8th Annual College
of Liberal Arts Film Festival
co-coordinators: Dr. Matthew Durington &
Theresa L. Jenkins
This African themed Film Festival is meant to bring
attention to many of the socioeconomic and political situations
that affect various parts of the continent. Our goal is to
showcase both the tranquility and tragedy that affects many of
the continent’s population through the power of narrative cinema
and documentary while providing context for this media through a
variety of experts on the cultures and issues of Africa.
From producer Peter Jackson (The Lord of the Rings Trilogy) and
director Neill Blomkamp comes a startlingly original science
fiction thriller that "soars on the imagination of its creators"
(Peter Travers, Rolling Stone). With stunning special effects
and gritty realism, the film plunges us into a world where the
aliens have landed... only to be exiled to a slum on the fringes
of Johannesburg. Now, one lone human discovers the mysterious
secret of the extraterrestrial weapon technology. Hunted and
hounded through the bizarre back alleys of an alien shantytown,
he will discover what it means to be the ultimate outsider on
your own planet.
Mugabe and the White African; an intimate and moving
feature-length documentary, charting one family's extraordinary
courage in the face of a relentless campaign of
state-sanctioned terror.
In 2008, Wanuri completed her first feature film “From A
Whisper” based on the real life events surrounding the August 7,
1988, twin bombings of US Embassies in Nairobi and Dar es
Salaam. The film recently won Best Narrative Feature at the 2010
Pan-African Film Festival (PAFF), Best Feature Film at the 2009
ION Awards, Best Director, Best Screenplay and Best Film at the
2009 Africa Movie Academy Awards, Best East African film at the
2009 Zanzibar International Film Festival (ZIFF), Best Picture
at Kenya’s 2009 Kalasha Film Awards, and Best Picture and Best
Director at the 2009 Kenya International Film Festival (KIFF).
From A Whisper is now launching into worldwide distribution, via
Awali Entertainment, and can was most recently available on
Kenya Airways in-flight entertainment.
In a small corner of the most populous country in Africa,
billions of dollars of crude oil flow under the feet of a
desperate people. Immense wealth and abject poverty stand in
stark contrast. The environment is decimated. The issues are
complex, the answers elusive. The documentary film Sweet Crude
tells the story of Nigeria’s Niger Delta. The region is seething
and the global stakes are high. But in this moment, there’s an
opportunity to find solutions. What if the world paid attention
before it was too late?
Music by Prudence, a documentary short subject film co-produced
by Patrick Wright, chair of MICA's video and film arts
department, has won an Oscar, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts
and Sciences announced March 7. The film follows the lives of
eight physically disabled young Zimbabweans who play in the
Afro-fusion band, yana.
Xala - April 13, 2011
A high-ranking official loses the respect of the community in
Ousmane Sembene's comedy. Set in a newly independent Senegal,
the story centers on influential official El Hadji, who decides
to take advantage of the rampant corruption by using government
funds to marry his third wife. But on his wedding night, El
Hadji discovers he has xala, the curse of impotence. With his
virility in question, he tries a number of ridiculous and
bizarre cures.
In this film, shot in the vast shack settlements in and around
Durban, members of Abahlali baseMjondolo, the grassroots
shackdwellers' movement, lay out their case against forcible
eviction and for decent services with passion, eloquence, and
sweet reason. The film captures the horrible conditions in which
shackdwellers live but it also captures Abahlali's bravery and
resilience, in a political climate where grassroots campaigners
like them are more likely to be met with rubber bullets than
with offers to talk.
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