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The Africa Institute, in collaboration with SHASHA – an independent streaming service for SWANA cinema, presented the virtual film program Afro-Arab Cinema in celebration of black filmmakers and their storytelling. A selection of films was made available for audience viewing free of charge throughout the month of March 2022 via the platform to our global audience.

With the aim of diffusing African and African diaspora film production, two documentaries, and a short film shed light on issues of the ongoing socio-economic conditions of postcolonial Africa, nationhood, and the lived experiences of immigrants.

Our Beloved Sudan

Synopsis

Using the story of a mixed-race family to personalize a nation’s troubled history, multihyphenate Taghreed Elsanhouri demonstrates how national issues impact everyday lives in Our Beloved Sudan.

Director: Taghred Elsanhouri | 92mins | 2012

To watch the film, click here

Director

Taghreed began her career in broadcast news and entertainment television. She is now practicing as an independent filmmaker as well as consultant and writer for the development sector. Elsanhouri is the originator and artistic director of Cultural Healing, a major Community video and cinema for social transformation and peace building program. The project was funded by the EU and implemented in Sudan from 2011 to 2013. Our Beloved Sudan the filmmaker’s third independent documentary feature premiered at the Dubai Film Festival in December 2011, and won the special Jury Silver award at the Luxor African Film Festival in February 2012. The film then went on to feature at the Herbert F. Johnson Museum, New York, “Lines of Control” exhibition, 2012. Mother Unknown, the filmmaker’s second independent feature won the Unicef Child Rights award in 2009. Her directorial debut All about Darfur won the Award of Commendation from the American Anthropological Association in 2006 and the Chair Person’s prize at the Zanzibar International Film Festival (ZIFF) 2005.

 

Mes Voisins ( My Neighbors)

Synopsis

African migrants in Paris talk about everyday life and racism on the labour and housing markets. The song from which the film takes its title sings of misery on people’s own doorstep. Hondo then switches to another mode to continue his analysis of social conditions: never has the post-colonial state of the world been summarized as succinctly as in the closing animated sequence.

Director: Med Hondo | 35 mins | 1971

To watch the film, click here

Director

Med Hondo was born in 1936 in Ain Oul Beri Mathar in the Atar region of Mauritania. His mother was Mauritanian and his father Senegalese. In 1954 he went to live in Rabat, Morocco to train to become a chef at the International Hotel School there. He emigrated to France in 1959 and found work first in Marseille and then in Paris, variously as a cook, farm labourer, waiter, dockworker and delivery man. In the late 1960s, Hondo started taking small roles in television and films. At the same time, he began to learn the craft of film making by careful observation of the work of others, and began to get work behind the camera. He began his first film, Soleil Ô in 1965. Made with a budget of $30,000, Soleil Ô was financed by Hondo’s work dubbing American films into French. It played at during International Critics’ Week at the 1970 Cannes Film Festival where it received critical acclaim. It received a Golden Leopard Award at the 1970 Locarno International Film Festival. In 1981 he was a member of the jury at the 12th Moscow International Film Festival. Some of Hondo’s acting work has been as a voice actor, in films and television series like Funky Cops and Asterix and the Vikings. He has worked on the dubbing of many English language films into French, voicing characters of Eddie Murphy, Danny Glover (on the rare occasions when he was not dubbed by white actor Richard Darbois), Sidney Poitier, Morgan Freeman and Ben Kingsley. He has dubbed several of Eddie Murphy’s films including The Nutty Professor and the part of Donkey in 2001’s Shrek. He passed away in March 2019 in Paris, France.

 

Sega

Synopsis

When his efforts to reach Europe prove unsuccessful, Sega is thrust back to Dakar where he must confront his family and friends and navigate his disappointment as well.

Director: Idil Ibrahim | 25 mins | 2018

To watch the film, click here

Director

Idil Ibrahim is an award-winning international filmmaker based in New York. Her work has screened at top international film festivals such as the International Film Festival Rotterdam, Toronto International Film Festival, Los Angeles Film Festival, Cinéma du Réel in Paris, and Sundance Film Festival, among others. She is a recipient of the prestigious 92NY’s Extraordinary Women Award for 2017 and was selected as one of OkayAfrica’s “100 Women” for 2018.

The Africa Institute, in collaboration with SHASHA – an independent streaming service for SWANA cinema, presented the virtual film program Afro-Arab Cinema in celebration of black filmmakers and their storytelling. A selection of films was made available for audience viewing free of charge throughout the month of March 2022 via the platform to our global audience.

The Africa Institute, in collaboration with SHASHA – an independent streaming service for SWANA cinema, presented the virtual film program Afro-Arab Cinema in celebration of black filmmakers and their storytelling. A selection of films was made available for audience viewing free of charge throughout the month of March 2022 via the platform to our global audience.

With the aim of diffusing African and African diaspora film production, two documentaries, and a short film shed light on issues of the ongoing socio-economic conditions of postcolonial Africa, nationhood, and the lived experiences of immigrants.

Our Beloved Sudan

Synopsis

Using the story of a mixed-race family to personalize a nation’s troubled history, multihyphenate Taghreed Elsanhouri demonstrates how national issues impact everyday lives in Our Beloved Sudan.

Director: Taghred Elsanhouri | 92mins | 2012

To watch the film, click here

Director

Taghreed began her career in broadcast news and entertainment television. She is now practicing as an independent filmmaker as well as consultant and writer for the development sector. Elsanhouri is the originator and artistic director of Cultural Healing, a major Community video and cinema for social transformation and peace building program. The project was funded by the EU and implemented in Sudan from 2011 to 2013. Our Beloved Sudan the filmmaker’s third independent documentary feature premiered at the Dubai Film Festival in December 2011, and won the special Jury Silver award at the Luxor African Film Festival in February 2012. The film then went on to feature at the Herbert F. Johnson Museum, New York, “Lines of Control” exhibition, 2012. Mother Unknown, the filmmaker’s second independent feature won the Unicef Child Rights award in 2009. Her directorial debut All about Darfur won the Award of Commendation from the American Anthropological Association in 2006 and the Chair Person’s prize at the Zanzibar International Film Festival (ZIFF) 2005.

 

Mes Voisins ( My Neighbors)

Synopsis

African migrants in Paris talk about everyday life and racism on the labour and housing markets. The song from which the film takes its title sings of misery on people’s own doorstep. Hondo then switches to another mode to continue his analysis of social conditions: never has the post-colonial state of the world been summarized as succinctly as in the closing animated sequence.

Director: Med Hondo | 35 mins | 1971

To watch the film, click here

Director

Med Hondo was born in 1936 in Ain Oul Beri Mathar in the Atar region of Mauritania. His mother was Mauritanian and his father Senegalese. In 1954 he went to live in Rabat, Morocco to train to become a chef at the International Hotel School there. He emigrated to France in 1959 and found work first in Marseille and then in Paris, variously as a cook, farm labourer, waiter, dockworker and delivery man. In the late 1960s, Hondo started taking small roles in television and films. At the same time, he began to learn the craft of film making by careful observation of the work of others, and began to get work behind the camera. He began his first film, Soleil Ô in 1965. Made with a budget of $30,000, Soleil Ô was financed by Hondo’s work dubbing American films into French. It played at during International Critics’ Week at the 1970 Cannes Film Festival where it received critical acclaim. It received a Golden Leopard Award at the 1970 Locarno International Film Festival. In 1981 he was a member of the jury at the 12th Moscow International Film Festival. Some of Hondo’s acting work has been as a voice actor, in films and television series like Funky Cops and Asterix and the Vikings. He has worked on the dubbing of many English language films into French, voicing characters of Eddie Murphy, Danny Glover (on the rare occasions when he was not dubbed by white actor Richard Darbois), Sidney Poitier, Morgan Freeman and Ben Kingsley. He has dubbed several of Eddie Murphy’s films including The Nutty Professor and the part of Donkey in 2001’s Shrek. He passed away in March 2019 in Paris, France.

 

Sega

Synopsis

When his efforts to reach Europe prove unsuccessful, Sega is thrust back to Dakar where he must confront his family and friends and navigate his disappointment as well.

Director: Idil Ibrahim | 25 mins | 2018

To watch the film, click here

Director

Idil Ibrahim is an award-winning international filmmaker based in New York. Her work has screened at top international film festivals such as the International Film Festival Rotterdam, Toronto International Film Festival, Los Angeles Film Festival, Cinéma du Réel in Paris, and Sundance Film Festival, among others. She is a recipient of the prestigious 92NY’s Extraordinary Women Award for 2017 and was selected as one of OkayAfrica’s “100 Women” for 2018.

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