African Film Festival 2015

1/17/15 to 2/17/15

This year's edition of our annual African Film Festival focuses on liberation movements-both today and in the past-and on women filmmakers, including one of the first women to make films in Africa, Sarah Maldoror.

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  • Upcoming
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  • Selected
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  • Past
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  • Past
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Past Films

  • Cassa Cassa! Danced Encounters Between Africa and Its Diaspora

    • Tuesday, February 17 7:00PM

    Elodie Lefebvre (Senegal, 2013). In 2007 artists, choreographers, dancers, and musicians from across Africa and its diaspora gathered in a remote Senegalese village for communion, connection, and inspiration. This documentary captures their passion and commitment. With Alla Kovgan and David Hinton's short, Nora, featuring the choreographer Nora Chipaumire. (86 mins)

  • Sarah Maldoror: Films of Resistance

    • Thursday, February 12 7:00PM

    Sarah Maldoror attended film school in Moscow with Ousmane Sembène and worked on The Battle of Algiers before becoming one of African cinema's first women directors, and one of its most passionate voices. Shorts include Monangambée (1968), Carnival in Guinea-Bissau (1971), and Mathieu Kleyebe Abonnenc's recent excavation of Maldoror's lost film Guns for Banta. (57 mins)

  • Sambizanga

    • Wednesday, February 11 7:00PM

    Sarah Maldoror (Angola/Congo, 1972). One of the first feature films made by a woman in Africa is an urgent call for political change. The events leading up to a 1961 prison rebellion in Angola forms the plot. “Maldoror is both presenting history and issuing a call to arms” (Village Voice). (102 mins)

  • Something Necessary

    • Friday, January 30 7:00PM

    Judy Kibinge (Kenya/Germany, 2013). A woman whose world has been destroyed in Kenya's 2007 civil unrest attempts to rebuild her life, yet repeatedly crosses paths with a man who participated in the violence, in Judy Kibinge's moving, beautifully filmed narrative. (85 mins)

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    • Wednesday, January 28 7:00PM

    (Cameroon/Kenya/Tunisia, 2013–14). A program highlighting emerging artists focuses on short narratives by women. Films include Beleh, Eka Christa Assam's quirky look at gender roles; Soko Sonko, a hair braiding adventure by Ekwa Msangi-Omari; and Kaouther Ben Hania's story of a young girl who goes to great lengths to avoid school, Wooden Hands. (75 mins)

  • Winter of Discontent

    • Saturday, January 17 6:30PM

    Ibrahim El Batout (Egypt, 2012). (El sheita elli fat). Egyptian independent filmmaker Ibrahim El Batout returns to the first wave of anti-Mubarak Tahrir Square protests with intertwined stories of a political dissident (Amr Waked), a TV journalist, and a state policeman. (95 mins)