frontière afrique and Africa House Film Screenings

frontière afrique is the first organization in New York providing market research for the African film industry. Through focus groups bringing together people of diverse backgrounds, we review and assess African films. The goal of frontière afrique and of the frontière afrique review (f.a.r.) is to educate and further the development of African visual media and to make African filmmakers more successful in communicating their message to the world.

Fall 2006 Season

October 18
Dance Got Me
by Ingrid Sinclair, 2006, 52 min, UK/Zimbabwe Twelve years ago, an unemployed African teenager danced on the streets of a Zimbabwean township to earn enough money to eat. Today, his London-based contemporary dance company puts on shows at Sadlers Wells, the royal Opera House and the Place. This emotional program draws us into the roller-coaster ride he took to get there.

Novebmer 15
Homeland
by Jacqueline Kalimunda, 2005, 87 min, Rwanda -Winner of the Documentary Grand Prix, Vues D’Afrique Festival, Montreal 2006 The first Rwandan film about Rwanda. An original and optimistic representation of people enacting a newly conceived idea of nationhood. Kalimunda is able to speak to Rwandans in their language, on their terms, offering the type of perspective and ideas never before seen in any other film about Rwanda. Through personal stories, the characters in HOMELAND reveal their country, their lives and their future.

November 29
What does the beginning of Pan Africanism feel like?
by Leslie Tô, 2006, 14 min, Burkina/US/Cameroon Through a series of three short stories taking place in various contexts, budding director Leslie Tô emphasizes what may be essential roots to a Pan African beginning.

Redefinition, 3’10 min
A young girl’s world is disrupted by a unique exchange between herself and her friends and an old man.

NorthWestern University, 4’min
A recent graduate ponders his future while putting up his diploma.

Release, 6’10 min
Two young boys are called upon by strange women to do something extraordinary: save their village.

Spring 2006 Season

February 28                  
Dôlè
Dôlè offers a Gabonese perspective on the global crisis facing today's youth. Winner of the first-place Gold Tanit at the 2000 Carthage Film Festival, It has already been widely compared to François Truffaut's iconic coming of age film -- a kind of "Le quatre cents coups" in Gabon.

March 28
Back to Africa
Directed by Tony Abulu. Back To Africa is a full length sensational and evocative feature film shot in Africa. It is the story of Sade, a beautiful 24 year old African-American woman on a spiritual quest, searching for her father, Professor Ajayi Esan, who was compelled to leave her and her American mother 22 years earlier in New York.

April 4
On The Frontlines: Child Soldiers In The D.R.C.
Militia groups in South Kivu, a region in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, use children as soldiers, the majority of them between the ages of eight and sixteen, and including both boys and girls.  On the Frontlines features powerful footage of several militia camps in the region, as well as compelling testimony from demobilized child soldiers recounting their horrifying memories of life in the militias.

A Duty to Protect: Justice for Child Soldiers in the DRC
Through the voices of child soldiers, "A Duty To Protect" explores the complexity of the war, the issues confronted by girl soldiers including rape and sexual exploitation and the importance of the International Criminal Court to end the rampant impunity reigning in Eastern DRC.

April 17
Spinning into Butter
An informational screening for NYU students, faculty and staff of the newest Sarah Jessica Parker film, Spinning into Butter, based on the award-winning play of the same name by Rebecca Gilman.  The film’s producer and some members of the cast and productions staff were present.

April 18            
Mama Africa
Bridget Pickering (Namibia), Uno's World, presents the disintegration of a young single mother's escapist lifestyle when she is confronted with the inescapable responsibilities of childbirth.

Ngozi Onwhura (Nigeria), Hang Time, centres its focus on a young, poor, but talented West African basketball player whose desperation to wear the right shoes to impress an American basketball scout ends in tragedy.

Fall 2005 Season

October 13
Flame
Based on accounts of women who joined the Liberation War, this powerful fiction arouses emotions and controversy wherever it is shown. Flame has won awards at several film festivals and was selected for the Director’s Fortnight at the Cannes film festival. It is the first film ever to focus on the role of women and the struggles for the independence of Zimbabwe. Shot in Zimbabwe with an entirely Zimbabwean cast.

November 3
Give Us Peace
Should a state treat its people with violence or respect? A dancer, caught up in street violence, later plays out this theme in a performance with a young girl, where he chooses respect.
Bergamo, Silverdocs, Bilbao International Festivals

November 17
BioPiracy: Who Owns Life
Environment Documentary
A groundbreaking film about the outrageous theft of genetic resources from poor countries by powerful multinational corporations. The film details examples of biopiracy in Zimbabwe and India, and offers suggestions on protecting the rights of indigenous communities. The film has already been screened at several international environmental conferences as well as at the Johannesburg World Summit on Sustainable Development. "Biopiracy: Who owns Life?" has been selected for the prestigious Panda Awards at the Wildscreen Festival in Bristol, UK

Mama Africa: Riches (section)
Set during the onslaught of apartheid in 1966, Riches follows the physical and emotional journey of a young colored teacher Mollie McBride and her son, Peter, from urban South Africa to a remote corner of Botswana.

December 1
Tides Of Gold
Exploring the golden age of Southern Africa
Documentary for television revealing the growth of city-states in the interior of the African continent: Mapungubwe and Great Zimbabwe, and the growth of the gold trade to the coast and the Swahili Trade across to Madagascar, and beyond to Arabia, China, and India.
Winner of Best Documentary Film, Southern African Film Festival, 1998
"Sumptuous images of Zimbabwe, South Africa, Mozambique, Madagascar, the Comoros and Tanzania, shot by award-winning cameraman Jaoa Costa, recreate this relatively unexplored, complex, and integrated economic community." ScreenAfricaNews

Pictures of NYU Africa House and frontière afrique screenings