African Filmmakers & Diasporic Connections

1999 · Documentary

Adwa: An African Victory

Haile Gerima

An account of Ethiopian resistance to Italian colonial conquest.

Promotional film poster / still. Original film rights holders. Artwork source: www.sankofa.com · Image source ↗

1992 · Documentary

Africa, I Will Fleece You / Afrique, je te plumerai

Jean-Marie Teno

A critical exploration of colonial and postcolonial power in Cameroon.

Promotional film poster / still. Original film rights holders. Artwork source: africultures.com · Image source ↗

1996 · Feature film

Aristotle’s Plot

Jean-Pierre Bekolo

A satire of film culture and the competition between imported and African stories.

Promotional film poster / still. Original film rights holders. Artwork source: boutique.laterit.fr · Image source ↗

1982 · Feature film

Ashes and Embers

Haile Gerima

A Black Vietnam veteran searches for political and personal direction.

Promotional film poster / still. Original film rights holders. Artwork source: www.imdb.com · Image source ↗

2019 · Feature film

Atlantics / Atlantique

Mati Diop

Love, unpaid labour and migration take a haunting form in Dakar.

Promotional film poster / still. Original film rights holders. Artwork source: www.themoviedb.org · Image source ↗

1970 · Medium-length film

Badou Boy

Djibril Diop Mambéty

A young outsider moves through an irreverently portrayed Dakar.

Promotional film poster / still. Original film rights holders. Artwork source: www.imdb.com · Image source ↗

2021 · Feature film

Binti

Seko Shamte

Four women in Dar es Salaam negotiate overlapping pressures and possibilities.

Promotional film poster / still. Original film rights holders. Artwork source: www.imdb.com · Image source ↗

1966 · Feature film

Black Girl / La Noire de…

Ousmane Sembène

A Senegalese domestic worker in France confronts exploitation and racial dehumanisation.

Promotional film poster / still. Original film rights holders. Artwork source: www.jeuneafrique.com · Image source ↗

1992 · Short documentary

Black in the Western World

Director: Wanjiru Kinyanjui · Kenyan filmmaker working in German cinema

A Kenyan filmmaker’s German film-school work examines racist imagery and Black experience in Germany.

Film artwork from the linked official film, producer or festival source

1963 · Feature film

Borom Sarret

Ousmane Sembène

A cart driver’s working day exposes social inequalities in Dakar.

Promotional film poster / still. Original film rights holders. Artwork source: www.imdb.com · Image source ↗

1976 · Feature film

Bush Mama

Haile Gerima

A Black woman’s struggle in Los Angeles becomes a demand for political agency.

1977 · Feature film

Ceddo

Ousmane Sembène

A historical drama about religious authority, resistance and cultural autonomy.

Promotional film poster / still. Original film rights holders. Artwork source: www.imdb.com · Image source ↗

1969 · Short film

Contras’ City

Djibril Diop Mambéty

An early cinematic portrait of Dakar’s contrasting spaces.

2024 · Documentary

Dahomey

Mati Diop

The return of royal treasures from France to Benin opens questions of restitution and self-determination.

Film artwork from the linked official film, producer or festival source

2021 · Documentary

Delphine’s Prayers

Rosine Mbakam

An intimate documentary portrait of a Cameroonian woman recounting her life.

Promotional film poster / still. Original film rights holders. Artwork source: www.ovid.tv · Image source ↗

2014 · Feature film

Difret

Zeresenay Berhane Mehari

A girl and a lawyer challenge forced marriage and the legal treatment of self-defence.

Film artwork from the linked official film, producer or festival source

1971 · Feature film

Emitaï

Ousmane Sembène

A wartime story of resistance to French colonial requisitioning in Senegal.

Promotional film poster / still. Original film rights holders. Artwork source: www.moviemeter.nl · Image source ↗

2001 · Feature film

Faat Kiné

Ousmane Sembène

A woman’s independence challenges expectations of gender, family and respectability.

Promotional film poster / still. Original film rights holders. Artwork source: www.filmposter-archiv.de · Image source ↗

1979 · Documentary

Fad’jal

Safi Faye

Village histories are carried through memory, daily work and oral narration.

2022 · Feature film

Father’s Day

Kivu Ruhorahoza

Interwoven stories in Kigali question grief, obligation and patriarchal family bonds.

Film artwork from the linked official film, producer or festival source

2021 · Documentary

Faya Dayi

Jessica Beshir

A poetic documentary follows khat, labour, longing and everyday life in Ethiopia.

Promotional film poster / still. Original film rights holders. Artwork source: www.primevideo.com · Image source ↗

2017 · Feature film

Félicité

Alain Gomis

A singer in Kinshasa struggles to secure treatment for her injured son.

Promotional film poster / still. Original film rights holders. Artwork source: www.senscritique.com · Image source ↗

1992 · Feature film

Gito, the Ungrateful / Gito, l’ingrat

Léonce Ngabo

A graduate returns from France with grand expectations and faces a different reality.

Promotional film poster / still. Original film rights holders. Artwork source: en.unifrance.org · Image source ↗

1992 · Feature film

Guelwaar

Ousmane Sembène

A funeral dispute becomes a political argument about dependence and dignity.

Promotional film poster / still. Original film rights holders. Artwork source: www.moviemeter.nl · Image source ↗

1976 · Feature film

Harvest: 3,000 Years

Haile Gerima

Rural exploitation and resistance in Ethiopia.

1992 · Feature film

Hyenas / Hyènes

Djibril Diop Mambéty

A wealthy returnee offers a community a devastating bargain.

Promotional film poster / still. Original film rights holders. Artwork source: tv-programme.com · Image source ↗

1980 · Documentary

I, Your Mother / Man Sa Yaay

Safi Faye

A Senegalese student’s life in Berlin is framed through letters from his mother.

2020 · Documentary

Into the Light / Sortir de l’ombre

Gentille M. Assih

African women in Quebec recount rebuilding their lives after domestic violence.

Film artwork from the linked official film, producer or festival source

2015 · Feature film

Lamb

Yared Zeleke

A boy sent to live with relatives tries to protect his sheep and find a place for himself.

Promotional film poster / still. Original film rights holders. Artwork source: www.cine-feuilles.ch · Image source ↗

1994 · Medium-length film

Le Franc

Djibril Diop Mambéty

A struggling musician pins his hopes on a lottery ticket.

2013 · Feature film

Le Président

Jean-Pierre Bekolo

A political fiction work in Bekolo’s filmography.

1975 · Docufiction

Letter from My Village / Kaddu Beykat

Safi Faye

Rural life, economic pressures and community knowledge in a Serer village.

Kaddu Beykat film still © Arsenal Filminstitut / Zeïba Monod · Image source ↗

2001 · Feature film

L’Afrance

Alain Gomis

A Senegalese student in France confronts precarious status and divided attachments.

Promotional film poster / still. Original film rights holders. Artwork source: filmlifestyle.com · Image source ↗

2023 · Feature film

Mambar Pierrette

Rosine Mbakam

A seamstress sustains her family and neighbourhood while facing mounting pressures.

Icarus Films · video thumbnail

1968 · Feature film

Mandabi / The Money Order

Ousmane Sembène

A money order brings bureaucracy and competing expectations into one man’s life.

Promotional film poster / still. Original film rights holders. Artwork source: www.criterion.com · Image source ↗

2004 · Feature film

Moolaadé

Ousmane Sembène

A woman invokes sanctuary to protect girls resisting genital cutting.

Promotional film poster / still. Original film rights holders. Artwork source: medium.com · Image source ↗

1996 · Feature film

Mossane

Safi Faye

A young Serer woman challenges a marriage arranged against her wishes.

Promotional film poster / still. Original film rights holders. Artwork source: www.festival-cannes.com · Image source ↗

2016 · Feature film

Naked Reality

Jean-Pierre Bekolo

A speculative feature in Bekolo’s filmography.

2021 · Feature film

Neptune Frost

Anisia Uzeyman and Saul Williams

An Afrofuturist musical connects an intersex runaway, a miner and a community of hackers.

© Chris Schwagga / SWAN Films · film still

2024 · Film

Nuhmibeeuhn

Kavena Hambira

Kavena Hambira’s film addressing Namibia’s colonial history and genocide, connected to restitution, ancestral ground and the archive of the body. Pre-circulated for the BGHRA 2026 presentation.

BGHRA 2026 · Panel 8; pre-circulated film

Official Nuhmibeeuhn promotional banner / Kavena Hambira · Image source ↗

1992 · Feature film

Quartier Mozart

Jean-Pierre Bekolo

Gender and urban power are unsettled through a magical transformation.

Promotional film poster / still. Original film rights holders. Artwork source: africultures.com · Image source ↗

2019 · Short film

Respringendo

Denise Ekale Kum

A young woman’s withdrawal is interrupted by family, friendship and the memory carried by a guitar.

2009 · Documentary

Sacred Places / Lieux Saints

Jean-Marie Teno

A neighbourhood, its workers and a small cinema illuminate the social life of film.

1993 · Feature film

Sankofa

Haile Gerima

A confrontation with enslavement links historical resistance to diasporic consciousness.

Promotional film poster / still. Original film rights holders. Artwork source: www.sankofa.com · Image source ↗

1983 · Short documentary

Selbé: One Among Many

Safi Faye

A rural woman’s labour and responsibilities place her own voice at the centre.

2019 · Music video

Somewhere in Between Us

Denise Ekale Kum

A music video for Cloudy June, directed by Ekale Kum.

Jan Klein · video thumbnail

2017 · Feature film

T-Junction

Amil Shivji

Shivji’s feature debut, documented in the festival’s director biography.

2012 · Feature film

Tey / Aujourd’hui

Alain Gomis

A man spends a final day among people and places that have shaped him.

Promotional film poster / still. Original film rights holders. Artwork source: es.unifrance.org · Image source ↗

2008 · Feature film

Teza

Haile Gerima

An Ethiopian doctor returns from Germany, confronting political violence, displacement and memory.

Film artwork from the linked official film, producer or festival source

2005 · Feature film

The Bloodettes / Les Saignantes

Jean-Pierre Bekolo

An Afrofuturist thriller confronts corrupt power through two women’s insurgent alliance.

2004 · Documentary

The Colonial Misunderstanding

Jean-Marie Teno

Missionary archives and African testimony interrogate Germany’s colonial history.

Promotional film poster / still. Original film rights holders. Artwork source: www.imdb.com · Image source ↗

1999 · Medium-length film

The Little Girl Who Sold the Sun / La Petite Vendeuse de Soleil

Djibril Diop Mambéty

A girl insists on earning her living selling newspapers in Dakar.

Promotional film poster / still. Original film rights holders. Artwork source: www.c-and-co.com · Image source ↗

1973 · Feature film

Touki Bouki

Djibril Diop Mambéty

Two young people in Dakar imagine escape to France.

Promotional film poster / still. Original film rights holders. Artwork source: www.rottentomatoes.com · Image source ↗

2021 · Feature film

Tug of War / Vuta n’kuvute

Amil Shivji

A political romance in the final years of British colonial Zanzibar. Included through the filmmaker’s Tanzanian connection, not a claim that Zanzibar was a German colony.

Promotional film poster / still. Original film rights holders. Artwork source: www.kijiweniproductions.com · Image source ↗

2023 · Feature film

Under the Hanging Tree

Perivi John Katjavivi

A Namibian detective confronts crimes haunted by German colonial violence.

Promotional film poster / still. Original film rights holders. Artwork source: www.imdb.com · Image source ↗

2016 · Feature film

White Colour Black

Joseph a. Adesunloye

A London photographer journeys to Senegal after his father’s death.

Promotional film poster / still. Original film rights holders. Artwork source: www.imdb.com · Image source ↗

2014 · Short film

Winter Solstice / Wintersonnenwende

Writer / director: Denise Ekale Kum

A short exploring inward fear and its effect on emotion and action.

Denise Ekale Kum · video thumbnail

1993/1994 · Documentary

Women with Open Eyes / Femmes aux yeux ouverts

Anne-Laure Folly

Women speak about rights, work, health and political participation across West Africa. Sources date production to 1993 and circulation to 1994.

1975 · Feature film

Xala

Ousmane Sembène

A satire of elite power, corruption and patriarchal authority after independence.

Promotional film poster / still. Original film rights holders. Artwork source: www.imdb.com · Image source ↗