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Independence
Days Rich
Mix Cultural Foundation http://www.richmix.org.uk/cinema_film_independays.html Coming Up... African Film Festival
in association with the Royal African Society BFI Southbank, the Barbican and selected venues in London
Drum Based on a true story, Zola Maseko's "Drum"
centres around Henry Nxumalo, a fun-loving, hard-drinking writer (played
by Taye Diggs) for the fashionable black magazine Drum in 1950s Johannesburg.
With the onset of apartheid, Nxumal finds it difficult to ignore the
increasing tales of injustice. Dir Zola Maseko with Taye Diggs, Jason Flemyng, Gabriel Mann/ South Africa 2004/102 mins
Meokgo and the Stick Fighter Teboho Mahlatsi's Meokgo and the Stickfighter is a fable that draws equally on Mozart's "The Magic Flute" and the living power of magic in traditional African cultures. Set against the awe-inspiring mountains of Lesotho, this short film uses bold, iconic images to build an elemental conflict worthy of a Sergio Leone western. Dir Teboho Mahlatsi with Mduduzi Mabaso, Terry Pheto South Africa 2006/19mins
Screening Sunday 4 May 2008, 6.00pm Zanzibar Soccer Queens The positive power of the world's most popular sport shines through in "Zanzibar Soccer Queens," an illuminating group portrait of African women determined to play the game in a predominantly Muslim society. An uplifting documentary by Cameroon-born, Wales-based film director Florence Ayisi ("Sisters in Law") scores a goal for girl power by eliciting deeply personal testimony from its participants. Dir Florence Ayisi with Nassra Juma Mohammed, Amina Abdallah, Ferous Ali Amir Zanzibar/UK 2006 87 mins
Sunday 18 May 2008, 6.00pm Le Silence de la Foret Gonaba, a school inspector in Bangui, suddenly decides to drop everything and go and live in the heart of the equatorial forest in the land of the Babinga pigmies. He wants to help them free themselves from the domination of the " tall men ", which is still a problem 40 years after the country’s independence. True love awaits him there, and the voyage will also be a great initiation for him. Dir Didier Ouenangare and Bassek ba Kobhio with Eriq Ebouaney, Sonia Zembourou, Nadège Beausson Diagne Cameroon 2003/93mins
Sunday 25 May 2008: Africa Day Shorts Programme, 6.00pm Elalini Best Foreign FilmStudent Academy Awards and South
Africa's Second ever Oscar Elanini is a film about Nomakaya, a disillusioned
policewoman, haunted by the memory of a boy’s death, must decide
between the city and her rural home when the protection of her own child
is placed under threat. Dir Tristan Holmes with Ayanda Sithole, Jabu Makhubu, Kagiso Kuypers South Africa 2005/29 mins.
Area Boys They rule the traffic-jammed streets of Lagos with
ferocious violence. Bode and Obi are lifelong friends who decide to
cut their ties with their boss (Dele) and form their own partnership
with a view of leaving their corrupt world for good. Dir Omelihu Nwanguma with Olatunbosun Akeem, Eddie Kadi, Ayodele Oludayo Awosile UK-Nigeria 2007/20 mins
A Portrait of A Youngman Drowning Winner of the Silver Bear at the Venice Film Festival 1999 this short film is a powerful tale of Shadow, an ex-freedom fighter, who becomes a passive, tame executioner for the township in which he lives. Dir Teboho Mahlatsi with Ronnie Nyakale, Meshack Mavuso, Patrick Ndhlovu South Africa 1999,11 mins
Waiting for Valdez A look into a young boy's world, living with his granny in Eldorado Park, a so-called coloured area as defined under the rule of Apartheid in South Africa. Sharkey's life is driven by a burning ambition to see the latest movie coming to town "Valdez is Coming", but money is scarce. Along with some friends they pool together a few coins and two of them go off to see the movie, promising Sharkey and the rest that they will relate the story. Late at night around a fire the two kids tell the story of Valdez. Meanwhile Granny waits at home trying to fend off the ravages of ill health and old age. She shares a very special relationship with Sharkey, lovingly caring for her grandson, getting him to school, tucking him into bed, knitting and watching over him while his parents try to make a living on the other side of town. We have a glimpse into Sharkey's neighbourhood characters, his friends and tormentors at school, his life with his granny until she eventually succumbs to her illness and passes away. Dir Dumisani Pakhati South Africa 2002/27 mins
Screening Sunday 29 June 2008, 6.00pm Mobutu King of Zaire A comprehensively researched documentary history of the Congolese dictator who would be God, from his Stalin-like seizure and consolidation of power in the newly independent nation, through three decades of increasing corruption, brutality and megalomania, to his slightly shambolic fall from power in 1997. It's very much a personal study, meaning both that the passage of Zairean political, socio-economic and developmental change is detailed only insofar as it reflects on Mobutu himself, and that the insights into the self-styled leopard, notwithstanding much tantalising interview footage from down the years, are modest. Quite absorbing, despite the lengthy running time, but finally a rather familiar storyline. Time Out Magaziine. Dir Thierry Michel Zaire/Belgium 1999/135 mins
Screening Sunday 6 July 2008, 6.00pm Munyurangabo This exquisitely delicate debut feature is is the
first narrative film made in the Kinyarwanda language. It is a tense
odyssey of two teenage friends, Sangwa (Eric Ndorunkundiye), a Hutu,
and Ngabo (Jeff Rutagengwa), a Tutsi, set after the brutal Rwandan genocide,
which left almost a million dead. Dir Lee Isaac Chung with Jeff Rutagengwa, Eric Ndorunkundiye Rwanda/USA 2007 98 mins
Sunday 10 August 2008, 6.00pm Darrat One of the few filmmakers from Chad, Haroun has emerged as one of Africa's most innovative directors. With his third feature film, after Abouna and Bye Bye Africa, Haroun is in his home country once again. In a small village just outside the capital N'Djamena, a radio broadcast announces an amnesty on all crimes committed during a civil war. One of the victims of these crimes is the father of young Atim (Ali Barkaï), who was brutally murdered a few months before his son was born. Atim's blind grandfather demands justice and sends him, armed with a shotgun, to the capital to look for the killer. The man in question is Nassara, a local baker, now turned to religion. The two men meet and, after a clumsy first encounter he offers Atim a job in his bakery. Haroun skilfully builds tension between the two men, focusing on the younger man's tormented emotions as he struggles to keep the knowledge of his father's murderer to himself. Dir Mahamat Saleh Haroun with Ali Bacha Barkaï, Youssouf Djaoro, Aziza Hisseine Chad-France 2006/95 mins
Sunday 14 September 2008, 6.00pm Madame Brouette Another superbly balanced social drama from Senegal. Told partly in flashback, it concerns the investigation of the murder of a police officer, presumably by his enraged wife Madame Brouette (Niang). Brouette runs a fruit cart through the streets of Niayes and despite her lowly means and responsibilities is known as a defender of women abused by their husbands or lovers. Absa conducts us through her hard-pressed working days, her family and social life to throw light on her condition. Remarkably, he always keeps the tone open and lively, incorporating an 'Afro-Brechtian' griot chorus to comment on the action and using the music to enhance the emotional atmosphere. Delicately mocking, passionate and delightful. Dir Mousa Sene Abasa with Rokhaya Niang, Aboubacar Sadikh Ba, Kadiatou Sy/ Senegal 2002/ 104 mins
Le Franc Diop-Mambéty's short final part of the trilogy he began way back when with the acclaimed Touki Bouki is a winning cautionary tale about a poor Senegalese congoma player who wins the lottery. Shot (in beautiful colour) in a lively composite style that brings to mind the experimental freshness of '20s Soviet cinema, it veers easily and joyfully between realist, surrealist and almost-documentary modes, with jangling camera angles and a foot-tapping soundtrack featuring music in French, English and Arabic (including a delightful Tom Waits-like, deep-toned vocalist). It's a satire, of course, on Senegal's economic and social contradictions (the S. Franc has recently devalued the lottery's an irrelevant fantasy), delivered as the sweetest of pills. Dir Djibril Diop Mambety with Dieye Ma Dieye, Aminta Fall, Demba Bâ Senegal 1995/44 mins
Screening Sunday 12 October 2008, 6.00pm Ezra Aduaka's second film after the London-set 'Rage' tells of the experience of a child soldier (Kamara) who fights in a war in an unnamed African state, although the timing and setting recall the civil war in Sierra Leone in the 1990s. The film jumps back and forth from the bloody stage of this battle to a later truth and reconciliation hearing, during which Ezra stands against his relatives in the search for truth. It's an intelligent, cleverly measured film, but what's particularly interesting is how it treads a similar path as the recent 'Blood Diamond' yet steers clear of that film's failings. In 'Ezra', there's no Leonardo DiCaprio to lead us by the hand through both an exotic foreign landscape and a host of genre conventions. Instead, the film is raw and truthful. When an exploitative white character does appear in 'Ezra' he stays for a few minutes and is less poster-boy than grey, ugly and corrupt. Time Out Magazine Dir Newton Aduaka with Mamoudou Turay Kamara, Mariame N'Diaye, Mamusu Kallon France 2006/110 mins
Screening Sunday 2 November 2008, 6.00pm Barakat Set in the 90s when Algeria was in the throes of a terrifying civil war, a doctor is called out to attend a seriously ill boy. When she returns home the next morning she discovers that her husband has disappeared. She sets out to find him with the help of an older nurse, who fought with the freedom fighters and whose familiarity with the hazards of the land become both indispensable and an irritation. The dramatic intensity of the search increases, the generational breach widens, and the women's faces seem to merge with the scarred landscapes of Algeria. Propelled by magnetic central performances, this bold film's cry of protest is in its title translation: enough! Dir Djamila Sahraou with Rachida Brakni, Fettouma Bouamari, Zahir Bouzrar Algeria 2007/95 mins
Screening Sunday 16 November 2008, 6.00pm O Hero When he was 15, Vitório was recruited by the Angolan
army, where he would stay for two decades fighting. In his last mission,
he was hit by a mine and lost a leg. After a long time waiting, he finally
manages to secure a prothesis. With no job and unable to find his family,
he faces indifference and mockery. One night, while sleeping on the
street, somebody steals his prothesis. But he finds support in three
people: the prostitute Judith, the boy Manu and Joana, Manu's teacher. Dir Zézé Gamboa with Makena Diop, Milton Coelho, Neusa Borges Angola 2004 / 97 min
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