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The Africa Institute presented “Fati’s Choice” (2021), directed by Fatimah Dadzie, a filmmaker and storyteller who crafted compelling stories about people who lived at the margins of society.
The film was streamed and freely available for viewing on The Africa Institute website between 14-16 February 2022.
On February 16, 2022, at 7:00 PM (GST), the three days of streaming concluded with a webinar that brought Fatimah Dadzie, director of the film, into conversation with Idrissou Mora-Kpai, a filmmaker whose work explored themes of migration and diaspora in colonial and post-colonial African societies, and Carina Ray, a historian of Ghana and its diaspora. The speakers discussed the variety of issues and themes raised by the film and its connection to the upcoming conference, Global Ghana: Sites of Departure/Sites of Return, which took place in March 2022 at The Africa Institute.
Fati, unhappy with her prospects as an irregular migrant in Italy, returns home to Ghana to take care of her five children. As a returned migrant with not much to show from her time in Europe, she is stigmatized by her gossiping neighbours and friends, who paint her as a failure. Fati forges ahead but can she cope amid a failed marriage, losing her children, and dire financial constraints? Alone and rejected, will Fati regret coming back home or will she succeed in her primary objective of getting her children back?
Director: Fatimah Dadzie | Ghana, South Africa | 45 minutes | 2021
Fati’s Choice Trailer from 1082films on Vimeo.
For over a decade, Fatimah Dadzie has used her expertise and skills in film production to capture and tell compelling stories about ordinary people. Trained at the National Film and Television Institute (NAFTI) of Ghana and the University of Leicester in the United Kingdom, Fatimah initially worked in advertising and television production. This early professional experience sharpened her storytelling abilities, which she brought to bear on a number of documentary film projects, including a film about the reproductive health of adolescent girls. In ‘Fati’s Choice,’ Fatimah’s directorial debut, she continues to hone her interest in telling stories about women and children, while also drawing attention to a neglected area of study: the fate of African migrants who chose to return home after finding disappointment in Europe.
Idrissou Mora-Kpai is Assistant Professor of Media Arts, Sciences and Studies at Ithaca College and an award winning filmmaker. His films have screened world-wide at prestigious festivals in Berlin, Rotterdam, Vienna, Milano, Busan, and Sheffield, and have garnered many international accolades. Born in Benin, West Africa, Idrissou has made a name for himself with his social documentaries tackling post-colonial African societies, African migrations and diasporas. He is a recipient of the prestigious Dutch Prince Claus Award for his artistic achievements dedicated to promoting social change in the Global South. Idrissou’s most recent film, America Street explores the daily struggles of an African-American community in a quickly gentrifying historically black neighborhood in downtown Charleston, South Carolina, just after the 2015 Walter Scott killing. A graduate of the Konrad Wolf Film University of Babelsberg (Germany), Idrissou has been a guest artist and visiting faculty member at Cornell University, Duke University, and the University of Pittsburgh.
Carina Ray is the H. Coplan Chair of Social Sciences and Associate Professor of African and African American Studies at Brandeis University. A scholar of race and sexuality, comparative colonialisms and nationalisms, migration and maritime history, print cultures, bodily aesthetics, and the relationship between race, ethnicity, and political power, Ray’s research focusses on Ghana and its diasporas. She is the author of Crossing the Color Line: Race, Sex, and the Contested Politics of Colonialism in Ghana, winner of the American Historical Association’s 2016 WesleyLogan Book Prize and the African Studies Association’s 2017 Aidoo-Snyder Book Prize. Her work has also appeared in Gender and History; PMLA; American Historical Review; and Journal of West African History, among others. She is a series co-editor of New African Histories (Ohio University Press) and African Identities: Past and Present (Cambridge University Press).
The Africa Institute presented “Fati’s Choice” (2021), directed by Fatimah Dadzie, a filmmaker and storyteller who crafted compelling stories about people who lived at the margins of society.
The Africa Institute presented “Fati’s Choice” (2021), directed by Fatimah Dadzie, a filmmaker and storyteller who crafted compelling stories about people who lived at the margins of society.
The film was streamed and freely available for viewing on The Africa Institute website between 14-16 February 2022.
On February 16, 2022, at 7:00 PM (GST), the three days of streaming concluded with a webinar that brought Fatimah Dadzie, director of the film, into conversation with Idrissou Mora-Kpai, a filmmaker whose work explored themes of migration and diaspora in colonial and post-colonial African societies, and Carina Ray, a historian of Ghana and its diaspora. The speakers discussed the variety of issues and themes raised by the film and its connection to the upcoming conference, Global Ghana: Sites of Departure/Sites of Return, which took place in March 2022 at The Africa Institute.
Fati, unhappy with her prospects as an irregular migrant in Italy, returns home to Ghana to take care of her five children. As a returned migrant with not much to show from her time in Europe, she is stigmatized by her gossiping neighbours and friends, who paint her as a failure. Fati forges ahead but can she cope amid a failed marriage, losing her children, and dire financial constraints? Alone and rejected, will Fati regret coming back home or will she succeed in her primary objective of getting her children back?
Director: Fatimah Dadzie | Ghana, South Africa | 45 minutes | 2021
Fati’s Choice Trailer from 1082films on Vimeo.
For over a decade, Fatimah Dadzie has used her expertise and skills in film production to capture and tell compelling stories about ordinary people. Trained at the National Film and Television Institute (NAFTI) of Ghana and the University of Leicester in the United Kingdom, Fatimah initially worked in advertising and television production. This early professional experience sharpened her storytelling abilities, which she brought to bear on a number of documentary film projects, including a film about the reproductive health of adolescent girls. In ‘Fati’s Choice,’ Fatimah’s directorial debut, she continues to hone her interest in telling stories about women and children, while also drawing attention to a neglected area of study: the fate of African migrants who chose to return home after finding disappointment in Europe.
Idrissou Mora-Kpai is Assistant Professor of Media Arts, Sciences and Studies at Ithaca College and an award winning filmmaker. His films have screened world-wide at prestigious festivals in Berlin, Rotterdam, Vienna, Milano, Busan, and Sheffield, and have garnered many international accolades. Born in Benin, West Africa, Idrissou has made a name for himself with his social documentaries tackling post-colonial African societies, African migrations and diasporas. He is a recipient of the prestigious Dutch Prince Claus Award for his artistic achievements dedicated to promoting social change in the Global South. Idrissou’s most recent film, America Street explores the daily struggles of an African-American community in a quickly gentrifying historically black neighborhood in downtown Charleston, South Carolina, just after the 2015 Walter Scott killing. A graduate of the Konrad Wolf Film University of Babelsberg (Germany), Idrissou has been a guest artist and visiting faculty member at Cornell University, Duke University, and the University of Pittsburgh.
Carina Ray is the H. Coplan Chair of Social Sciences and Associate Professor of African and African American Studies at Brandeis University. A scholar of race and sexuality, comparative colonialisms and nationalisms, migration and maritime history, print cultures, bodily aesthetics, and the relationship between race, ethnicity, and political power, Ray’s research focusses on Ghana and its diasporas. She is the author of Crossing the Color Line: Race, Sex, and the Contested Politics of Colonialism in Ghana, winner of the American Historical Association’s 2016 WesleyLogan Book Prize and the African Studies Association’s 2017 Aidoo-Snyder Book Prize. Her work has also appeared in Gender and History; PMLA; American Historical Review; and Journal of West African History, among others. She is a series co-editor of New African Histories (Ohio University Press) and African Identities: Past and Present (Cambridge University Press).
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