University of Rochester
Frederick Douglass Institute for African and African American Studies

Africa Video Series

Date & Time

Location

Event

 

Friday, March 9, 2012
3:00 PM

Morey 314

Purvis of Overtown

Ethnography/Biography/Whimsy: Three Contemporary African American Artists, Presented by Edward M. Puchner, FDI Predoctoral Fellow

event poster

Wednesday, October 24, 2012
2:00 PM - 5:00 PM

Hawkins-Carlson Room, Rush Rhees Library

A Screaming Man

Present-day Chad. Adam, fifty-five, a former swimming champion, is pool attendant at a smart N'Djamena hotel. When the hotel gets taken over by new Chinese owners, he is forced to give up his job to his son Abdel. Terribly resentful, he feels socially humiliated. The country is in the throes of a civil war. Rebel forces are attacking the government. The authorities demand that the population contribute to the "war effort", giving money or volunteers old enough to fight off the assailants.

a Screaming Man film poster

Wednesday, November 7, 2012
12:00 PM - 3:00 PM

To be announced

Tsotsi

In Johannesburg, a small time criminal, Tsotsi, is a teenager without feelings, hardened by his tough life. After a series of violent gang hits, Tsotsi hijacks a car. However, whilst driving, Tsotsi finds that there is a baby on the back seat. He brings the baby to his house in the slum. The next six days bring about a change in him that couldn't be foreseen.

Tsotsi

Wednesday, December 5, 2012
12:00 PM - 3:00 PM

To be announced

Moolaadé

In an African village this is the day when six 4-9-year-old girls are to be circumcised. All children know that the operation is horrible torture and sometimes lethal, and all adults know that some circumcised women can only give birth by Caesarean section. Two of the girls have drowned themselves in the well to escape the operation. The four other girls seek "magical protection" (moolaadé) by a woman (Colle) who seven years before refused to have her daughter circumcised. Moolaadé is indicated by a coloured rope. But no one would dare step over and fetch the children. Moolaadé can only be revoked by Colle herself. Her husband's relatives persuade him to whip her in public into revoking. Opposite groups of women shout to her to revoke or to be steadfast, but no woman interferes. When Colle is at the wedge of fainting, the merchant takes action and stops the maltreatment. Therefore he is hunted out of the village and, when out of sight, murdered.

Moolaadé