Directed by Rehad Desai, co-directed by Mark Kaplan • Documentary • 2020 • 87 minutes

[02/05/2025: Anyone see the NYT article today "What Is ‘State Capture’? A Warning for Americans." ? Here's a doc thriller about what went on in South Africa not so long ago!]

HOW TO STEAL A COUNTRY opens like ...

Directed by Rosine Mbakam • Drama • 2011 • 14 minutes

A professionally dressed white woman, a television anchor, sits in the studio, pen in hand. She looks straight into the camera and says, “At home, the older you get, the more people respect you. Here, old people have no use. It frightens me. ...

Directed by Tunde Kelani • Drama • With Uche Ama Abriel, Bukky Ajayi, Larinde Akinleye • 2000 • 110 minutes

Thunderbolt will come as a bolt out of the blue to most Americans, even aficionados of African cinema. It is one of the best examples of the little-known but burgeoning video industry of N...

Directed by Dieudo Hamadi & Divita Wa Lusala • Documentary • 2009 • 24 minutes

Taking in the wives of the unemployed, of unpaid government employees, the Kitambo maternity clinic in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo has to cope with its patients' lack of money. And negotiations are tough be...

Directed by Moussa Sene Absa • Drama • With Ibrahima M'Baye, Thierno Ndiaye Doss • 2001 • 56 minutes

Moussa Sene Absa's latest work pushes the formal boundaries of African cinema to explore the complex interplay of history and psychology in contemporary Africa. Intensely personal and at the same...

Directed by Rosine Mbakam • Drama • With Bwanga Pilipili • 2013 • 20 minutes

In this gripping short drama, Domé, a young woman from Gabon who speaks flawless French, is apprehended at the airport on her way into Belgium. She says she’s a French citizen—a businesswoman on her way to meet with sup...

Directed by Franco Sacchi • Documentary • 2007 • 56 minutes

First came Hollywood, then Bollywood and now Nollywood, Nigeria’s booming film industry, which released 2000 feature features in 2006 alone. Where else can you shoot a full-length dramatic film for $10,000 in 7 days? Until recently litt...

Directed by Joseph Gai Ramaka • Drama • With Djeïnaba Diop Gaï, Magaye Niang, Stephanie Biddle • 2001 • 82 minutes

Director Joseph Gaï Ramaka writes: "Carmen is a myth but what does Carmen represent today? Where do Carmen's love and freedom stand at the onset of the 21st Century? Therein lies my...

Directed by Newton Aduaka • Drama • With Mamoudu Turay Kamara, Mariame N'Diaye, Mamusu Kallon • 2007 • 110 minutes

Ezra stands out among other African films because it is a complex psychological study of a child soldier, not just about the trauma, healing and reintegration into society, but also...

Directed by Mahamat-Saleh Haroun • Documentary • 2016 • 82 minutes

In 2013, former Chadian dictator Hissein Habre's arrest in Senegal marked the end of a long combat for the survivors of his regime. Accompanied by the Chairman of the Association of the Victims of the Hissein Habre Regime, Mahama...

Directed by Rehad Desai • Documentary • 2014 • 86 minutes

In August 2012, mine workers in one of South Africa's biggest platinum mines began a wildcat strike for better wages. Six days into the strike, the police used live ammunition to brutally suppress it, killing 34 and injuring many more. Th...

Directed by Abderrahmane Sissako • Drama • With Danny Glover, Aïssa Maïga, Tiécoura Traoré • 2006 • 117 minutes

An extraordinary trial is taking place in a residential courtyard in Bamako, the capital city of Mali. African citizens have taken proceedings against such international financial inst...

Directed by Yared Zeleke • Drama • With Rediat Amare, Kidist Siyum, Welela Assefa • 2016 • 94 minutes

Yared Zeleke's remarkable feature debut tells the story of young Ephraim, a half-Jewish, Ethiopian boy who is sent by his father to live among distant relatives after his mother's death. Ephraim...

Directed by Angele Diabang • Documentary • 2014 • 52 minutes

Dr. Denis Mukwege, the winner of the 2018 Nobel Peace Prize, is a gynecologist and the founder of Panzi, a hospital whose primary mission is treating women who have been raped - casualties in the Democratic Republic of Congo's decades-...

Directed by Djo Tunda Wa Munga • Drama • With Patsha Bay Mukuna • 2011 • 96 minutes

Riva is a small time operator who has just returned to his hometown of Kinshasa, Congo after a decade away with a major score: a fortune in hijacked gasoline. Wads of cash in hand and out for a good time, Riva is...

Directed by Dieudo Hamadi • Documentary • 2014 • 92 minutes

NATIONAL DIPLOMA follows a group of Congolese high-school students about to take the state exam in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Dieudo Hamadi's documentary closely follows them as they prepare for the test, from the benches of the ...

Directed by Dieudo Hamadi • Documentary • 2017 • 72 minutes

Colonel Honorine Manyole, commonly known as 'Mama Colonel,' works for the Congolese police force and heads the unit for the protection of minors and the fight against sexual violence. Having worked for 15 years in Bukavu, in the east of...

Directed by Rehad Desai • Documentary • 2018 • 85 minutes

Can a diverse group of college kids find common ground with their school’s faculty and janitorial staff to bring the school administration to its knees? Can they banish a nation’s crippling student debt, guarantee workers benefits and liv...

Directed by Elhadj Magori Sani • Documentary • 2008 • 52 minutes

"I am singing about onion farming, bringing both suffering and joy." So sings an onion farmer as he works his field Galmi, in Niger. Beside him stands Yaro, a fellow farmer who knows all too well the hope and sorrow his livelihood ...

Directed by Rosine Mbakam • Documentary • 2018 • 70 minutes

Sabine attaches a hair weave and gets to work. Her hands move quickly and precisely, as she tightly braids the hair in front of the sign in her salon promising African, European, and American-style coiffure. Sabine is a larger than-life...

Directed by Terri Ella • Documentary • 2015 • 52 minutes

Snaking north through eastern South Africa, the Mpumalanga Escarpment is dotted by mysterious stone structures-stone-lined roads, terraces, and the nested circular patterns-left behind by a now-vanished civilization.

FORGOTTEN WORLD featu...

Directed by Rehad Desai and Jabulani Mzozo • Documentary • 2016 • 77 minutes

The loyalty people have for the party of liberation operates at a deep psychological level. But in recent years, the ANC's popularity is at an all time low, not least amongst people who were once its most loyal supporte...

Directed by Andrey Samoute Diarra • Documentary • 2012 • 72 minutes

The Bozo of Mali are people of the water. For generations, they have lived along the banks of the Niger river, fishing for their livelihood. But climate change and drought have brought lower water levels and fewer fish, driving ...

Directed by Chris Curling and Pascoe Macfarlane • Documentary • 1974 • 55 minutes

In 1969, a small group of South African exiles and British film students formed Morena Films in London to produce films about apartheid. By 1974, they produced one of the first, and certainly the most influential, ...