Videos by Title: "B" and "C"

The Ball (2001). Director: Orlando Mesquita

The ball tells the the story of Mozambican children who use condoms to make soccer balls. In a dramatization, a man confronts them and accuses them of stealing his condoms. This story illustrates that many people are not using condoms for safer sex, despite their availability.

Bamako (2007) Director: Abderrahmnane Sissako.

Set in Mali, the film revolves around a trial that pits the people of Bamako against the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.

The Battle for Souls (c2003).

"Of the world's 50 least evangelized countries, 37 are within the 10/40 window, a geographical region that is home to approximately three billion non-Christians. This program looks at the spread of Christianity in the developing world with a particular focus on Nigeria, where evangelists and missionaries are fighting to attract Muslim hearts and minds to the banner of Jesus. But rising intensity on each side has lead to unrest in the streets, including church burnings [and murder]. 'Islam and Christianity do seem to be on a collision course, ' says Philip Jenkins, author of The Next Christendom: The Coming of Global Christianity."—Container

Battlefield: The battle for North Africa (1996)

In 1942, Erwin Rommel, Commander-in-Chief of the German Army, was charged with the impossible - to use an ill-equipped, badly trained, thoroughly demoralized army to wipe out Allied strongholds in Northern Africa. Pitted against Rommel were General Bernard Montgomery of the British Royal Air Force and Dwight Eisenhower, Commander-in-Chief of the Allied Expeditionary Force...

Best of Mohamed Sulaiman Tubee (1980)

Mohamed Sulaiman Tubee, King of Music in the Somali Republic since the 1950's, presents some of the music from his best records in this video. This is the very first video in his career. Somali music consists primarily of poetic love songs. This style of music is unique to the Sudan and Somalia in the Eastern Horn of Africa.

Beyond the plains where man was born (1997)

This video is the story of both an individual and a continent as each confronts the staggering changes of the 20th century. It is the true story of Sayallel, a nomadic herdsboy, who leaves his Maasai community to attend school and gradually gain an new Tanzanian identity.

The Big Sellout (2006). Director: Florian Opitz

"Traveling throughout both the developing and industrialized world, [the film] brings us face-to-face with the architects of the reigning world economic order, as well as with the people bearing the brunt of their policies. Shows how international financial institutions such as the IMF and the World Bank demand draconian cuts in public spending, the privatization of public services and market liberalization as the path to economic development" – Container

Biko: breaking the silence (1987)

The story of Steve Biko was filmed extensively on the set and employs scenes from Cry Freedom to supplement interviews with Biko's colleagues and archival footage. It explorers Biko's intellectual development, why he became such a galvanizing figure, the circumstances of his murder and his impact on the development of the freedom movement in the decade since his death.

Birds of the Wilderness: The Beauty Competition of the Wodaabe People of Niger (2007). Producer: Christopher Roy

"The Wodaabe people of southern Niger, West Africa, hold a beauty competition each fall in which young men paint their faces red and wear costumes of white beads and cloth, with white ostrich feathers in their hats, They are judged based on charm and beauty by the young women of the competing clan. This video includes Wodaabe camp life, the feast before the competition, a young men's initiation, lots of young women, the Ruume dance of welcome, a young man applying his makeup, and lengthy, detailed footage of the Geerewal." - www.createspace.com/2438

Bishop Tutu: peacemaker (1984)

This video is an eloquent statement by 1984 Noble Peace Prize winner, Bishop Desmond Tutu from South Africa, made at the Trinity Lutheran Seminary in Columbus, Ohio, on November 10, 1984. Labelling apartheid as "evil, immoral, and un-Christian", Bishop Tutu describes the absurdities of apartheid laws and dehumanizing conditions for Blacks in South Africa, noting the violence of this system to Black family life.

Black and white in color (1976)

Deep in the interior of West Africa late in 1914, life is serene, though boring, for the memebers of a nearby German garrison...What starts as a broad, obvious, rather pious comedy peopled by musical-comedy types turns much more complex as it goes along.

Black sugar: slavery from the African perspective (1993)

In a narrative style, an African old man tells his grandson how his fellow men and women were seized, uprooted from native soils, and sold to the United States.

Body and Soul (2001). Director: Melody Emmett

In South Africa millions of people are in desperate situations because of HIV and AIDS. This film looks at the attitudes of the three main religions (Christianity, Islam and African traditionalist) in South Africa through interviews with people who must interpret and practice religion in terms of the country's realities.

The bonds of change (1980)

Filmed in Africa, Latin America and Asia, this video features three visionary alliances: Africa - a partnership to build people's organization and local control; Latin America - an alliance to deliver technical and financial services to NGOs; Asia - a strategic coalition to tackle an urgent environmental problem.

Bopha! (1994)

Micah Mangena, a sergeant in South Africa's police force and an unquestioning supporter of the powers that be, finds his world violently torn appart when his son wakes up to the evils of the apartheid system, of which Micah is a part.

Born in Africa :Frontline, the AIDS Quarterly (1990)

A 37-year-old musician, Philly Lutaaya, has become the first prominent Ugandan to publicly acknowledge that he has AIDS. He wages a struggle to educate his countrymen about this disease.

Born musicians : traditional music from the Gambia ; On the battlefield : (1984)

The first program focuses on the professional musicians of the West African Savannah and in particular on the Mandinka music of the Gambia. The second program looks at gospel music in Alabama.

Breaking the silence : stories from AIDS activists in Southern Africa (1996)

Through African women's eyes and words, we journey to the frontlines of the AIDS epidemic in Southern Africa. We witness the daily struggles and successes of AIDS activists as they work together. Breaking the Silence focuses on a Canadian sponsored development program that helps Africans help themselves with very promising results.

A brother with perfect timing (1987)

When he left South Africa in the 1960s, Abdullah Ibrahim took Cape Town with him. This video reveals him as a casually charismatic storyteller, serious but never pompous. It is an articulate, self-told portrait, echoed in music from Ekaya, his band comprised of saxophones, brass and rhythm section.

Bushmeat (2002). Producer: Dawna Treibiciz

This documentary was filmed in the rainforests of Cameroon in Central Africa's Congo Basin, home to the last of most of the world's great apes. It reports on the commercial but illicit trade of meat of gorillas and chimpanzees that is decimating these endangered species.

Business of hunger (1985)

In many Third World countries, cash crops are exported while the poor go hungry. This phenomenon, one of the major causes of world hunger, is examined in Latin America, Africa, Asia, and the USA. The film also proposes a more just distribution of the earth's resources, offering a vision of a world where all have enough to eat.

Bye Bye Africa (1999). Director: Mahamat Saleh Haroun

In this reflexive docu-drama about the difficulties of making films in Africa, an exiled film director returns to Chad after the death of his mother. There he discovers, as a result of wars, that motion picture theaters have been abandoned in favor of makeshift video theaters often in private homes. Haroun visits a producer who suggests that he make a film using a video camera and concludes that the important thing is to continue to produce films no matter what the circumstances.

Catch a Fire (2007). Director: Phillip Noyce

The true story of a South African hero's journey to freedom. In the country's turbulent and divided times in the 1980s, Patrick Chamusso is an oil refinery foreman and soccer coach who is apolitical. That is, until he and his wife Precious are jailed. Patrick is stunned into action against the country's oppressive reigning system, even as police Colonel Nic Vos further insinuates himself into the Chamussos' lives.

Ceddo (2000). Director: Ousmane Sembene

An historical epic set loosely in the 19th century, the film examines the confrontation between opposing forces in the face of Moslem expansion in Africa.

Challenge to Africa (1989)

Africa has the potential for growth limited only by the spirit of its people. The forty-nine nations of Africa must come together to solve their problems. This video contains vignettes of African life and the efforts being undertaken to solve its problems.

The Child Brides (1999). Director: Gill Barnes

"In many parts of Africa, Asia, and South America, young girls are often engaged by the age of eight, and leave their homes to join their husbands by twelve. In many cases, the younger the girl, the more her family receives in the form of a dowry. This program travels to the most rural and poverty-stricken regions of Ethiopia to expose the common practice of child brides and the consequences for the young girls who often give birth before they are out of childhood."—Container

Children of apartheid (1987)

This Walter Cronkite documentary introduces us to the youth of South Africa under the State of Emergency. They talk of prison, politics, insurrection and revolution.

Chuck Davis dancing through West Africa (1986)

A study of African dance and the important place it occupies in village life.

City lovers (1982)

Exquisite acting brings to life this tale of interracial love. The protagonist is a middle-aged geologist, exhilarated by South Africa's wondrous landscapes. His lover is a young cashier in a Johannesburg supermarket, impressed by his worldliness and accomplishments. What begins as a casual relationship, develops slowly, shyly and secretly into a tender love affair. However, the fragile intimacy of their bond is destroyed by the forces of opposition.

Colonial Africa: Films from British Central Africa, 1940s-1960s (2001)

Short feature films, comedies and documentary films produced in British Central Africa from the 1940s to 1960. Mary's lucky day: a young black African woman uses Lux toilet soap and marries the man of her dreams. The box: three men repeatedly rop a grocery store using the same scam. New acres: discussed the Native Land Husbandry Act, designed to stop collective nomadism and develop a culture of settled private ownership of specific land for farming and development.

Come back, Africa (1987)

Documentary-style film which tells the story of Zacariah, an African who, after being forced off his land by the government, must then go to work in the gold mines.

The Constant Gardener (2005). Director: Fernando Meirelles

In a remote area of Northern Kenya, activist Tessa Quayle is found brutally murdered. Tessa's companion, a doctor, appears to have fled the scene, and all the evidence points to a crime of passion. Members of the British High Commission in Nairobi assume that Tessa's widower, their mild-mannered and unambitious colleague Justin Quayle, will leave the matter to them. Haunted by remorse and jarred by rumors of his late wife's infidelities, Quayle surprises everyone by embarking on a personal odyssey that will take him across three continents. Using his privileged access to diplomatic secrets, Justin risks his own life and will stop at nothing to expose the truth - a conspiracy more far-reaching and deadly than Quayle could ever have imagined.

Corridors of freedom (1987)

In 1981, Tanzania, Zambia, Malawai, Botswana, Lesotho, Swaziland, Angola and Zimbabwe formed the Southern African Development Coordination Conference...

The Cost of Living (c2000). Director: Toni Strasburg

Part 14 of a series on how the globalized world economy affects ordinary people. This program examines why AIDS drugs are unaffordable in developing countries, using as examples Thailand and South Africa, two countries who have applied to use compulsory licenses and parallel importing -- practices agreed under World Trade Organization guidelines -- to make their own generic versions of anti-retroviral drugs to halt the AIDS epidemic in their countries. It also asks why anti-retroviral drugs still aren't included in the WTO's essential drugs lists.

Coup de Torchon (c2001). Director: Bertrand Tavernier

After Lucien Cordier, the only police officer in a small African village is ridiculed by the local pimp, cheated on by his wife, and suffers his mistresses being beaten, he begins to get rid of the evil ones in his life.

Cry Freedom (1988)

Story of Black activist Stephen Biko (Washington) and a liberal white newspaper editor Donald Woods (Kline) who risks his own life to bring Biko's message to the world.

The Cry of Reason (1988)

The Cry of Reason chronicles Naude's spiritual and political journey from trusted Afrikaner pastor to stounch supporter of the freedom movement.

Cry, the Beloved Country (1995). Director: Darrell James Roodt

A black minister and white land owner are united by a tragedy, with the potential for further hatred or healing.

The Cultural Music of the People and Church of Eastern Africa (2004). Producer: Richard J. Quinn

A look at liturgical hymns and songs by performers from various countries in East Africa, particularly Uganda, Sudan, Rwanda, Tanzania and Kenya.