Hazoumè's "NGO (Beninese Solidarity with Endangered Westerners)" reflects on issues of immigration, economic disparity, and perceptions of wealth. Taking a critical eye toward the vast numbers of local and international nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) operating in his country of Benin, the artist created his own NGO to aid poor Westerners, thereby reversing conventional assumptions concerning poverty and the distribution of capital from so-called developed nations. In an attempt to expose the often hidden realities of the income inequality that exists in global Northern countries, he asked Beninese celebrities to solicit donations from Africans, who commonly associate Westerners with affluence. For Hazoumè, the driving concept of the project is to uncover such illusions: "To all appearances, it’s a matter of reversing the help, from south to north. But in reality—it is about making the Africans cogitate differently."
When Lena and Ulli start the engine of their old Land Rover, Lady Terés, they have a plan: to drive from Hamburg to South Africa in six months. What they don't know yet is that they won't ever get there. Two totally different characters, jammed together in two square meters of space for almost two years, they experience what it really means to travel: leaving your comfort zone for good.
The film portrays the trajectory and life of the “Agudá” people today. This is a group of descendants of Africans enslaved in Brazil, who returned to their homeland with the end of slavery, and also descendants, Brazilian and Portuguese, of slave traffickers, who settled in that region of Africa in the 18th and XIX. Present in Benin and Togo, the “agudás” assimilated the surname and part of the culture of their masters.
Thousands of royal artifacts of Dahomey, a West African kingdom, were taken by French colonists in the 19th century for collection and display in Paris. Centuries later, a fraction returned to their home in modern-day Benin. This dramatized documentary follows the journey of 26 of the treasures as told by cultural art historians, embattled university students, and one of the repatriated statues himself.
What happens when a group of Finns travel to a tiny village in Benin to participate in a vaccination study? By participating, they can aid in the development of a diarrhea vaccine for children in developing countries – and, at the same time, have a different kind of vacation in West Africa. The complicated side of helping people and the clashes between two cultures rise to the forefront of Mia Halme’s delicious documentary film.
Hijos de África
Benín, infància robada
In July 1860, the schooner Clotilda slipped quietly into the dark waters of Mobile, Ala., holding 110 Africans stolen from their homes and families, smuggled across the sea, and illegally imported to be sold into slavery. Surviving Clotilda is the extraordinary story of the last slave ship ever to reach America's shores: the brash captain who built and sailed her, the wealthy white businessman whose bet set the cruel plan in motion, and the 110 men, women, and children whose resilience turned horror into hope.
Refuge des oubliés
Adopted at the age of ten from her homeland of Bénin, West Africa, and raised in an abusive household in Connecticut, Chef Adé Carrena travels back home on a journey to reclaim her identity through food and represent what was taken away from her across the Diaspora.
David, a clueless and cocky Spanish video blogger traveling in Africa, arrives in Benin, where he accidentally finds the truth behind an ancient legend.
Cotonou Comedy Festival
A young man having omitted to make the ritual offerings of voodoo, suffers the wrath of the spirits.
In the oceanside village of Iyi, the revered Mama Efe acts as an intermediary between the people and the all-powerful water deity Mami Wata. But when a young boy is lost to a virus, Efe’s devoted but rebellious daughter Zinwe and skeptical protégé Prisca warn Efe about unrest among the villagers. With the sudden arrival of a mysterious rebel deserter named Jasper, a conflict erupts, leading to a violent clash of ideologies and a crisis of faith for the people of Iyi.
In the heart of the Caribbean, a mother and daughter confront a malevolent curse erasing identities of all the island's women, propelling them on a daring quest to reclaim their rich cultural heritage and triumph over the encroaching darkness.
Esosa, Fatouma, and Giselle, three women trafficked as teenagers who reunite seventeen years later to dismantle the powerful men behind their pain. From the streets of Lagos to the shadows of Abidjan and Cotonou, they execute a cold, calculated mission, each move sharpened by trauma, sisterhood, and strategy.
An account of the devastating 1906 San Francisco earthquake and the subsequent effort to rebuild.
Why do the citizens of Okinawa live longer lives than almost anyone else on Earth? Explore this culture of good health and happiness, through the eyes of Okinawa citizens, in this documentary.
On the border between Argentina and Chile, Katia Lafaille, widow of the mountaineer Jean-Christophe Lafaille, sets out on one of the hardest treks in the world. Thirteen days of joy and suffering, to conquer the summit of Mount Aconcagua, the 'Colossus of America', which stands at 6,962 meters... Trek movie, a roadmap of an exceptional human adventure, the film is to see for the breathtaking beauty of the landscapes and for the will of this woman who seems to have some accounts to settle with the mountain.
Documentary about UFF on the occasion of the 15th anniversary of its foundation.