African Film Festival at Goucher College

Release date: February 10, 2009 |

From the film Menged

Goucher College will include a five-day African film festival during its celebration of Black History Month. A variety of feature and short films from countries across Africa will be shown at various on-campus locations from February 10 to 14.

These screenings are all free and open to the public.

Part of the African Film Festival National Traveling Series that was organized by the African Film Festival Inc., this series has been made possible by the generous support of National Endowments for the Arts, the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, New York State Council on the Arts and the Tides Foundation.

The schedule for the African Film Festival at Goucher College is as follows:

Tuesday, February 10
Juju Factory
8 p.m., Heubeck Multipurpose Room

Democratic Republic of Congo, 2007, 97 minutes, French with English subtitles

Congo Kongo is a Congolese writer living in Brussels who desperately needs to make money from his next book. Kongo’s editor wants him to write something for the commercial European market, but Kongo wants to examine the history of Congo and its relationship with Belgium. As he writes the book, Kongo relies on his “juju,” or self-confidence, and finds support from a beautiful history student.

A reception and light refreshments will follow the film.

Wednesday, February 11
Les Saignantes
8 p.m.
Merrick Lecture Hall

Cameroon, 2005, 92 minutes, French with English subtitles

One of the first science-fiction films to come out of Africa, Les Saignantes is about two streetwise women who are sent on a strange odyssey in a fictional African nation in the year 2025. The characters navigate a sordid, decaying world where sex, money, politics, and death perniciously overlap, trying to change the destiny of their country.

Thursday, February 12
A Love During the War
8 p.m.
Heubeck Multipurpose Room

Cameroon; 2005; 63 minutes; French, Swahili, and Lingala with English subtitles

This documentary explores rapes as a weapon of war from the perspective of women in Africa, where this tragedy is witnessed again and again. Aziza and her husband were separated when the Congo-Kinshasa war broke out in 1996. Six years later, they reunite and try to rebuild their family life. However, the horrors suffered by other women still haunt journalist Aziza, who feels obliged to return to the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
 
Friday, February 13
Clouds Over Conakry
6 p.m.
Merrick Lecture Hall

Guinea, 2007, 113 minutes, French and Malinke with English subtitles

At age 25, the artist-caricaturist BB finds himself faced with an impossible choice. Son of the inflexible imam Karamo, the guardian of his village’s ancestral traditions, BB is chosen to be his father’s worthy successor. But he refuses to accept his destiny, preferring to work independently and live life to the fullest with a beautiful young computer scientist.
 
Saturday, February 14
The following short films will be presented in order:
Mama Put, Meokgo and the Stick Fighter, Menged, and Growing Stronger
3 p.m.
Kelley Lecture Hall

Mama Put
Nigeria, 2006, 26 minutes, English

A single woman, who makes and sells street food, is struggling to support her family. A gang of armed youth break into the house, demand food, and threaten to kill the family if the meal is not delicious. They return regularly, giving the family money and household items in return for her cooking. But when a robbery goes wrong, the cozy relationship becomes dangerous.

Meokgo and the Stick Fighter
South Africa/Lesotho, 2006, 19 minutes, Sotho with English subtitles

Kgotso is a stickfighter who lives a solitary life high up in the Maluti Mountains of Lesotho. While tending sheep and playing his concertina, he sees a beautiful and mysterious woman staring at him dreamily from the water. This story of unrequited love and sacrifice captures both the cruelty and the beauty of African magical beliefs.
 
Menged
Ethiopia, 2006, 21 minutes, Amharic and Italian with English subtitles

A father and son travel to a rural market in Ethiopia. During the trip, they opt to follow everyone’s well-intended advice. Adapted from a traditional Ethiopian folktale, this film makes allegorical observations about Ethiopia and its shift from the traditions of the past to the modernity of the present.

Growing Stronger
Zimbabwe, 2005, 30 minutes, English and Shona with English subtitles

Former model and wife to the then-coach of the Zimbabwe national football team, Tendayi Westerhof stunned the nation in 2002 by becoming the first high-profile person to go public about her HIV-positive status. She went on to become an elegant and glamorous AIDS activist. Pamela Kanjenzana, who lives a low-profile life in one of Zimbabwe’s densely populated suburbs, is also an effective AIDS activist who survives by living positively.

The African Film Festival at Goucher College is sponsored by Umoja; the Office of Community Living and Multicultural Affairs; the Office of the Dean of Students; and the departments of Peace Studies, Women Studies, Modern Languages, International Relations, Political Science, and Communications and Media Studies.