Yale University
PIER-AFRICAN STUDIES SUMMER FILM FESTIVAL
[JULY 2009]
[All films are shown in Luce Hall, 34 Hillhouse Avenue - Admission is free and open to the public]
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Tuesday, July 7: 6:30 - 9:00 p.m. [Room 203]
Keita: The Heritage of the Griot
Directed by Dani Kouyaté
Burkina Faso, 1995, 94 minutes, in Jula and French with English subtitles
Keita introduces Americans, young and old, to one of the most important works of African oral literature, The Sundjata Epic. The film frames its dramatization of this legend within the story of a contemporary young African’s initiation into the history of his family. When a djéliba, a master griot or bard, arrives mysteriously at the home of Mabo Keita to teach him “the meaning of his name,” boy and griot are inevitably brought into conflict with his Westernized mother and schoolteacher, who have rejected African tradition.
Wednesday, July 8: 6:30 - 9:30 p.m. [Room 203]Moolaadé
Directed by Ousmane Sembene
Senegal, 2004, 124 minutes, in Bambara and French with English subtitles
Moolaadé, set in a small village, four young girls facing ritual “purification” flee to the household of Collé Ardo Gallo Sy, a strong-willed woman who has managed to shield her own teenage daughter from mutilation. Collé invokes the time-honored custom of moolaadé (sanctuary) to protect the fugitives. Tension mounts as the ensuing stand-off pits Collé against village traditionalists (both male and female) endangering her daughter’s prospective marriage to the heir-apparent to the throne.
Thursday, July 9: 6:00 - 8:30 p.m. [Auditorium]
New Year Baby
Directed by Socheata Poeuv
Cambodia, 2004, 80 minutes
Born in a Thai refugee camp on Cambodian New Year, filmmaker Socheata Poeuv grew up in the United States without knowing of her mother and father’s experiences in surviving Khmer Rouge genocide. After a startling family revelation, Socheata travels to Cambodia in search of the truth about her parents’ secret past.
Friday, July 10: 6:30 - 8:00 p.m. [Room 203]Living Memory
Directed by Susan Vogel
2003, 53 minutes, in French and local languages with English subtitles
Living Memory is a film about Mali’s ancient culture, and this culture’s position in the country today. It exposes tensions in a society assailed by modernization, Islam and global tourism, yet confident that it will maintain its own distinctive character.
Monday, July 13: 6:30 - 9:30 p.m. [Room 203]
Chinua Achebe: Africa’s Voice
Directed by David Akinde
1999, 61 minutes, in EnglishThis film analyzes the impact Chinua Achebe and his writings have had on world literature, as well as his influence as an editor and spokesman for a generation of African writers. Chinua Achebe, noted professors Abiola Irele and Gerald Graff, and Charles Larson, editor of the anthology Under African Skies, discuss the
characterization, social implications, and levels of interpretation of Things Fall Apart.
Mwe Bana Bandi (You My Children)
Produced by Kristiina Tuura
Zambia, 1988, 29 minutes, in Bemba with English subtitles
Mwe Bana Bandi is a musical documentary about the songs and dances of children in a northeastern Zambian village, Wapamesa. It is a story of two boys as central characters, following their daily activities from sunrise to sunset.
The Beggar of Soutilé
Directed by Raoul Held
Ivory Coast, 1983, 26 minutes, in English
Long ago, the people of Soutilé were known as the least hospitable people on earth. One day an old beggar came to town. Children taunted him and grown-ups shut their doors in his face. Only Balou offered him something to eat. That is why the Sacred Mask of Health and Life allowed Balou and his family to escape the punishment that befell the entire village.
Tuesday, July 14: 6:15 - 9:30 p.m. [Room 203]
Le Malentendu Colonial (The Colonial Misunderstanding)
Directed by Jean-Marie Teno
Namibia/France, 2004, 73 minutes, in English, French, and German with English subtitles
Le Malentendu Colonial looks at European colonialism in Africa through the lens of Christian evangelism, indeed as the model for the relationship between North and South even today. The film scrutinizes in particular the role of German missionaries in Namibia on the centenary of the 1904 German genocide of the Herrero people. It reveals how colonialism destroyed African beliefs and social systems and replaced them with European ones as if they were the only acceptable routes to modernity.
A Republic Gone Mad: Rwanda 1894-1994
Directed by Luc de Heusch and Kathleen de Béthune
Rwanda, 1996, 60 minutes, in English
A different perspective on the Rwandan massacres derived from study of historical relations between the Tutsi and Hutu. As it recounts Rwanda’s history from 1885 partitioning of Africa which made it a German colony, to Belgian conquest during world war I, the creation of a republic under Grégoire Kayibanda in 1961, and the ultimately catastrophic regime of Juvénal Habyarimana, A Republic Gone Mad goes further than any film available in providing the background necessary for an analysis of the horrifying recent massacres.
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Sponsored by:
PIER-African Studies, Council on African Studies, the MacMillan Center for International and Area Studies at Yale, the Connecticut Geographic Alliance, and the U.S. Department of Education Title VI grant
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