| Feature Films |
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| Abouna - Mahamat-Saleh Haroun |
[DVD] 791.43 A1554 |
| After two young Chadian boys discover their father has abandoned them, they embark on a desperate quest to bring him home. |
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| Adanggaman |
[DVD] 791.43 A2213 |
| Ossei is a strong-willed young man who sets out to rescue his mother when their village is raided. His quest leads him to the stronghold of the dreaded King Adanggaman, an arrogant despot who thrives on the slave trade and uses fierce female warriors to enforce his power. One of these Amazons, herself a former slave, falls in love with Ossei, and they escape to the bush. |
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| Bamako |
[DVD] 791.43 B1991 |
| Mele, a bar singer, and her unemployed husband Chaka are on the verge of breaking up. In the courtyard of the house they share with other families in Bamako, the capital city of Mali, African civil society representatives have taken proceedings against such international financial institutions as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, whom they blame for Africa's woes. As numerous trial witnesses air bracing indictments against the multinational economic machinery that haunts them, life in the courtyard presses forward. |
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| Bopha! - Morgan Freeman |
[DVD] 791.43 B7255 |
| Father and son clash in this movie about the anti-apartheid movement. The film is based on Percy Mtwa's play. |
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| Camp de Thiaroye |
[DVD] 791.43 C1863 |
| African soldiers, returning home after fighting in World War II, are massacred by French colonial authorities in a dispute over pay. |
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| Cry, the Beloved Country - Darrell James Roodt |
[DVD] 791.43 C9578 |
| Two fathers in South Africa--one a man of peace, the other a man of power and privilege--seem destined for a violent collision. But instead, in the wake of a tragic killing, these extraordinary men form an unlikely union. |
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| Daresalam - Issa Serge Coelo |
[DVD] 791.43 D2175 |
| In a small Central African village, boyhood friends Djimi and Koni have come of age under a post-colonial government that levies crippling taxes and legally robs local farmers of their meager crops. When impulsive Koni savagely attacks a visiting government official, the resulting massacre forces the two friends on a journey that will transform them from boys into men. |
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| Faraw! - Abbdoulaye Ascofare |
[DVD] 791.43 G7867 |
| Part of volume 1 of the Great African film series, this film recounts twenty-four hours in the life of Zamiatou, a mother of three young children who is fighting for survival in a town in northeastern Mali. Her husband is too weak to work and her children are exasperated by their situation of poverty. |
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| The Gods Must be Crazy I & II |
[DVD] 791.43 G5892 |
| In The gods must be crazy, an empty Coke bottle drops from the sky near Xixo, an African San hunter, who tries to return the bottle to the gods that must have dropped it. In The gods must be crazy II, Xixo's children become accidental stowaways on a poacher's truck and Xixo sets out to find them. |
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| Haramuya - Drissa Toure |
[DVD] 791.43 G7867 |
| This is the second film in volume 1 of the Great African film series. In this film set in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, the wealthy reside in the modern section of the city, while the poor live in poverty-stricken suburbs. Through the family of Fousseini, a Muslim firmly attached to his faith and traditions, a picture is drawn of a town caught between modernism and traditionalism. |
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| Hotel Rwanda - Terry George |
[DVD] 791.43 H8323 |
| This is the deeply moving true story of a five-star-hotel manager who used his wits and words to save more than 1,200 lives during the 1994 Rwandan conflict. |
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| Hyenas - Djibril Diop Mambéty |
[VHS] 791.43 H9955 |
| An old woman returns to her native village after she becomes rich and seeks revenge against the lover of her youth. Eventually she turns the village into a notorious black market, catering to the pleasure of the consumer society. The film represents a pessimistic look of the filmmaker Djibril Diop Mambety at the fate of his continent, Africa. |
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| Jit - Michael Raeburn |
[VHS] 791.43 J616 |
| The beat of jit-jive drives the story, set in Zimbabwe, of a fun-loving youth called UK, who is determined to win the heart of Sofi, a stately beauty closely guarded by her gangster boyfriend. UK's efforts are both helped and hindered by Jukwa, a pesky ancestral spirit. |
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| Kirikou and the Sorceress - Michel Ocelot |
[DVD] 791.433 K587 |
| Based on west African folklore, this is the story of a remarkable baby boy who is born with the ability to speak, amazing intelligence, and physical abilities. The film features a musical score by music icon Youssou N'Dour and South Africa's finest vocal talents. |
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| Life on Earth - Abderrahmane Sissako |
[DVD] 791.43 L7224 |
| This is a film about the significance of the start of the 21st Century for people who are struggling to enter the 20th. Abderrahmane Sissako's solution was to improvise 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 ... Behind his story, he weaves the melancholy tones ["Folon"] of the great Malian tenor, Salif Keita and music by other artists. |
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| Lumumba - Raoul Peck |
[DVD] 791.43 L9596 |
| The film dramatizes the life of Congolese revolutionary, Patrice Lumumba, who led his country to independence from Belgium in 1960. He served, for less than a year, as the first elected prime minister until he was brutally assassinated. |
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| Malunde - Stefanie Sycholt |
[DVD] 791.43 M2615 |
| Wonderboy is a paint-huffing, young black boy living on the streets of Johannesburg. Kobus is a middle-aged Afrikaner soldier who is down on his luck, trying to sell furniture wax. Their paths cross when Wonderboy takes refuge from an angry drug dealer in Kobus's van. Kobus unwittingly drives to Cape Town with Wonderboy in tow. While Kobus is hoping to sell some wax, Wonderboy is hoping to find his mother there. The two soon form a bond in spite of themselves. |
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| Mandabi (Money Order) - Ousmane Sembene |
[DVD] 791.43 M2712 |
| This story about a man who receives a money order that threatens to destroy the traditional fabric of his life is used to point out the problems of modern Africa as a civilization struggling to recapture its own rich heritage after colonial corruption. |
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| Moolaade - Ousmane Sembene |
[DVD] 791.43 M8173 |
| Set in a small village, four young girls face ritual "purification" decide to flee to the household of Collé Ardo gallo Sy, a strong-willed woman who has managed to shield her own teenage daughter from the mutilation. Collé invokes the time-honored custom of moolaadé (sanctuary) to protect the fugitives, and tension mounts as the ensuing stand-off pits Collé against village traditionalists. This endangers the prospective marriage of her daughter to the heir-apparent to the tribal throne. |
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| Nowhere in Africa - Caroline Link |
[DVD] 791.43 N9484 |
| Critically acclaimed, this is the award winning true tale of a Jewish family who flee the Nazi regime in 1938 and learns to cope with their new life, and each other, on a remote farm in Kenya. |
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| Nuit de la verité (Night of Truth) |
[DVD] 791.43 N6877 |
| In an unspecified country in Africa, after ten years of bloody war, the Nayaks, the President's ethnic group, and the Bonandes, rebels supporting Colonel Theo, come together to celebrate the peace agreement. But the reconciliation festivities are overshadowed by the terrible barbarities that have been committed on both sides. |
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| Sarafina! - Darrell James Roodt |
[DVD] 791.43 S2433 |
| In a world where truth is forbidden, an inspiring teacher dares to instill in her students lessons not found in schoolbooks. In doing so, she challenges their freedom and hers. |
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| Shaka Zulu- William C. Faure |
[DVD] 791.43 S5272 |
| Shaka Zulu is the powerful true story of tribal Africa during the turbulent 19th century. This critically acclaimed mini-series follows the life of Shaka, a powerful and mighty Zulu leader, as he grows up to fulfill an ancient tribal prophecy, uniting his people into a bold new nation. Shaka is driven by his extraordinary intelligence, courage, astounding physical ability an immortal stance, leading his proud warriors in their quest to be one people, one power, one empire! |
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| Sia - Dani Kouyate |
[DVD] 791.43 G7867 |
| Kombi is a poverty-stricken city dominated by a tyrant king. In order to bring back prosperity, the king is advised by his priests to make the traditional human sacrifice of a young virgin to a mystical snake god. Sia, the most beautiful young woman in the village, is chosen. Lieutenant Mamadi, her fiance, rebels against the decision to perform this ritual, and the village becomes divided. Struggles and revelations follow as the villagers confront issues of honor, corruption and power. This film is part of the Great African Film series, volume 2. |
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| Sometimes in April - Raoul Peck |
[DVD] 791.43 S6967 |
| The film is based on the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, where over the course of 100 days an estimated 800,000 people were killed in a terrifying purge by Hutu nationalists against their Tutsi countrymen. |
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| Tasuma - Daniel Kollo Sanou |
[DVD] 791.43 G7867 |
| This is in volume 2 of the Great African film series. It tells the story of Sogo Sanou, aka Tasuma, a former French soldier who was a member of the African troops known as the Tiralleurs Senegalais, which fought hard for France. Sanou has been trying for over 50 years to obtain his well-deserved military pension. Convinced he will receive the money, he buys a mill on credit for the village. When the money does not arrive, Sanou is put in prison. The women of the village rally to set him free. |
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| Tilaï - Idrissa Ouedraogo |
[VHS] 791.43 L4151 |
| After a long absence, Saga returns to his village to find that his young fiancée, Nogma, has been married off to his father. Saga has no recourse within the code of honor that governs his tribe, but begins a secret affair with Nogma. |
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| Touki-Bouki Magaye Niang, Mareme Niang (Journey of the Hyena) - Djibril Diop Mambéty |
[VHS] 791.43 T7228 |
| Director Djibril Diop Mambety blends fantasy, reality, humor, pathos and jump cuts in the story of two shantytown residents, Mory and Anta, who try gambling, stealing and prostitution to get money for their dream of wealth and power in France. |
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| U-Carmen - Mark Dornford-May |
[DVD] 791.43 U163 |
| Acted and sung by the internationally acclaimed South African theater company Dimpho Di Kopane (DDK), this film is a stunning adaptation of perhaps the world's best-loved opera, Carmen. Re-imagined in the modern world of South African pool halls, bars, courtyards and barracks, this film tells the story of a cigarette factory worker, Carmen, and her doomed love affair with a police sergeant. As the two grow more emotionally connected, their relationship escalates violently, culminating in a tragic conclusion of revenge and madness. |
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| La Vie Est Belle (Life is Rosy) - Ngangura Mweze |
[VHS] 791.43 L72234 |
| This musical comedy/farce tells the story of the rags to riches rise of a poor rural musician who strikes it rich in the city. It is set in Zaire. |
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| Visages de Femmes (Faces of Women) - Désiré Ecaré |
[VHS] 791.43 F1383 |
| This politically and stylistically adventurous film from Côte D’Ivoire explores the links between feminism, economics and tradition in modern-day Africa. |
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| Wênd Kûuni (Le Don de Dieu/ God’s Gift) - Gaston Kaboré |
[VHS] 791.43 G58914 |
| A mute foundling is raised in an African village by a weaver and his family. The mute regains his powers of speech only after a shock, and then reveals his origins and reasons for dumbness. |
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| Wooden Camera |
[DVD] 791.43 W8865 |
| From South Africa comes a compelling story of fate and friendship as two boys make a simple choice that alters their lives forever....this richly multilayered story offers an insightful look into the challenges facing post-Apartheid South Africa while telling an enchanting tale of a sweet artistic soul finding his true self. |
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| Yeelen - Solomani Sise |
[DVD] 791.43 Y425 |
| A film adaptation of one of the great oral epics of the Bambara people, set during the powerful Mali Empire of the 13th century, it tells the story of Nianankoro, a young Bambara warrior destined to destroy a corrupt older society, the secret Komo cult, and with it his father, and, inevitably, himself. The climactic flash of light which floods the screen at the film's end ushers in a new purified world order and captures the Bambara belief in time as circular, not linear, always returning to that initial "brightness" which created the world. |
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| Documentaries |
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| ABC Africa |
[DVD] 362.7 A1344 |
| Over the course of a 10-day visit to Uganda, Abbas Kiarostami uses his camera to capture and caress the faces of a thousand orphans, many whose parents died of AIDS. Alternately heartbreaking and optimistic. |
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| Africa - National Geographic |
[DVD] 916.1 A2584 |
| The film presents an unprecedented look at the continent of Africa, as seen through the eyes of the African people. Experience the skills needed to survive, not only the climate, but the social and economic conditions as well. |
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| Africa the Serengeti |
[DVD] 916.1 A2586 |
| The film takes the viewer on a journey with more than two million wildebeests, zebras and antelopes as they travel over 500 miles across the Serengeti plains. The video also features Africa's greatest predators: lions, crocodiles and cheetahs, in deadly pursuit of the migrating prey. |
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| African Art - BBC |
[VHS] 709.6 A2582 |
| The video introduces noted experts who explain the importance of reappraising African art within its own cultural context. |
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| African Drumming |
[DVD] 786.9 A2583 |
| The film features noted drummer Babtunde Olatunji in a discussion and performance of Nigerian drum traditions, drumming techniques and rhythms for djembe and similar drums and performances. |
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| African Healing Dance |
[DVD] 615.8 A2583 |
| The program is a "step-by-step course on the healing tradition and expressive movements that are unique to Africa's dance heritage". Demonstrated are six African dances: Sowu, Gbêgbé, Focodoba, Umoya, Nago, Yonwalu, Healing journey. |
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| Discovering Music: Music of Africa |
[VHS] 780.89 D611425 |
| The film describes the music and rhythms of Africa and how they are used both as music and means of communication. There is a demonstration of the complex rhythmical music of the bells, the rattles, and the drums, etc. |
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| Ghosts of Rwanda |
[DVD] 967.57 G4275 |
| Frontline marks the 10th anniversary of the Rwandan genocide with a documentary chronicling one of the worst atrocities of the 20th century. Illustrated are the failures that enabled the slaughter of 800,000 people to occur unchallenged by the world. |
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| Ladysmith Black Mambazo: On Tip Toe |
[DVD] 781.62 L1573 |
| Nominated for an Academy Award, this film tells the inspiring story of the World Music super group Ladysmith Black Mambazo, the renowned South African a cappella ensemble best known on these shores for Paul Simon's Graceland album. |
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| Mandela Son of Africa, Father of a Nation |
[DVD] 968.06 M2717 |
| This candid and provocative portrait of Nelson Mandela takes you to the very heart of the struggle for majority rule in South Africa. |
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| Music CDs |
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| African Music |
[CD] 780.89 A2585 |
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| Ali Farka Toure - Ali Farka Toure |
[CD] 780.89.T727al |
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| Aki Special - Prince Nico Mbarga |
[CD] 780.89 M478ak |
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| Best of Ladysmith Black Mambazo - Ladysmith Black Mambazo |
[CD] 780.89.L1575be |
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| Classic Tracks - Ladysmith Black Mambazo |
[CD] 780.89.L1575cl |
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| Classic Highlife |
[CD] 780.89.C614 |
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| Djam Leeli, The adventurers - Baaba Maal |
[CD] 780.89.M111dj |
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| The Folk Music of Ethiopia |
[CD] 780.89.M9873 |
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| Franco & le T.P. O.K. Jazz, - Franco |
[CD] 780.89.F825fr |
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| Garland encyclopedia of world music. Volume 1, Africa |
[CD] 780.89.G233 v.1 |
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| Guitar Paradise of East Africa |
[CD] 780.89.G9686 |
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| Juju Music - King Sunny Adé and his African Beats |
[CD] 780.89.A228ju |
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| Immigrés - Youssou N'Dour |
[CD] 780.89.N337im |
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| Kela Tradition - Kasse Mady |
[CD] 780.89.M183ke |
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| Konkai Makossa - Charlotte Mbango |
[CD] 780.89 C479 |
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| Mbuti Pygmies of the Ituri Rainforest |
[CD] 780.89.M4783 |
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| Miss Perfumado - Cesaria Evora |
[CD] 780.89.E93mi |
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| Music of Kenya and Tanzania |
[CD] 780.89.R8565 |
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| Ndinga Man Contre-attaque Na Wou Go Pay? - Lapiro De Mbanga |
[CD] 780.89.D7432na |
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| Nyota - Black Star & Lucky Star Musical Clubs |
[CD] 780.89.N997 |
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| Olatunji! Drums of passion - Olatunji |
[CD] 780.89.O423ol |
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| Roha Band Tour 1990 |
[CD] 780.89.R737 |
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| The Rough Guide to the Music of Kenya & Tanzania |
[CD] 780.89.R8565 |
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| Salute to Highlife Pioneers - West African Highlife Band |
[CD] 780.89.W516sa |
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| Shakara/London Scene - Fela |
[CD] 780.89.F311sh |
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| Soul of Addis - Mahmoud Ahmed |
[CD] 780.89.S722 |
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| Zambiance |
[CD] 780.89Z238 |
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