Film Studies

Benin and Senegal
"L'Afrique est-elle en Afrique, sur les bords de la Seine ou au Quartier latin? Interrogations aigres-douces d'une génération d'artistes et d'étudiants à la recherche de leur civilisation, de leur culture et de leur avenir. Ce film, premier essai de cinéastes africains, a été réalisé sous le patronage du Comité du film ethnographique du Musée de l'Homme."

Senegal
"In a suburb of Dakar that lies along the Atlantic coast, a futuristic-looking tower is about to be officially opened. The construction workers have not been paid for months. One night, the workers decide to leave the country by sea, in search of a brighter future in Spain. Among them is Souleiman, the lover of Ada. However, Ada is betrothed to another man - the wealthy Omar. Ada is deeply worried about Souleiman, as she waits for news of his fate in the run-up to her wedding. On her wedding day, Omar's bed mysteriously catches fire in a suspected arson attack, and a young detective is assigned to investigate the case. In the coming days, Ada falls under suspicion and is subjected to interrogations and a virginity test. Meanwhile, her friend Fanta and the young detective are both suffering from a mysterious illness. It slowly emerges that the spirits of the men lost at sea have returned and each night take possession of the bodies of other inhabitants of Dakar."

Senegal
Black Girl "A Senegalese woman is eager to find a better life abroad. She takes a job as a governess for a French family, but finds her duties reduced to those of a maid after the family moves from Dakar to the south of France. In her new country, the woman is constantly made aware of her race and mistreated by her employers. Her hope for better times turns to disillusionment and she falls into isolation and despair. The harsh treatment leads her to consider suicide the only way out." -- IMDB.
Borom Sarret "...arguably the first film made by a black African. It illustrates poverty in Senegal, particularly for the working man" IMDB

Senegal
"Borom Sarret is arguably the first film made by a black African. It illustrates poverty in Senegal, particularly for the working man" IMDB

Mali and Mauritania

"In the last days of 1999, after a few shots of a French supermarket, abundant in food and color, we hear Dramane compose a letter home to his father in Mali whom he then visits in the village of Sokolo. He meets the lovely Nana, and there are possibilities. People place long-distance calls from the post office. "Reaching people," says the postmaster, "is a matter of luck." Contrasts between Paris and Sokolo - between Mali and France and between Africa and Europe - are underscored by voice-over poems and comments by Aimé Césaire. A man dictates a letter to a brother in France: what is the nature of their hardships? People look for their place on this earth."

Senegal
"Ramata, a stunning woman in her fifties and married to a wealthy man, meets Ngor Ndong, a young, homeless, and mysterious taxi driver. She agrees to follow him to the copacabana. A drive in the seediest part of Dakar.
Ramata, a stunning woman in her fifties and married to a wealthy man, meets Ngor Ndong, a young, homeless, and mysterious taxi driver. She agrees to follow him to the copacabana. A drive in the seediest part of Dakar."

Canada
"May 20, 1980. After his father’s passing, Raymond Tremblay, tax investigator, begins to suspect the funeral home of fraudulent activities. Accompanied by his daughter, little Lucy, he decides to go investigate in his native Saguenay against the backdrop of a referendum on Quebec’s sovereignty."

Canada

Canada
"The story of three close friends who are involved in a love-triangle".

Canada
"Teenager Hubert haughtily regards his mother with contempt, and only sees her tacky sweaters and kitsch decorations. In addition to these irritating surface details, there is also his parent's cherished mechanisms of manipulation and guilt. Confused by this love/hate relationship that obsesses him more and more each day, Hubert drifts through the mysteries of adolescence - artistic discoveries, illicit experiences, the opening-up to friendship, and ostracism. The turbulent relationship between mother and son unfolds with a compelling combination of savage fury and melting affection".

Canada
"A drama that charts ten years in the relationship of a male-to-female transsexual's relationship with her lover".

Canada
"A talking fish who possesses the wisdom of the ages narrates the story of Bibiane Champagne, a young woman whose life is thrown into turmoil after she hits a Norwegian immigrant with her car and leaves him on the road. The injured man manages to make it home, where he dies. Overwhelmed by guilt, Bibiane struggles to forget what she has done and find a way to go on. Then, the fates give her a second chance when she meets the man who will change the course of her life."

Canada
"A widowed single mother, raising her violent son alone, finds new hope when a mysterious neighbor inserts herself into their household".

Canada
"After learning of his neighbor Édith’s living conditions, a homesick Burkinabé immigrant in Montreal begins to act as her caretaker."

Guadeloupe
"Féfé vit son premier chagrin d'amour. Il a soixante-cinq ans."

Haiti
"Lumumba, the story of how the United States conspired to bring about the death of the Congo’s democratically elected Patrice Lumumba–and to sponsor in his place Joseph Mobotu, a dictator, murderer and thief who continued for nearly four decades to enjoy American sponsorship. Raoul Peck’s film begins with his assassinated body being dug up by Belgian soldiers so it can be hacked into smaller pieces and burned in oil drums. Lumumba’s disfigured corpse begins the narration that runs through the film. He recalls his early days as a beer salesman, a trade that helps him develop a talent for speaking and leadership."

Martinique
"Rue Cases-Nègres est l’adaptation brillante du roman célèbre de l’écrivain antillais Joseph Zobel. Pour écrire cinématographiquement l’histoire du jeune José, la réalisatrice martiniquaise Euzhan Palcy a pu bénéficier des conseils et du talent de François Truffaut. Ce film précieux permettra aux jeunes spectateurs de découvrir une histoire et une culture peu explorée bien que spécifiquement française. Il faut retenir que le film a remporté le César de la meilleure première œuvre en 1984. Euzhan Palcy est ainsi la première femme et première cinéaste noire à obtenir ce prix."

Belgium
"Chantal Akerman, the Belgian filmmaker, lives in New York. Filmed images of the City are accompanied by the texts of Chantal Akerman's loving but manipulative mother back home in Brussels. The City comes more and more to the front while the words of the mother, read by Akerman herself, gradually fade away."

Belgium
"Igor and his father, Roger, are making a decent living renting apartments to illegal immigrants and sometimes working them illegally (among other scams). But when the building inspector pays a surprise visit and Amidou falls off a scaffold in his hurry to hide, things start to unravel, particularly when Igor makes a promise to the injured Amidou that ultimately exposes the different values of Igor and Roger, and of Amidou's wife, Assita."

Belgium
"Young and impulsive Rosetta lives with her alcoholic mother and, moved by despair, she will do anything to maintain a job."

Île de La Réunion
"Monette vit à la ferme, entre Mam qui lui promet toujours la lune et Papou qui semble toujours y être, Monette, elle, creuse."

Madagascar

This film is one of the most magical to come out of Africa -- hardly surprising since Madagascar is unlike anywhere else on earth. Raymond Rajaonarivelo follows his epic first film on the Malagasy liberation struggle,Taba Taba, with a very different, poetic film exploring the relationship between traditional and modern concepts of human freedom. He writes: "In French magie and image are made from the same letters ... In this film, there will be Magic as long as man is dependent on mysterious forces that overwhelm him, and Image when man has acquired enough power over space, time, and himself to no longer be afraid of his life."

Île de La Réunion
"Yves, supervised by BUMIDOM, left Reunion Island during his youth to go work in France. Thirty years later, his son David decided to go and live in Reunion Island, despite the future plans that his father had for him. Affected by this departure, Yves will gradually question his life, his work, as well as his values ​​and will reveal the truth about his history. The Office for the Development of Migration in the Overseas Departments, or Bumidom, was a French public body responsible for supporting the emigration of residents of the overseas departments to metropolitan France."