Panthers in Congo
The film 'Congo Oyé,' pulled from the archives of a New York City library a decade ago, explores different interpretations of revolution, Black sovereignty and liberation.
Film
How we tell the story of African film history
For most outsiders, modern Ethiopian cinema means Haile Gerima and Salem Mekuria. But others, in addition to these, made its rich cinema history.
What is it about the Kenyan postcolonial state?
The lesson from political economist Rok Ajulu’s academic work and activism: it’s not enough to change the “tenants,” but fight to change both the “state” and all of its houses.
Imagining new stories, new freedoms, and new joys
Lindsey Green-Simms’ book "Queer African Cinemas" explores the intersections of postcolonial thought, queer theory, and screen media.
A hopeful song about Sierra Leone
A new film, "Sing Freetown" (director: Clive Patterson) and accompanying theater project from Sorious Samura and Charlie Haffner attempt, with varying success, to sing a different song of Freetown.
The psychological pains of Ethiopian intellectuals
The desire to be absorbed into and consumed by the West, to find solace in its seductive promises, animates Robin Dimet’s film, “Sami’s Odysseys.”
El maestro siempre
Maky Madiba Sylla is a militant filmmaker excavating iconic Africans whose legacies he believes need to be known widely — like the singer Laba Sosseh.
The missing pieces
Between melancholy, terror, and disillusion, Petit Pays is a groundbreaking and eye-opening take on one of the darkest pages of African history, one that is often misunderstood in the West.
Countering the narrative
If committed filmmakers want to reach and influence more people, and counter fake news, impact producing may help get us there.
Two women, two stories, both winners
The documentary film Mane about two women — a rapper and a wrestler — is a much-needed boost of fresh air in the male-saturated tale of the “Generation hip hop” of Senegal.
Worshipping other people’s gods
Kenyan filmmaker Jim Chuchu explores the struggle between indigenous cultural practice and Pentecostal Christianity.
This is a sensorial feast, not a burial
Although overlooked this awards season, a new film by Lebohang Jeremiah Mosese deserves your attention.
Resonant music
The film "Africa Mia” (2019), directed by Richard Minier and Edouard Salier, explores the musical connections between Cuba and Mali.
Turning the camera back home
The women filmmakers in the Ethiopian diaspora who have taken the risk of dedicating their lives to documenting their homeland.
The earth below the surface
The film, 'We are Zama Zama,' about illegal miners in South Africa, is a social commentary on the failures of post-colonial liberal democracies in Southern Africa.
Simply filming people’s lived experiences
How the film, 'I am Samuel' about a gay Kenyan couple was banned by the Kenya Film Classification Board.
Colonial accountability in transition
The mass atrocities of the 1899 French invasion of what is Niger today are finally being treated with the gravity and consequence they deserve in Western popular histories.
Musically, Congo is the mothership
The documentary, Rumba Kings, offers a commendable and tireless argument for both an intangible cultural heritage case and a centering of the Congolese way.
A journey to Harar
In Mexican-Ethiopian filmmaker Jessica Beshir’s Faya Dayi, khat is more than an important export product in a capitalist economy; she captures khat’s roles and meanings in everyday Harari life.
Who is the Black man?
The Jamaican born filmmaker, Lebert Bethune, who was close to Malcolm X, made two films that deftly explored Black identity at the end of the 1960s.