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01.13.04
La Vie Sur Terre (Life on Earth)
Director: Adberahmanne Sissako, Mali, 1998, 61 min
In Bambara and French with English subtitles
preceded by In Their Own Voices
La vie sur
terre is one of the most searching and at the same time poetic meditations
on Africa at the beginning of a new millennium to have appeared in any
medium. It was conceived as part of 2000 Vue Par, a European television
series which invited ten outstanding independent producers to imagine
the last day of the present century in their own countries. Sissako improvises
a "fictional documentary" out of daily life in Sokolo, his
father's village in Mali near the southeastern corner of Mauritania.
He then overlaid these vignettes with readings from Aimé Césaire,
locating them within the poet's critique of the relationship between
metropole and periphery. Behind all of this, he weaves the melancholy
tones of the great Malian tenor, Salif Keita.
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02.03.05
Dôlè (Money)
Director: Imunga Ivanga, 2001, 80 min
In French with English subtitles
preceded by In Their Own Voices:
Mustapha
Dôlè offers a Gabonese perspective on the global crisis
facing today's youth. With familial and societal structures crumbling,
young people are increasingly thrown back for support on each other and
an all-encompassing international pop culture. This film reveals that,
whether in Libreville or in our own inner cities and suburbs the underlying
causes of youthful disaffection can be remarkably similar. With Ça
twiste à Poponguine, Dôlè provides one of the most
affectionate and affecting portraits of African youth poised precariously
on the cusp of modernity. Winner of the first-place Gold Tanit at the
2000 Carthage Film Festival.
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03.03.05
Zan Boko (Homeland)
Director: Gaston Kaboré, Burkina Faso, 1998, 94 min
In Moré with English subtitles
preceded by In Their Own Vocies:
Olukayode
Zan Boko explores the conflict between tradition and modernity, a central
theme in many contemporary African films, such as Keïta and Ta Dona.
It tells the poignant story of a village family swept up in the current
tide of urbanization. In doing so, Zan Boko expertly reveals the transformation
of an agrarian, subsistence society into an industrialized commodity
economy. Zan Boko is also one of the first African films to explore the
impact of the mass media in changing an oral society into one where information
is packaged and sold. The film provides viewers with a unique opportunity
to see our own televised civilization through the eyes of the traditional
societies it is replacing.
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04.07.05
Yeelen
Director: Souleymane Cissé,
Mali, 1987, 105 min
In Bambara with English subtitles
preceded by In Their Own Voices:
Blamoh
This adaptation of an ancient oral legend from Mali, is one the most
acclaimed and widely seen African films ever made. An Oedipal story mixed
with magic, Yeelen is visually stunning. Set in the powerful Mali Empire
of the 13th century, Yeelen follows the journey of Nianankoro, a young
warrior who must battle the powerful Komo cult. Nianankoro's greatest
enemy is his own father, a dangerous and corrupt wizard who uses his
dark magic to try and destroy his son. Traveling over the arid Bambara,
Fulani and Dogan lands of ancient West Africa, Nianankoro eventually
comes face to face with his father in a final fatal showdown. Cissé's
extraordinary use of landscapes and light produces a unique and striking
cinematic style.
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05.05.05
Mandabi
(The Money Order)
Director: Ousmane Sembene, Senegal, 1968, 90min
In Wolof with English subtitles
preceded by In Their Own Voices:
Mamady
A
breakthrough film for Sembene, Africa's best-known filmmaker. Ibrahim
Dieng (Gueye) tries to cash a money order from his nephew, but finds
he can't because he doesn't have an identity card. He can't get an identity
card without a birth certificate, and he can't get a certificate without
a photograph. Everywhere he goes he must have something else--either
identification or money. After a series of setbacks, Ibrahim realizes
his nephew is ripping him off. A keen satire, Mandabi's critique of a
postcolonial state is much more narrowly focused than those of his earlier
short films, and, as the first Senegalese film to be distributed commercially
in Senegal, it more than got its point across.
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06.04.05
Samba Traore
Director: Idrissa Ouedraogo, Burkina Faso, 1993, 85min
In Moore with
English subtitles
preceded
by In Their Own Voices
Samba Traoré had
left his village years ago to seek his fortune in the big city. He has
found only unemployment and rootlessness. As the film begins, he is part
of a filling station holdup in which his partner is killed but Samba
Traoré, determined, takes the money at gunpoint. He returns to
his village, hides the money, and lets out that he has been successful
and now wants to live at home. Ouédraogo is constantly aware of
the physical landscape in which his characters live and photographs the
details of the people, of the countryside, and of the village with loving
respect. Samba Traoré is a fine film, entertaining and touching,
within the great humanist tradition. Winner of the Silver Bear award
at the 1993 Berlin Film Festival.
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