Between Harlem and home
African postcolonial cinema serves as a mirror, revealing the limits of escape — whether through migration or personal defiance — and exposing the tensions between dreams and reality.
Ousmane Sembene
Stories untold
How a Senegalese trade unionist inspired one of the continent’s greatest filmmakers.
The colonial wounds of Senegal’s girlchild
In ‘Black Girl’ (1966) and ‘Cuties’ (2020), M'Bissine T. Diop is a cautionary figure who warns of colonialism's wounds and afterlives for Black girl belonging in the present day.
Sembene’s Africa is everyone’s Africa
If someone had to hold the title of father of African cinema, Ousmane Sembéne would be the most compelling candidate.
The haunting draw of the West
To be African means at some point to desire to leave. African cinema can provide solace for our tortured relationship to the West and our own continent.
Two tales against neocolonialism
Working-class men try unsuccessfully to integrate themselves into new economies in the films of Ousmane Sembene and Mrinal Sen.
Ousmane Sembene invented a new cinema for Africa
An interview with Samba Gadjigo, the late Ousmane Sembene’s longtime friend and official biographer about the resurgence of Sembene’s work.
Meeting Sembène
An Interview with Abderrahmane Sissako, director of films like 'La Vie Sur Terre,' 'Rostov-Luanda,' 'Waiting for Happiness' and 'Bamako.'
Roger Ebert was the business
Roger Ebert revolutionized television film criticism in the United States with his engaging discussions alongside Gene Siskel. He loved African film.
The impotence of the political bourgeoisie
Ousmane Sembene's "Xala" (1974) is a powerful political narrative. At times edging toward the surreal, at others an acute depiction of the complexity of the freshly independent Senegal.
Martin Scorcese namechecks Ousmane Sembene
Scorcese not only restores prints of African cinema classics, he also counts Ousmane Sembene as one of cinema's greatest directors.