8. Titles: T-Z
Ta Dona. By Adama Drabo. 1991, 100 min. Hailed as Africa’s
first environmental feature film. Ta Dona is the story of the quest for secret knowledge by a young Bambara man.
See also: Etapes de la vie de l'homme ; Rite et société ; African folk medicine ; Les Bambara ; The Bambara ; Histoire des Bambara ; Le riche et le pauvre
Mali
Bambara (African people) – Social life and customs – Feature films – Political corruption – Drama
Bambara with English subtitles
Fire!
Taafe Fanga. By Adama Drabo. 1997, 95 min. A gender-bending
farce set among the 18th century Dogon which makes some serious points
about the status of women in Africa today. A prize winner
at the 1997 Pan African Film Festival (FESPACO).
See also: A Bamako, les femmes sont belles ; Bamako sigi-kan ; Citadines: vies et regards de femmes de Bamako ; Femmes du Mali ; La condition de la femme de Mali ; La situation de la femme malienne
Mali
Feature films – Man-woman relationships
French, Kaado, and Bambara with English subtitles
Pouvoir de pagne – Skirt power
Taarab, an ocean of melodies. Tomas Films in collaboration with Acacia Entertainment; produced & directed by Abdulkadir Ahmed Said, Bridget Thompson. 2003, 52 min. Explores the historical and contemporary musical and performance traditions of Zanzibar.
See also: Composing the music of Africa ; Taarab de Zanzibar ; Zanzibar: music of celebration ; Women and the 'Africanization' of taarab
Africa, Eastern - Tanzania - Zanzibar
Taarab (Music) - Popular music
Ocean of melodies
Tableau Ferraille. By Moussa Sene Absa. 1997, 85
min. The story of the rise and fall of an idealistic young politican
who must choose in both his public and private life between traditional
communitarian or modern individualistic values.
See also: Personality and political culture ; Senegal: an African nation between Islam and the West ; Clan politics and rural modernization ; Politique, nation, et développement moderne ; Nogoye et Doy-Doy, ou, Les temps modernes
Senegal
Feature films – Politics and government – Social conditions
French and Wolof with English subtitles
Tahal (water planning): the company and its activities. Jerusalem: Steven Spielberg Jewish Film Archive, Hebrew University - WZO, 1999.
See also: Israel and Africa ; Israel and black Africa ; Solel Boneh overseas ; Between north and south;
Israel's foreign policy towards East Africa ; Africa and Israel: relations in perspective ; Strengthening ties ;
Israel - Africa
Tahal, mehandesim yo’atsim - Water - Relations
Tass Yakarr. Written and directed by Amadou Sillah. Music by The Yetteh Drama Group. Looks at the devastating impact of lies, greed and betrayal on a family.
The Gambia: Vinasha productions, 2003.
See also: The Gambia: basic needs ; A study on the traditional roles of men and women ; The Gambia Participatory Poverty Assessment ; National Poverty Alleviation Programme
Gambia
Social conditions - Economic conditions
Taxi to Timbuktu. Produced and directed by Christopher
Walker. 50 min. 1994. Follows men from Mali, among the poorest nations
in the world, who seek work in New York, Paris, and Tokyo.
See also: La république du Mali ; Pauvreté et marché du travail au Mali ; Le Mali au quotidien ; A Bamako, les femmes sont belles ; Emigration dynamics in developing countries
Batama (Mali)
Social conditions – Economic conditions – Malian alien labor
Tekatai: the Ethiopian story continues. New York: United Jewish Appeal, Dept. of Communications/Public Relations. 1992, 12:21 min.
See also: Rencontres avec les juifs d'Ethiopie ; The moon is bread ; The Falashas: a short history of the Ethiopian Jews ; Treacherous journey ; The Ethipian Jewish exodus ; A dream come true for the Ethiopian Jews
Ethiopia - Israel
Ethiopian Jews - Immigration - Operation Solomon
O Testamento Do Sr. Napumoceno. Producer/Director:
Francisco Manso. 1998, 110 minutes. An epic farce on the hollowness
at the core of provincial bourgeois life. Reflects Cape Verde’s rich and complex cultural
heritage. Based on Germano Almeida's novel.
See also: Sheila Faria Glaser's English translation, The last will and testament of Senhor da Silva Araújo ; The people of Cape Verde islands ; Cape Verde:Crioulo colony to independent nation ; República de Cabo Verde ; Bargaining in the development market-place ; Cape Verde:politics, economics, and society
Cape Verde
Drama – Fathers and daughters – Inheritance and succession – Almeida, Germano
Portuguese with English subtitles
O testamento do Senhor Napumoceno – Napumoceno’s will
Testing hope: grade 12 in the new South Africa. Written, directed, and edited by Molly Blank. [S.l.: Molly Blank] 2007, 40 min. Chronicles the lives of four young people in 12th grade in Nyanga township outside Cape Town, as they work toward their crucial Matric exams.
See also: From school to higher education? ; The Black high school principal's role in a political transition in South Africa ; Diversity High: class, color, culture, and character in a South African high school ; Going to school in Sub-Saharan Africa
Cape Town (South Africa)
Achievement tests - Social aspects - High school seniors - De facto school segregation
That our children will not die. Ford Foundation; made by Joyce Chopra. 1978, 56 min. Shows primary health care services in various parts of Nigeria that use specially trained community health workers and nurses in an expanded role.
Nigeria
Community health services - Community health aides - Nurse practitioners
Format Note: Library also owns the film format: 2 reels, 60 min.; 16 mm.
These girls are missing. By Shari Robertson, Michael Camerini. 1997, 60 min. In many African countries, fewer than 20% of girls ever enter a schoolroom, and across the continent, only one woman in three learns to read. The film offers stories and glimpses into a few intimate relationships layered to mirror the complex reality of cultural attitudes.
Africa
Women - Education - Sex discrimination in education - Sex role - Documentary films
Gender gap in Africa’s schools
These Hands. By Flora M’mbugu-Schelling. 1992, 45 min. A non-traditional documentary and quiet tribute to Mozambican women refugees working in a quarry outside Dar Es Salaam.
Tanzania
Women – Economic conditions – Documentary films – Social conditions – Miners
Swahili and Kimakonde worksongs; English subtitles
They carry their families. Filmed and produced by Ingo A. Zamperoni. 1999, 13 min. Life in a rural village in Mauritania is hard on women. Tradition and Islamic religion are intertwined to reinforce strict gender roles. From a Western perspective, the future of Africa depends on education and family planning.
Mauritania
Women - Social conditions - Social life and customs - Ethnographic films - Documentary films
They carry their families: a village in Mauritania
Thomas Sankara. Un film de Balufu Bakupa-Kanyinda. 1991, 26 min.
See also: Le Président Thomas Sankara ; Biographie de Thomas Sankara ; Histoire politique du Burkina Faso: 1919-2000 ; We are heirs of the world's revolutions ; Land and the politics of belonging in West Africa ; Thomas Sankara: the upright man
Burkina Faso
Sankara, Thomas - Presidents - Biography - Politics and government
Thomas Sankara: the upright man. A film by Robin Shuffield San Francisco, California. 2006, 52 min. A biography of Thomas Sankara, a charismatic army captain who became the first president of Burkina Faso after a popularly-supported coup.
See also: Le Président Thomas Sankara ; Biographie de Thomas Sankara ; Histoire politique du Burkina Faso: 1919-2000 ; We are heirs of the world's revolutions ; Land and the politics of belonging in West Africa ; Thomas Sankara
Burkina Faso
Sankara, Thomas - Presidents - Biography - Politics and government - History - Documentary films
English and French audio track with English subtitles
The upright man
Three Tales from Senegal. The three Senegalese shorts in this brief film anthology adapt the ancient African storytelling tradition to a modern medium and setting.
Senegal
Wolof (African people) – Short films – Folklore – Folk literature
Wolof with English subtitles
Franc – Picc Mi – Little bird – Fary l’Anesse
Thunderbolt. Tunde Kelani. 2000, 110 min. This story of suspected infidelity, curses and ritual purification, of modern science and traditional wisdom, is an outstanding example of the burgeoning video industry of Nigeria. p class="video_info">Nigeria
Igbo (African people) – Ibo (African people) – Yoruba (African people) – Shakespeare, William – Othello – Adaptations – Drama – Traditional medicine – AIDS (Disease)
English, Igbo (Ibo) and Yoruba
Tikur belese. Alexanderia, VA: Merkato, 2000
Ethiopia
Amharic
Tilaï. By Idrissa Ouedraogo. 1990, 81 min. This tale of forbidden love, honor and revenge follows the tragic story of Saga, who returns to his village after a long absence.
Burkina Faso
Feature films – Adultery
Mossi (Mòoré, Môre) with English subtitles
Today the hawk takes one chick. Director, Jane Gillooly; producers, Ann S. Kim, Jane Gillooly, Tracey Kaplan. 2008, 72 min. Captures day-to-day life in the Lubombo region of Swaziland on the threshold of simultaneous collapse and reinvention.
See also: Swaziland Behavioral Surveillance Survey (BSS) ; Displaying pain ; About us: Ngatsi: stories What is driving the HIV/AIDS epidemic in Swaziland ; Life stories ; A history of Swaziland ; The Swazi: a South African kingdom
Swaziland
AIDS (Disease) - Documentary films
Siswati and English audio track with English subtitles
To Live With Herds. 1996, 70 min. Looks at life
in a traditional Jie homestead during a harsh dry season. Demonstrates
the effects of nation building in pre-Amin Uganda on the semi nomadic
pastoral Jie.
See also: The traditional history ; To live with herds ; The family herds ; Under the men's tree ; Nawi ; Identities on the move
Uganda
Jie (African people) – Social life and customs – Cattle herders – Social conditions – Documentary films
Jie with English subtitles; some English narration
Toro si te. Written, filmed and directed by Daisy Lamothe; co-produced by Alain Guesnier, Sacha Guillaume. 2006, 97 min. Seydou Konate is the only doctor for more than 40,000 inhabitants in Nongon, Southern Mali, isolated by two rivers with no bridges, and a 10-hour drive from the capital of Bamako.
See also: Réflexions sur la santé au Mali ; Cooperazione e sanità in Mali ; Se soigner au Mali ; Le Mali, le paysan et l'Etat
Mali
Konate, Seydou - Physicians - Medical care - Social conditions - Rural Health Services - Documentary
Bambara with English subtitles
Everything's fine
Touki Bouki. By Djibril Diop Mambety. 1973, 85 min. One of the path-breaking films of early African cinema. Touki Bouki introduced into African film the theme of searching for authentic values in a “modernizing” Africa.
Senegal
Feature films – Social conditions
French and Wolof with English subtitles
Journey of the hyena
The tree of our forefathers. A film by Licinio Azevedo. 1994, 50 min. Film follows a refugee family who has spent 10 years living in a refugee camp in Malawi as they make the return journey to their homeland.
Series: Developing stories 2 series
See also: Memórias em Voo Rasante ; Moçambique, a terra e os homens ; Mozambique and the construction of the new African state ; Mondlane, Machel e Chissano ; Revolution, counter-revolution ; Mozambique: the tortuous road to democracy ; Kuxa kanema: la naissance de cinema ; Mozambique: the struggle for survival ; Revolução na Africa austral
Mozambique - Tete Province (Mozambique) - Malawi
Political refugees - Emigration and immigration - Funeral rites and ceremonies - Social conditions, 1975- - History - Independence and Civil War, 1975-1994
English voiceovers
Developing stories - People, population, migration
The Triumph of Evil. Produced by Mike Robinson and Ben Loeterman. 1999, 60 min. Reporter, Steve Bradshaw, PBS Video. Eight hundred thousand Tutsis were slaughtered by the Hutu majority in Rwanda. Frontline examines the role of Britain, France, the U.S. and the U.N. as they ignored the warnings and evidence of impending massacre.
Rwanda
Tutsi (African people) – Hutu (African people) – Genocide – History – 20th century – Civil War, 1994 – Ethnic relations
Frontline, The Triumph of Evil
Trokosi: (wife of the Gods). Produced/directed by Kofi Boateng. 1994, 25 min. Documents a system of providing young girls as servants/slaves to priests among the Ewe people of southeastern Ghana.
Ghana
Ewe (African people) - Social conditions - Women slaves - Religious life - Documentary films
English and Ewe with subtitles in English
Truth and Reconciliation Commission: a special report. A special report done at the beginning of the hearings of the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
South Africa
Human rights – Governmental investigations
Truth & Reconciliation Commission – Truth and Reconciliation Commission
Tsamako: the first ethnographic cinema. Addis Ababa, Ethiopia: Millenium African Group International, 1993.
Ethiopia
Tsotsi. Written and directed by Gavin Hood; produced by Peter Fudakowski. Widescreen. Miramax Home Entertainment. 2006, 94 min. Based on a novel by Athol Fugard.
South Africa
Drama - Criminal behavior - Murder - Redemption
Tsotsi-Taal dialogue with some English or Spanish subtitles; close-captioned.
Thug
Tubabs in Africa. Producer, Michael Ford; directors, Amy Flannery, Mary Flannery; Yellow Cat Productions. 2003, 56 min. An anthropology professor and a group of students from St. Mary’s College of Maryland spend a summer in The Gambia, West Africa, where they study language and culture in the capital.
Gambia
American students - Anthropology students - Foreign study - Ethnology - Documentary films - Description and travel
Tutu and Franklin: a journey towards peace. Produced by Wisdom Works; producer, Douglas Spiro. Washington, DC: Wisdom Works, 2001. Documentary on the first encounter between Nobel Peace Prize winner Desmond Tutu and Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient John Hope Franklin as they explore the former slave port on Goree Island, Senegal.
See also: West African slavery and Atlantic commerce ; The door of no return: a spiritual pilgrimage for Africans in America ; An essay against the transportation and selling of men ; Gorée, six siècles d'histoire ; Gorée: capitale déchue ; Gorée, island of memories
Gorée (Senegal)
Tutu, Desmond - Franklin, John Hope, 1915- - Slave trade - History - Description and travel - Social conditions
Twelve disciples of Nelson Mandela. A film by Thomas Allen Harris; produced, directed and written by Thomas Allen Harris. 2005, 73 min. Director Thomas Allen Harris embarks on a journey to understand the man who raised him, Pule Benjamin Leinaeng ("Lee") - an ANC foot-soldier who sacrificed his life for the freedom of his country.
South Africa
Leinaeng, Pule Benjamin - African National Congress - History - Anti-apartheid activists - African American families - Fathers and sons - Documentary films
English and Afrikaans soundtrack with English subtitles; closed captioned in English
21 up South Africa: Mandela's children. Directror, Angus Gibson; producer, Jemma Jupp; co-producer, David Wason. 2007, 69 min. Features scenes shot every seven years starting in 1992, this documentary follows the lives of eleven South African children.
See also: Youth 2000 survey ; Learning to battle the legacy? ; Families and households in post-apartheid South Africa ; The struggle for jobs ; Identity crisis? ; Youth power! in Soweto ; The youth of South Africa
South Africa
Young adults - Case studies - Attitudes - Developmental psychology - Documentary television programs - Race relations - Social conditions
Mandela’s children - Twenty one up South Africa
Two dollars with or without a condom. 1996, 40 min. A video documentary about young girls, teenagers, and women who are compelled to turn to prostitution for survival.
Ethiopia
Teenage prostitution - Child prostitution
English and Amharic with English subtitles
Two Trevors Go To Washington. By Ben Cashdan. 2000, 34 min. An incisive and entertaining account of the April 16, 2000 International Monetary Fund and World Bank meetings and protests in Washington, D.C. as experienced through the eyes of two opposing South Africans, both veterans of the anti-apartheid struggle, who differ strongly on economic issues.
South Africa
World Trade Organization – International Monetary Fund – Free trade – External debts – Economic conditions, 1991 – Export marketing – Political aspects – Demonstrations – Washington (D.C.) – Globalization – Debt relief
U
L'UEJF au Rwanda: pour un dialogue des mémoires, du 14 au 24 fevrier 2006. Union des étudiants juifs de France. 33 min.
See also: Forsaken Cries: The Story of Rwanda ; The debris of Ham ; Une guerre noire ; The bishop of Rwanda ; Life laid bare: the survivors in Rwanda speak ; Rwanda means the universe ; Hotel Rwanda: bringing the true story of an African hero to film ; Hotel Rwanda
Rwanda
Genocide - Tutsi (African people) - History -- Civil War, 1994 - Atrocities - Ethnic relations
Udju Azul Di Yonta. By Flora Gomes. 1991, 90 min. One of the few recent African films to make the disillusionment of the revolutionary generation its primary subject and offer a glimmer of hope for the future. This film can be seen as a continuation of Gomes’ first feature film, Mortu Nega, which commemorates Guinea-Bissau’s arduous independence struggle.
Guinea-Bissau
eature films – Social conditions
Crioulo (Criolo) with English subtitles
Blue eyes of Yonta
Uganda: The War of the Children. Produced by Thomas Jimmerthal and Christa Kofler. 2000, 45 min. In the Lord’s Resistance Army, eight out of ten rebels are under 16 years of age. Some are as young as 6. Thousands of children - both male and female - have been forcibly conscripted into the rebel army.
Uganda
Children and war – Social conditions – Child soldiers – Documentary films – Children – Civil War
War of the children
Umgidi. A film by Sipho Singiswa and Gillian Schütte. 2004, 74 min. The film explores a family and a country trying to embrace both modernity and tradition.
Series Note: Real stories from a free South Africa, v. 4
See also: Circumcision among the Ama-Xhosa ; Umsindleko: a Gcaleka ritual of incorporation ; Christianity and Xhosa tradition ; Family structures in the RSA ; Marriage and family life in South Africa
South Africa
Xhosa (African people) - Singiswa, Sipho - Rites and ceremonies - Circumcision - Religious aspects - Brothers - Political prisoners - Gay men - Family - Social conditions - Documentary films
English and Xhosa with English subtitles
The celebration
Under African Skies. 5 parts. BBC Videos for Education
and Training, 1989. A series of five videos, each illustrating various
aspects of African music and dance, with some popular music highlighted
as well.
See also: In griot time: an American guitarist in Mali ; Stars and songbirds ; Song, performance, and power ; Mali: cordes anciennes ;
Mali – Ethiopia – Zimbabwe
Music – Popular music, 1981-1990
Under African Skies (Television program)
Under the Men’s Tree. 1973, 15 min. Shows life in
a Jie cattle camp in the Karamoja district of northern Uganda. Focuses
on a group of men as they cut cowhide ropes, tell stories, and sleep.
See also: The traditional history ; To live with herds ; The family herds ; Nawi ; Identities on the move
Karamoja Province (Uganda)
Jie (African people) – Herders – Men – Anthropology – Social conditions – Social life and customs – Documentary films – Ethnology
Under the volcano. Ett program av Lasse Berg, Anders Ribbsjö. 2001, 59 min. The story of the apartheid regime’s campaign of destabilization against its neighbors for a period of 20 years: Zambia, Botswana, Zimbababwe, Lesotho, and Angola.
Originally produced as a documentary film in 1987 by Dokumentär, Sveriges Television AB.South Africa
Apartheid - Race relations - Documentary films
English and Afrikaans with English subtitles; some dialogue in unidentified African languages
Under vulkanen - Under the volcano: apartheid South Africa’s campaign of destabilization of the frontline states - Southern Africa: under the volcano - Under the volcano - Apartheid South Africa’s campaign of destabilization of the frontline states
Unfinished exodus. American Association for Ethiopian Jews. 1987, 22 min.
Ethiopia
Ethiopian Jews
Urban Ecology. Produced by FR 3 and Eolis Productions, with UNESCO, part of the “Man and the Biosphere” series, directed by Gerald Calderon. 1991, 24 min.
Abidjan (Côte d’Ivoire) – Ivory Coast
Population increase – Industrial aspects – Agricultural aspects
Ushirika ni Umoja. By Ron Mulvihill. 1996, 23 min. Explores the rural life and feelings of the Teso people of Kenya. (On the same videotape: Arusi ya Mariamu = The Marriage of Mariamu.)
Kenya – East Africa - Tanzania
Teso (African people) – Social life and customs – Traditional medicine – Villages – Country life
Kiswahili (Swahili) with English subtitles; English narration
Sharing is unity – Arusi ya Mariamu – Marriage of Mariamu
V
Vessels of the Spirits: Pots and People in North Cameroon. Nicholas David, University of Calgary. 1990. 50 min. Shows the role of pots in the culture of the Hide, Sirak and Mafa peoples of the Mandara highlands of North Cameroon.
Cameroon – Mandara Highlands
Hide (African people) – Sirak (African people) – Mafa (African people) – Pottery – Material culture – Rites and ceremonies – Social life and customs
La Vie Est Belle. By Nguingura Mweze. 1987, 85 min. This film takes the viewer inside the vibrant music scene of Kinshasha, where World Beat music legend Papa Wemba tells the “rags to riches” story of a poor country musician who seeks fame in the city’s music industry.
Congo (Democratic Republic)
Social conditions – Feature film – Drama – Musicals
French with English subtitles
Life is Rosy
La Vie Sur Terre. By Abderrahmane Sissako. 1998, 61 min. Conceived as part of 2000 Vue Par, a European television series which invited ten outstanding independent producers to imagine the last day of the present century in their own countries.
Mali
Technology and civilization – Drama 20th century – Feature films
French and Bambara with English subtitles
Life on Earth
A Village is Waiting. By the Unitarian Service Committee, Directed by Erica Anderson. 30 min. Presents Nzeribe’s story about how his Nigerian village was assisted by various self-help programs offered by the Unitarian Service Committee.
Nigeria
Nzeribe, Ben Uzuki – Human services – Unitarian Service Committee
U.U.S.C. a village is waiting – UUSC a village is waiting
The village woman. Steven Spielberg Jewish Film Archive, Hebrew University - WZO, 1999, 12 min.
Israel - Africa
Students, Foreign - Vocational education - Relations - Haifa (Israel)
Visions of Africa. Villon Films. 2001, 30 min. Three silent films showing white presentations of Africa and Africans.
South Africa
Race relations – History – Motion pictures – Silent films
Voices from Robben Island. Executive producer, Jurgen Schadeberg; producer, Claudia Schadeberg; written and directed by Adam Low. 1994, 90 min. This documentary examines the 400 year history of Robben Island and includes interviews with former political prisoners such as Nelson Mandela, Walter Sisulu, Govan Mbeki and Ahmed Kathrada, and warders of the prison.
South Africa
Robben Island - Interviews - Prisons - Social conditions - Political prisonersOctober 22, 2009f="#top">