African Film Festival 2020

March 4–May 8, 2020

The Two Faces of a Bamileke Woman
Chez Jolie Coiffure
Fatwa
My Beloved Co-Wife
The Mercy of the Jungle

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Past Films

Chez Jolie Coiffure
Rosine Mbakam
Cameroon, Belgium, 2018
Wednesday, March 4 7 PM
Introductions by Ellen Spiro and Cornelius Moore
A Brussels hair salon catering to West African immigrant women is at the center of this warmhearted documentary. “A must-see! An atypical and timely portrait of the intersection between the immigrant experience and female identity” (Indiewire). With Ellen Spiro and Cheryl Dunye’s short DiAna’s Hair Ego REMIX.
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Brightness
Souleymane Cissé
Mali, 1987
Thursday, March 12 7 PM
Souleymane Cissé and Akin Adesokan in Conversation
A young warrior/seer must overcome his own father to gain the knowledge of the ancients in this visionary reimagining of Mandé creation myths and oral tales. “Not only the most beautifully photographed African film ever, but also the best African film ever made” (Film Comment).
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CANCELED: Baara
Souleymane Cissé
Mali, 1978
All film screenings and public programs at BAMPFA have been cancelled through March 29. Learn more
Saturday, March 14 5 PM
Souleymane Cissé and Akin Adesokan in Conversation
The unlikely friendship between a young worker from the countryside and a progressive factory engineer leads to the triggering of political and class fault lines in Cissé’s searing drama. “Cissé makes explicit the infrastructure of corruption” (New Yorker).
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CANCELED: The Wind
Souleymane Cissé
Mali, 1982
All film screenings and public programs at BAMPFA have been cancelled through March 29. Learn more
Sunday, March 15 7 PM
Souleymane Cissé and Akin Adesokan in Conversation
Cissé’s remarkable satire on Africa’s ruling class follows two college kids rebelling against military control and the establishment, and is by turns fierce, romantic, and ultimately hopeful.
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CANCELED: Fatwa
Mahmoud Ben Mahmoud
Tunisia, 2018
Saturday, April 25 7:15 PM
A Tunisian living abroad returns home to discover his deceased son had joined a radical Islamist group in this passionate drama on fanaticism and the Arab Spring’s broken dreams, coproduced by the Dardenne brothers. Winner, Best Arabic Film, Cairo Film Festival.
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CANCELED: The Two Faces of a Bamileke Woman
Rosine Mbakam
Cameroon, Belgium, 2016
Wednesday, April 29 7 PM
“The filmmaker reinventing how African women are portrayed in movies” (NPR), Rosine Mbakam turns the camera on her own remarkable mother and her generation in this captivating documentary. With Haminiaina Ratovoarivony’s short Razana.
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CANCELED: African Short Films: Women’s Stories
All film screenings and public programs at BAMPFA have been temporarily canceled. Learn more
Sunday, May 3 7 PM
This program of recent shorts focuses on women’s stories and struggles in Africa and the diaspora. Titles include Marielle’s Legacy Will Not Die (Leonard Cortana, Brazil), My Beloved Co-Wife (Angèle Diabang, Nigeria), Awani (Aderonke Adeola, Nigeria), and The Prophetess (Sylvie Weber, Congo).
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CANCELED: The Mercy of the Jungle
Joël Karekezi
Belgium, France, Rwanda, 2018
All film screenings and public programs at BAMPFA have been temporarily canceled. Learn more
Friday, May 8 7 PM
Two Rwandan soldiers embark on a journey of survival through the unforgiving jungle in this visceral feature—inspired by Terrence Malick’s The Thin Red Line—from Joël Karekezi, himself a survivor of the Rwandan genocide.
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African Film Festival 2020

March 4–May 8, 2020

This year’s edition of the African Film Festival welcomes new voices and veteran filmmakers from both the African continent and the diaspora, spotlighting stories, communities, and struggles rarely seen in Western cinema. Sit in with the customers of a vibrant Cameroonian hair salon in Brussels, follow a young Parisian Malagasy gay man as he returns home to Madagascar, head deep into the jungles with two soldiers hoping to survive the Rwandan genocide, or see a once-tolerant Tunisia become rife with fanaticism: these are some of the experiences that await viewers in a collection of films that have won praise and awards across the world.

This year the festival also spotlights two filmmakers of different generations, yet with similar passions for documenting the reality of their people. We are honored to have the legendary Malian filmmaker Souleymane Cissé join us for three nights to present films such as Brightness, “the best African film ever made” (Elliot Stein, Film Comment), in conjunction with our Afterimage program. And we are proud to present two works by the rising Cameroonian director Rosine Mbakam, “the filmmaker reinventing how African women are portrayed in movies” (NPR) and an artist of “exquisite sensibility . . . one of the foremost filmmakers of creative nonfiction working right now” (Richard Brody, New Yorker).

Also of interest, BAMPFA’s Black Life series presents Beninese actor Djimon Hounsou’s In Search of Voodoo: Roots to Heaven, accompanied by a panel discussion.

— Jason Sanders, Film Notes Writer

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The African Film Festival National Traveling Series is organized by the African Film Festival, Inc. The BAMPFA presentation is coordinated by Film Curator Kathy Geritz and copresented by the Department of African American Studies and the Center for African Studies at UC Berkeley. This touring series has been made possible by the generous support of the National Endowment for the Arts, The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, and The Ed Bradley Family Foundation. Special thanks to Mahen Bonetti, director, and Dara Ojugbele, program manager, African Film Festival, for their assistance and support. The festival at BAMPFA includes additional titles. Prints provided by the African Film Festival National Traveling Series, unless indicated otherwise.