Pygmies: The Children of the Jungle

Pasolini seeks in Africa the peasant and revolutionary authenticity he had sought in the Roman villages. This hope will end in a new disappointment: Africa is a reservoir of irremediable contradictions that will explode in the massacres of yesterday and today. It is an Africa that starts from the outskirts of Rome, but thousands of non-EU citizens flock to the sub-proletariat of the villages.

When a massive Chinese factory complex attempts a high-stakes expansion in rural Ethiopia, three women in search of prosperity have their faith in industrialization tested to the limit. Filmed over four years with singular access, Made in Ethiopia lifts the curtain on China’s historic but misunderstood impact on Africa, and explores contemporary Ethiopia at a moment of profound crisis. The film was awarded the Jury Special Mention at Tribeca Festival.

The film shows Catherine Destivelle's trip to Dogon Country, in Mali, where she will make spectacular free solo rock climbing ascents in the sun-warmed cliffs of Bandiagara. Destivelle is accompanied on this trip by a friend climber, Lucien Abbet. A film by Pierre-Antoine Hiroz produced in 1987 by Paradoxe and also featuring Tidjani Koné, Ibrahim Dolo, and the Dogon inhabitants of the Bandiagara Escarpment. The film won the Genziana D'argento for best free climbing film at the Trento Film Festival in 1987.

Aimé Césaire, un Nègre fondamental

Ikátena

For the first time in history, the UCI Road World Championships are coming to African soil. This documentary captures the sweat, setbacks and symbolic power of cycling.

Many geneticists and archaeologists have long surmised that human life began in Africa. Dr. Spencer Wells, one of a group of scientists studying the origin of human life, offers evidence and theories to support such a thesis in this PBS special. He claims that Africa was populated by only a few thousand people that some deserted their homeland in a conquest that has resulted in global domination.

Kids from Brooklyn, NY housing projects try to change the world when they are paired with Sierra Leonean pen pals orphaned by a civil war.

Guerre aux images en Algérie

A reportage cross-cutting film about the development of Africa from 1900-1936, using archive footage and film material from earlier African expeditions.

A musical trip through southern Africa to the tunes of the post-apartheid generation. Kwaito music originated in the 1950's in the dusty streets of South Africa's townships such as Sophiatown, Pimville and subsequently in Soweto. It is inseparable from the Pantsuela culture of the rebellious youth gangs during the Apartheid regime. Since there was no money for musical instruments or for extravagant costumes, they concentrated on their dancing and singing skills and, turning the streets into their stage. Currently almost fifty years later - Kwaito culture is experiencing a renaissance in a manner completely inconceivable in those days.

In the remote and forgotten wilderness of Lake Natron, in northern Tanzania, one of nature's last great mysteries unfolds: the birth, life and death of a million crimson-winged flamingos.

A poetic exploration of mental health issues among creatives in communities on the African continent and in the diaspora, exploring myths, stigma and solutions through the personal stories of the characters.

Hosted by Val Kilmer, the documentary follows playwright Nicholas Ellenbogen as he travels to remote communities in six different African countries. In each community, the residents have taken an holistic and somewhat controversial approach to managed wildlife care.

This documentary of repressive political realities in Cameroon begins with the 1990 publication of an open letter to President Biya calling for a national conference - and the immediate arrest of the letter's author and publisher. The narration then examines the nation's colonial history, beginning with the first German missionary in 1901, the establishment of schools, French occupation following World War I, the paucity of books written by and published by Cameroonians, and the repression of the CPU, a leftist organization of the 1950s and 1960s. Cameroon and its people are the lark, its feathers plucked first by colonialism and then by native strongmen: 'Alouette, je te plumerai.'

In Uganda, AIDS-infected mothers have begun writing what they call Memory Books for their children. Aware of the illness, it is a way for the family to come to terms with the inevitable death that it faces. Hopelessness and desperation are confronted through the collaborative effort of remembering and recording, a process that inspires unexpected strength and even solace in the face of death.

Filmed across three continents, this documentary shares the story of the founders of the Pan-African comic book company, Kugali, who made their dream a reality creating an original animation series with Walt Disney Animation Studios.

A talented group of orphaned children in Swaziland create a fictional heroine and send her on a dangerous quest.

It's 1974. Muhammad Ali is 32 and thought by many to be past his prime. George Foreman is ten years younger and the heavyweight champion of the world. Promoter Don King wants to make a name for himself and offers both fighters five million dollars apiece to fight one another, and when they accept, King has only to come up with the money. He finds a willing backer in Mobutu Sese Suko, the dictator of Zaire, and the "Rumble in the Jungle" is set, including a musical festival featuring some of America's top black performers, like James Brown and B.B. King.

Poet, agricultural engineer and revolutionary Amílcar Cabral was born in Guinea-Bissau to Cape Verdean parents. After studying in Portugal, he emerged as the charismatic leader of the anti-colonial struggle against Portuguese rule. With his utopian ideas, he sparked a cultural and an armed uprising that went on to inspire other African liberation movements.