A visual poem. As two friends backpack across the beautiful South African landscape, the narration speaks poetry about passion. The shots in this are just stunning, and the sexual tension between the two actors is palpable. Just gorgeous.
The main character goes out to meet a Grindr date at a gay club called Cosmopolitan. The entire short film is basically composed of this one scene of him trying to get into the club. He’s the only Black guy in the queue and this proves a problem for admittance. An indictment of racism within…
A few days before Issa is about to be released from prison, a new fish appears, Gaetan. This short film encapsulates a world of drama. You can see a history stretching behind and a future ahead, and these scenes as the turning point between it all. To begin, prison is the place where Issa has…
Using animation and archival footage, Half A Life is a short film in which a gay Egyptian guy discusses what instigated him to get into activism and what he thinks about his country. After witnessing a homophobic attack, with the collusion of the police, the main character takes the shame and helplessness he feels and…
Tang Jer is a short film about a vampire’s roadside cafe. The film mixes the surreal and the everyday, so the busy businesswoman reads cowries and uses her divinations to guide her investments. A chicken walks in and demands to be fed but is unemployed and cannot pay. A strange little girl does her homework…
Waited til Halloween to watch Juju Stories. An anthology film of 3 stories of the supernatural. In the first, a woman casts a love spell on her crush, but is he the man she wants? In the second, a pair of scoundrels are cursed to receive punishment for their misdeeds. And in the last, a…
The assassination of Marielle Franco mobilised an entire generation of Black women into Brazilian politics. From street demonstrations to the ballot box, Seeds: Black Women to the Front follows the journeys of women who stand in the 2018 election. The murder of Marielle Franco sent a message loud and clear: “If you are a Black…
Taiwan is an island nation surrounded by rich ocean life. But with territorial disputes on their shores, and risky sea journeys made to escape travel restrictions, the sea has become associated with trauma. Writer Liao Hung-chi and oceanic photographer Ray Chin try to return the place of the sea in Taiwanese popular culture back to…
The Colonel’s Stray Dogs refers the opponents of Gaddafi who went into exile, one of which was the filmmaker’s father. For 40 years Ashur Shamis’s life revolved around the overthrow of Colonel Gaddafi, but in the Libya that has emerged he still has no place, and no way to return home. In the aftermath of…
I really wanted to see this but missed it at the Take One Action film festival, so I was so glad to get another opportunity with Africa in Motion. It was well worth the watch. In the city of Zinder in Niger, is the Kara Kara district, traditionally the home of lepers and pariahs, today…