Anthropology and Folklife
When Newsreel launched this collection, it was the first and largest collection of African cinema in the United States — and it remains an unmatched resource today. African cinema offers what mainstream Western media rarely does: Africa rendered in its own complexity, beauty, and contradiction, by filmmakers who know it from the inside. Spanning documentary and fiction, master filmmakers and emerging voices, from Francophone and Lusophone countries to Nigeria's Nollywood to post-apartheid South Africa, these films explore women's rights and gender, the legacies of colonialism, political corruption and civil war, cultural identity, sexuality, and the tensions between tradition and modernity. Many titles come with discussion guides and articles by African filmmakers and scholars, making this an essential resource for African Studies, Cinema Studies, and anyone seeking a deeper understanding of the continent and its people.
Articles to help you view and teach African cinema written by African filmmakers and scholars are also available.
The Anthropology and Folklife collection includes the following titles:
The Language You Cry InImages, instrumental music, song, interviews and narrative provide clues in the search for a lost song, its history, and its argument for cultural retention between aspects of African and African-American culture.
FinzanCheick Oumar Sissoko explores the status of African women in two interlocking stories of traditional village society.
Keita: The Heritage of the GriotA young boy and his distant ancestor engage in parallel quests to understand their destinies and to know the meaning of their names. In so doing, Keita makes the case for an "Afrocentric" education, where African tradition, not an imported Western curricula is the necessary starting point for African development.
Monday's GirlsThe conflict between modern individualism and traditional society is seen through the eyes of two young Niger Delta women involved in a five-week long women's initiation ceremony.
Le Silence De La ForetThis film, the first from the Central African Republic, takes us inside the world of the 'pygmies' or more properly BaAka. A well-intentioned school reformer, disgusted by the corruption in his country, attempts to bring modern learning to what appear to him as the last remaining 'noble savages.' But these superbly adapted rain forest hunter gatherers want none of his knowledge.
Taafe FangaA gender-bending farce set among the cliff-dwelling 18th century Dogon people, makes serious points about the status of women in Africa. It shows how ancient mythology can still shed light on modern issues.
These HandsWithout plot or narration, this mesmerizing documentary records the dehumanizing monotony of a day in the life of women chipping rocks by hand in a Tanzanian quarry while discovering the communal warmth and joy that defies this spirit-breaking labor.
This is NollywoodThe story of Nigeria's home grown film industry, which is gaining recognition as a cultural and cinematic phenomenon.
Wend KuuniThis retelling of an ancient fable about a mute, memory-less orphan, renamed "God's Gift" by the grateful village which adopts him demonstrates the continuing relevance of traditional African values such as hospitality and communal child rearing.
Witches In ExileAcross Africa, a belief in witchcraft continues to terrorize women: the denunciation, brutal beating, the banishment to an unknown village without family or friends. Witches in Exile is the first film to tell their story and the story of the human rights struggle to find a solution to a practice deeply embedded in tradition and gender economics.
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