Midway through ‘Dear Mandela’, Mazwi Nzimande, one of its young protagonists, is rallying a crowd. He’s young, nervous. He looks down at his hands as he takes the microphone, wearing his organisation’s trademark red t-shirt. About these ads
Cannes is a Country
June 2, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Another May, another champagne drenched Cannes festival. Soaked in the Riviera sun, there were a few interesting films screening from outside of Europe, some of which caught my attention. First, a film from veteran Senegalese director Moussa Toure (not the footballer). His film, ‘La Pirogue’ screened in the Un Certain Regard section of the festival, […]
‘We’ve always been migrating’
May 8, 2012 By 1 Comment
Bentley Brown, director of the exciting new film ‘Faisal Goes West’, spoke with me about migration, building a cinematic bridge between Sudan and America, and lawyers turned pizza delivery boys.
A French migration fairytale and other films
May 6, 2012 By Leave a Comment
In his new film ‘Le Havre’, the Finnish director Aki Kaurismäki has beautifully weaved a whimsical, somewhat timeless portrayal of France — all baguettes, bars à vins and shoe-shine boys — with an unavoidably contemporary problem that plagues France’s ports, and moves in tides through its politics (the recent support for Marie Le Pen a […]
Classic African Films N°3: ‘Come Back, Africa’ by Lionel Rogosin
May 5, 2012 By 4 Comments
‘Come Back, Africa’ (1959) is an explosive film; a strongly political piece, its show the hardship, joy and pain of township life, otherwise closed to the world by the Apartheid regime’s strict hold. Enriched through Lionel Rogosin’s collaboration with the Drum writers Lewis Nkosi and Bloke Modisane on the script, the film possesses a ‘Kafkan […]
Classic African Films N°2: ‘Touki Bouki’ by Djibril Diop Mambéty
April 26, 2012 By 3 Comments
This is, perhaps, one of my favorite films of all time. A shifting and fragmentary tale of two young lovers — Mory and Anta — and their attempts to flee Senegal for Paris, ‘Touki Bouki’ is Djibril Diop Mambéty’s masterpiece. It fizzles with wit and acuity, it diagnoses the ambivalence toward the colonial master and […]
A BBC Report: “Shell brought me here …”
April 24, 2012 By 5 Comments
In a video posted today on BBC News, the BBC’s International Development Correspondent Mark Doyle is shown in a helicopter, bullet proof vest atop of the foreign correspondent’s uniform–the baby-blue shirt, ‘flying low’ over what Doyle describes as ‘possibly the largest crime scene in the world’. Invited by Shell, and accompanied by some of its […]
Soviet cinema and African filmmaking
April 20, 2012 By 2 Comments
In a scene from October (1991) – one of Abderrahmane Sissako’s first films – a young West African student named Idrissa crouches to the ground in a Moscow park, and presses a handful of snow against his face. It’s a baptism of sorts: an immersion into the starkness of black and white, the colour restrictions of Sissako’s […]
Classic African Films N°1: ‘Xala’ by Ousmane Sembène
April 19, 2012 By 10 Comments
We hope to build an archive of reviews of classic films in African cinema to build a resource, but also to help readers learn more about the history of different film cultures on the African continent. Where possible, we’ll link to where you can watch/rent/see them, in a bid to get more people to see […]
Film: The talented Tajdin sisters
April 3, 2012 By 3 Comments
Filmmaker Amirah Tajdin and her producer sister Wafa Tajdin are currently working on their first feature, titled “Walls of Leila,” and are running a Kickstarter campaign to help launch their production. For two young, clearly talented filmmakers, this is a film project worth backing. You can visit their kickstarter page here. The film is described […]
