Cry Freedom

Story of Black activist Stephen Biko (Denzel Washington) and a liberal white newspaper editor Donald Woods (Kevin Kline) who risks his own life to bring Biko's message to the world.  Based on a true story in South African apartheid history.
 

VTLIB Video 7384

General Idi Amin Dada:  Autoportrait

A documentary on the military dictator of Africa's Uganda. One of the most heinous killers to ever lead a country.  Along with the surreal pomposities of the notorious and charismatic dictator of Uganda, there's the cold-blooded reality of expulsions, disappearamces and executions.
When Barbet Schroeder released his documentary General Idi Amin Dada in 1974, it must have been quite a sensation. Amin gave full cooperation to Schroeder (the documentary carries the subtitle "Self Portrait"), sitting for numerous interviews,      stage-managing a series of public appearances in front of adoring crowds, and even scoring the film with his accordion music. Is this joking, amiable "man of the people" the same dictator who put 300,000 people to death between 1971 and 1979? Perhaps it's his anti-Semitic ravings, or his fetish for artillery and military finery, or the aggression that drifts through almost every speech, but there's a schism between the media-managed image and the weirdness and violence churning under his wide smile. Periodic narration strips the façade off a few staged scenes and underscores others with historical background. But apart from the opening footage of a chilling state-sanctioned execution, Schroeder lets the schizophrenic portrait stand on its own: a preening, vain, psychotic clown as aspiring Hitler. It's a curious document, one Amin first embraced, then denounced, but almost 30 years later it isn't enough to answer the questions surrounding this brutal despot.

VTLIB(Video 868), BB-DRAMA

Out of Africa (1985)
 

Exquisite, intelligent romantic drama based on life of Karen Blixen, who married for convenience, moved from Denmark to Nairobi, and fell in love with a British adventurer and idealist (before gaining latter-day fame as author Isak Dinesen). Pollack's film brilliantly captures time and place, with superb performances by Streep and Brandauer, sumptuous photography by David Watkin, and a rich score by John Barry. Film's only fault is overlength--and biggest challenge is asking us to accept Redford as an Englishman.

VU-DRAMA

Born Free (1966)

Joy Adamson and her husband, Kenya game warden George Adamson, raise Elsa, a lion cub. When Elsa approaches maturity, Joy determines she must re-educate Elsa to living in the wild so that the lioness can return to a free life.
 
 

VTLIB (Video 5143)

Africa, I Will Fleece Thee

A compelling and sardonic essay on the history of colonialism in Cameroon, and by extension, on the African continent. Focuses on historical as well as contemporary European cultural domination, particularly in the publishing and media industry.

VTLIB(Video 2401), VU-DRAMA

Gorillas in the Mist (1988)

Absorbing drama based on the life of Dian Fossey, who journeyed to Africa in 1967 and, with no prior experience, set out to document the vanishing breed of mountain gorillas for National Geographic. Her transformation from diligent researcher to obsessive madwoman is a bit more abrupt than it ought to be, but it's still a good film, and Weaver is compelling in the lead.
 
 

VU-DRAMA

Shaka Zulu (1987)

The true story of the life and rise to power of Shaka, the greatest Zulu leader in history. Starting from his birth, this film takes us through his difficult childhood, his taking by force the leaderhsip of the Zulu nation, and then to his dramatic fall, due mostly to the influences of the British colonialists.
 
 

VU-DRAMA

Ghost and the Darkness, The (1996)
 

In 1896, an Irish bridge builder heads to Africa for his latest project, but the campsite is soon cursed by violent and unexplainable attacks by a pair of man-eating lions. Eventually, renowned big-game hunter Douglas is called in. What begins as a rousing, old-fashioned adventure somehow loses its way--and its impact. Screenplay by William Goldman. Based on the same true story that inspired BWANA DEVIL.
 

VU-COMEDY, BB-COMEDY

Gods Must Be Crazy, The (1980)
 

Highly original, offbeat comedy about cultural clashes in Africa, involving a bushman who encounters civilization for the first time, a pretty schoolteacher whose new assignment is a remote village, and a bumbling scientist whose attempts to make her welcome result in slapstick catastrophes. Film itself is clumsy at times, but completely disarming. It didn't receive major U. S. release until 1984, but then became the biggest foreign box-office hit in history! Uys, who also wrote and produced, plays the reverend. Followed by a sequel.
 
 

VTLIB(Video 4559), BB-FOR

Quartier Mozart

A New Wave parable chronicling 48 hours in the life of a young woman in Yaounde, Cameroon, this film has our heroine entering the body of a young man with the help of a local sorceress. There, she learns first-hand how men feel about and treat women.
 
 

VTLIB(Video 4886), BB-FOR

Touki Bouki (1973)

Mory, a cowherd who rides a motorcycle mounted with a cow's skull, and Anta, a university student, have met in Dakar, Senegal's capital. Alienated and disaffected with Senegal and Africa, they long to go to Paris and work up different con schemes to raise the money. Mory steals clothing and money from a wealthy gay man who had brought him home, and he and Anta book passage on a ship to France.  WATCH OUT! This is definitely an art film--if you don't know what that means, stay away from this one.
 
 

VTLIB(Video 4878), BB-FOR

Wend Kuuni
 

A celebration of traditional African values, this fable set in Burkina Faso prior to the birth of organized religion uses flashbacks to tell the tale of a young boy who discovers compassion after being adopted by kindly villagers.
 

VTLIB(Video 4538), BB-DRAMA

Bopha! (1993)

Tense, involving drama with Glover and Woodard (who played Nelson and Winnie Mandela in the TV movie MANDELA) starring as a married couple residing in a peaceful South African township. He's a police officer who upholds the status quo; their world is sure to crumble when their son (Eziashi) takes part in a rebellion against the discipline and curriculum of the local white-run school
 
 

VTLIB(Video 2604), BB-DRAMA

Dry White Season, A (1989)

Ben du Toit is a schoolteacher who always has considered himself a man of caring and justice, at least on the individual level. When his gardeners son is brutally beaten up by the police at a demonstration by black school children, he gradually begins to realize his society is built on a pillar of injustice and exploitation.
 

BB-DRAMA

The Lion of Africa

A missionary uses a million-dollar diamond to lure a safari guide into helping her get medicine for sick villagers under her care, fighting the jungle along the way. Filmed on location in Kenya.
 
 
 

VTLIB (Video 3600)

White Hunter, Black Heart (1990)
 

Mature, intelligent (if somewhat one-note) adaptation of Peter Viertel's 1953 novel based on his experiences during the filming of THE AFRICAN QUEEN, and his closeup observations of its macho director, John Huston. Eastwood gives an excellent performance as the contrary, self-destructive (and fictionalized) filmmaker, who becomes obsessed with bagging an elephant while on location for his movie in Africa. May not be too compelling if you're not already interested in the subject, but it convincingly recreates the time and place.
 

VTLIB (Video 2542)

Chocolat (1988)
 

Subtle, slowly paced slice-of-life about a young woman's memories of her childhood in French West Africa, where whites are masters and most blacks are servants. This very personal, autobiographical film (which first-time director Denis coscripted) is quietly rewarding.
 

VU-DRAMA

The Power of One

Precisely what you'd expect when the director of ROCKY and THE KARATE KID tackles a movie about apartheid. Rah-rah mawkishness tells of a white South African lad who promotes integration by getting into the boxing ring with his oppressed black buddies. Offensive trivialization of a great subject, but at least the first half offers Freeman and Mueller-Stahl as the youth's mentors
 
 

VTLIB(Video 3140)

Zulu

Narrated by Richard Burton. True story about undermanned British forces trying to defend their African mission from attack by hordes of Zulu warriors. Dramatic elements tend toward cliché, but virtually half the film is taken up by massive battle, which is truly spectacular and exciting. On the January 22nd 1879 the British Army suffers one of it's worst defeats when Zulu forces massacre 1,500 of its troops. A short time after the main battle a Zulu force numbering in excess of 4000 warriors advances on a British supply dump guarded by 139 Welsh infantrymen. The film concentrates on this bloody 12 hour battle. Followed 15 years later by prequel, ZULU DAWN.
 

VTLIB(Video 1878)

The Dogs of War

Mercenary Paul Shannon (Christopher Walken), on a reconaissance job to the African nation of Zangora, is tortured and deported. He returns to lead a revolution. Appropriately mean if overly somber adaptation of the Frederick Forsyth best-seller about a mercenary who tangles with an Amin-like dictator in an African hellhole. Will not promote one-worldism, but Walken takes a screen beating nearly as impressively as Brando.
 

VTLIB(Video 6203)

Ship of Slaves: The Middle Passage

Details the trials and tribulations of the slaves on their voyage from Africa to the Americas on slave ships. This transatlantic slave trade which lasted 300 years was known in history as the black holocaust.
 
 

VTLIB (Video 7427)

Tilai

Set in a pre-colonial African past, Tilai is about an illicit love affair and its consequences. Saga returns to his village after an extended absence to discover that his father has taken Nogma, Saga's promised bride, for himself. Still in love with each other, the two begin an affair, although it would be considered incestuous. When the liaison is discovered, Saga's brother,         Koudri, pretends to kill Saga for the honor of the family and village. Saga and Nogma flee to another village, but when Nogma's birth mother dies, he returns home. Having brought ruin on the family, Saga is shot by Koudri, who walks off into exile and probable death.
 
 

VTLIB (Video 7428)

Yaaba

A small african village. The story focuses on Bila, a ten year old boy who befriends an old  woman, Sana. Everybody calls her 'Witch' but Bila himself calls her 'Yaaba' (grandmother). When Bilas cousin Nopoko gets sick it is Sana's medicin who rescues her.

VTLIB (Video 3709)

Yaaba Soore: the path of the ancestor

African masks, seen as museum pieces don't convey the power and beauty that they do in their native environment. This film shows African masks from the country of Burkina Faso in West Africa in their proper context, as used in the ritual dances of the people of this region.