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Subject: Re: African Film Festival for High School Students
From: Don Larsson, Mankato State University
[larsson@Mail.Mankato.MSUS.EDU]
In addition to the other films mentioned so far, I'd include the following:
KEITA: HERITAGE OF THE GRIOT
I'd highly recommend this one for your age group, especially if you use it
in conjunction with a print or other version of the Malian oral epic
SUNDIATA. The film is about the urbanized descendents of the legendary hero
and how the family's griot takes up with them in order to instruct their son
in his legacy. Not only does the film depict aspects of the epic, but it
shows (often in comic fashion) the sharp contrast between an urbanized,
Westernized elite and the rural, native legacy that they are in danger of
forgetting.
2) WEND KUUNI and ZAN BOKO by Gaston Kabore of Burkina Faso. The
former, set in a pre-colonial past, is a fable about an abandoned child who
is adopted but remains silent until the events of his past life are allowed
to unfold. It gives additional nuance to the saying "It takes a village to
raise a child." The latter film demonstrates how a village can literally be
absorbed by a growing metropolis and the impact of corruption on a single
family, along with questions of free speech and television as a medium for
political exchange (not nearly as dull as I've made it sound!).
3) The films of Idrissa Ouedraogo, also of Burkina Faso, ought to be
accessible to this age group. YAABA is about two children who become
friends with an outcast old woman thought to be a witch. TILAI is about a
man whose fiancee has become his own father's wife and the tragic
consequences that unfold (reminiscent of ANTIGONE or other Greek tragedies
in some ways). SAMBA TRAORE is about a man who returns to his village newly
rich because of a robbery he committed and the guilt that overcomes the
generosity and prosperity of an otherwise decent person. One caveat about
YAABA for this age group: the old woman does not conform to mainstream ideas
about beauty and appears half-naked in much of the film-teen boys (if I know
them at all) should be prepared for that, and some school officials might
have trouble with the nakedness.
4) Finally, YEELEN (BRIGHTNESS) is an epic story also set in a
pre-colonial past. The setting, performances and use of magic ought to be
attractive although Souleymane Cisse's method of telling the story could be
either offputting or enthralling, depending on how conditioned to linear
plots your students are. The film also contains some nudity.
Good luck with your class!
Don Larsson
All of these films, except BRIGHTNESS, are available from California
Newsreel's Library of African Cinema. Purchase costs for the videotapes are
almost the same as rentals, so it would probably make more sense to buy if
you have that option.
Don Larsson
In-Reply-To: 199807161509.IAA09773@abraham.xc.org