue trailer - ArtMattan Films from ArtMattan Productions on Vimeo.

THE PIROGUE 

DIRECTED BY MOUSSA TOURÉ
SENEGAL, FRANCE AND GERMANY / 2012 / WOLOF AND FRENCH WITH ENGLISH SUBTITLES / 87 MIN

SYNOPSIS

In Moussa Toure’s powerful epic fiction film, a group of 30 men 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.

Baye Laye is the captain of a fishing pirogue. Like many of his Senegalese compatriots, he sometimes dreams of new horizons, where he can earn a better living for his family. When he is offered to lead one of the many pirogues that head towards Europe via the Canary Island, he reluctantly accepts the job, knowing full-well the dangers that lie ahead. Leading a group of 30 men who don't all speak the same language, some of whom have never seen the sea, Baye Laye will confront many perils in order to reach the distant coasts of 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.

DIRECTOR AND CAST

Director: Moussa Touré
Starring: Souleymane Seye Ndiaye
Starring: Laïty Fall
Starring: Malaminé 'Yalenguen' Dramé
 

GENRES

  • Drama 
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PAPA'S SONG

PAPA'S SONG

Regular price $195.00
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PAPA'S SONG

DIRECTED BY SANDER FRANCKEN
CURAÇAO AND THE NETHERLANDS / 1999 / PAPAMIENTO AND DUTCH WITH ENGLISH SUBTITLES / 95 MIN

SYNOPSIS

Papa's song is a drama of domestic tension and cross-cultural misunderstanding. Nico Verema (Rene van Asten), a decorous, somewhat gloomy Dutch magistrate, lives happily with his wife, Shirley (Roman Vrede), who is from Curacao. Shirley's two young nephews, in the Netherlands to escape a bad situation at home, complete the household.

Its atmosphere of calm bourgeois propriety is soon upended by the arrival of the boys' mother, Magda (Lisette Merenciana). Shirley and Magda relationship is very stormy: they careen from screaming recrimination to tearful tenderness. Nico tries to mediate and soothe, but when Shirley, who cannot bear children, demands that he impregnate her sister, the good judge finds himself entangled in an intergenerational, trans-Atlantic web of family dysfunction.

"Papa's Song" touches on a number of fascinating and difficult themes, including the state of race relations in the contemporary Netherlands. A. O. Scott, NY Times. 

DIRECTOR AND CAST

Director: Sander Francken
Starring: Romana Vrede
Starring: René Asten
Starring: Lisette Merenciana
 

GENRES

  • Romantic thriller
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OTOMO

OTOMO

Regular price $245.00
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OTOMO 

DIRECTED BY FRIEDER SCHLAICH
GERMANY / 1999 / GERMAN WITH ENGLISH SUBTITLES / 84 MIN

SYNOPSIS

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... 

DIRECTOR AND CAST

Director: Frieder Schlaich
Starring: Isaach de Bankole
Starring: Eva Mattes
Starring: Barnaby Metschurat
 GENRE
  • Drama 
  • DVD also includes Bonus film 
Waalo Fendo: Where the Earth Freezes


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NIGHT OF DESTINY

NIGHT OF DESTINY

Regular price $295.00
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NIGHT OF DESTINY 

DIRECTED BY ABDELKRIM BAHLOUL
ALGERIA AND FRANCE / 1997 / FRENCH WITH ENGLISH SUBTITLES / 96 MIN

SYNOPSIS

Sixty five years old Abdelkader Silimani, an Algerian Muslin living in France, after inadvertently witnessing a murder, closely escapes from the murderers by hiding out into a mosque. The black leather dressed masked murderers, with their firearms in hand, do not hesitate to enter the mosque full of praying men looking for the eyewitness. They leave empty handed but determined not to give up their search.

Detective Leclerc is assigned to the case. As he searches for the eyewitness who stays mute with fear, the detective slowly discovers the Northern Paris Muslim community and its traditions. For the first time, the French detective is exposed to the contradictions and challenges minority communities face as they struggle to live in a new culture with a different set of values and religious beliefs.

DIRECTOR AND CAST

Director: Abdelkrim Bahloul
Starring: Philippe Volter
Starring: Boris Terral
Starring: Gamil Ratib
 

GENRES

  • Thriller
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THE GLASS CEILING (LE PLAFOND DE VERRE)

THE GLASS CEILING (LE PLAFOND DE VERRE)

Regular price $195.00
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THE GLASS CEILING (LE PLAFOND DE VERRE)

DIRECTED BY YAMINA BENGUIGUI
FRANCE / 2004 / FRENCH WITH ENGLISH SUBTITLES / 90 MIN

SYNOPSIS

Europe's racial make-up is quickly changing. French-Algerian filmmaker Yamina Benguigui is hoping to start a conversation about affirmative action - a policy that does not exist in France today. Benguigui's Le Plafond de Verre (Glass Ceiling) presents a series of sometimes very emotional first-hand accounts of discrimination against mostly black and North African Arab who are trying to find jobs. The documentary offers poignant and revealing accounts of discrimination faced by these full-fledged French citizens who are also children of immigrant parents.

"Now that I am out there looking for work, I cannot forget that I am not French like other French people."
— Nesrine Yahia

"Politicians in France are mostly horrified to even think about such policies ( implementing an American-style affirmative action program with quotas) because they go against what are called the values of the republic. I think that unless there is pressure from the ground up, politics in France will never change."
— Yamina Benguigui

 

DIRECTOR AND CAST

Director: Yamina Benguigui
 

GENRES

  • Documentary 
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BLACK DJU

BLACK DJU

Regular price $195.00
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BLACK DJU

DIRECTED BY POL CRUCHTEN
CAPE VERDE AND LUXEMBOURG / 1997 / PORTUGUESE & FRENCH WITH ENGLISH SUBTITLES / 80 MIN

SYNOPSIS

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.
DIRECTOR AND CAST

Director: Pol Cruchten 
Starring: Philippe Leotard
Starring: Richard Courcet
Starring: Patrice-Flora Praxo
 

GENRES

  • Drama
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100% ARABICA + ROTATING SQUARE
100% ARABICA + ROTATING SQUARE
100% ARABICA + ROTATING SQUARE
100% ARABICA + ROTATING SQUARE

100% ARABICA + ROTATING SQUARE

Regular price $245.00
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100% ARABICA

DIRECTED BY MAHMOUD ZEMMOURI 
FRANCE and ALGERIA / 1997 / FRENCH WITH ENGLISH SUBTITLES / 90 MIN
 

SYNOPSIS

In a housing project located on the outskirts of Paris renamed "100% Arabica" by its inhabitants, African immigrants live side by side. The residents are united by their struggle for recognition in a society where immigrants are often regarded as second class citizens. In a world of exiles, poverty is the common denominator. Against this backdrop, director Zemmouri has brought together two of the biggest and most charismatic stars of the cross-cultural musical form known as Rai, Cheb Mami and Khaled, who play the leaders of a band called Rap Oriental. As the band of musicians starts to gain in popularity, the Imam of the local mosque (Mouss) tries to destroy them by stirring up racial and cultural tensions. However, no one can stop the infectious popularity of the songs in this story of music triumphing over bigotry and violence.
DIRECTOR AND CAST

Director: Mahmoud Zemmouri
Starring: Cheb Mami
Starring: Khaled
Starring: Mouss
 

GENRES

BONUS

ROTATING SQUARE 

DIRECTED BY AHMED HASSOUNA
EGYPT / 2002 / ARABIC WITH ENGLISH SUBTITLES / 14  MIN

SYNOPSIS

Sami and his wife Sarah are packing to move to the USA where they intend to open a restaurant. Rania, Sarah's sister, goes to their house to take them to the airport, but some unexpected and unforeseeable events take place in the apartment: games of seduction, murder and dead bodies to be disposed of. A surrealist comedy by Ahmed Hassouna who belongs to a new group of young promising Egyptian filmmakers. 

DIRECTOR AND CAST

Director: Ahmed Hassouna
Starring: Rasha Mahdy
Starring: Bassem Samra
 

GENRES

  • Surrealist Comedy 
  • DVD also includes film 100% Arabica
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