Hijos de África
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.
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.
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.
Benín, infància robada
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.
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.
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.
Cotonou Comedy Festival
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.
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.
David, a clueless and cocky Spanish video blogger traveling in Africa, arrives in Benin, where he accidentally finds the truth behind an ancient legend.
Virar a Página
Three National Security whistleblowers fight to reveal the darkest corners of America's war on terror, challenging a government that is increasingly determined to maintain secrecy.
Before Lance Armstrong, there was Greg LeMond, who is now the first and only American to win the Tour de France. In this engrossing documentary, LeMond looks back at the pivotal 1986 Tour, and his increasingly vicious rivalry with friend, teammate, and mentor Bernard Hinault. The reigning Tour champion and brutal competitor known as “The Badger,” Hinault ‘promised’ to help LeMond to his first victory, in return for LeMond supporting him in the previous year. But in a sport that purports to reward teamwork, it’s really every man for himself.
Emerging from the Detroit music scene of the 1970s in a flurry of long hair and sequins, Alice Cooper restored hard rock with a sense of showmanship, while simultaneously striking fear into the hearts of Middle America with the chicken-slaughtering, dead-baby-eating theatrics that would cement his identity as a glam metal icon. Meticulously crafted from rare archival footage, Super Duper Alice Cooper tells the story of the man behind the makeup, Vincent Furnier, the son of a preacher, who got caught in the grip of his own monster.
The story of Stuart Sutcliffe, painter, musician, and founding member of The Beatles, who died when they were on the cusp of fame.
Produced in High Definition, with rare archive footage. Queen Elizabeth II has reigned for 60 years as the Queen of Great Britain and the Commonwealth. The Queen, who has witnessed incredible social, political and cultural changes in her reign, has retained the purpose and dignity of the British Monarchy. From the death of her father King George VI, to the marriage of Prince William and Kate Middleton, this is the true story of how the young Princess became a great Queen.