Shorts Program 2: Women in the Media
New York African Film Festival 2015
May 6 - 12, 2015
Introduction by Nova Scott-James and actress MaameYaa Boafo
A collection of seven shorts—The Summer of Gods; Burkina, All About Women; Handmade in Thamaga; Bus Nut; Sister Oyo; Cholo; and Panic Button—by and about women.
Introduction by Nova Scott-James and actress MaameYaa Boafo
A collection of seven shorts by and about women.
The Summer of Gods
Eliciana Nascimento, Brazil, 2014, digital projection, 20m
Portuguese with English subtitles
A young girl named Lili connects with her Afro-Brazilian religious heritage on a summer visit with family to their ancestral village in rural Brazil. During her stay, she encounters orishas (African gods) who help her find peace with a gift that had previously vexed her.
Burkina, All About Women
Nicole Mackinlay Hahn, USA/Burkina Faso, digital projection, 2015, 11m
French with English subtitles
Seeking to undo stereotypes about African women by looking at the professional lives of women in Burkina Faso, the film talks to a firefighter, a swimmer, a mushroom biologist, a mechanic, an astrophysicist, a rapper, and more—allowing women (all inspired by the legendary Princess Yennenga) to give voice to their own unique experience. U.S. Premiere
Handmade in Thamaga
Nova Scott James, USA/Botswana, 2014, digital projection, 5m
English and Setswana with English subtitles
Handmade in Thamaga chronicles the founding and work of Bothlalo Centre, a women’s pottery collective and business in the small rural village of Thamaga, Botswana. New York Premiere
Bus Nut
Akosua Adoma Owusu, Ghana/USA, 2014, digital projection, 7m
Bus Nut rearticulates the 1955 Montgomery Bus Boycott, a political and social protest against U.S. racial segregation on the public transit system of Montgomery, Alabama, and its relationship to an educational video on school-bus safety. Actress MaameYaa Boafo restages a vintage video while reciting press-conference audio of Rosa Parks on a re-created set in New York City.
Sister Oyo / Soeur Oyo
Monique Mbeka Phoba, Belgium/Democratic Republic of the Congo, 2014, Format TK, 24m
French with English subtitles
Set in the Belgian Congo in the 1950s, Sister Oyo tells the story of Godelive, a schoolgirl at the Catholic boarding school Mbanza-Mboma, the premier French-language school for Congolese girls. She is to be westernized, following the will of her parents, but the memory of her grandmother intervenes…
Cholo
Muzna Almusafer, Oman/France, 2014, digital projection, 21m
Swahili with English subtitles
The dark-skinned 11-year-old Cholo meets his fair-skinned younger stepbrother Abdullah for the first time. Although strikingly different, the two boys enjoy a crackling chemistry.
Panic Button
Libby Dougherty, South Africa, 2014, digital projection, 25m
English and Xulu with English subtitles
From the moment that Tshepo, a security guard, breaks through Jenny’s multi-locked door to save her, she feels as if she’s been swept off her feet. But as Jenny imagines herself falling in love with him, an unhealthy, delusional obsession begins to take shape.
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