2009-2010 International Film Series

The 2009-2010 International Film Series features a diverse, six-film program that includes critically-acclaimed dramas on the theme of "In & Out of Africa."

Films are shown during the fall and spring semesters on the FIRST WEDNESDAY of every month* in the Stamp Student Union's Hoff Theater. Each film begins at 7:00 pm with a brief introduction by a University of Maryland faculty member. All films are FREE, open to the public, and are subtitled in English.

Co-sponsored by the School of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures (SLLC), the College of Arts and Humanities, the Office of International Programs, and the Hoff Theater.

* The film on Wed., 9/9 is not on the first Wednesday of the month

Wednesday, September 9th
SANKOFA
Directed by Haile Gerima, U.S., 1993
Hosted by Myron Lounsbury, American Studies

A self-absorbed Black American fashion model on a photo shoot in Africa is spiritually transported back to a plantation in the West Indies.  Here she experiences first-hand the physical and psychic horrors of chattel slavery and eventually the redemptive power of community and rebellion as she becomes a member of a freedom-seeking Maroon colony.

Wednesday, October 7th
WAR DANCE
Directed by Sean Fine and Andrea Nix, U.S., 2007
Hosted by Nelson Pressley, English

In a northern Ugandan refugee camp, three youngsters join their classmates in preparation for a national music and dance competition. Set against the backdrop of Uganda’s long, slow-burning civil strife, the film chronicles the unlikely course of the competition while listening to the arresting stories of the kids, many of whom were kidnapped into service with rebel soldiers. This 2008 Academy Award nominee was described by the New York Times as “A visually ravishing documentary,” and the Washington Post called it “Documentary-making at its best.”

Wednesday, November 4th
MADAME BROUETTE
Directed by Directed by Moussa Sene Absa,Canada, Senegal, France, 2002
Hosted by Valerie Orlando, SLLC

Mme. Brouette is a woman trying to juggle family life and a career while negotiating the constant hurdles of traditionalism that impede women's advancement in modern Africa.  The story develops around the murder of the police man Naago, who was also her boyfriend and lover. Neighbours comment on her life and her good character - did she really murder Naago or was it maybe "London Pipe", a crook and local gangster?

Wednesday, February 3rd
THE LAST KING OF SCOTLAND
Directed by Kevin Macdonald, U.S., 2006
Hosted by Jonathan Auerbach, English

Based on the events of the brutal dictator Idi Amin's regime during the 1970s, the film traces the story of a young Scottish doctor who moves to Uganda during a time of political upheaval. While working in a mission in the country, he meets the new President Idi Amin (in an Oscar-winning performance by Forest Whitaker) who has recently engineered a successful coup-d'é-tat to overthrow the former government. Amin invites him to become his personal physician in Kampala, where he begins to grow increasingly disturbed by the behavior of his powerful new friend and patron.

Boo is a handsome young student with a bright future and Noni is a sultry young girl from a privileged background living in a huge mansion.  Boo would do anything for Noni, so deep is his desire for her but Noni, far more the material girl, has her eye on a different prize:  The most beautiful Golden Necklace in the world.  As Boo rapidly realises that the way to this woman’s heart is through his wallet he finds himself forced to go further and further in an effort to be worthy. In this twisted tale of desire and deceit, is anybody what they appear to be and does anyone truly mean a thing they say?  In a modern African city where wealth, poverty, life and death are but a stones throw apart, what lengths will Boo go prove his love?

Wednesday, April 7th
NOWHERE IN AFRICA (NIRGENDWO IN AFRIKA)
Directed by Caroline Link, Germany, 2001
Presented by Peter Beicken, SLLC

This Oscar-winning film depicts the travails of a Jewish family that leaves Nazi-Germany for Kenya shortly before World War II. Dislocated and estranged, they work as tenant farmers in the British colony.  Briefly interned as enemy aliens at the outbreak of the war, they continue to struggle to adapt to the challenges of the new life. As the daughter befriends the natives and Africa becomes a second home, the family leaves after the end of the war when the father is given a post by the Allies to help rebuild Germany.