African Film Festival 2022

September 7–October 29, 2022

After two years of pandemic-related cancellations or virtual screenings, we are proud to welcome the African Film Festival back to BAMPFA. This year, open your eyes to new horizons, new heroes, and new narratives.

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  • Min alesh?

  • The Two Faces of a Bamiléké Woman

  • Neptune Frost

  • Sarraounia

  • Upcoming
    Films
  • Upcoming
    Events
  • Selected
    Objects
  • Past
    Films
  • Past
    Events

Past Films

  • Neptune Frost

    Anisia Uzeyman, Saul Williams
    Rwanda, United States, 2021

    BAMPFA Student Committee Pick

    Wednesday, September 7 7 PM

    Replete with mind-altering visual and sonic imagery, this Afrofuturist mélange of music, poetry, and resistance is hypnotic and visionary in its depiction of a genderqueer community of hackers and techno poets. With Manu Luksch’s short Algo-Rhythm.

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  • The Two Faces of a Bamiléké Woman

    Rosine Mbakam
    Cameroon, Belgium, 2016
    Thursday, September 15 7 PM

    “The filmmaker reinventing how African women are portrayed in movies” (NPR), Mbakam turns the camera on her own remarkable mother and her generation in this captivating documentary.

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  • Women’s Stories: African Short Films

    Sunday, September 18 5 PM

    Women of all ages and backgrounds drive the narratives of these short films, whether in Senegal, Sudan, South Africa, or London.

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  • Sarraounia

    Med Hondo
    Burkina Faso, Mauritania, France, 1986
    Thursday, September 22 7 PM

    A young queen leads her people against a brutal French expeditionary force in 1899 Niger in Hondo’s anti-colonialist, rough-hewn epic based on the brutal true-life history of the Voulet-Chanoine Mission.

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  • The Promises

    Hawa Aliou N’Diaye
    Mali, France, Benin, 2021
    Thursday, September 29 7 PM

    N’Diaye explores Malian tradition, myth, and the ethereal through interviews with women who—like her—claim to be possessed by enigmatic spirits known as jinn.

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  • Min alesh?

    Amleset Muchie
    Ethiopia, 2019
    Sunday, October 2 5 PM
    Introduced by Ruth Gebreyesus

    An indomitable young woman in Addis Ababa’s sprawling Merkato market finds that her running talent could lead her out of poverty in this inspiring, colorful film. Legendary runner Haile Gebrselassie cameos.

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  • Mrs. F

    Chris van der Vorm
    Nigeria, Netherlands, 2020
    Sunday, October 23 7 PM
    Introduced by Ivy Mills

    A hard-charging theater director/activist brings her successful play on women’s empowerment into Nigeria’s largest waterside slum in this eye-opening look at exactly what it takes to make a difference. With Leonard Cortana’s short Marielle’s Legacy Will Not Die, on the murder of an Afro-Brazilian councilwoman.

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  • Nolly Babes on Nollywood: Highway to the Grave

    Teco Benson
    Nigeria, 2000
    Saturday, October 29 7 PM
    Tochi and Ebele Anueyiagu and Ruth Gebreyesus in Prerecorded Conversation

    For their Black Life presentation, Nolly Babes—sisters Tochi and Ebele Anueyiagu—has selected Highway to the Grave, a film that deals with indigenous mythology, superstition, and feminine power.

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