Celluloid seldom seen

>> The 16th annual Vues d'Afrique scores again

by MATTHEW HAYS

The 16th annual Vues d'Afrique once again arrives as a breath of fresh air, with organizers bringing together a vibrant selection of cinema from around the world, proudly highlighting the African Diaspora. It's an eclectic mix, one that filmgoers a tad sick of the standard multiplex movie diet will be salivating over. A few of the highlights:

The controversial topic of female circumcision is dealt with directly in the Dutch documentary Sexually Violated Women: The Tragedy of Tradition. Filmmaker Petra Simons points out that in Gambia, the tradition is still employed on 83 per cent of the female population. The process is potentially life-threatening and, since it's done fairly unhygienically, can also result in HIV infection.

Those who loved Buena Vista Social Club won't want to miss La Ultima Rumba De Papa Montero (Papa Montero's Last Rumba), Octavio Cortazar's film on the rumba, specifically an examination of Papa Montero, a rumba practitioner who is one of the most celebrated in his native Cuba. Montero was assassinated during the Carnival--Cortazar attempts to examine the details of the case.

Hot docs

In the doc Keep on Knocking, Evaristo "Grey" Mwatse examines the evolution of Zimbabwe's union movement, and its ultimate contribution to the nation's emergence as a democracy. The film dates the continuum from back in 1900 through to protests in the '80s. Another entry from Zimbabwe, Zimbabwe: Soul in Torment, takes a closer look at some of the roadblocks of revolution. A guerrilla finds herself questioning the point of Zimbabwe's 1980 revolution after yet another war broke out almost immediately (in Matebeleland). Prudence Francisca Uriri tries to make sense of the senseless (war), by interviewing government officials.

A Nigerian film, Hush Little Baby, manages to pack a lot of action into its 45 minutes. Adeola Folarin's screenplay has its protagonist grow averse to firearms after he mistakenly maims another high school student. Decades later, he becomes a criminal but one who refuses to use guns. He soon must face his phobia of firearms after a kidnap job goes terribly wrong: he falls in love with the woman he's supposed to be kidnapping.

High drama

Director Roberto Bangura and screenwriter Jo Hodges explore the complications of coming of age for a racially-mixed girl growing up in Britain in the early '70s in The Girl With Brains in her Feet. The girl, barely a teenager, finds her greatest rewards in running competitively. Meanwhile, there's considerable peer pressure for her to begin having sex and her white mother refuses to show her daughter a photo of her black father. Things lighten up--and get a bit self-referential--with Flmkr, John Carstarphen's gentle comedy about one young woman's struggle to make it in the Hollywood film industry. After her first effort to make a cliched moneymaker fails, a young woman decides to make a documentary all about the wretched excesses and struggles to keep one's head afloat in Tinseltown.

Local production house Rightime scores with Angelique, their short film based on the true story of a black slave who is wrongly convicted of setting fire to Montreal as retribution for her defiant stance against slavery.

Also featured will be a special tribute to the national cinema of Egypt. Among the films showcased will be Dehk, We Leabe We Gad We Hob (Laughter, Games, Seriousness and Love), Tarek El Telmessani's meditation on the '60s, and El Aragouz, Hani Lachine's family melodrama. :

The 16th annual Vues d'Afrique screens from this Tuesday, April 11, to Sunday, April 16. Films screen at various sites. Info: 284-2602 or www.vuesdafrique.org