GREAT AFRICAN FILMS - VOL 1 : Haramuya & Faraw! Mother of the Dunes - Two films are included in the package, making for an entertaining and edifying double feature experience: Drissa Toure’s Haramuya (1995) is a sprawling dramatic comedy about several generations of a traditional Muslim family scraping up against various temptations (crime, movies, drugs, music) of modernity in the city of Ouagadougou, the capital of Burkina Faso, and Abbdoulaye Ascofare’s Faraw: Mother of the Dunes (1997), from Mali is about a mother of three who struggles to support her family while saving her daughter from becoming the concubine-maid of a French colonialist.
The joyous and vibrant sound of rai -
a centuries-old Algerian folk music known for its often racy and politically
charged lyric, and influenced over the years by flamenco, jazz and, most recently
rap-gorgeously suffuse 100% Arabica’s culture-clash
story.
A powerful film portraying institutionalized
racism and police brutality, Otomo provides a convincing
look at the everyday world of refugees, who are continuously surrounded by tension
and insecurity.
The premise of Playing Away
is as simple as its effects are complex: a rural English village invites a West
Indian black cricket team from London’s Brixton section for a weekend
match, and the encounter proves to be rather comical.
A fiery mix of documentary, spoken word
poetry, and dramatizations, Every Child is Born a Poet explores
the life and work of Piri Thomas, the Afro-Cuban-Puerto Rican author of the
classic autobiographical novel DOWN THESE MEAN STREETS (1967).
