Africa Film WebMeeting


Message from: Steve Smith (SteveSmith@XC.Org)
About: FW: Availability of Sembene films

Mon, 28 Sep 1998 08:09:38 -0400

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    Xposted from H-AFRLITCINE@H-NET.MSU.EDU
    Subject: Re: Availability of Sembene films
    Date: Thu, 24 Sep 1998 09:41:13 +0200
    From: "[ISO-8859-1] Karin Ruuth-B=E4cker"
    <karin.ruuth-backer@mailbox.swipnet.se>
    =20
    From: Anna Livia
    < livia@sirius.com> I own two films by Sembene, on videotape: _Borom
    Sarret_, and _Xala_. I bought them from Facets Video Catalogue, who
    acquired them from the BFI (British film Institute). They cost about =
    $85
    each. The only problem with them is that they are in PAL VHS format =
    (NOT
    compatible with American VHS-though fine for European viewers). I had =
    to
    organise a special session at my university (Illinois, Champaign) since =
    my
    usual classroom is not PAL equipped. For me, this was not especially
    difficult, just required extra planning, but for scholars not attached =
    to
    large universities, it might pose quite a problem, or for grad students =
    who
    don't have faculty privileges. I did email the BFI asking for =
    permission to
    transfer the tape to American VHS but never heard back. Our language =
    lab
    cannot legally transfer videos which are under copyright (as the =
    Sembene
    films are). You can get them transferred in commercial outfits, but it =
    costs
    about $50 a film and is of doubtful legality.
    =20
    I would like to add that a) these two films are well worth the money =
    and b)
    if anyone has contacts at the BFI, it might be nice to suggest they =
    also
    produce an American VHS version.

    ########################################################################=
    ###
    ##
    > Anna Livia livia@sirius.com

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