African Studies Media Catalog
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Africa: Search for Common Ground (Videocassette NA ) [2005]
ON-ORDER
Abstract: Seven-part series by the NGO, Search for Common Ground, which emphasizes conflict resolution, prevention and transformation. Contents: Program 1-- Thokoza Video Dialogues for Peace; Program 2 -- When Things Fall Apart (Congo), Breaking the Cycle: Domestic Violence (South Africa); Program 3 --'Reconciliation Radio (Burundi), Democracy or Disruption - Wangari Maathai and Green Belt (Kenya); Program 4 -- The Hunt for Witches (South Africa); Program 5 -- A.T. Toure and the Peace Flame (Mali), Water, Water Everywhere (Lesotho); Program 6 -- Under the Baobab Tree (South Africa), Making the Angola Peace Song (Angola); Program 7 -- Between Confession and Prosecution: Truth and Reconciliation (South Africa).
Director: NA Distributor:Search for Common Ground
Keywords: Angola, Burundi, Congo, Kenya, Lesotho, Mali, South Africa, conflict resolution, violence, TRC
All About Darfur (Videocassette : 82 min. ) [2005]
V.CASS. VHS 9128
Abstract: Up until now the perilous situation in Sudan has been seen only from outside the country. All About Darfur offers an opportunity to hear it explained by eloquent, diverse, even contradictory voices from within Sudan. The director talks to ordinary Sudanese in outdoor tea shops, markets, refugee camps and living rooms about how deeply rooted prejudices could suddenly burst into a wild fire of ethnic violence.
Director: Taghreed Elsanhouri Distributor:California Newsreel
Keywords: Sudan, Darfur, civil war, ethnicity, race relations, humanitarian crisis, violence
All About Darfur (DVD : 82 min. ) [2005]
DVD 8064
Abstract: Up until now the perilous situation in Sudan has been seen only from outside the country. All About Darfur offers an opportunity to hear it explained by eloquent, diverse, even contradictory voices from within Sudan. The director talks to ordinary Sudanese in outdoor tea shops, markets, refugee camps and living rooms about how deeply rooted prejudices could suddenly burst into a wild fire of ethnic violence.
Director: Taghreed Elsanhouri Distributor:Taghreed Elsanhouri Productions
Keywords: Sudan, Darfur, genocide, civil war, ethnicity, politics, refugees, violence
Black Man's Land Trilogy (DVD : 156 min. ) [1986]
Abstract: Three-part series of films consisting of White Man's Country (part 1), Mau Mau (part 2) and Kenyatta (part 3); all of the films combine period photographs and contemporary location footage with the testimony of African and European witnesses. The trilogy covers the violence of colonial rule, white settlement and African resistance in the story of Kenya, as the British tried to make it a 'white man's country' like South Africa or New Zealand. Land was allocated, settlers welcomed, and the 'jewel of the British empire' was born. But it was African land that was taken, African labor that was used to develop it, and African taxes that kept the colonial regime solvent. How did Africans confront this process? White Man's Country tells this story. Mau Mau traces the history of the state of emergency declared by the British Colonial government of Kenya in 1952 in an attempt to subdue the movement among black Kenyans for political and civil rights. Kenyatta offers a biographical account of Jomo Kenyatta, the man who became Kenya's national leader and who eventually led the movement to establish an independent government.
Director: David Koff, Anthony Howarth Distributor:Facets Multimedia
Keywords: Kenya, history, settler colonialism, land, history, politics
Children of War (Videocassette : 28 min. ) [2001]
VHS 9178
Abstract: Thousands of children have been kidnapped and used as soldiers by the Ugandan rebel army, the Lord's Resistance Army. The children, many of whom are tortured, live a life of terror: girls as young as 12 are used as sex slaves, while the boys are forced to sometimes even kill family members. Once they have completed this terrible task, they are considered tough enough to be used in raids by the rebel army. This film follows two such children who escaped from their captors: Judith who for six years lived as a sex slave for a rebel commander, and Dennis who was caught when he tried to escape the first time and consequently forced to kill his friend. John Rheinstein, a therapist from 'Save the Children Denmark', attempts to create a new life for those children who have run away from the rebel army. The rehabilitation program includes having the children draw and reenact their traumatic experiences. Judith's parents are found and she is reunited with her family who thought that she had been killed. Three months after his return to the rehabilitation camp, Dennis is still battling with his traumas; his family has failed to retrieve him. Despite all attempts by groups like 'Save the Children' to stop the violence, it is a sad fact that very few children come out of the bush alive in this 'forgotten war'.
Director: Henrik Grunnet, Keld Kluwer Distributor:Filmakers Library, NY
Keywords: Uganda, children, child soldiers, civil war, rehabilitation, sexual abuse, trauma, violence
Deniers Colons (Les) = Last Colonials (The) (Videocassette : 61 min. ) [1995]
V. CASS. VHS 3249
Abstract: Visits with the last of the white population living in Zaire. They are managers, missionaries, businessmen and land owners who have chosen to settle in the heart of Africa, and who remain there in spite of the violence and danger. They reminisce on the 'good old days of the colonial era' and reveal shattered dreams in a country they thought might have been the new El Dorado.
Director: Thierry Michel Distributor:First Run/Icarus
Keywords: Democratic Republic of Congo, politics, government, colonialism, social conditions, history
Diamond Life (The) (Videocassette : 7 min. ) [2000]
V.CASS. VHS 8973
Abstract: The Revolutionary United Front's (RUF) attack on Freetown in January of 1999 was the culmination of a decade-long and bloody struggle between the RUF and the government of Sierra Leone. The rebel forces, bolstered by the former Sierra Leonean Army, which had turned on the government, swept into the city, killing, mutilating, and raping thousands in the continuing war over the control of the country's rich diamond fields. RUF units burned houses with civilians inside, shot and raped people at random, killing an estimated 6,000 people in the span of three weeks. Since 1990, half the country's population of five million has been displaced. Today, Sierra Leone produces more refugees than any other country in Africa. The country is full of war victims, whose amputated limbs serve as living testimony to the brutality of the rebels. The Diamond Life provides a disturbing glimpse into the greed and violence that fuels the Sierra Leone region's brutal diamond war.
Director: Stephen Marshall, Josh Shore Distributor:Witness
Keywords: Sierra Leone, civil war, violence, politics, history, refugees
Diamonds of War (Video Disc/Laser Vision : 50min min. ) [2007]
DVD 8987
Abstract: In the diamond-rich West African nation of Sierra Leone, rebels used the precious gems to bankroll a violent ten-year insurrection, leaving a terrorized population and a ravaged landscape in its wake.
Director: NA Distributor:Warner Home Video
Keywords: Sierra Leone, diamonds, mining, war, violence, economy
Femme taxi à Sidi Bel-Abbès (Une) (Videocassette : 52 min. ) [2000]
V. CASS. VHS 6465
Abstract: After the death of her husband, Soumicha becomes the only woman taxi driver in Sidi Bel-Abbès (Algeria). The film shows her working conditions in a job normally reserved for men, and a city where integrist violence rages.
Director: Belkacem Jadjadj Distributor:First Run/Icarus Films
Keywords: Algeria, women, gender roles, labor
Force More Powerful: A Century of Nonviolent Conflict ( A) (Videocassette : 174 min. ) [2000]
V. CASS. VHS 6141 Parts 1-6
Abstract: This six-part series tells one of the 20th century's most important and least-known stories-- how nonviolent power overcame oppression and authoritarian rule. In South Africa in 1907, Mohandas Gandhi led Indian immigrants in a nonviolent fight for rights denied them by white rulers. The power that Gandhi pioneered has been used by underdogs on every continent and in every decade of the 20th century, to fight for their rights and freedom. Includes segments on South Africa, India, Denmark, Poland, Chile, and the U.S.
Director: Steve York Distributor:Films for the Humanities and Sciences
Keywords: South Africa, nonviolence, Gandhi, politics
Going Home (Videocassette : 31 min. ) [1999]
V.CASS. VHS 8931
Abstract: Mohammed is 10 years old, but for most of 1997 he was forced to act as a young fighter with rebel forces in the forests of Sierra Leone. His duties included carrying heavy equipment, acting as a personal servant to other soldiers, and torturing and disciplining any of the other child soldiers who stepped out of line. Eventually he escaped to Guinea, where he is one of thousands lining up to register at the Gueckedou refugee camp. In 1997 Guinea was host to an estimated 430,000 refugees: 190,000 Sierra Leoneans, and 240,000 Liberians who had escaped the eight-year civil wars there. This film evaluates the success of the Guinean government and the UN High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) in protecting the rights pledged this huge African refugee population under the OAU Convention.
Director: Emily Marlow Distributor:Bullfrog Films
Keywords: Guinea (Conakry), Liberia, Sierra Leone, civil war, violence, youth, refugees, UN
Greatest Silence: Rape in the Congo (The) (DVD : 76 min. ) [2007]
DVD 9695
Abstract: Since 1998 a brutal war has ravaged the Democratic Republic of Congo, killing over 4 million people and resulting in many tens of thousands of women and girls being systematically kidnapped, raped, mutilated and tortured by soldiers from both foreign militias and the Congolese army. Until now, their stories have never been told to the world.
Director: Lisa F. Jackson Distributor:Women Make Movies
Keywords: Democratic Republic of Congo, war, rape, violence, gender
Heart of the Congo (DVD : 57 min. ) [2004]
DVD 7637
Abstract: Amid threats of violence, corruption, and a legacy of colonial dependency, aid workers in the Congo help refugees who have lost everything. They seek to strengthen villagers' will, essential for a self-sufficient future. Heart of the Congo is a film about courage, perseverance and ways in which humanitarian aid makes a lasting difference.
Director: Tom Weidlinger Distributor:Bullfrog Films
Keywords: Congo, refugees, humanitarian assistance, colonialism
Hunting My Husband's Killer: A Rwandan Story (DVD : 51 min. ) [2004]
DVD 7966
Abstract: Lesley Bilinda, the Scottish widow of a Rwandan black pastor, returns ten years after the 1994 Rwandan genocide to search for his murderers only to find the truth elusive and forgiveness impossible. Lesley met Charles when she was working as a nurse in Rwanda, but their life together was shattered as genocide swept the country. In a hundred days of violence, about one million were killed. At the height of the genocide, Charles was abducted and never seen again. Ten years later, in a new atmosphere of openness, some of the killers are coming forward to confess their crimes. Lesley meets the manager of the guesthouse where Charles was last seen, Paster Kabeira. He is believed to have colluded with Hutu rebels and was seen handing Charles over to armed militants. He is now in prison, but he refuses to admit he did anything wrong. The meeting leaves her frustrated and upset, but she refuses to give up. She visits the Murambi Genocide Memorial site to confront for herself the scale of the genocide. Its full horror brings her to her knees. She travels on to Gahini, the village where she and Charles lived. A local man agrees to speak about the killings. As they talk, it becomes clear to her that he was one of the men who murdered her best friend, Anatolie. She feels disgust but also pity for him. She also uncovers some unexpected and unpalatable truths about her husband's 'secret life' which test her Christian faith to its limits.
Director: Jay Knox Distributor:NA
Keywords: Rwanda, Hutu, civil war, genocide, monuments
I Have a Problem, Madam (Videocassette : 59 min. ) [1995]
V. CASS. VHS 3254
Abstract: Run by female lawyers, FIDA-Uganda has set up several legal aid centers for women in domestic trouble. With the help of a weekly radio show, the centers fill daily with women waiting to tell their stories. FIDA lawyers attempt to reconcile the women and their men in face to face meetings, even if it means traveling to isolated villages. The attitudes of both men and women are beginning to change, but this slow process sometimes leads to conflicts between official and traditional law. A film by Maarten Schmidt and Thomas Doebele.
Director: Maarten Scmidt, Thomas Doebele Distributor:First Run/Icarus
Keywords: Uganda, women, law, marriage, social conditions, development, family violence
In Rwanda We Say: The Family that Does Not Speak Dies (Videocassette : 54 min. ) [2004]
V.CASS. VHS 8766
Abstract: Two years after the Gacaca tribunals, close to 16,000 genocide suspects, still untried, were released across the country. Having confessed to their crimes and having served the maximum sentence the Gacaca tribunals would eventually impose, perpetrators of genocidal violence are sent home to plow fields and fetch water alongside the people they victimized. In Rwanda We Say focuses on the release of one suspect, tracking the effect of his return on a tiny hillside hamlet. While the government's message of a 'united Rwandan family' permeates the language of the community, the imposed co-existence brings forth varying emotions, from numb acceptance to repressed rage.
Director: Anne Aghion Distributor:First Run/Icarus Films
Keywords: Rwanda, Hutu, Tutsi, civil war, genocide, law
In a Time of Violence (Video Disc/Laser Vision : 151 min. ) [1993]
V. CASS. VHS 2797 v. 1-3
Abstract: The most controversial program broadcast on South African television, this film provides fascinating insights into the lingering divisions confronting the country as it attempts to forge a new post-apartheid national identity. A story concerning changing values, violent cultural and political clashes and conflict among black families in Johannesburg, South Africa. Writer: Oliver Schmitz. Three episodes: The Line, All on Edge, Fire with Fire.
Director: Brian Tilley Distributor:California Newsreel
Keywords: South Africa, politics, social change, popular culture
Invisible Children (DVD : 55 min. ) [2006]
DVD 5486
Abstract: In Uganda's long-lasting civil war, many children have been abducted to be trained as child soldiers. This film documents the children's life and general social conditions in Uganda in 2003. What started out as a film-making adventure in Africa, transformed into much more, when the three young Americans original travels took a divine turn, and they found themselves stranded in Northern Uganda. They discovered children being kidnapped nightly from their homes and subsequently forced to fight as child soldiers. Children as young as eight are methodically kidnapped from their homes by a rebel group called the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA). The abducted children are then desensitized to the horror of brutal violence and killing, as they themselves are turned into vicious fighters. Some escape and hide in constant fear for their lives. Most remain captive, and grow to maturity with no education other than life in the bush and fighting in a guerilla war. Of the many ramifications that a 20 -year-long war can cause, the film highlights what the community refers to as 'night commuters.' We watch thousands of children commute out of fear, from their villages to nearby towns each night in order to avoid the LRA (Lord's Resistance Army) abductions. They sleep in public places, vulnerable, and without supervision.
Director: Jason Russell, Bobby Bailey, Laren Poole Distributor:Invisible Children
Keywords: Uganda, children, civil war, child soldiers
Kenya, Where Women Rule (DVD : 20 min. ) [2006]
DVD 8230
Abstract: Domestic violence against women is rife among the Samburu in Kenya. In Samburu culture, the women also do all the work, including building the homes, herding, collecting firewood and water and caring for the children. In the 1980s and 90s, two hundred women from the tribe claimed they were raped by men from a nearby British army base. The Samburu men rejected them, whipped them and threw them out of their homes. In 1990 a small group of these stigmatized women decided to band together and create their own village. Under the leadership of one woman, Rebecca Lollosoli, their village has prospered, taking advantage of the income from tourism. The Samburu men have tried to sabotage the tourist business and have also mounted raids on the village. Finally, the Samburu men's chief tried to effect a reconciliation, but the women vehemently rejected his proposal. They are clearly enjoying the advantages of independence!
Director: Stormland Productions Distributor:NA
Keywords: Kenya, Samburu, women, economy, rape, tourism
Mama Awethu! (Videocassette : 53 min. ) [1993]
VHS 9202
Abstract: Mama Awethu! follows the day-to-day lives of five black South African women in the townships around Cape Town, revealing the inhuman legacy of the apartheid system. Evelyn, once an African National Congress branch secretary, lives in a squatter location called Philippi and works as a cleaning woman. Iris, also from Philippi, is a member of the ANC Women's League who is involved in community politics. Sheila, a resident of Khayaletisha, is a committed activist; Dinah is new to politics; and Nopopi focuses on issues affecting women. As they share their lives with the camera, the film reveals how township life has necessitated their involvement in the struggle for better living conditions and equal rights. Although set in South Africa, the inspiring voices heard in Mama Awethu! are a call to empowerment for all women. They speak eloquently of hope in the midst of immense violence and killing. Much more than a record of South African women, Mama Awethu! is a song about life and the courage to live.
Director: Bethany Yarrow Distributor:First Run/Icarus Films
Keywords: South Africa, Cape Town, African National Congress, apartheid, social situation, women
Man Who Stole My Mother's Face (The) (Videocassette : 58 min. ) [2003]
V.CASS. VHS 8881
Abstract: Two days before Christmas in 1988, Cathy Henkel's 59 year-old mother Laura was sexually and brutally attacked in her home in Johannesburg, South Africa by a local white teenager. Although Laura identified her attacker, the man was never charged and remained free. For fourteen years, unable to recover, Laura Henkel retreated from her family and rejected contact with the outside world. In an attempt to help her mother heal, Cathy Henkel took matters into her own hands, returned to Johannesburg and confronted her mother's attackers. What begins as an exploration about the unsolved case of Laura Henkel's rape becomes a revelation about the healing process.
Director: Cathy Henkel Distributor:Women Make Movies
Keywords: South Africa, women, rape, violence
Mau Mau (Video Disc/Laser Vision : 52 min. ) [1973]
DVD 9266
Abstract: In October 1952 the British government declared a State of Emergency in Kenya in order to defeat Mau Mau. In the war that followed, fewer than 40 of 40,000 white settlers were killed while more than 15,000 Africans lost their lives and hundreds of thousands more were arrested and subjected to a humiliating and often brutal process of 'rehabilitation.' Mau Mau traces the history of the state of emergency declared by the British Colonial government of Kenya in 1952 in an attempt to subdue the movement among black Kenyans for political and civil rights. Reveals the secret society known as Mau Mau to have been an attempt by the white minority to discredit the rising tide of black nationalism. Using newsreel and previously inaccessible archive footage, and drawing on interviews with participants on both sides, this film examines the myth and reality of Africa's first modern guerrilla war. This film is part 2 of the Black Man's Land trilogy; see also White Man's Country (part 1) and Kenyatta (part 3).
Director: David Koff, Anthony Howarth Distributor:NA
Keywords: Kenya, Mau Mau, history, colonialism, politics, settlers, nationalism, violence, war
Night Stop (Videocassette : 50 min. ) [2001]
V.CASS. VHS 8244
Abstract: This documentary tells of the lives of eight prostitutes living in northern Mozambique. They reveal their individual stories of pregnancy, the search for a husband, unrequited love, violence and resignation. While the women are aware of the dangers of HIV and AIDS, they continue to have unprotected sex. The video also illustrates the world of the truck drivers as they talk among themselves. Part of Steps for the Future, a unique collection of documentaries and short films from Southern Africa about life in the time of HIV/AIDS (Volume 5).
Director: Licinio Azavedo Distributor:California Newsreel
Keywords: Mozambique, HIV/AIDS, prostitution, violence, labor, gender, Steps for the Future
On the Frontlines: Child Soldiers in DRC (Videocassette : 15 min. ) [2004]
VHS 9139
Abstract: This film features footage of the military training of children in several camps in South Kivu, Democratic Republic of Congo, as well as testimony from demobilized child soldiers recounting their horrifying memories. Militia groups the Democratic Republic of Congo use children, both boys and girls, as soldiers. The majority of these children are between the ages of eight and sixteen and are often supported in their endeavors by their parents and the community at large. They are led by a sense of patriotism and promises of prosperity and a better life. On the Frontlines features footage of several militia camps, as well as testimony from demobilized child soldiers recounting their horrifying memories of life in the militias.
Director: Bukeni Beck Distributor:Witness
Keywords: Democratic Republic of Congo, civil war, children, violence
One Hundred Years of Silence (DVD : 39 min. ) [2006]
DVD 8698
Abstract: Documentary film about the near extermination of the Herero people of Namibia by German colonial soldiers in the first years of the 20th century. This history is told through the story of a young present-day Herero woman whose great-grandmother was raped by a German soldier, resulting in Georgina's light skin and eyes.
Director: Halfdan Muurholm Distributor:Filmakers Library
Keywords: Namibia, Herero, colonialism, history, genocide, violence
Operation Fine Girl: Rape used as a Weapon of War in Sierra Leone (Videocassette : 46 min. ) [2001]
VHS 9207
Abstract: Operation Fine Girl documents the brutal use of rape as a weapon of war in Sierra Leone. The story is told through the eyes the survivors - women and girls, as well as the child soldiers and perpetrators.
Director: Lilibet Foster Distributor:Witness
Keywords: Sierra Leone, civil war, sexual violence, rape, women, children
Ordinary People. Sebokeng by Night (Videocassette : 26 min. ) [1994]
VHS 9321
Abstract: Zone 12 in Sebokeng, a township outside Johannesburg, had been the scene of many massacres in the years before South Africa's first democratic election. 'Invisible' gunmen came out in the night to kill arbitrarily, leaving the township a tense war-zone. On the night of filming, Aviva, a young 'comrade' who works to defend the township at night, takes one crew to an ANC affiliated 'Self Defense Unit' (SDU) vigil for a murdered resident. Another crew spends the night with Amelia, a housewife terrified by nightfall; and a third follows a member of the South African Police's 'Internal Stability Unit' (ISU), which patrols the township in armored cars from dusk to dawn each night. As the night passes, Sebokeng By Night conveys the experience of township life in the midst of murderous conflict, and the toll the violence takes on ordinary people on all sides.
Director: Harriet Gavshon Distributor:First Run/Icarus Films
Keywords: South Africa, Sebokeng, apartheid, vigilantes, crime, government
Orphans of Mathare (Videocassette : 62 min. ) [2003]
V.CASS. VHS 7911
Abstract: Documents the lives of former street children, many orphaned by HIV/AIDS, now living at the Good Samaritan Children's Home, an orphanage and school run by Mercy Thuo in the Mathare Slum of Nairobi, Kenya. By following the lives of several orphans, the film lays bare the complicated relationship between poverty, violence, disease, Christianity, tradition and the orphan crisis in Sub-Saharan Africa. Reveals that global AIDS is not simply a medical crisis but a socio-cultural one as well that threatens to create a generation of children without parents.
Director: Randy Bell Distributor:University of California Extension Center for Media
Keywords: Kenya, HIV/AIDS, orphans, poverty
Peacemakers (The) (Videocassette : 26 min. ) [1993]
VHS 9199
Abstract: This inaugural episode of Ordinary People (a South African television series) visits the 1993 rallies in Vosloorus township commemorating the Sharpeville massacre of 1961. Historically an occasion for demonstrations of unity and resistance to apartheid, this day became more dramatic when separate opposing assemblies were convened by both the Inkatha Freedom Party and the African National Congress. The Peacemakers introduces four people at Vosloorus: Gertrude, an Inkatha-supporting peace monitor; Faith, her ANC counterpart; David, an organizer for the regional peace committee; and Clive, a policeman. As the day progresses, the truce between the warring parties is continually tested, even while all work determinedly to keep at bay the violence that has marked the conflict between these parties.
Director: Clifford Bestall Distributor:First Run/Icarus Films
Keywords: South Africa, African National Congress, apartheid, commemoration, Inkatha Freedom Party, politics, race relations
Refugee All Stars (The): Living Like a Refugee (CD-ROM ) [2005]
IN-PROCESS
Abstract: The Refugee All Stars album Living Like a Refugee is the realization of a lifelong dream for this inspiring band of Sierra Leonean musicians who lived for nearly a decade in refugee camps in West Africa. A brutal civil war (1991-2002) forced them from their homes in Sierra Leone. Many of their family and friends were murdered in the violence, leaving them with physical and emotional scars that may never heal. Despite the unimaginable horrors of civil war, they were saved through their music. Through music, The Refugee All Stars have found refuge, purpose and a source of power by giving a voice to the experiences of so many struggling to survive. Each song on Living Like a Refugee is an original composition written during their years in exile in the refugee camps. The powerful lyrics speak to the suffering and injustice they have seen but also reverberate with hopeful optimistic rhythms. The Refugee All Stars are the subject of a soon-to-be released documentary film that chronicles the band over three years, from refugee camps in Guinea back to war-ravaged Sierra Leone. The Refugee All Stars film reveals unique and inspiring personal stories of survival and rebirth through the universal language of music. As violent conflicts multiply around the globe the worldwide refugee crisis deepens. The story of The Refugee All Stars puts a human face, gives names and real experience to the innocent survivors of war whose brutal realities are often dismissed by mainstream media soundbites. Their music is available on CD 16583.
Director: NA Distributor:cdbaby.com
Keywords: Sierra Leone, popular music, refugees
Regopstaan's Dream (Videocassette : 24 min. ) [2000]
V.CASS. VHS 8927
Abstract: On March 21st, 1999, at a ceremony in the Kalahari desert, a community of 300 Bushmen were granted 125,000 acres of their own land for the first time by the South African government. Twenty-five years earlier, they had been evicted from the Kalahari by the previous, apartheid government of South Africa who said that they were 'too westernized' to cohabit with the wild animals in the National Park. Forced to live in shanty conditions on a patch of land just outside the park, their eviction was just one more chapter in a history of violence and exploitation dating from the beginnings of Dutch settlement. Regopstaan Krupier was an elder in the #Khomani clan of the Bushmen who initiated the fight to regain control of their ancestral lands. Regopstaan's Dream follows the story of his son, Dawid Krupier's campaign to make the dream come true by making sure that the South African government honors their agreement to allow him and his extended family the right to live in their Kalahari home.
Director: Chris Walker Distributor:Bullfrog Films
Keywords: South Africa, Kalahari, Bushmen, San, national parks, apartheid, politics, conservation, land
Right to Choose (The) (Videocassette : 24 min. ) [2000]
V.CASS. VHS 8928
Abstract: Part of a series on how the globalized world economy affects ordinary people. Nibret is eleven -- and they're marrying her off to a man she's never met. Forced marriage isn't unusual in northern Ethiopia -- it helps to cement ties between families and establish land rights. Some Islamic leaders in northern Nigeria also advocate child-marriage. They believe women's role is to comfort men, and see nothing wrong with marrying girls as young as seven, often in polygamous marriages. This program reports on the dissonant voices arguing for change in local cultures -- and calls for reproductive health care and primary education for women and looks at widespread discrimination and violence against women.
Director: Charlotte Metcalf Distributor:Bullfrog Films
Keywords: Ethiopia, Nigeria, women, children, marriage, human rights, land, education
Shake Hands with the Devil: the Journey of Roméo Dallaire (DVD : 91 min. ) [2005]
DVD 5120
Abstract: While many Americans were distracted by the OJ Simpson case, over 800,000 men, women and children were massacred in the small African country of Rwanda. The victims were mainly Tutsis, murdered by their Hutu neighbors. Canadian General Roméo Dallaire was charged with an impossible task: to head the UN peacekeeping mission with a handful of soldiers ordered not to use force to protect Rwandans from the mass slaughter. Based on Dallaire's best-selling book, Peter Raymont's documentary follows the General's return to the region 10 years later, as he comes to grips with the events that have haunted him --his struggles with top UN officials, expedient Belgian policy-makers and Clinton administration officials who ignored his pleas for reinforcements. The experience led to Dallaire's own life tragedy as he dealt with the psychological fallout of witnessing a genocide he was powerless to stop. Special features include: a reading by Roméo Dallaire of an excerpt of his book Shake hands with the Devil (6 min.); an interview with director Peter Raymont (8 min.); optional audio commentary by Peter Raymont or Geoff Pevere; a 56 min. classroom version of the film; photo gallery; reading list.
Director: Peter Raymont Distributor:California Newsreel
Keywords: Rwanda, Hutu, Tutsi, civil war, ethnic violence, genocide, post-traumatic syndrome, United Nations
Sorious Samura Collection (The): Cry Freetown, Exodus, Return to Freetown. (DVD : 134 min. ) [2005]
DVD 8476
Abstract: Compilation DVD of three films about Sierra Leone by Sierra Leonean filmmaker Sorious Samura. In Cry Freetown, Samura documents the civil war in Freetown, Sierra Leone. In Exodus, he follows the story of one migrant, Osas, whose absolute determination to achieve his mission reveals that he is willing to sacrifice everything to get out of Africa. In Return to Freetown, Samura returns to Sierra Leone and talks with three of the children who were abducted and forced to become soldiers in the civil war. Thousands were taken from their families by a ruthless rebel leader and turned into killers.
Director: Sorious Samura Distributor:Insight News Television
Keywords: Sierra Leone, immigration, war, children, violence, family
Stop Killing Taxi Drivers (DVD : 7 min. ) [2001]
DVD 3719
Abstract: The Philadelphia Taxi Association hastily organizes a demonstration in August 2001 to respond to the shooting death of an African immigrant taxi driver, the fourth taxi driver fatality since the beginning of the year. Fellow African immigrant drivers express their sadness, frustrations and appeal to the City of Philadelphia for protection.
Director: Filmon Mebrahtu Distributor:Reel Voices
Keywords: United States, diaspora, immigration, politics, violence, labor
Story of a Beautiful Country (Videocassette : 73 min. ) [2004]
VHS 9229
Abstract: Story of a Beautiful Country is the journey of Khalo Matabane, a young black filmmaker in search of his 'new country,' the promised land -- the new South Africa. Matabane, traveling with a hand-held camera throughout nine provinces of his country, films entirely from the seat of a mini-bus taxi, capturing the physical beauty of a still troubled land. The taxi also serves as an open forum for ordinary people to talk about their feelings and impressions of the new South Africa, which broke away from apartheid in 1994. Following the format of talk radio, a national obsession, topics range over controversial issues such as land, race, language, globalization, democracy, identity, and violence. Many realize that after hundreds of years of racial oppression, peace and tolerance will not come to this country overnight. Despite the hurdles, however, South Africans -- regardless of race and social status -- are proud of their country and willing to defend it. Story of a Beautiful Country expresses the hopes and dreams of the youth -- the next generation of people trying to find their way and their voice in the new South Africa.
Director: Khalo Matabane Distributor:First Run/Icarus Films, NY
Keywords: South Africa, apartheid, democracy, identity, post-apartheid era, race relations
Thapelo: A Prayer for Africa (DVD : 53 min. ) [2003]
DVD 3114
Abstract: In post-apartheid South Africa, one in two children die of AIDS, one in two women are raped, and 20,000 homicides occur annually, the world's highest murder rate. Against these appalling statistics and a disintegrating social fabric, this program presents examples of South Africa's greatest hope, the spirit of its people.
Director: Jo Willesee Distributor:Films for the Humanities & Sciences
Keywords: South Africa, HIV/AIDS, social life, violence, children
Tribal Mind (The) (Videocassette : 52 min. ) [1994]
V.CASS. VHS 8933
Abstract: South Africa is struggling to overcome the legacy of racism and ethnic division that plagues so many countries. Against a backdrop of ongoing violence, a new breed of South Africans is struggling to create a real democracy. Is the rest of the world prepared to relinquish its own 'tribes?' Is there enough time?
Director: Torben Schioler, Gwynne Dyer Distributor:Bullfrog Films
Keywords: South Africa, race, ethnicity, politics, democracy
Tsotsi (DVD : 94 min. ) [2006]
DVD 7818
Abstract: A young man running with a criminal gang on the streets of Johannesburg, Tsotsi - a nickname meaning thug - is immersed in a world of violence that seems to leave him unaffected, until he discovers an infant in the backseat of a car he has stolen.
Director: Gavin Hood Distributor:Buena Vista Home Entertainment
Keywords: South Africa, Johannesburg, criminals, gangs, youth, poverty, feature film
We Never Give Up (Videocassette : 70 min. ) [2002]
VHS 9051
Abstract: This documentary is a collection of stories told by eleven survivors of apartheid violence. They are all members of the Khulumani Support Group, Western Cape, and are involved in a battle to hold the South African government accountable to its promise to pay final reparations. The difficulties experienced by the storytellers raise pertinent questions about the efficacy of the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
Director: Cahal McLaughlin Distributor:Human Rights Media Centre
Keywords: South Africa, apartheid, violence, reconciliation, reparations, TRC
Where Truth Lies (Videocassette : 30 min. ) [1999]
V.CASS. VHS 8932
Abstract: This moving film is about one of the many terrible cases to come before the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC). Twenty-two year-old student leader Siphiwo Mtimkulu, and his friend Topsy Madaka, were shot and burned in 1982 by the feared Security Police under the former apartheid government. Gideon Nieuwoudt - nicknamed 'Notorious Nieuwoudt' - was a colonel in the Security Police. He and his colleagues are responsible for the torture, poisoning, and death of numerous black activists, including Steve Biko. In 1995 a group of top Security Police officers got a court order to block Mtimkulu's family from giving evidence before the TRC, threatening to undermine the whole process. Forty-eight hours before the deadline expired, the officers finally applied for amnesty. Filmmaker Mark Kaplan documented the case for three years, during which time Nieuwoudt met with the Mtimkulu family seeking their forgiveness with unexpected and dramatic consequences.
Director: Mark J. Kaplan Distributor:Bullfrog Films
Keywords: South Africa, TRC, politics, apartheid, history, violence
Winnie (Videocassette : 15 min. ) [1987]
V. CASS. VHS 1153
Abstract: Presents interviews and scenes from fiery rallies with Winnie Mandela and several of her longtime supporters. Tells how the former pacifist now encourages extreme violence by Blacks against Blacks who collaborate with whites. Shows scenes of two brutal murders inspired by her fanaticism.
Director: NA Distributor:Carousel Film and Video
Keywords: South Africa, W. Mandela, politics
Wole Soyinka (Videocassette : 61 min. ) [1989]
V.CASS. VHS 7959
Abstract: The 1986 Nobel Prize winner for literature, Nigerian author and political activist Wole Soyinka lectures on creative traditions and the climates of terror in which they are born. He talks about the growth of African cultural self-awareness and the birth of a new literary fraternity. The lecture is the eighth Herbert Reed Lecture at the Institute of Contemporary Arts. Introduction by Lionel Ngakane.
Director: NA Distributor:ICA Video
Keywords: Nigeria, Wole Soyinka, art, literature, violence
Women and War (Videocassette : 52 min. ) [2002]
V.CASS. VHS 7966
Abstract: Interwoven with footage from recent conflicts in the Middle East, Bosnia, northern Uganda, and South Africa, this program captures women's personal experiences of military violence, explains how they survived, and reflects on their growing resistance to war. The women's feelings of loss, uncertainty, and anguish are expressed through stories of cruelty, degradation, and psychological trauma, while their attempts to achieve reconciliation and rebuild shattered communities demonstrate their positive efforts to create a more peaceful future for everyone. Narrated by Pamela Nomvete.
Director: Robyn Hofmeyr, Minky Schlesinger Distributor:Films for the Humanities and Sciences
Keywords: South Africa, Uganda, Bosnia, Middle East, women, war
World through Children's Eyes (The) (Videocassette : 67 min. ) [1996]
V.CASS. VHS 8275
Abstract: These six short programs provide an intimate and unique insight into the reality and dreams of children from all over the world with a candor that can only be achieved by self-documentation. While the rights of the child have been the subject of many documentaries, this is the first time children have been given the opportunity to create one themselves. Each story reflects one of the articles of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, but from the uncensored and sometimes unsparing viewpoint of children themselves. Contents: Philipines: sexual exploitation (15 min.); Peru: child workers (12 min.); Brazil: street kids (11 min.); USA: inner city kids and police brutality (7 min.); India: girls and education (12 min.); South Africa: political violence (11 min.). Accompanied by discussion guide.
Director: Ilan Ziv Distributor:Maryknoll World Productions
Keywords: Philipines, Peru, Brazil, United States, India, South Africa, children, human rights, U.N.
Zimbabwe and South Africa: Still Far From Coexistence (Videocassette : 49 min. ) [2002]
V. CASS VHS 7507
Abstract: Zimbabwe still reels from the after effects of independence. Former colonials are blamed for failing to work out compensation and land reallocation, and violence against whites is on the increase. South Africa emerged from the evils of apartheid more than a decade ago, and today faces an expanding gap between the rich and poor, increasing interracial conflict, a rising crime rate, and an AIDS epidemic that is decimating the mostly black population. Part of a three part series entitled Africa in the 21st Century, see also Somalia: the Neglected Civil War and Mali and Senegal: The Power of Islam.
Director: Kazuta Hioki Distributor:NA
Keywords: Zimbabwe, South Africa, colonialism, apartheid, HIV/AIDS, land, politics
Page(s): 1
Africa: Search for Common Ground (Videocassette NA ) [2005]
ON-ORDER
Abstract: Seven-part series by the NGO, Search for Common Ground, which emphasizes conflict resolution, prevention and transformation. Contents: Program 1-- Thokoza Video Dialogues for Peace; Program 2 -- When Things Fall Apart (Congo), Breaking the Cycle: Domestic Violence (South Africa); Program 3 --'Reconciliation Radio (Burundi), Democracy or Disruption - Wangari Maathai and Green Belt (Kenya); Program 4 -- The Hunt for Witches (South Africa); Program 5 -- A.T. Toure and the Peace Flame (Mali), Water, Water Everywhere (Lesotho); Program 6 -- Under the Baobab Tree (South Africa), Making the Angola Peace Song (Angola); Program 7 -- Between Confession and Prosecution: Truth and Reconciliation (South Africa).
Director: NA Distributor:Search for Common Ground
Keywords: Angola, Burundi, Congo, Kenya, Lesotho, Mali, South Africa, conflict resolution, violence, TRC
All About Darfur (Videocassette : 82 min. ) [2005]
V.CASS. VHS 9128
Abstract: Up until now the perilous situation in Sudan has been seen only from outside the country. All About Darfur offers an opportunity to hear it explained by eloquent, diverse, even contradictory voices from within Sudan. The director talks to ordinary Sudanese in outdoor tea shops, markets, refugee camps and living rooms about how deeply rooted prejudices could suddenly burst into a wild fire of ethnic violence.
Director: Taghreed Elsanhouri Distributor:California Newsreel
Keywords: Sudan, Darfur, civil war, ethnicity, race relations, humanitarian crisis, violence
All About Darfur (DVD : 82 min. ) [2005]
DVD 8064
Abstract: Up until now the perilous situation in Sudan has been seen only from outside the country. All About Darfur offers an opportunity to hear it explained by eloquent, diverse, even contradictory voices from within Sudan. The director talks to ordinary Sudanese in outdoor tea shops, markets, refugee camps and living rooms about how deeply rooted prejudices could suddenly burst into a wild fire of ethnic violence.
Director: Taghreed Elsanhouri Distributor:Taghreed Elsanhouri Productions
Keywords: Sudan, Darfur, genocide, civil war, ethnicity, politics, refugees, violence
Black Man's Land Trilogy (DVD : 156 min. ) [1986]
Abstract: Three-part series of films consisting of White Man's Country (part 1), Mau Mau (part 2) and Kenyatta (part 3); all of the films combine period photographs and contemporary location footage with the testimony of African and European witnesses. The trilogy covers the violence of colonial rule, white settlement and African resistance in the story of Kenya, as the British tried to make it a 'white man's country' like South Africa or New Zealand. Land was allocated, settlers welcomed, and the 'jewel of the British empire' was born. But it was African land that was taken, African labor that was used to develop it, and African taxes that kept the colonial regime solvent. How did Africans confront this process? White Man's Country tells this story. Mau Mau traces the history of the state of emergency declared by the British Colonial government of Kenya in 1952 in an attempt to subdue the movement among black Kenyans for political and civil rights. Kenyatta offers a biographical account of Jomo Kenyatta, the man who became Kenya's national leader and who eventually led the movement to establish an independent government.
Director: David Koff, Anthony Howarth Distributor:Facets Multimedia
Keywords: Kenya, history, settler colonialism, land, history, politics
Children of War (Videocassette : 28 min. ) [2001]
VHS 9178
Abstract: Thousands of children have been kidnapped and used as soldiers by the Ugandan rebel army, the Lord's Resistance Army. The children, many of whom are tortured, live a life of terror: girls as young as 12 are used as sex slaves, while the boys are forced to sometimes even kill family members. Once they have completed this terrible task, they are considered tough enough to be used in raids by the rebel army. This film follows two such children who escaped from their captors: Judith who for six years lived as a sex slave for a rebel commander, and Dennis who was caught when he tried to escape the first time and consequently forced to kill his friend. John Rheinstein, a therapist from 'Save the Children Denmark', attempts to create a new life for those children who have run away from the rebel army. The rehabilitation program includes having the children draw and reenact their traumatic experiences. Judith's parents are found and she is reunited with her family who thought that she had been killed. Three months after his return to the rehabilitation camp, Dennis is still battling with his traumas; his family has failed to retrieve him. Despite all attempts by groups like 'Save the Children' to stop the violence, it is a sad fact that very few children come out of the bush alive in this 'forgotten war'.
Director: Henrik Grunnet, Keld Kluwer Distributor:Filmakers Library, NY
Keywords: Uganda, children, child soldiers, civil war, rehabilitation, sexual abuse, trauma, violence
Deniers Colons (Les) = Last Colonials (The) (Videocassette : 61 min. ) [1995]
V. CASS. VHS 3249
Abstract: Visits with the last of the white population living in Zaire. They are managers, missionaries, businessmen and land owners who have chosen to settle in the heart of Africa, and who remain there in spite of the violence and danger. They reminisce on the 'good old days of the colonial era' and reveal shattered dreams in a country they thought might have been the new El Dorado.
Director: Thierry Michel Distributor:First Run/Icarus
Keywords: Democratic Republic of Congo, politics, government, colonialism, social conditions, history
Diamond Life (The) (Videocassette : 7 min. ) [2000]
V.CASS. VHS 8973
Abstract: The Revolutionary United Front's (RUF) attack on Freetown in January of 1999 was the culmination of a decade-long and bloody struggle between the RUF and the government of Sierra Leone. The rebel forces, bolstered by the former Sierra Leonean Army, which had turned on the government, swept into the city, killing, mutilating, and raping thousands in the continuing war over the control of the country's rich diamond fields. RUF units burned houses with civilians inside, shot and raped people at random, killing an estimated 6,000 people in the span of three weeks. Since 1990, half the country's population of five million has been displaced. Today, Sierra Leone produces more refugees than any other country in Africa. The country is full of war victims, whose amputated limbs serve as living testimony to the brutality of the rebels. The Diamond Life provides a disturbing glimpse into the greed and violence that fuels the Sierra Leone region's brutal diamond war.
Director: Stephen Marshall, Josh Shore Distributor:Witness
Keywords: Sierra Leone, civil war, violence, politics, history, refugees
Diamonds of War (Video Disc/Laser Vision : 50min min. ) [2007]
DVD 8987
Abstract: In the diamond-rich West African nation of Sierra Leone, rebels used the precious gems to bankroll a violent ten-year insurrection, leaving a terrorized population and a ravaged landscape in its wake.
Director: NA Distributor:Warner Home Video
Keywords: Sierra Leone, diamonds, mining, war, violence, economy
Femme taxi à Sidi Bel-Abbès (Une) (Videocassette : 52 min. ) [2000]
V. CASS. VHS 6465
Abstract: After the death of her husband, Soumicha becomes the only woman taxi driver in Sidi Bel-Abbès (Algeria). The film shows her working conditions in a job normally reserved for men, and a city where integrist violence rages.
Director: Belkacem Jadjadj Distributor:First Run/Icarus Films
Keywords: Algeria, women, gender roles, labor
Force More Powerful: A Century of Nonviolent Conflict ( A) (Videocassette : 174 min. ) [2000]
V. CASS. VHS 6141 Parts 1-6
Abstract: This six-part series tells one of the 20th century's most important and least-known stories-- how nonviolent power overcame oppression and authoritarian rule. In South Africa in 1907, Mohandas Gandhi led Indian immigrants in a nonviolent fight for rights denied them by white rulers. The power that Gandhi pioneered has been used by underdogs on every continent and in every decade of the 20th century, to fight for their rights and freedom. Includes segments on South Africa, India, Denmark, Poland, Chile, and the U.S.
Director: Steve York Distributor:Films for the Humanities and Sciences
Keywords: South Africa, nonviolence, Gandhi, politics
Going Home (Videocassette : 31 min. ) [1999]
V.CASS. VHS 8931
Abstract: Mohammed is 10 years old, but for most of 1997 he was forced to act as a young fighter with rebel forces in the forests of Sierra Leone. His duties included carrying heavy equipment, acting as a personal servant to other soldiers, and torturing and disciplining any of the other child soldiers who stepped out of line. Eventually he escaped to Guinea, where he is one of thousands lining up to register at the Gueckedou refugee camp. In 1997 Guinea was host to an estimated 430,000 refugees: 190,000 Sierra Leoneans, and 240,000 Liberians who had escaped the eight-year civil wars there. This film evaluates the success of the Guinean government and the UN High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) in protecting the rights pledged this huge African refugee population under the OAU Convention.
Director: Emily Marlow Distributor:Bullfrog Films
Keywords: Guinea (Conakry), Liberia, Sierra Leone, civil war, violence, youth, refugees, UN
Greatest Silence: Rape in the Congo (The) (DVD : 76 min. ) [2007]
DVD 9695
Abstract: Since 1998 a brutal war has ravaged the Democratic Republic of Congo, killing over 4 million people and resulting in many tens of thousands of women and girls being systematically kidnapped, raped, mutilated and tortured by soldiers from both foreign militias and the Congolese army. Until now, their stories have never been told to the world.
Director: Lisa F. Jackson Distributor:Women Make Movies
Keywords: Democratic Republic of Congo, war, rape, violence, gender
Heart of the Congo (DVD : 57 min. ) [2004]
DVD 7637
Abstract: Amid threats of violence, corruption, and a legacy of colonial dependency, aid workers in the Congo help refugees who have lost everything. They seek to strengthen villagers' will, essential for a self-sufficient future. Heart of the Congo is a film about courage, perseverance and ways in which humanitarian aid makes a lasting difference.
Director: Tom Weidlinger Distributor:Bullfrog Films
Keywords: Congo, refugees, humanitarian assistance, colonialism
Hunting My Husband's Killer: A Rwandan Story (DVD : 51 min. ) [2004]
DVD 7966
Abstract: Lesley Bilinda, the Scottish widow of a Rwandan black pastor, returns ten years after the 1994 Rwandan genocide to search for his murderers only to find the truth elusive and forgiveness impossible. Lesley met Charles when she was working as a nurse in Rwanda, but their life together was shattered as genocide swept the country. In a hundred days of violence, about one million were killed. At the height of the genocide, Charles was abducted and never seen again. Ten years later, in a new atmosphere of openness, some of the killers are coming forward to confess their crimes. Lesley meets the manager of the guesthouse where Charles was last seen, Paster Kabeira. He is believed to have colluded with Hutu rebels and was seen handing Charles over to armed militants. He is now in prison, but he refuses to admit he did anything wrong. The meeting leaves her frustrated and upset, but she refuses to give up. She visits the Murambi Genocide Memorial site to confront for herself the scale of the genocide. Its full horror brings her to her knees. She travels on to Gahini, the village where she and Charles lived. A local man agrees to speak about the killings. As they talk, it becomes clear to her that he was one of the men who murdered her best friend, Anatolie. She feels disgust but also pity for him. She also uncovers some unexpected and unpalatable truths about her husband's 'secret life' which test her Christian faith to its limits.
Director: Jay Knox Distributor:NA
Keywords: Rwanda, Hutu, civil war, genocide, monuments
I Have a Problem, Madam (Videocassette : 59 min. ) [1995]
V. CASS. VHS 3254
Abstract: Run by female lawyers, FIDA-Uganda has set up several legal aid centers for women in domestic trouble. With the help of a weekly radio show, the centers fill daily with women waiting to tell their stories. FIDA lawyers attempt to reconcile the women and their men in face to face meetings, even if it means traveling to isolated villages. The attitudes of both men and women are beginning to change, but this slow process sometimes leads to conflicts between official and traditional law. A film by Maarten Schmidt and Thomas Doebele.
Director: Maarten Scmidt, Thomas Doebele Distributor:First Run/Icarus
Keywords: Uganda, women, law, marriage, social conditions, development, family violence
In Rwanda We Say: The Family that Does Not Speak Dies (Videocassette : 54 min. ) [2004]
V.CASS. VHS 8766
Abstract: Two years after the Gacaca tribunals, close to 16,000 genocide suspects, still untried, were released across the country. Having confessed to their crimes and having served the maximum sentence the Gacaca tribunals would eventually impose, perpetrators of genocidal violence are sent home to plow fields and fetch water alongside the people they victimized. In Rwanda We Say focuses on the release of one suspect, tracking the effect of his return on a tiny hillside hamlet. While the government's message of a 'united Rwandan family' permeates the language of the community, the imposed co-existence brings forth varying emotions, from numb acceptance to repressed rage.
Director: Anne Aghion Distributor:First Run/Icarus Films
Keywords: Rwanda, Hutu, Tutsi, civil war, genocide, law
In a Time of Violence (Video Disc/Laser Vision : 151 min. ) [1993]
V. CASS. VHS 2797 v. 1-3
Abstract: The most controversial program broadcast on South African television, this film provides fascinating insights into the lingering divisions confronting the country as it attempts to forge a new post-apartheid national identity. A story concerning changing values, violent cultural and political clashes and conflict among black families in Johannesburg, South Africa. Writer: Oliver Schmitz. Three episodes: The Line, All on Edge, Fire with Fire.
Director: Brian Tilley Distributor:California Newsreel
Keywords: South Africa, politics, social change, popular culture
Invisible Children (DVD : 55 min. ) [2006]
DVD 5486
Abstract: In Uganda's long-lasting civil war, many children have been abducted to be trained as child soldiers. This film documents the children's life and general social conditions in Uganda in 2003. What started out as a film-making adventure in Africa, transformed into much more, when the three young Americans original travels took a divine turn, and they found themselves stranded in Northern Uganda. They discovered children being kidnapped nightly from their homes and subsequently forced to fight as child soldiers. Children as young as eight are methodically kidnapped from their homes by a rebel group called the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA). The abducted children are then desensitized to the horror of brutal violence and killing, as they themselves are turned into vicious fighters. Some escape and hide in constant fear for their lives. Most remain captive, and grow to maturity with no education other than life in the bush and fighting in a guerilla war. Of the many ramifications that a 20 -year-long war can cause, the film highlights what the community refers to as 'night commuters.' We watch thousands of children commute out of fear, from their villages to nearby towns each night in order to avoid the LRA (Lord's Resistance Army) abductions. They sleep in public places, vulnerable, and without supervision.
Director: Jason Russell, Bobby Bailey, Laren Poole Distributor:Invisible Children
Keywords: Uganda, children, civil war, child soldiers
Kenya, Where Women Rule (DVD : 20 min. ) [2006]
DVD 8230
Abstract: Domestic violence against women is rife among the Samburu in Kenya. In Samburu culture, the women also do all the work, including building the homes, herding, collecting firewood and water and caring for the children. In the 1980s and 90s, two hundred women from the tribe claimed they were raped by men from a nearby British army base. The Samburu men rejected them, whipped them and threw them out of their homes. In 1990 a small group of these stigmatized women decided to band together and create their own village. Under the leadership of one woman, Rebecca Lollosoli, their village has prospered, taking advantage of the income from tourism. The Samburu men have tried to sabotage the tourist business and have also mounted raids on the village. Finally, the Samburu men's chief tried to effect a reconciliation, but the women vehemently rejected his proposal. They are clearly enjoying the advantages of independence!
Director: Stormland Productions Distributor:NA
Keywords: Kenya, Samburu, women, economy, rape, tourism
Mama Awethu! (Videocassette : 53 min. ) [1993]
VHS 9202
Abstract: Mama Awethu! follows the day-to-day lives of five black South African women in the townships around Cape Town, revealing the inhuman legacy of the apartheid system. Evelyn, once an African National Congress branch secretary, lives in a squatter location called Philippi and works as a cleaning woman. Iris, also from Philippi, is a member of the ANC Women's League who is involved in community politics. Sheila, a resident of Khayaletisha, is a committed activist; Dinah is new to politics; and Nopopi focuses on issues affecting women. As they share their lives with the camera, the film reveals how township life has necessitated their involvement in the struggle for better living conditions and equal rights. Although set in South Africa, the inspiring voices heard in Mama Awethu! are a call to empowerment for all women. They speak eloquently of hope in the midst of immense violence and killing. Much more than a record of South African women, Mama Awethu! is a song about life and the courage to live.
Director: Bethany Yarrow Distributor:First Run/Icarus Films
Keywords: South Africa, Cape Town, African National Congress, apartheid, social situation, women
Man Who Stole My Mother's Face (The) (Videocassette : 58 min. ) [2003]
V.CASS. VHS 8881
Abstract: Two days before Christmas in 1988, Cathy Henkel's 59 year-old mother Laura was sexually and brutally attacked in her home in Johannesburg, South Africa by a local white teenager. Although Laura identified her attacker, the man was never charged and remained free. For fourteen years, unable to recover, Laura Henkel retreated from her family and rejected contact with the outside world. In an attempt to help her mother heal, Cathy Henkel took matters into her own hands, returned to Johannesburg and confronted her mother's attackers. What begins as an exploration about the unsolved case of Laura Henkel's rape becomes a revelation about the healing process.
Director: Cathy Henkel Distributor:Women Make Movies
Keywords: South Africa, women, rape, violence
Mau Mau (Video Disc/Laser Vision : 52 min. ) [1973]
DVD 9266
Abstract: In October 1952 the British government declared a State of Emergency in Kenya in order to defeat Mau Mau. In the war that followed, fewer than 40 of 40,000 white settlers were killed while more than 15,000 Africans lost their lives and hundreds of thousands more were arrested and subjected to a humiliating and often brutal process of 'rehabilitation.' Mau Mau traces the history of the state of emergency declared by the British Colonial government of Kenya in 1952 in an attempt to subdue the movement among black Kenyans for political and civil rights. Reveals the secret society known as Mau Mau to have been an attempt by the white minority to discredit the rising tide of black nationalism. Using newsreel and previously inaccessible archive footage, and drawing on interviews with participants on both sides, this film examines the myth and reality of Africa's first modern guerrilla war. This film is part 2 of the Black Man's Land trilogy; see also White Man's Country (part 1) and Kenyatta (part 3).
Director: David Koff, Anthony Howarth Distributor:NA
Keywords: Kenya, Mau Mau, history, colonialism, politics, settlers, nationalism, violence, war
Night Stop (Videocassette : 50 min. ) [2001]
V.CASS. VHS 8244
Abstract: This documentary tells of the lives of eight prostitutes living in northern Mozambique. They reveal their individual stories of pregnancy, the search for a husband, unrequited love, violence and resignation. While the women are aware of the dangers of HIV and AIDS, they continue to have unprotected sex. The video also illustrates the world of the truck drivers as they talk among themselves. Part of Steps for the Future, a unique collection of documentaries and short films from Southern Africa about life in the time of HIV/AIDS (Volume 5).
Director: Licinio Azavedo Distributor:California Newsreel
Keywords: Mozambique, HIV/AIDS, prostitution, violence, labor, gender, Steps for the Future
On the Frontlines: Child Soldiers in DRC (Videocassette : 15 min. ) [2004]
VHS 9139
Abstract: This film features footage of the military training of children in several camps in South Kivu, Democratic Republic of Congo, as well as testimony from demobilized child soldiers recounting their horrifying memories. Militia groups the Democratic Republic of Congo use children, both boys and girls, as soldiers. The majority of these children are between the ages of eight and sixteen and are often supported in their endeavors by their parents and the community at large. They are led by a sense of patriotism and promises of prosperity and a better life. On the Frontlines features footage of several militia camps, as well as testimony from demobilized child soldiers recounting their horrifying memories of life in the militias.
Director: Bukeni Beck Distributor:Witness
Keywords: Democratic Republic of Congo, civil war, children, violence
One Hundred Years of Silence (DVD : 39 min. ) [2006]
DVD 8698
Abstract: Documentary film about the near extermination of the Herero people of Namibia by German colonial soldiers in the first years of the 20th century. This history is told through the story of a young present-day Herero woman whose great-grandmother was raped by a German soldier, resulting in Georgina's light skin and eyes.
Director: Halfdan Muurholm Distributor:Filmakers Library
Keywords: Namibia, Herero, colonialism, history, genocide, violence
Operation Fine Girl: Rape used as a Weapon of War in Sierra Leone (Videocassette : 46 min. ) [2001]
VHS 9207
Abstract: Operation Fine Girl documents the brutal use of rape as a weapon of war in Sierra Leone. The story is told through the eyes the survivors - women and girls, as well as the child soldiers and perpetrators.
Director: Lilibet Foster Distributor:Witness
Keywords: Sierra Leone, civil war, sexual violence, rape, women, children
Ordinary People. Sebokeng by Night (Videocassette : 26 min. ) [1994]
VHS 9321
Abstract: Zone 12 in Sebokeng, a township outside Johannesburg, had been the scene of many massacres in the years before South Africa's first democratic election. 'Invisible' gunmen came out in the night to kill arbitrarily, leaving the township a tense war-zone. On the night of filming, Aviva, a young 'comrade' who works to defend the township at night, takes one crew to an ANC affiliated 'Self Defense Unit' (SDU) vigil for a murdered resident. Another crew spends the night with Amelia, a housewife terrified by nightfall; and a third follows a member of the South African Police's 'Internal Stability Unit' (ISU), which patrols the township in armored cars from dusk to dawn each night. As the night passes, Sebokeng By Night conveys the experience of township life in the midst of murderous conflict, and the toll the violence takes on ordinary people on all sides.
Director: Harriet Gavshon Distributor:First Run/Icarus Films
Keywords: South Africa, Sebokeng, apartheid, vigilantes, crime, government
Orphans of Mathare (Videocassette : 62 min. ) [2003]
V.CASS. VHS 7911
Abstract: Documents the lives of former street children, many orphaned by HIV/AIDS, now living at the Good Samaritan Children's Home, an orphanage and school run by Mercy Thuo in the Mathare Slum of Nairobi, Kenya. By following the lives of several orphans, the film lays bare the complicated relationship between poverty, violence, disease, Christianity, tradition and the orphan crisis in Sub-Saharan Africa. Reveals that global AIDS is not simply a medical crisis but a socio-cultural one as well that threatens to create a generation of children without parents.
Director: Randy Bell Distributor:University of California Extension Center for Media
Keywords: Kenya, HIV/AIDS, orphans, poverty
Peacemakers (The) (Videocassette : 26 min. ) [1993]
VHS 9199
Abstract: This inaugural episode of Ordinary People (a South African television series) visits the 1993 rallies in Vosloorus township commemorating the Sharpeville massacre of 1961. Historically an occasion for demonstrations of unity and resistance to apartheid, this day became more dramatic when separate opposing assemblies were convened by both the Inkatha Freedom Party and the African National Congress. The Peacemakers introduces four people at Vosloorus: Gertrude, an Inkatha-supporting peace monitor; Faith, her ANC counterpart; David, an organizer for the regional peace committee; and Clive, a policeman. As the day progresses, the truce between the warring parties is continually tested, even while all work determinedly to keep at bay the violence that has marked the conflict between these parties.
Director: Clifford Bestall Distributor:First Run/Icarus Films
Keywords: South Africa, African National Congress, apartheid, commemoration, Inkatha Freedom Party, politics, race relations
Refugee All Stars (The): Living Like a Refugee (CD-ROM ) [2005]
IN-PROCESS
Abstract: The Refugee All Stars album Living Like a Refugee is the realization of a lifelong dream for this inspiring band of Sierra Leonean musicians who lived for nearly a decade in refugee camps in West Africa. A brutal civil war (1991-2002) forced them from their homes in Sierra Leone. Many of their family and friends were murdered in the violence, leaving them with physical and emotional scars that may never heal. Despite the unimaginable horrors of civil war, they were saved through their music. Through music, The Refugee All Stars have found refuge, purpose and a source of power by giving a voice to the experiences of so many struggling to survive. Each song on Living Like a Refugee is an original composition written during their years in exile in the refugee camps. The powerful lyrics speak to the suffering and injustice they have seen but also reverberate with hopeful optimistic rhythms. The Refugee All Stars are the subject of a soon-to-be released documentary film that chronicles the band over three years, from refugee camps in Guinea back to war-ravaged Sierra Leone. The Refugee All Stars film reveals unique and inspiring personal stories of survival and rebirth through the universal language of music. As violent conflicts multiply around the globe the worldwide refugee crisis deepens. The story of The Refugee All Stars puts a human face, gives names and real experience to the innocent survivors of war whose brutal realities are often dismissed by mainstream media soundbites. Their music is available on CD 16583.
Director: NA Distributor:cdbaby.com
Keywords: Sierra Leone, popular music, refugees
Regopstaan's Dream (Videocassette : 24 min. ) [2000]
V.CASS. VHS 8927
Abstract: On March 21st, 1999, at a ceremony in the Kalahari desert, a community of 300 Bushmen were granted 125,000 acres of their own land for the first time by the South African government. Twenty-five years earlier, they had been evicted from the Kalahari by the previous, apartheid government of South Africa who said that they were 'too westernized' to cohabit with the wild animals in the National Park. Forced to live in shanty conditions on a patch of land just outside the park, their eviction was just one more chapter in a history of violence and exploitation dating from the beginnings of Dutch settlement. Regopstaan Krupier was an elder in the #Khomani clan of the Bushmen who initiated the fight to regain control of their ancestral lands. Regopstaan's Dream follows the story of his son, Dawid Krupier's campaign to make the dream come true by making sure that the South African government honors their agreement to allow him and his extended family the right to live in their Kalahari home.
Director: Chris Walker Distributor:Bullfrog Films
Keywords: South Africa, Kalahari, Bushmen, San, national parks, apartheid, politics, conservation, land
Right to Choose (The) (Videocassette : 24 min. ) [2000]
V.CASS. VHS 8928
Abstract: Part of a series on how the globalized world economy affects ordinary people. Nibret is eleven -- and they're marrying her off to a man she's never met. Forced marriage isn't unusual in northern Ethiopia -- it helps to cement ties between families and establish land rights. Some Islamic leaders in northern Nigeria also advocate child-marriage. They believe women's role is to comfort men, and see nothing wrong with marrying girls as young as seven, often in polygamous marriages. This program reports on the dissonant voices arguing for change in local cultures -- and calls for reproductive health care and primary education for women and looks at widespread discrimination and violence against women.
Director: Charlotte Metcalf Distributor:Bullfrog Films
Keywords: Ethiopia, Nigeria, women, children, marriage, human rights, land, education
Shake Hands with the Devil: the Journey of Roméo Dallaire (DVD : 91 min. ) [2005]
DVD 5120
Abstract: While many Americans were distracted by the OJ Simpson case, over 800,000 men, women and children were massacred in the small African country of Rwanda. The victims were mainly Tutsis, murdered by their Hutu neighbors. Canadian General Roméo Dallaire was charged with an impossible task: to head the UN peacekeeping mission with a handful of soldiers ordered not to use force to protect Rwandans from the mass slaughter. Based on Dallaire's best-selling book, Peter Raymont's documentary follows the General's return to the region 10 years later, as he comes to grips with the events that have haunted him --his struggles with top UN officials, expedient Belgian policy-makers and Clinton administration officials who ignored his pleas for reinforcements. The experience led to Dallaire's own life tragedy as he dealt with the psychological fallout of witnessing a genocide he was powerless to stop. Special features include: a reading by Roméo Dallaire of an excerpt of his book Shake hands with the Devil (6 min.); an interview with director Peter Raymont (8 min.); optional audio commentary by Peter Raymont or Geoff Pevere; a 56 min. classroom version of the film; photo gallery; reading list.
Director: Peter Raymont Distributor:California Newsreel
Keywords: Rwanda, Hutu, Tutsi, civil war, ethnic violence, genocide, post-traumatic syndrome, United Nations
Sorious Samura Collection (The): Cry Freetown, Exodus, Return to Freetown. (DVD : 134 min. ) [2005]
DVD 8476
Abstract: Compilation DVD of three films about Sierra Leone by Sierra Leonean filmmaker Sorious Samura. In Cry Freetown, Samura documents the civil war in Freetown, Sierra Leone. In Exodus, he follows the story of one migrant, Osas, whose absolute determination to achieve his mission reveals that he is willing to sacrifice everything to get out of Africa. In Return to Freetown, Samura returns to Sierra Leone and talks with three of the children who were abducted and forced to become soldiers in the civil war. Thousands were taken from their families by a ruthless rebel leader and turned into killers.
Director: Sorious Samura Distributor:Insight News Television
Keywords: Sierra Leone, immigration, war, children, violence, family
Stop Killing Taxi Drivers (DVD : 7 min. ) [2001]
DVD 3719
Abstract: The Philadelphia Taxi Association hastily organizes a demonstration in August 2001 to respond to the shooting death of an African immigrant taxi driver, the fourth taxi driver fatality since the beginning of the year. Fellow African immigrant drivers express their sadness, frustrations and appeal to the City of Philadelphia for protection.
Director: Filmon Mebrahtu Distributor:Reel Voices
Keywords: United States, diaspora, immigration, politics, violence, labor
Story of a Beautiful Country (Videocassette : 73 min. ) [2004]
VHS 9229
Abstract: Story of a Beautiful Country is the journey of Khalo Matabane, a young black filmmaker in search of his 'new country,' the promised land -- the new South Africa. Matabane, traveling with a hand-held camera throughout nine provinces of his country, films entirely from the seat of a mini-bus taxi, capturing the physical beauty of a still troubled land. The taxi also serves as an open forum for ordinary people to talk about their feelings and impressions of the new South Africa, which broke away from apartheid in 1994. Following the format of talk radio, a national obsession, topics range over controversial issues such as land, race, language, globalization, democracy, identity, and violence. Many realize that after hundreds of years of racial oppression, peace and tolerance will not come to this country overnight. Despite the hurdles, however, South Africans -- regardless of race and social status -- are proud of their country and willing to defend it. Story of a Beautiful Country expresses the hopes and dreams of the youth -- the next generation of people trying to find their way and their voice in the new South Africa.
Director: Khalo Matabane Distributor:First Run/Icarus Films, NY
Keywords: South Africa, apartheid, democracy, identity, post-apartheid era, race relations
Thapelo: A Prayer for Africa (DVD : 53 min. ) [2003]
DVD 3114
Abstract: In post-apartheid South Africa, one in two children die of AIDS, one in two women are raped, and 20,000 homicides occur annually, the world's highest murder rate. Against these appalling statistics and a disintegrating social fabric, this program presents examples of South Africa's greatest hope, the spirit of its people.
Director: Jo Willesee Distributor:Films for the Humanities & Sciences
Keywords: South Africa, HIV/AIDS, social life, violence, children
Tribal Mind (The) (Videocassette : 52 min. ) [1994]
V.CASS. VHS 8933
Abstract: South Africa is struggling to overcome the legacy of racism and ethnic division that plagues so many countries. Against a backdrop of ongoing violence, a new breed of South Africans is struggling to create a real democracy. Is the rest of the world prepared to relinquish its own 'tribes?' Is there enough time?
Director: Torben Schioler, Gwynne Dyer Distributor:Bullfrog Films
Keywords: South Africa, race, ethnicity, politics, democracy
Tsotsi (DVD : 94 min. ) [2006]
DVD 7818
Abstract: A young man running with a criminal gang on the streets of Johannesburg, Tsotsi - a nickname meaning thug - is immersed in a world of violence that seems to leave him unaffected, until he discovers an infant in the backseat of a car he has stolen.
Director: Gavin Hood Distributor:Buena Vista Home Entertainment
Keywords: South Africa, Johannesburg, criminals, gangs, youth, poverty, feature film
We Never Give Up (Videocassette : 70 min. ) [2002]
VHS 9051
Abstract: This documentary is a collection of stories told by eleven survivors of apartheid violence. They are all members of the Khulumani Support Group, Western Cape, and are involved in a battle to hold the South African government accountable to its promise to pay final reparations. The difficulties experienced by the storytellers raise pertinent questions about the efficacy of the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
Director: Cahal McLaughlin Distributor:Human Rights Media Centre
Keywords: South Africa, apartheid, violence, reconciliation, reparations, TRC
Where Truth Lies (Videocassette : 30 min. ) [1999]
V.CASS. VHS 8932
Abstract: This moving film is about one of the many terrible cases to come before the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC). Twenty-two year-old student leader Siphiwo Mtimkulu, and his friend Topsy Madaka, were shot and burned in 1982 by the feared Security Police under the former apartheid government. Gideon Nieuwoudt - nicknamed 'Notorious Nieuwoudt' - was a colonel in the Security Police. He and his colleagues are responsible for the torture, poisoning, and death of numerous black activists, including Steve Biko. In 1995 a group of top Security Police officers got a court order to block Mtimkulu's family from giving evidence before the TRC, threatening to undermine the whole process. Forty-eight hours before the deadline expired, the officers finally applied for amnesty. Filmmaker Mark Kaplan documented the case for three years, during which time Nieuwoudt met with the Mtimkulu family seeking their forgiveness with unexpected and dramatic consequences.
Director: Mark J. Kaplan Distributor:Bullfrog Films
Keywords: South Africa, TRC, politics, apartheid, history, violence
Winnie (Videocassette : 15 min. ) [1987]
V. CASS. VHS 1153
Abstract: Presents interviews and scenes from fiery rallies with Winnie Mandela and several of her longtime supporters. Tells how the former pacifist now encourages extreme violence by Blacks against Blacks who collaborate with whites. Shows scenes of two brutal murders inspired by her fanaticism.
Director: NA Distributor:Carousel Film and Video
Keywords: South Africa, W. Mandela, politics
Wole Soyinka (Videocassette : 61 min. ) [1989]
V.CASS. VHS 7959
Abstract: The 1986 Nobel Prize winner for literature, Nigerian author and political activist Wole Soyinka lectures on creative traditions and the climates of terror in which they are born. He talks about the growth of African cultural self-awareness and the birth of a new literary fraternity. The lecture is the eighth Herbert Reed Lecture at the Institute of Contemporary Arts. Introduction by Lionel Ngakane.
Director: NA Distributor:ICA Video
Keywords: Nigeria, Wole Soyinka, art, literature, violence
Women and War (Videocassette : 52 min. ) [2002]
V.CASS. VHS 7966
Abstract: Interwoven with footage from recent conflicts in the Middle East, Bosnia, northern Uganda, and South Africa, this program captures women's personal experiences of military violence, explains how they survived, and reflects on their growing resistance to war. The women's feelings of loss, uncertainty, and anguish are expressed through stories of cruelty, degradation, and psychological trauma, while their attempts to achieve reconciliation and rebuild shattered communities demonstrate their positive efforts to create a more peaceful future for everyone. Narrated by Pamela Nomvete.
Director: Robyn Hofmeyr, Minky Schlesinger Distributor:Films for the Humanities and Sciences
Keywords: South Africa, Uganda, Bosnia, Middle East, women, war
World through Children's Eyes (The) (Videocassette : 67 min. ) [1996]
V.CASS. VHS 8275
Abstract: These six short programs provide an intimate and unique insight into the reality and dreams of children from all over the world with a candor that can only be achieved by self-documentation. While the rights of the child have been the subject of many documentaries, this is the first time children have been given the opportunity to create one themselves. Each story reflects one of the articles of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, but from the uncensored and sometimes unsparing viewpoint of children themselves. Contents: Philipines: sexual exploitation (15 min.); Peru: child workers (12 min.); Brazil: street kids (11 min.); USA: inner city kids and police brutality (7 min.); India: girls and education (12 min.); South Africa: political violence (11 min.). Accompanied by discussion guide.
Director: Ilan Ziv Distributor:Maryknoll World Productions
Keywords: Philipines, Peru, Brazil, United States, India, South Africa, children, human rights, U.N.
Zimbabwe and South Africa: Still Far From Coexistence (Videocassette : 49 min. ) [2002]
V. CASS VHS 7507
Abstract: Zimbabwe still reels from the after effects of independence. Former colonials are blamed for failing to work out compensation and land reallocation, and violence against whites is on the increase. South Africa emerged from the evils of apartheid more than a decade ago, and today faces an expanding gap between the rich and poor, increasing interracial conflict, a rising crime rate, and an AIDS epidemic that is decimating the mostly black population. Part of a three part series entitled Africa in the 21st Century, see also Somalia: the Neglected Civil War and Mali and Senegal: The Power of Islam.
Director: Kazuta Hioki Distributor:NA
Keywords: Zimbabwe, South Africa, colonialism, apartheid, HIV/AIDS, land, politics
September 16, 2008: Geoffrey Nyarota
