B. FILM AND VIDEO GUIDE
Please Note: All price and
distributor information is subject to change.
Please contact distributors for most up-to-date prices.
-All prices are for purchase of video
cassettes unless otherwise noted.
AFRICA: A VOYAGE OF DISCOVERY (with Basil Davidson), 1984
Duration: 57 minutes in
English
Director: John Percival, Christopher Ralling, Andrew Harries and
Mick Csaky
Distributor: Library Video Company
Price: $79.00(purchase 8-part series)
Discussion guide: none
Synopsis: Africa: A Voyage of Discovery with Basil Davidson, an
eight‑part series, hosted by Basil Davidson, is about the people and
events that shaped African history and which continue to influence it
today. The programs visit Africa to
show life there today and show archival footage and dramatizations of the
history of Africa.
This series can also be found under
the name, Africa: The Story of a Continent Series.
Individual titles include:
Different But Equal (Program 1, Vol.
1)
Mastering a Continent (Program 2,
Vol. 1)
Caravans of Gold (Program 3, Vol. 2)
Kings and Cities (Program 4, Vol. 2)
The Bible and the Gun (Program 5,
Vol. 3)
This Magnificent African Cake
(Program 6, Vol. 3)
The Rise of Nationalism (Program 7,
Vol. 4)
The Legacy (Program 8, Vol. 4)
Critique: No critique available.
Recommended Audience: Anthropology,
Political Science, Sociology
AFRICA: TUNISIA, LIBYA, EGYPT (Our Developing Worlds series), 1994
Duration: 31 minutes,
English voice over
Producer: Gilles Seveni
Distributor: Films
for the Humanities and Sciences
Price: $89.00
Synopsis: Women issues, health, and population growth are featured in this
program. Tunisia, a diverse nation of open‑minded people, is also
predominantly Muslim. Women, however, share equal rights with men and hold jobs
from police officers to airline pilots. In Libya, the UN is attempting to stamp
out the killer screwworm fly before it spreads throughout Africa, southern
Europe, and Asia. A third segment documents Egypt’s ongoing struggle to balance
its growing population with limited resources and land mass.
Critique: No critique available.
Recommended Audience: Gender Studies,
Sociology
THE AFRICANS: A TRIPLE HERITAGE (10- part series), 1986
Duration: 60 minutes
Distributor: Annenberg/CPB Project
Price: $169.00 (purchase
for the 10 part series)
Synopsis: Ali Mazrui's broad look at the peoples of Africa, their history,
and culture, from an African perspective.
Individual titles include:
The Nature of a Continent
A Legacy of Lifestyles
New Gods
Tools of Exploitation
New Conflicts
In Search of Stability
A Garden of Eden in Decay?
A Clash of Cultures
Global Africa
Critique: No critique available.
Recommended Audiences: Anthropology, Political Science, Sociology
AFRIQUE JE TE PLUMERAI, 1992 Cameroon
Duration: 88 minutes in French with English subtitles
Director: Jean-Marie Teno
Distributor: California Newsreel
Price: $99.00
Synopsis: Afrique, Je Te Plumerai is documentary film that describes
the historical and cultural roots of the problems faced by Cameroon.
Critique: In many ways, ‘Afrique' may
be considered a voyage of discovery; Teno is himself progressing through stages
of understanding. Once he is convinced
that open political dissent is futile, he turns his attention to Cameroonian
history and culture, hoping therein to find the spark that will unite the
underclass. Again he is rebuffed. Colonialism is deeply entrenched in the
cultural institutions of Cameroon. The
French language is omnipresent. We are
introduced to several bookstore owners, who uneasily explain or evade questions
about the heavy predominance of French novels of every description. In shop after shop, the section for African
literature is literally crammed into a corner to make space for glitzy, thoroughly
Eurocentric, bestsellers (their status as such determinate to an extent on
overseas sales). The owners of the
bookstores emphasize that the French dominate the market, that due to economies
of scale and a generalized contempt among the book-buying populace for
indigenous works they have no choice but to favor the West in their
selections. They appear prosperous
enough. At the same time, and
regardless of censorship, newspapers are snatched up in ever-increasing numbers
by the poor, belying their indifference.
What is starkly portrayed, then, is a
strata of African elite who control the government, the economy, and the
industries of culture. Teno tells the
story of the hunters and the Lark, a parable that depicts the transformation of
certain of the `hunters' into a strange new breed without ties to land or
brotherhood. To the `new' hunter, his
brethren are the Larks. He sings the
same song the children sing in Paris, Lark, I'm going to fleece you. He is the Westernized petty bourgeoisie,
acting as mediator between the world and the populace. He cannot be accepted into the First World,
and he has no longer any kinship. He is
perched upon a colonial structure, afraid to move in any direction because of
the inevitability of his fall from grace.
The piecemeal character of the city of Yaounde reflects the dualism of
his nature, a steady and debilitating vacillation between France and
Cameroon. Ousmane Sembene once stated,
"For the struggle against neo-colonialism it is possible to reactualize all
these scattered and little-known battles" in the history of African
resistance" (Goldfarb 1996:77).
Teno finds his goal in this statement, to make available to the public a
history of Cameroon, written by a Cameroonian rather than a colonial. An elite armed with this knowledge can bring
change. Ultimately, as Marie wistfully
explains, writing is a symbol of hope for change. Afrique, Je Te Plumerai is the first step in such a
history.
(Written by Micheal Dye, MSU, 1998
References:
Goldfarb, B. "A Pedagogical
Cinema: Development Theory, Colonialism,
and Post-Liberation Film", IRIS, 7-24.
Ukadike, F. "The Other Voices of
the Documentary: Allah Tantau and Afrique, je te plumerai, IRIS, 18, 81-94.
Recommended Audience: Political
Science
ALGERIA: WOMEN AT WAR, 1992, Algeria
Duration: 52 minutes in
Arabic with English subtitles
Producer: Parminder Vir
Distributor: Women
Make Movies
Price: $295.00
(purchase)
$75.00 (rent)
Synopsis: Algeria: Women at War
explores the impact of revolution, nationalism, democratization and the rise of
Islamic “fundamentalism” on women’s lives in late colonial and post-colonial
Algeria. The documentary tells this
story through narration, archival footage, and interviews with Algerian women
who have lived through this era.
Critique: Algeria: Women at War is
a powerful film, particularly because it gives voice to a variety of Algerian
women providing them with the opportunity to celebrate their strengths and
central contributions to the Algerian revolution. These women also express their frustrations, concerns and fears,
relative to the failures of nationalism, democratization and the threats of
“fundamentalism.”
Though a variety of women are
interviewed there appears to be a class and religious bias. Only two practicing Moslem women are interviewed
and most of the women are highly educated, conducting their interviews in
French as opposed to Arabic.
Recommended Audience: Gender Studies,
Political Science
ALLAH TANTOU, 1991, Guinea
Duration: 62 minutes in
French with English subtitles
Director: David Achkar
Distributor: California Newsreel
Price: $195.00 (purchase)
$95.00
(rental)
Synopsis: Allah Tantou is a
film about the cost of human rights in post‑independent Africa. The film focuses on the filmmaker David
Achkar's father, Marof Achkar. In
1968, Marof, a Guinean diplomat, became a political prisoner under Sekou Toure in
Guinea was executed in 1971.
(Critique quoted from California
Newsreel_s Library of African Cinema, 1995-96 catalog)
Recommended Audience: Political
Science
ARISTOTLE_S PLOT, 1996, South Africa
Duration: 71 minutes in French with English subtitles
Director: Jean-Pierre
Bekolo
Distributor: JPB
Productions
Price: $295.00
Synopsis: This feature film examines
the trials of African movie-making in a humorous, and critical, manner by
following a group of wanna-be gangsters who consume all of the latest action
films at the Cinema Africa. They are
encountered by an earnest film lover who is attempting to replace the
irrelevant Hollywood films with meaningful films by African filmmakers.
Critique: Filmmaker Jean-Pierre Bekelo spells out his intentions in an
early line in Aristotle’s Plot:
“If African films are shit then Africa is shit.” By highlighting the connection between a
culture and its medium, Bekolo is pointing out the need for films that are both
socially responsible and in touch with their audience. This film positions itself somewhere between
the viewer and the screen. The
spectator observes not just the people in the film and not just the medium but
the actual experience of the actors in the film interacting with and being
affected by the medium. This film is
an excellent catalyst for looking at how the West is influencing culture and
identity in Africa.
Recommended Audiences: Sociology
BATTLE OF ALGIERS, 1966, Algeria
Duration: 125 minutes in Arabic and French with English subtitles
Director: Gillo Pontecorvo
Distributor: Facets Multimedia
Price: $59.95
Note: This film can be rented from some commercial video
stores.
Synopsis: A dramatic reconstruction in documentary style of the Algerian
resistance to the French between 1954 and 1957.
Critique: The documentary-style of Battle of Algiers makes it an
extremely powerful film. Italian
filmmaker Gillo Pontecorvo successfully creates the mood and urgency of the
Algerian rebellion against the French between 1954 and 1957. Through the flashbacks of a young man who
risks all and becomes a part of the resistance movement, the film effectively
documents the FLN (National Liberation Front) guerrilla underground and
French government’s tactics to annihilate the FLN.
Recommended Audience: Gender Studies,
Political Science
Duration: 27 minutes in Ijo with English voice-over
Producers: Judith Gleason & Elisa Mereghetti
Distributors: Filmmakers Library
Price: $295.00 (purchase)
$55.00 (rental)
Synopsis: This film documents the
Irio ceremony of the Ijo in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria. Five adolescent girls go through this rites
of passage ceremony which prepares them for womanhood and marriage. The film questions the value and
continuation of the Irio ceremony in modern society.
Critique: Becoming a Woman in Okrika offers a visually aesthetic
presentation of the Iria rite of passage.
It presents an intriguing introduction to a particular practice in the
Rivers State. The film lacks, however,
a full description/ interpretation of the significance of the event
depicted. By neglecting to interview
any of the girls participating in the ritual, the film leaves viewers questioning
the girls' feelings about the rite. The
emphasis on aesthetics leaves too many questions unanswered and exoticizes the
event.
Recommended audience: Anthropology,
Gender Studies
BEYOND THE PLAINS, 1982, Tanzania
Duration: 53 minutes
Director: Michael Raeburn
Distributor: DSR, Inc.
Price: $59.00
Synopsis: This film documents the life of a man who left his rural life in
Tanzanian Maasailand at age 8 to be formally educated. He returns many years later as a teacher determined
to integrate the knowledge he has learned with the nomadic life of his
people.
Critique: This is a unique film in
providing a vignette in the person of one Tanzanian of the changes encountered
by the individual and the society in one generation. Beginning in rural Maasailand,
proceeding through the mission school, then the government secondary boarding
school, the University of Dar es Salaam, and finally to work in the government
dispensary in veterinary medicine, Sayallel gives the viewer some picture of
the perceptions of change and the experience of change. The periods of his life
are important major types of experience in Africa for many professionals.
The weaknesses of the film are
implicit in being shown in the West. First, the rural origins in Maasailand of
Sayallel are unusual in that it is a herding society, which is the most
resistant to cultural incorporation by Tanzanians and Westerners. Indeed, in
utilizing the Maasai, there is danger that viewers become entranced with these
'tribal warriors' who are so famous in the Western television and movies for
their 'primitive ways,' their drinking the blood of cattle, their 'strange'
jumping dancing, and their alienness. Second the family's resistance to
education in this case confirms another Western stereotype of Africa-resisting
modernization, 'modem' education and health care. In fact, most of the Africa
demands access to the new school rather than resisting it. Third, there is an
implicit 'tribalism' in the presentation when it is emphasized that Sayallel on
completing his education and serving at the university 'returns to his own
people,' which is what so many allege should occur. But 'his own people' are
the pastoral Maasai, which unquestionably justifies the return to use his
veterinary skills, but the return to the area of 'one's tribe' is not the most
common mode of placement of African professionals.
Nevertheless, the film's strength is
in introducing us to the real person, his thoughts and struggles, the
ambiguities of the decisions he makes, and his strength of character. As in
other films, we evaluate it so highly because it provides a channel for
Africans to speak for themselves.
Recommended Audience: Sociology
BLOOD AND SAND, 1982, Western Sahara
Duration: 57 minutes
Distributor: DSR, Inc
Price: $69.00
Synopsis: A documentary concerning
the Western Sahara and the involvement there of Morocco, Algeria, and the
United States. Journalist Sharon Sopher
report on this liberation war led to the United States’ public questioning of
their government’s involvement in the conflict.
Critique: No critique available.
Recommended Audience: Political
Science
CHRONICLE OF A SAVANNA MARRIAGE, 1998, Kenya
Duration: 56 minutes with English voice-over
Director: Stig Holmqvist
Distributor: Filmakers Library
Price: $350.00 (purchase)
$75.00 (rental)
Synopsis: This documentary follows the changes in a Masai family over a 10
year span, beginning with the marriage of Nayiani and Lekumok. Lekumok marries a second wife six years
later and a third wife a few years later.
The film also looks at the impact of the encroachment of Nairobi on the
life of this pastoral community.
Critique: The strength of the film Chronicle
Of A Savanna Marriage is that it follows one woman_s life experiences across a ten year span. Holmqvist captures pivotal events in the
life of Nayiani: her circumcision, her marriage to Lekumok and subsequent
departure from her home and entrance into her husband_s family, and the introduction of two other wives into
her household. The film describes
Nayiani_s life in the context of Masai
culture, a culture, according to the logic of the film, threatened by urban
encroachment. A poignant scene in the
film features an elder from the settlement, Sharrar, standing next to the
fences erected by government officials who mark the land in order to sell
it. His despair is evident as he
explains that what is happening to the Masai is heartfelt.
At points in the film, the
interviewers questions are leading, reductive, and betray a Western
perspective. For example, the
interviewer asks Nayiana, upon the arrival of her co-wife, if she feels
jealous. This question is asked even
though Nayiana has explained that she welcomes the companionship and assistance
her co-wife will provide. The filmmaker
seems to be in search of an appropriate response instead of allowing Nayiana to
speak for herself.
Recommended Audience: Anthropology,
Gender Studies
DAKAN, 1987, Guinea
Duration: 87 minutes in French with English subtitles
Director: Mohamed Camara
Distributor: California Newsreel
Price: $195.00
(purchase)/$95.00 (rental)
Synopsis: This narrative feature is a tale of gay life in Guinea: the love
affair between two African men and the efforts of the people around them to
split them up and give them women to marry.
Critique: No critique available.
Recommended Audience: Sociology
DELUGE, 1995, Ethiopia
Duration: 60 minutes in English and Amharic with English subtitles
Director: Salem Mekuria
Distributor: Third World Newsreel
Price: $295.00 (purchase)
$85.00 (rental)
Synopsis: Filmmaker Salem Mekuria documents the Ethiopian revolution of
1974 through the story of her brother, Solomon Mekuria, and others close to
her. Letters, photographs, archival
footage, paintings and Ethiopian music help to create this personal and
national history.
Critique: This film shows the failure of Ethiopian revolutionary groups to
settle their differences in a peaceful and democratic fashion. It also shows how a revolution which began
on a high note of optimism catapulted Ethiopia out of its supposed backwardness
through a bloodless coup but came to be enmeshed in a fratricidal civil war.
The weakness of Deluge is that
it condemns Lt. Col. Megistu Hayle Mariam as a principal culprit whereas it
should have shown he represents a variant of a militant revolutionary political
philosophy of the left that brooked of no opposition.
Recommended Audience: Political
Science
THE DESIRED NUMBER, 1994, Nigeria
Duration: 28 minutes
Director: Ngozi Onwurah
Distributor: Women Make Movies
Price: $295.00
Synopsis: The Desired Number addresses the issue of family planning
and the role of children in Ibo society in Nigeria by focusing on the lives of
a polygamous family (husband, two wives, an
16 children) at the time of an Eze ceremony which celebrates a mother
who has given birth to nine children.
Critique: This film is successful in addressing some important issues
related to gender relations, family planning, and the role of “tradition” and
religion (particularly the Roman Catholic Church) in the context of Igbo
society. The variety of people and perspectives presented help to give voice
to this community. One major drawback
of the film is its poor production value.
Recommended Audience: Family Studies,
Gender Studies, Sociology
FINZAN, 1989, Mali
Duration: 107 minutes in Bambara and French with English subtitles
Director: Cheik Oumar Sissoko
Distributor: California Newsreel
Price: $295.00 (purchase)
$95.00 (rental)
Synopsis: Finzan dramatizes the stories of two women who rebel
against the traditions of Bambara culture.
Nanyuma is a young widow who refuses to be "inherited" by her
brother-in-law as tradition dictates, while Fili is a young urban woman who
refuses to be circumcised as tradition dictates.
Critique: 'In Bambara, Finzan means
'rebellion', a most fitting title for this story of two women steadfastly
resisting tradition.
After the death of her husband,
Nanyuma refuses to bow to ancestral protocol by marrying her
brother-in-law. The younger Fili tries
to escape the ritual of female circumcision.
Sissoko deftly balances widely divergent points of view: the determined
struggle of some women, the obedient tolerance of others, and the bewilderment
of men lost in these times of transition.
The film subtly illustrates relations and conflicts between men and
women, women amongst themselves, and finally the small community and the
powerful state.
As in Sissoko's earlier work, Garbage
Boys, children are omnipresent and represent the hope of changes to come. Tempering a serious subject with compassion
and human, 'Finzan is dedicated to the African women.'
(from California Newsreel's
distributor information)
Recommended Audience: Family Studies, Gender Studies, Sociology
FIRE EYES, 1994, Somalia
Duration: 60 minutes
Director: Soraya Mire
Distributor: Filmmakers Library
Price: 445.00 (purchase)
$75.00 (rental)
Synopsis: Fire Eyes looks at
the African practice of female genital mutilation. The film looks at the
socio-economic, psychological, and medical consequences of this custom.
Testimonies from doctors on both sides are shown.
Critique: Fire Eyes is a documentary that discusses
the practice of female circumcision from the perspectives of Somali women who
have experienced and participated in the practice, of Somali men, and doctors.
Soraya Mire, an Ethiopian living in
the United States who herself was circumcised, tells her story in the film's
opening sequences, and her severely critical opinion of the practice informs
the remainder of the film.
Consequently, the film presents a fairly one-sided discussion of female
genital mutilation (FGM). For example, the film includes a graphic
scene of a young woman being circumcised, and although the camera does not film
the mid-wife performing the procedure on the young woman, the audience hears
the screams of the young woman and sees her fingers curling in pain during the
circumcision.
The film, perhaps, attempts to cover
too much ground, both geographically and intellectually. It compares female circumcision in Somalia
with similar practices in Japan and genital surgery in the United States. In order to address these issues, an instructor
should preface viewing with information about both sides of the debate about
female genital mutilation. A detailed
discussion of the cultural specifics of the practice would enhance student's
understanding of the complexities involved in attempts to end this practice.
Recommended Audience: Anthropology,
Gender Studies
FLAME, 1996, Zimbabwe
Duration: 90 minutes
Director: Ingrid Sinclair
Distributor: DSR, Inc
Price: $70.00
Synopsis: This feature film tells the
stories of Florence (Flame) and Nyasha (Liberty), two young women who join
there Zimbabwean liberation struggle.
The film describes their lives as soldiers and the challenges each confronts
in the decade after the war.
Critique: 'Flame' opens with a brief
historical overview that spans Zimbabwe's colonization until the country
achieved independence in 1980. In this way, the film suggests that the story it
sets out to tell is based in reality, and for the most part, the film does
accurately represent the harsh realities women soldiers confronted in the
military camps in Mozambique and the lives of women ex-combatants in
post-colonial Zimbabwe.
Although presented in the realist
mode, the film departs from the linear chronology usually associated with
realism and tells the story of Flame and Liberty through flashback and in the
voice of Liberty. The film opens in
post-independence Zimbabwe in Flame's village as she sets out toward the city
to solicit help form her old friend Liberty, who did not return to the village
after the war. A picture of Flame and
Liberty in combat fatigues, which Flame attaches to the door of Liberty's
apartment after Liberty fails to show up there, serves as a window into the
past. The photograph transports
Liberty, and the film audience, back to the time of the Second Chimarenga when
the young women leave their homes and become freedom fighters. In this way,
‘Flame' limits its scope and effectively captures the experiences of Flame and
Liberty, describing their changing friendship and their changing perspectives
on life, love and their independence as Zimbabweans and women.
Recommended Audience: Gender Studies,
Political Science
FOUR WOMEN OF EGYPT, 1997, Egypt
Duration: 90 minutes in Arabic and French with English subtitles
Director: Tahani Rached
Distributor: Women Make Movies
Price: $295.00 (purchase)
$90.00 (rental)
Synopsis: The life histories and friendships of activist and revolutionaries Amina Rachid, Shahenda Maklad, ,
Wedad Mitry, and Safynaz Kazem, are documented in this film Through extensive interviews and
conversations their views on religion, society and politics are brought to
life.
Critique: No critique available.
Recommended Audience: Political
Science, Gender Studies
THE GAZE OF THE STARS