This is a selective list of video holdings in the American University Library. Filmographies are created by doing multiple keyword searches in the catalog to capture as many titles on a topic as possible.
For complete, up-to-date holdings please search the library catalog search box on the Media Services homepage. (http://www.american.edu/library/mediaservices/) Finding Aids on the same page includes other subject oriented content.
For more information take a look at the Streaming Video Guides and Browsing Collections.
Ainsi Meurent Les Anges (And So Angels Die). 2001.1 online resource (1 video file, approximately 58 min.). Moussa Sene Absa's latest work pushes the formal boundaries of African cinema to explore the complex interplay of history and psychology in contemporary Africa. Intensely personal and at the same time deeply political, Ainsi meurent les anges combines the elegiac lyricism of his Ça twiste à Poponguine with the acerbic social critique of Tableau Ferraille. - Kenneth W. Harrow, Michigan State University. SENEGAL. Streaming video.
Almodou. 2002, 1 online resource (1 video file, approximately 85 min.). Sometimes distasteful practices are most effectively criticized with a good sense of humor. Meet Modou, a young, courageous and determined talibé - a pupil in a Koranic school - who manages to escape from his corrupt and abusive teacher to find a better life in contemporary Dakar, Senegal. SENEGAL. Streaming video.
Atlantique. 2019, 1 videodisc (102 min.). A soon-to-be-inaugurated futuristic tower looms over a suburb of Dakar. Ada, 17, is in love with Souleimane, a young construction worker. But she has been promised to another man. One night, Souleimane and his co-workers disappear at sea. Soon after, they come back to haunt their old neighbourhood by taking possession of the girlfriends they left behind. Some of the workers have come claiming revenge and threaten to burn the tower down if the developer does not pay their wages. blu-ray disc. BLU 17405
La Noire de… = Black Girl. 1966, 1 online resource (1 video file (55 min. 44 sec.)). A Senegalese woman is eager to find a better life abroad. She takes a job as a governess for a French family, but finds her duties reduced to those of a maid after the family moves from Dakar to the south of France. In her new country, the woman is constantly made aware of her race and mistreated by her employers. Her hope for better times turns to disillusionment and she falls into isolation and despair. The harsh treatment leads her to consider suicide the only way out. SENEGAL. DVD 1953 and Streaming video.
Ça Twiste À Poponguine = Rocking Poponguine. 1994, 1 video file (90 min.). A coming of age story set in a remote Senegalese beachside village during the week before Christmas, 1964, where the local teenage boys are divided into rival cultural camps. The "Ins" ("Inseparables") style themselves after French pop stars, attend school, have all the girls--but no record player. Their rivals, the "Kings," style themselves after African-American blues legends, they work as fishermen, don't have any girls--but they do have a record player. SENEGAL. Streaming video.
Camp de Thiaroye. 1987, 1 videodisc (152 min.). After defending France, a group of black soldiers are placed in a transit camp before returning home. As their stay lengthens, tensions rise until a petty dispute turns into full-scale rebellion. SENEGAL. DVD 9728 and Streaming video.
Ceddo. 1977, 1 videodisc (112 min.). An historical epic set loosely in the 19th century, the film examines the confrontation between opposing forces in the face of Moslem expansion in Africa. SENEGAL. DVD 9465 and Streaming video.
Faat Kiné. 1999, 1 videodisc (121 min.). The drama of Faat Kine, an independent single mother and business woman who runs a gas station franchise; and also born in 1960, the same year Senegalese independence was attained. SENEGAL. DVD 8721 and Streaming video.
Félicité. 2018, 1 videodisc (124 min.) "Félicité is a proud, free-willed woman working as a singer in a bar in the Congo's capital Kinshasa. Her life is thrown into turmoil when her 14-year-old son gets into a terrible car accident. To raise the money to save him, she sets out on a breakneck race through the streets of electric Kinshasa ..."--Container. SENEGAL. DVD 17396
Guelwaar. 1992, 1 videocdisc (115 min.). When Guelwaar, a political activist and a Christian, is mistakenly buried in a Muslim cemetery, family members, political and religious leaders become embroiled in the dispute. SENEGAL. DVD 10586
Hyènes = Hyenas. 1992, 1 videodisc (113 min.). A rich woman agrees to share her wealth the people in her poor village in return for the life of the man who ruined her reputation when she was young. SENEGAL. DVD 738 and Streaming video.
Karmen Geèi. 2001, 1 video file (82 min.). Karmen escapes prison through her lesbian relationship with the warden. She then wrecks the marriage and career of a police corporal by making him her lover and co-conspirator in a smuggling ring. She abandons the corporal who, in a fit of jealous rage, stabs her. Contains much singing and dancing. SENEGAL. DVD 6650
Mandabi = Money order. 1968, 1 videodisc, 1 streaming video file (90 min.). A story about a man who receives a money order that threatens to destroy the traditional fabric of his life is used to point out the problems of modern Africa as a civilization struggling to recapture its own rich heritage after colonial corruption. FRANCE / SENEGAL. DVD 1287 and Streaming video.
Moolaadé. 2004, 2 videodiscs (124 min.). Set in a small village, four young girls face ritual "purification" decide to flee to the household of Collâe Ardo Gallo Sy, a strong-willed woman who has managed to shield her own teenage daughter from the mutilation. Collâe invokes the time-honored custom of moolaadâe (sanctuary) to protect the fugitives, and tension mounts as the ensuing stand-off pits Collâe against village traditionalists. This endangers the prospective marriage of her daughter to the heir-apparent to the tribal throne. SENEGAL / BURKINA FASO / MOROCCO / TUNISIA / CAMEROON / FRANCE. DVD 3862.
La noire de = Black girl. 1966, 1 videodisc (80 min.). Borom Sarret follows a cart driver as he meets an unfortunate array of people in Dakar. In La noire de ..., a Senegalese maid goes to the Riviera with her employers and gains a new perspective on what it means to be African outside of Africa. A story of exile and despair. SENEGAL / FRANCE. DVD 1953 and Streaming video.
La Petite Vendeuse de Soliel = The Little Girl Who Sold The Sun. 1999, 1 online resource (1 video file (42 min. 42 sec.)). In this film Mambery brings us the feisty Sili Lam, a twelve year old paraplegic who becomes the first girl to sell a daily newspaper in the competitive world of young male newspaper vendors. She takes on a policeman who she accuses of shaking her down, as well as the boys who taunt her. When some boys take her newspapers and crutches, and her friend asks her "What next?", she triumphantly responds, "We continue". The scenes-moving, satiric and comic-are expertly played by non-professional actors to a score by acclaimed musician Wasis Diop (Mambety's brother). SENEGAL / FRANCE / SWITZERLAND / GERMANY. Streaming video.
The Pirogue. 2012. 1 online resource (1 video file, approximately 85 min.). In Moussa Toure’s powerful epic fiction film, a group of 30 men sail to Europe in a pirogue, facing the sea - and the possibility of never reaching their destination - in exchange for the myth of a better life in Europe. Baye Laye is the captain of a fishing pirogue. Like many of his Senegalese compatriots, he sometimes dreams of new horizons, where he can earn a better living for his family. When he is offered to lead one of the many pirogues that head towards Europe via the Canary Island, he reluctantly accepts the job, knowing full-well the dangers that lie ahead. Leading a group of 30 men who don't all speak the same language, some of whom have never seen the sea, Baye Laye will confront many perils in order to reach the distant coasts of Europe. SENEGAL. Streaming video.
Saaraba. 1988, 1 videodisc (80 min.). Library of African cinema. A young man returns to his homeland after spending many years in Europe. He and his homeland have changed in the interval and he is caught between his simple upbringing, the Western influence he was exposed to, and the corruption existing around him. SENEGAL. DVD 12943.
Sembène! 2015, 1 videodisc (89 min.). Ousmane Sembene was a Senegalese dockworker and fifth-grade dropout who became the self-taught father of African cinema who fought enormous odds to return African stories to Africa. SENEGAL / USA. DVD 13164 and Streaming video.
Tableau Ferraille. 1997, 1 online resource (1 video file (1 hr. 28 min. 50 sec.)). This story of an idealist young politicians corruption and fall parallels the gradual liberation of his wife, representing the rejection of Africa's avaricious elites. SENEGAL. DVD 8720 and Streaming video.
Touki bouki. 1973. 1 videodisc (89 min.). In this French new wave-influenced fantasy-drama, two young lovers long to leave Dakar for the glamour and comforts of France, but their escape plan is beset by complications both concrete and mystical. SENEGAL. DVD 11202.
Xala = Curse. 1975. 1 videodisc (127 min.). In a mythical African country, a rich, self-made businessman and member of the post-colonial ruling elite takes on a third wife to show the world his wealth, only to be stricken by a curse resulting in impotency. His efforts at getting cured lead to disasterous yet comical results. SENEGAL. DVD 1286 and Streaming video.