Videos and Other Media:
Children and Youth

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.

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.

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.

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.

Duara: Sound the Drum (c2002). Director: Richard Ndunguru

In Duara, two young adults, who are in love, face the consequences of opening their intimate circle. This film addresses issues of health, sexuality, HIV-AIDS, education, and young people in Africa.
Sound the Drum, a documentary student production, chronicles the birth of the TeleDrum collaborative filmmaking program and the coming together of two different cultures to make the film Duara in Tanzania, East Africa.

Girls apart (1987)

This is the story of two 16-year-old schoolgirls - one black, one white - who inhabit separate worlds prescribed by apartheid.

Jirimpimbira : an African folktale (1995)

A brave boy named Temba ventures to find food and water for his drought-striken village. But when he is given a set of magical bones, he uses them to gain riches for himself instead of sharing with his friends.

Let Them Speak (c2002). Director: John Mbaka

Human rights have carried the wave of democratisation particularly in the new millenium Africa. In Kenya, cases of students unrest have been on the increase. The Legal Resources Foundation, a non-governmental organisation founded in 1993 has therefore taken the initiative to answer one key question. Why students unrest? This is a documentary of its School's Outreach Programme work in informal education to enable students realize their human rights, respect the rule of law and make use of existing administrative mechanisms to effectively resolve conflicts not only at school but at home and in society as a whole. The stakeholders of informal education are encouraged to provide for a forum through which students can more willingly participate in the day to day decision making.

Looking for Busi (2001). Director: Robyn Hofmeyr

This is the story of a fifteen-year old South African girl, Busi, who is an HIV-positive mother. Busi's mother abandoned her when Busi becomes pregnant, even before testing positive for AIDS. Busi is chosen for a mother-to-child drug trial and to be the subject of a documentary. After the documentary airs and exposes that she is HIV-positive, Busi disappears, and the filmmaker and her friend search for her.

Master Harold and the boys (1984)

This is Athol Fugard's devastating drama about an adolescent in South Africa and his discovery that he is the master of the black man who helped to raise him.

Moolaadé (2004). Director: Ousmane Sembene

Senegalese writer-director Ousmane Sembene makes an impassioned plea against the practice of salinde, or female circumcision, in this moving portrait of a society in transition. In a West African village run by uncompromising Muslim males, fiery Colle provides safe harbor for young girls fleeing their "cleansing" rituals. But what one man terms "a minor domestic issue" soon puts the whole town on the verge of bloodshed.

Sara: Daughter of a Lioness (c1998). Director: Nuzhat Shazhadi

Sara, a girl child living in an unidentified African country, serves as a role model for children seeking education and a better life.

Shouting Silent (c2002). Director: Renee Rosen

Xoliswa Sithol, an adult orphan who lost her mother to AIDS in 1996, explores the devastation wrought on the orphaned children of South Africa by the HIV/AIDS pandemic.

Uncommon ground : a film (1994)

Follows the journey of five Los Angeles high school students to Grahamstown, South Africa, where they meet and live with five South African students in a black township.

Wooden Camera (2003). Director: Ntshanheni Wa Luruli

"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."--Container