Videos by Title: "A"

7 up in South Africa (1993)

Age Seven in South Africa is part of the acclaimed Age Seven documentary series of children.

A is for Africa (c2000)

Explores the daily lives and educational aspirations of girls in four African countries.

A Luta Continua = The struggle continues (2001). Director: Jack Lewis

An HIV-positive group from Khaleyitscha, Cape Town make short films to show at public venues like taxi ranks and shopping malls in Cape Town's townships. They are present at these screenings, in which they strive to disclose their status, discuss HIV and AIDS issues, and clear up audience misconceptions about HIV and AIDS. Shows portions of the filming and the films themselves, interspersed with group members discussing their lives.

An Act of Faith: The Phelophepa Health Train (c2000). Director: Toni Strasburg

Part 4 of a series on how the globalized world economy affects ordinary people. A group of health professionals spends nine months or each year touring the poorest and most remote areas of South Africa. With a full contingent of volunteer doctors, dentists, optometrists and health educators on board, the "good clean health train" delivers quality health care to deprived rural communities.

Africa (c2001). Producer: Andrew Jackson

Documentary series in 8 episodes which looks at the continent of Africa, as seen through the eyes of the African people, conveying the diversity and beauty of the land and the compelling personal stories of the people who shape its future. Bonus program (v. 5) follows the project's director, producers, cameramen and researchers as they travel to 16 countries to document the relationship between extraordinary people, wildlife and landscape.

Africa: a new look (16mm reel film, 1981)

... puts aside images of wild animals and festive dances and concentrates on the people of Africa today: teachers and students.

Africa, Africas (c2001). Director Annamaria Gallone

Fantacocà: presents the cultural phenomenon of skin bleaching in Cameroon and the challenge it is now posing on notions of black pride and identity.

From the other side of the river: documents the effects of war on a community of Ethiopian women and children who were forcibly relocated into refugee camps.

Laafi bala: demonstrates the causes of wide-spread unemployment and poverty in Burkina Faso, where few institutional resources and government support available, and the debilitating effects this is having on women and youth.

Africa: Challenges in the 21st Century (c2004)

Explores Africa's history and to what degree its colonial legacy continues to impact the continent. Examines the causes, effects and possible solutions to major problems, such as hunger and diseases like HIV/AIDS, and controversial international trade policies that continue to contribute to Africa's underdevelopment.

Africa dreaming (1997)

Four short films on love from Namibia, Tunisia, Senegal, and Mozambique

Africa: In Defiance of Democracy (2003).

"Throughout Africa, democracy has long been touted as the cure for the continent's ongoing unrest. But can such a form of government flourish in countries where extreme poverty is the norm and violence is the chief tool of statecraft? Spanning the continent from Libya to South Africa, this program seeks to understand Africa's complex political situations, addressing the 'Big Man' syndrome and the one-party state, the destabilizing effects of armed conflict, the mismanagement of industry and natural resources, and strained relations with the industrialized world"—Container

Africa before the Europeans, 100-1500 Barton (1985)

Describes the civilizations and empires of Africa before the arrival of the Europeans. Tells how the Bantu people left their homeland in the Cameroons and displaced the people in the south

Africa calls : its drums & musical instruments ([1990])

African Art in Motion: The Masks of the Nuna People of Burkina Faso (c2005). Producer: Christopher Roy

Shows three mask performances from the Nuna people of Burkina Faso in West Africa. Two segments are from the villages of Savara and Tisse, and one is of the annual mask festival at Pouni. Masks include butterfly, crocodile, hyena, bush pig, antelope, policeman, and more. Each mask's performance recreates the encounters between the ancestors of the village and the supernatural spirits that protect the community.

African art, women, history : the Luba people of central Africa (1998)

In Africa, as elsewhere, memory sustains the identity of a people. This documentary is about Luba art and the relationship between women, art and history

African culture: drumming and dance (2000)

Entertained and educated by a group called Ashante-Sebei. Ashante is the name of a group found in West Africa and Sebei is the name of a group found in East Africa. Members are Margo Black, singer, choreographer and story teller, etc., Tony Rios and David CSlosson, percussionists. Ashante-Sebei demonstrates the culture found in Africa. Together they will teach the viewer polyrhythms.

African Dance: Sand, Drum and Shostakovich (2002). Directors: Ken Glazebrook and Alla Kovgan

A documentary exploring African contemporary dance featuring eight modern dance companies from Africa, Europe and Canada, as well as interviews with dance historians.

African healing dance with Wyoma and the dancers of Damballa (1997)

The program is a "step-by-step course on the healing tradition and expressive movements that are unique to Africa's dance heritage"

African Jim (1994)

Story of a young African man who moves from the countryside to Johannesburg

Africa, part 1, different but equal (1984)

For centuries Africa was ravished by the slave trade, which has distorted our view of its people. Basil Davidson shows that Africa gave rise to some of the world's greatest civilizations

Africa, part 2, mastering a continent (1984)

Looking closely at three different communities, Basil Davidson examines the way African people carve out an existence in an often hostile environment. A group of Pokot cattle herders in Kenya tell how they use their environment to their advantage.

Africa, part 3, caravans of gold (1984)

Basil Davidson traces the roots of the medieval gold trade - which reached from Africa to India, China and Italy - and examines its influence on the African continent

Africa, part 4, kings and cities (1984)

To explore the ways in which the African kingdoms functioned, Basil Davidson visits Kana in Nigeria, where a king still holds court in his 15th century palace.

Africa, part 5, the bible and the gun (1984)

The slave trade decimated the African population and tore the fabric of their society. Then new kinds of interlopers came...

Africa, part 6, this magnificent African cake (1984)

The 1880's saw the beginning of a 30-year "scramble for Africa" which dramatically changed the face of the continent.

Africa, part 7, the rise of nationalism (1984)

Here the struggles for African independence -- in Ghana, Kenya, Algeria, the Belgian Congo -- are all charted.

Africa, part 8, the legacy (1984)

Basil Davidson looks at Africa in the aftermath of colonial rule, as the continent seeks ways to come to terms with its diverse inheritance.

Africa, search for common ground (ten cassettes, 1997)

Filmed in various countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, this series profiles a wide variety of formal efforts to resolve contemporary conflicts without resorting to violence.

Africa, Sierra Leone, Ghana, Kenya (1996)

Examines the situation of Liberian refugees welcomed by the residents of Sierra Leone, the effect of the 1993 agreement between cocoa producing and consuming nations on producers in Ghana, and the war between elephant poachers and park rangers in Kenya.

African Art in Motion: The Masks of the Nuna People of Burkina Faso (c2005). Producer: Christopher Roy

Shows three mask performances from the Nuna people of Burkina Faso in West Africa. Two segments are from the villages of Savara and Tisse, and one is of the annual mask festival at Pouni. Masks include butterfly, crocodile, hyena, bush pig, antelope, policeman, and more. Each mask's performance recreates the encounters between the ancestors of the village and the supernatural spirits that protect the community.

The Africans: a triple heritage ... WETA-TV and BBC-TV (1986)

An examination of contemporary Africa in terms of its triple heritage, what is indigenous, what was contributed by Islam and what was acquired from the West.

Africans in America: The Unfolding of Ethnic Identity (2004). Director: Ray LeJeune

Africans who have immigrated from Ethiopia, Ghana, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, and Uganda talk about their beliefs, experiences, and living in America.

Africa's poaching wars (video,1988)

The black rhinoceros and the African elephant are threatened with extinction by poachers seeking their horns and tusks.

Afro@Digital (2003). Director: Balufu Bakupa-Kanyinda

Looks as the impact of the Internet, cell phones, and other digital technologies and how these technologies are being used in new and creative ways across a broad spectrum of present-day Africa, affecting all aspects of everyday life, including film, music, fashion, political democratization and education.

AIDS and the Arts in Africa (c2001).

Shot on location in 1999 in Mali and South Africa, the video documents some of the work African popular artists are producing in the struggle against AIDS and showcases performing arts genres such as drama, dance, puppetry, and song. Mural and canvas painting are also highlighted.

Amapantsula (1988)

Mapantsula, (Zulu for petty criminal), filmed in Soweto, centers on Panic, a cynical streetwise hoodlum devoted to living township life to the fullest. This film demystifies the day-to-day process by which real people become involved in social change.

Ancient Africa (c1998). Producer: Andrew Schlessinger

Join archaeologist Arizona Smith and a young detective-in-training as they unlock the clues of the Great Zimbabwe ruins and trace the history of the Swahili-speaking peoples of East Africa.

The ancient Africans (1970)

On location photography, maps, and art objects are used to study the ruins of Kush and Axum, life today in the ancient Sudanic kingdoms and Benin and the intriguing stone walls of Zimbabwe.

Art as a Verb in Africa: The Masks of the Bwa Village of Boni (c2005). Producer: Christopher Roy

The spectacular mask performances of the Bwa people in the village of Boni, in central Burkina Faso, include plank masks, hawks, lepers, dwarfs, serpents, and other spiritual beings.

Art of the Short Film (c2005). Director: Steve Pavslosky

Inja , a short film presented in Art of the Short Film tells the story of a South African landowner who goes to great extremes to separate a Black boy and his puppy.

Artist Unknown (1998). Director: David Lan

In this documentary, Lennie James, a young British man of African descent, journeys to the war-shattered central African kingdom of Benin to discover the origins of a carved mask purchased in London. He uncovers a tale of early African civilization, the looting of treasures and suppression of traditions by colonial powers, and the amazing persistence of an African artistic vision within a colonial culture. His mission becomes a quest to better understand the essence of Africa itself.

Archbishop Desmond Tutu addresses apartheid (1991)

The Nobel Peace Prize winner addresses his anti-apartheid views during a recent honorary commencement.

Assignment Africa: an inside story (1986)

Investigates how the media neglects Black Africa, including its initial reluctance to cover the Ethiopian famine and the untold story of Zimbabwe's success since independence.

Atlantico Negro (2001). Director: Renato Barbieri

"The waters of the Atlantic brought the slaves from Africa to Brazil, their bodies in chains but their souls still tied to mother Africa. This Brazilian-made film takes us to both shores, to how spiritual life, dance and song came with the captive people and took root in the new soil. Among the many traditions were the language and gods of Yoruba and Jejes from the Republic of Benin. When a group of freed slaves returned to Africa to rediscover their roots they were looked upon as outsiders. They became tradespeople and brought Portuguese culture to Africa. Today, when Brazilians revisit Africa, they share the culture that the descendants of slaves have kept alive in Brazil"—Container

Awa: A Mother in West Africa (2002). Director: Alexis Curtis

Portrait of a single mother in Burkina Faso, who supports herself and her six children by cooking and selling rice as a street vendor. Awa narrates her own story, interspersed with interviews of her children, illustrating the economic realities faced by women in the urban areas of West Africa.