Africa
The Second Red Line
Veera Lehto, 2004, 25 mins.
In HIV testing, the second red line is the indication of a positive result. This film follows two volunteers working with HIV & Aids sufferers in the Buduburam Refugee Camp in Ghana. In the absence of medication, the only thing the volunteers can offer is care, compassion and religious faith.
Supported by the One World Broadcasting Trust.
Screened on YLE Television, Finland. Also screened on Community
Channel, 2005. Mostra, Rio de Janeiro 2005.
Born Again
Carla Huysmans, 2003, 19 mins.
Carla last met Maureen Mulozi in 1998 in Lusaka, Zambia where they were colleagues and friends. Since then Maureen's life has changed considerably: she became a 'born again' Christian and moved to Namibia where she is teaching English in a remote settlement. Her new strong faith however turns out to be a serious challenge for their friendship. Will it survive this religious gap?
Supported by the One World Broadcasting Trust.
Debut Prize, Anthropological Film Festival, Moscow 2004.
The Ragged Ones
David Griggs, 2002, 30 mins
The Basotho live in Lesotho, a kingdom of high mountains surrounded by South Africa. Afflicted by famine, poverty and AIDS, they carry on making a science out of their witchcraft beliefs.
Munich International Documentary 2003; Best Film on a Marginalised People, Black International Cinema Festival, Berlin/Dusseldorf/Vienna/Lujbliana.
Street Fiction
Dominic Elliot, 2002, 32 mins
Through combining their own dramatic reconstructions and real life observation, this film tells the story of the Malawian children who run away from their homes in search of a better life on the streets of Blantyre.
NAFA, Tartu 2004.
Native
Rachel Greenwood, 2002, 29 mins
Through his clothing, a young South African fashion designer of mixed race urges freedom and unity in post-apartheid South Africa. His message is reaching not only his fellow South Africans, but also the young people of Europe.
Usch in the Bush
Michaela Schäuble, 2001, 32 mins
In the 1980s Ursula Heimer leaves behind her husband and children in Germany and goes to live in the African bush. We meet her seventeen years later in a tiny village in Togo, where she has been living in her own eccentric world, far away from the life she once knew.
NAFA, Tartu 2004; Göttingen 2002.
Jungle Cat
Natalie Schädler, 2000, xx mins
In search of the righteous way of living, the Liberian rapper CyLover,
aka as 'Jungle Cat' wants to make music for his people. Now based in
Ghana, the big chance to finish his first album approaches but he has
to prove that being a professional artist means more than being well-known
in the 'hood'.
Not yet available: consents still pending
You Can't Live With Your Mouth Shut
João Nicolau, 1999, 29 mins
Cape Verde is an archipelago situated 500km off the West Coast of Africa. Mano Mendi lives on the island of Santiago and is the last player of the cimboa, a one-string violin used to accompany the traditional batuque music.Through the portrait of Mano Mendi and the learning experience of To, a music teacher in the capital city of Praia, the film shows us how this music is rooted in the rhythms of everyday life.
Grand Prize (National Competition) Videolisboa 2000; Göttingen 2000; Margaret Mead, New York 2000; Encontros Internacionais de Cinema Documental - Malaposta Lisbon; Dokumentafilm und Videofest, Kassel, Germany; Internationales VideoFestival, Bochum, Germany; Taiwan International Ethnographic Film Festival, Taipei 2001; Encontros Internacionais de Cinema, Sal, Cape Verde; Festival de Cinema Pan-Africano, Salvador da Bahia, Brazil; Viper 2000 - International Festival for Film, Video and New Media, Lucerne, Switzerland; L'immagine Leggera - International Videoart, Film & Media Festival, Palermo, Italy; European Media Art Festival, Osnabruck, Germany; Impakt - Festival for Audiovisual Arts, Utrecht, Netherlands; International Festival of New Film and Video, Split, Croatia.
Fresh Fields
Alastair Cook, 1995, 31 mins (SVHS)
From conflict to construction - this is the story of two disabled ex-fighters rebuilding their lives after Eritrea's thirty-year war for freedom.
Gule Wamkulu - The Great Dance
Charles Namondwe, 1991, 37 mins (Shot on VHS)
Performed by the Chewa secret societies, Gule Wamkulu is a form of masked dance which takes place at male initiation ceremonies, funerals, and other major celebrations. Acting as a medium between the ancestral world of spirits and the mundane present, Gule Wamkulu symbolises almost the entire spectrum of life's emotions and actions.
RAI, Manchester 1992.