8 must-watch African documentaries at Amsterdam film festival – The Africa Report
Africa is producing some of the world’s most captivating documentaries, a genre that allows filmmakers to tell riveting stories that revisit the past while challenging the inequities of the present.
This year’s International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam showcased a wide spectrum of African talent, with films from the continent competing in a wide array of categories.
Shared histories and common struggles unite African stories in many ways. From farmers’ struggles in Madagascar to student protests against police brutality in Nigeria, these films reflect the continent’s enduring need for development, accountability and peace.
Here are eight festival selections to watch:
Our Land, Our Freedom by Meena Nanji and Zippy Kimundu
Kenya, United States, Portugal, Germany
Our Land, Our Freedom mines Kenya’s bloody colonial history and its continued relevance today. Directors Meena Nanji and Zippy Kimundu start their documentary by digging into the country’s Mau Mau rebellion and the legendary leader of the Kenyan Land and Freedom Army, Dedan Kimathi, who was executed by British authorities in 1957 and buried in an undisclosed location. The film then focuses on present-day Kenya, where Kimathi’s daughter, Wanjugu, sets out on a personal quest to find her father’s burial site while picking up the public fight for displaced farmers and workers victimised by the vestiges of colonialism.
The feminist film, made by established female directors and executive producers Eliane Ferreira and Mira Nair, highlights a female protagonist, rare in films by and about Africans. Through excellent research and camera work, the film cries out for colonial accountability, shedding light on British concentration camps and giving voice to survivors. But the directors also give space for intimate self-reflection of ancestral voices, trauma, and what it means to live in postcolonial Kenya.
Read more at: https://www.theafricareport.com/329813/8-must-watch-african-documentaries-at-amsterdam-film-festival/