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 Lusophone African Films collection includes the following titles:

Fintar o Destino

A feature film about soccer dreams weighs the pros and cons of pursuing ambitions abroad or acceptance of life on the isolated islands of Cape Verde.

California Newsreel | 1998 | 77 minutes

The Hero

The Hero (O Herói) tells the story of Angola, a nation attempting to reconstruct itself after 40 continual years of anti-colonial and civil warfare, through the story of a veteran who has lost his leg, a prostitute who has lost a child and an orphaned boy.

California Newsreel | 2005 | 97 minutes

Visit the title page to preview any of the titles above.