Dir: Santiago Zannou
Year: 2011
Dur: Documentary, 71 min
Spain

“My son thinks I’m a failure. It may be so...” – Alphonse Zannou, Door Of No Return

Alphonse, a 70 year old man, born and raised in Benin, left his country 40 years ago with the promise to quickly return. But he never did. Instead he lives in Madrid and makes a living from selling things in the market. When Alphonse receives the news that his sister Veronique is ill, he finally cannot put off his return to Benin any longer. With his son Santiago following his return with the camera, Alphonse will have to face the past and the present of his homeland. He will have to explain 40 years of silence, shame and disillusion. The Door Of No Return is an intimately filmed, beautifully told story about this journey from north to south and south to north, from the present to the past, from here to beyond. It is also a son’s honest and moving testament of his father’s story.

You might also like:

• Bastardy
• Finding Mercy
• The Mother’ House
• Born into Struggle
• Meanwhile In Mamelodi

Dir:Jordi Ferrer, Pablo Vidal
Year: 2009
Dur: Documentary, 82 min
Spain

“The system is to conceal, to prevent entry so that nobody speaks up, so that no image gets out...” – The Problem

Between 1885 and 1975 the Western Sahara, then known as the Spanish Sahara, was colonised by Spain. This is the story of what took place when Spain abandoned the territory without holding the referendum on self-determination demanded by the UN. The film explains how Morocco took advantage of the situation by illegally occupying the territory. The occupation by Morocco remains in place today. Because the Saharawi people live under constant threat, and are unable to utter the name “Western Sahara” or the word “referendum” the situation is merely referred to as “The Problem”. Any expression of Saharawi identity is totally prohibited and severely punished. Through forbidden testimonies and material, this film brings to the world stories never before documented: of torture, rape, unjust imprisonment and disappearances at the hands of Moroccan authorities. This is the struggle of the Saharawi people, living in Africa’s last colony.

Best of Fest - International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam 2010
Audience Award - International Festival MIRADACDOC 2010
Amnesty International Prize - Human Rights Film Festival San Sebastian 2010
First Prize - Sahara International Film Festival 2010


You might also like:

• Roadmap to Apartheid
• 5 Broken Cameras
• Back To The Square

Dir: Petr Lom
Year: 2012
Dur: Documentary, 83 min
Norway / Canada

“This film is a clear illustration that a revolution does not occur overnight, and for the military regime to finally be replaced, the struggle must inevitably continue . . .” – www.thehagueonline.com

In 2011 all eyes were on Tahrir Square, Egypt. More than a year after the euphoria, the demonstrators’ goals have not even come close to being reached. The country is ruled with an iron fist and there is still no democracy. A young horse herdsman tells how he drove to the square to ask for the pyramids to be opened again; he only just managed to survive that day. A taxi driver talks about his six years in prison, the torture, and how the police now behave worse than ever. A young woman talks about intimidation and unjust arrests, which according to human rights lawyers are happening continuously. The young Salwa describes how she met her first love during the demonstrations. And then the brother of Michael Nabil: a blogger who was arrested because of his internet comments and is now on hunger strike.

You might also like:

• 5 Broken Cameras
• The Problem

Dir: Robyn Paterson
Year: 2012
Dur: African Premiere - Documentary, 75 min
New Zealand

“A new and very different look at the Mugabe era.” – Robyn Paterson, Filmmaker

At the age of eight, filmmaker Robyn Paterson greeted Comrade Robert Mugabe with flowers as he stepped from a plane at a Zimbabwe air-force base. She and her best friend, Mercy, were poster children for the new Zimbabwe. Robyn as pale skinned as Mercy was dark, the girls were a symbol that all was well in the independent nation. But it was not. Even then, Mercy’s Matabele tribespeople were being massacred by Mugabe’s special forces. A generation later, Robyn begins a high-risk ground search across Zimbabwe - desperate to know what has happened to her friend. Along the way she faces the dangers of filming in a country hostile to media, the shock of what is still going on behind closed doors, and the stark differences that she and Mercy have come to symbolize.

www.facebook.com/FindingMercy

You might also like:

• Bastardy
• Murundak - Songs of Freedom
• Roadmap to Apartheid

Dir: Benjamin Kahlmeyer
Year: 2011
Dur: Documentary, 75 min
Germany/SA

“The director has a knack for recording bits of dialogue and family life which you’d want to play again and again on a DVD.” – The Globe and Mail

This beautifully shot and sensitive story by a team of German filmmakers, spends time with the Mtswenis, a father headed household living in the poorest part of Mamelodi Township near Pretoria. Set against the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, the film allows us into the world of ordinary South Africans, refusing to let their voices get drowned out by the roar of vuvuzelas and the thousands of football fans. Taking time to listen to their quiet voices, we hear of life in Mamelodi, teenage dreams, and dedicated fatherhood, in a human driven story that makes the world a smaller place by giving audiences unique insight into one inspiring family.

You might also like:

• Born into Struggle
• 5 Broken Cameras
• Gangster Project

Prior to the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, many planned to participate in the celebratory atmosphere of the soccer extravaganza. One particularly remarkable effort saw over a hundred South African actors, dancers, puppeteers, artists and craftsmen from around Johannesburg create 32 giant puppets. They performed a Rainbow Nation version of Romeo and Juliet, in which two lovers are kept apart by their feuding families, until their differences are resolved through football. Filled with images of expressive puppets, Bigger than Life documents this unusual troupe’s travels.

You might also like:

• The Creators
• Healers
• Little Heaven

Dir: Lieven Corthouts
Year: 2011
Dur: Documentary, 70 min
Belgium
Amharic, English

“I sometimes feel like a chemist shop with all the medication I have to take,” – Lydia, Little Heaven

Right in the heart of the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa is a small orphanage called “Little Heaven”. One of the orphans, Lydia, is 13 today. A truly joyful event, because she can now move to the ‘other house‘ where all of the ‘big kids’ live. Unfortunately this special day is overshadowed by the shocking news delivered to her by the head nurse: Lydia is HIV positive. The other children in the new orphanage do all they can to support Lydia. At first glance, they look like any normal group of young children: they go to school, they play together in the courtyard of the orphanage, and they have fun laughing on their bunk beds. But Lydia’s illness prevents her from doing what she absolutely adores, she no longer has the strength for dancing. With the news that students with the best results can go to a better school in the coming year, Lydia is now more determined than ever to persevere to make her dreams come true.

You might also like:

• Meanwhile in Mamelodi
• We Are Together
• The Creators

Dir: Thomas Barry
Year: 2012
Dur: Documentary, 60 min
South Africa

“Rather than the usual sad tale of neglect and deterioration, Barry’s film offers a realistic solution – local people for local problems – that pioneers a path many rural hospitals should follow.” – Encounters International Documentary Film Festival

Ten years ago, Dr Andrew Ross and matron Elda Nsimbini were faced with the loss of five doctors from their hospital in rural Kwa-Zulu Natal. Instead of despairing at the dysfunctionality of a system, they tried to create something positive in a crisis. We witness the inspiring success of their mentorship programme for the best students in the district, which helped facilitate their entrance into the healthcare profession. Adopting a mantra of “love and discipline”, Ross and Nsimbini demonstrate what can be achieved when people determine not to capitulate in the face of adversity.

You might also like:

• We Are Together
• Little Heaven
• Bigger Than Life

Dir: Teboho Edkins
Year: 2011
Dur: Documentary, 54 min
Germany/South Africa

“...the harshness of survival in an hostile environment where everything comes at a heavy price and indifferent death is on the prowl in all its crude banality.” – Nicolas Feodoroff, IFF Marseille

A young white filmmaker who self consciously epitomises the Capetonian bourgeoisie leaves the comfort of the suburbs in search of “real” gangsters, finding himself in the heart of a world of fast-paced criminality where he has to work hard to keep his head above water. The chaotic disorientation is further accelerated by the fact that some parts of the documentary are intentionally staged, while others are genuinely perilous situations. The result is a dizzying portrait of a life of crime in which keeping a grip on reality becomes an increasingly difficult thing to do.

You might also like:

• Bus 174
• Meanwhile in Mamelodi
• 5 Broken Cameras

Dir: Malika Zouhali-Worral, Katherine Fairfax
Year: 2012
Dur: Documentary, 90 min
USA

“They kept on saying we are not here. But as of late, we are here.” – David Kato

Call Me Kuchu allows viewers into the lives of a set of gay and lesbian activists in Uganda, as they take Rolling Stone to court for inciting hatred. The newspaper has gone as far as to link LGBTI people with terrorism and child abuse, both highly emotive issues. In various ways the nation is being whipped into a homophobic frenzy that serves to distract people from the real political and economic causes of their problems. In the backdrop, an existing Act of Parliament outlaws homosexuality and moves are underway to introduce the death penalty for LGBTI people. This would potentially mean mothers informing on daughters and friends on friends. The supporters of the bill include elements of the Ugandan Christian community, government ministers as well as the managing editor of the Rolling Stone. The film in particular focuses on the activist David Kato’s brave and inspirational fight, right up until his murder in 2011 and covers the international outcry at his death.

Best Documentary - Teddy Award 2012, Berlin Film Festival
Best International Feature - Hot Docs 2012
Best Documentary Audience Award - Torino GLBT Film Festival 2012
Cinema Fairbindet Prize- Berlin Film Festival


You might also like:

• Paving Forward
• Bastardy
• Bigger Than Life

Dir: Akin Omotoso
Year: 2012
Dur: Feature, 88 min
South Africa
English Yoruba, Sotho, Zulu

“Tell them we are from here” Man on Ground

During a visit to Johannesburg, Ade - a successful London broker - discovers that his brother Femi has disappeared. Together with Femi’s fiancée Zodwa he embarks on a search that forces him to confront his own relationship to his estranged brother. When xenophobic violence erupts he takes refuge at the office of Femi’s boss where he a terrible secret is unravelled.

Best Feature Film - Jozi Film Festival 2012
Special Jury Prize - African Movie Academy Awards 2012
Best Actor in a Supporting Role: Fana Mokoena - African Movie Academy Awards 2012
Official Selection - Toronto International Film Festival 2011
Official Selection - Berlin International Film Festival 2012
In Competition - Dubai International Film Festival 2011
Official Selection - BAM Brooklyn Academy of Music Film Festival 2012
Best Producer, Best Director, Best Director of Photography,
Best Editor and Best Indigenous Film - TAVA, African Audio Visual Awards 2012