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Africa - West Africa (7)
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AzzelGuy L. Coté 1979 28 minThis short documentary looks at Azzel, one of the Niger Department of National Education’s first schools for nomads. The film describes the traditional nomadic lifestyle of the Tuareg and the changes brought about by these government-run boarding schools. -
The Cora PlayerCilia Sawadogo 1996 7 minTwo young Africans from different social backgrounds want to defy tradition and be free to love each other. This Burkina Faso/Canada co-production is based on Article 12 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, which particularly upholds the right to love freely, blind to convention and social class. An animated film without words for twelve to seventeen yers olds.
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A Drop in the OceanLise Éthier 2002 48 minWhen Doctors without Borders, the humanitarian medical aid agency, won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1999, Dr. Claudette Picard was in Liberia. Her first mission with the agency had begun in this small country of West Africa six years before. In the meantime, she had practised medicine in other wartorn countries such as Zaire and Afghanistan, always in extremely hazardous conditions.
What impels women and men like Dr. Picard to leave their easy lives behind and go off to do what little they can to alleviate human suffering? Whatever the motivation, the doctors are in the field, providing medical care and helping to draw attention to distant places often forgotten by the world's media. Places like Harper, a small town in Liberia devastated by a decade of civil war. This is where we follow Dr. Picard on her rounds. With her halting English, her comforting presence and a few scarce drugs, she sometimes manages to do the impossible. But not always...
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Not Far from BolgatangaMichael Rubbo & Barrie Howells 1982 28 minThis short documentary demonstrates how international aid works, or fails to work, in the transfer of technology from a more to a less industrialized society. In the late 1970s, the government of Ghana, with the help of the Canadian International Development Agency, drilled wells and installed hand-operated pumps in many of the African country’s villages in an effort to provide a clean and convenient water supply. The film explores the relationships between people, environment, technology and nations of varying levels of industrialization from a decidedly Western perspective.
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Nigeria: Giant in AfricaRonald Dick 1960 58 minThis feature documentary vividly recounts Nigeria's history from pre-European times to the mid-20th century. The film explores the political maturing of Africa's most populous country and depicts the various African cultures that make up the Federation of Nigeria.
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Oliver Jones in AfricaMartin Duckworth 1990 53 minOliver Jones, one of Canada's foremost jazz pianists, tours Nigeria with his bassist and drummer, discovering in Africa the roots of much of today's music. Hearing and absorbing the musical sources of blues, spirituals, calypso rhythms and more, he reflects that for a Black jazz artist, a trip to Africa is a voyage home.
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You Don't Back DownDon Owen 1965 27 minThis short documentary follows a young Canadian doctor serving in a local mission hospital in Nigeria. Stationed abroad under the Canadian University Service Overseas Plan, Dr. Alex McMahon and his schoolteacher wife encounter new challenges every day throughout their rewarding experience.
