The power of film is undeniable in its capacity to visually represent compelling stories and events that might otherwise remain unknown or inconceivable to the human imagination.  Such is the case with many films concerning Africa and the African diaspora.  Listed below are films featured by PBS and the Human Rights Watch as extraordinary examples of films with a distinct worldview and a positive purpose.

Compiled by Ellen Knuti


P.O.V.: Point of View Documentaries On PBS
P.O.V. is PBS’ award-winning showcase for independent nonfiction films.  Since 1988, P.O.V. has presented over 250 of the most compelling documentary films of our time.  The series has provided a showcase for the early efforts of documentary superstars like Errol Morris, Jonathan Demme, Michael Moore and Freida Lee Mock, and introduced new generations of viewers to legendary films, including Albert and David Maysles’ Salesman, Frederick Wiseman’s High School and Mel Stuart’s Wattstax. 

Thursday June 19, 2007 – Rain in a Dry Land
by Anne Makepeace
How do you measure the distance from an African village to an American city?  What does it mean to be a refugee in today’s global village?  Rain in a Dry Land provides answers as it chronicles the fortunes of two Somali Bantu families transported by relief agencies from years of civil war and refugee life to Atlanta and Springfield, Massachusetts.  As the newcomers confront racism, poverty, and 21^st-century culture shock, filmmaker Anne Makepeace (P.O.V.’s Baby, It’s You) captures their efforts to survive in America and create a safe haven for war-torn families.

Saturday June 26, 2007 – Sierra Leone’s Refugee All Stars
by Zach Niles and Banker White
If the refugee is today’s tragic icon of a war-ravaged world, then a reggae-inflected band born in the camps of West Africa represents a real-life story of survival and hope.  The six-member Refugee All Stars came together in Guinea after civil war forced them from their native Sierra Leone.  Traumatized by physical injuries and the loss of family and community, they fight back with the only means they have – music.  The result is a tableau of tragedy transformed by the bands inspiring determination to sing and be heard. 

Tuesday July 10, 2007 – Revolution ‘67
by Marylou Tibaldo-Bongiorno

Revolution ’67 is an account of events too often relegated to footnotes in U.S. history — the black urban rebellions of the 1960s. Focusing on the six-day Newark, N.J., outbreak in mid-July, Revolution '67 reveals how the disturbances began as spontaneous revolts against poverty and police brutality and ended as fateful milestones in America's struggles over race and economic justice. Voices from across the spectrum — activists Tom Hayden and Amiri Baraka, journalist Bob Herbert, Mayor Sharpe James, and other officials, National Guardsmen and Newark citizens — recall lessons as hard-earned then as they have been easy to neglect since.

Tuesday September 18, 2007 – Lumo
by Bent-Jorgen Perimutt and Nelson Walker III

The conditions of present-day Africa are deeply etched in the bodies of women.  In eastern Congo, on the Rwandan border, vying militias and bandits use rape as a weapon of terror.  Lumo Sinai was just over 20 years old when marauding soldiers attacked her.  A fistula, a medical condition common among victims of violent rape, rendered Lumo incontinent and threatened her ability to have children.  Rejected by her fiancé and cast aside by her family, she awaits reconstructive surgery.  Lumo is her story, tragic in its cruelties but also inspiring for the struggle she wages, with the help of an extraordinary African hospital, to overcome shame, fear and the affliction that robs her of a normal life.

Check your local listings by visiting the official P.O.V. website at: www.pbs.org/pov.  Also, don’t miss P.O.V.’s 20^th anniversary celebration with special events—on air, online and on the ground! Visit www.pbs.org/pov/20anniversaryevents.

Interested in film as an outlet for exploring human rights? You're not alone.  Check out:   

African Film Festival, Inc.: www.africanfilmny.org
Arts Engine: www.artsengine.net
Cinereach: www.cinereach.org
The Media That Matters Film Festival: www.mediathatmattersfest.org
Sundance Institute Documentary Film Program (DFP): www.sundance.org
Witness: www.witness.org 

First published: www.afropop.org