Social & External
Thousands of royal artifacts of Dahomey, a West African kingdom, were taken by French colonists in the 19th century for collection and display in Paris. Centuries later, a fraction returned to their home in modern-day Benin. This dramatized documentary follows the journey of 26 of the treasures as told by cultural art historians, embattled university students, and one of the repatriated statues himself.
What happens when a group of Finns travel to a tiny village in Benin to participate in a vaccination study? By participating, they can aid in the development of a diarrhea vaccine for children in developing countries – and, at the same time, have a different kind of vacation in West Africa. The complicated side of helping people and the clashes between two cultures rise to the forefront of Mia Halme’s delicious documentary film.
Women of the Kingdom of Dahomey (now Benin) are shown creating pottery.
When Lena and Ulli start the engine of their old Land Rover, Lady Terés, they have a plan: to drive from Hamburg to South Africa in six months. What they don't know yet is that they won't ever get there. Two totally different characters, jammed together in two square meters of space for almost two years, they experience what it really means to travel: leaving your comfort zone for good.
In July 1860, the schooner Clotilda slipped quietly into the dark waters of Mobile, Ala., holding 110 Africans stolen from their homes and families, smuggled across the sea, and illegally imported to be sold into slavery. Surviving Clotilda is the extraordinary story of the last slave ship ever to reach America's shores: the brash captain who built and sailed her, the wealthy white businessman whose bet set the cruel plan in motion, and the 110 men, women, and children whose resilience turned horror into hope.
Hazoumè's "NGO (Beninese Solidarity with Endangered Westerners)" reflects on issues of immigration, economic disparity, and perceptions of wealth. Taking a critical eye toward the vast numbers of local and international nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) operating in his country of Benin, the artist created his own NGO to aid poor Westerners, thereby reversing conventional assumptions concerning poverty and the distribution of capital from so-called developed nations. In an attempt to expose the often hidden realities of the income inequality that exists in global Northern countries, he asked Beninese celebrities to solicit donations from Africans, who commonly associate Westerners with affluence. For Hazoumè, the driving concept of the project is to uncover such illusions: "To all appearances, it’s a matter of reversing the help, from south to north. But in reality—it is about making the Africans cogitate differently."
The film portrays the trajectory and life of the “Agudá” people today. This is a group of descendants of Africans enslaved in Brazil, who returned to their homeland with the end of slavery, and also descendants, Brazilian and Portuguese, of slave traffickers, who settled in that region of Africa in the 18th and XIX. Present in Benin and Togo, the “agudás” assimilated the surname and part of the culture of their masters.
David, a clueless and cocky Spanish video blogger traveling in Africa, arrives in Benin, where he accidentally finds the truth behind an ancient legend.
Three women from Nigeria, Côte d'Ivoire and Benin reunite seventeen years after surviving sex trafficking to dismantle the powerful men behind their pain. From the streets of Lagos to the shadows of Abidjan and Cotonou, they execute a cold, calculated mission — each move sharpened by trauma, sisterhood and strategy. What begins as vengeance becomes a fight for identity, justice and survival in a world that never expected them to rise.
In the heart of the Caribbean, a mother and daughter confront a malevolent curse erasing identities of all the island's women, propelling them on a daring quest to reclaim their rich cultural heritage and triumph over the encroaching darkness.
In the oceanside village of Iyi, the revered Mama Efe acts as an intermediary between the people and the all-powerful water deity Mami Wata. But when a young boy is lost to a virus, Efe’s devoted but rebellious daughter Zinwe and skeptical protégé Prisca warn Efe about unrest among the villagers. With the sudden arrival of a mysterious rebel deserter named Jasper, a conflict erupts, leading to a violent clash of ideologies and a crisis of faith for the people of Iyi.
Everyone has a unique father story. Whether positive or painful, it's always personal and can deeply affect the core of our identity and direction of our lives. Providing a fresh perspective on the roles of fathers in today’s society, Show Me the Father invites you to think differently about how you view your earthly father, and how you personally relate to God.
A long interview with Uruguay's greatest writer, in Madrid a few months before his death. From his bed, Onetti talks about literature, creativity, and his origins.
Unprecedented access to the IOC Refugee Olympic Team before, during and after the 2020 Games, which saw 29 athletes competing in Tokyo, originating from 11 countries, and residing in 13 host nations.
As a rising star in the field of abstract mathematics, Michael discovered that he could see beauty and pattern where others could not. But his path was not to be inside academia, or even inside society. He went on a grand adventure to unify his Buddhism with his ability to see an expanded view of reality. He created beauty in a place where nobody else would, and made his friends amongst dolphins.
A giant working man doing the natural wonders of New Zealand is doing his final day at work, but the Maori tribe are not impressed after finding him filling up the water in a lake.
Monatik burst into the Ukrainian show business swiftly, triumphantly and as if out of nowhere, immediately starting to make music in quality comparable to European and American samples. The documentary project will tell about the artist's life even before he became famous and the most demanded Ukrainian performer.
Jan Erik Vold has been best known as poet, activist and an Oslo-patriot in exile for many years, but who is he really?
