African film assignment

Africa: Slavery, Colonialism, Imperialism, and Neo-colonialism in Film

Your culminating assessment for the Africa unit is to watch one of the following films (or a film Mr. Reinholt approves) that you have not seen before, and write a report on it containing the following:

1.     The title of the film and the year it was made

2.     Describe how you accessed the film. (YouTube, Google Video, Netflix, Blockbuster, etc.)

3.     Brief plot summary, about one page

4.     There are four main “Big Ideas” in this unit; Slavery, Colonialism, Imperialism, and Neo-colonialism. Describe how this film sheds light on one of these “Big Ideas.”  Use specific examples from the film.

5.     Relate the film to what we have learned in class about Nigeria and the Congo.

6.     Explain how your thinking about Africa was changed by this film.

This film report should be typed in 12-point Times New Roman font, double spaced, with 1” margins.  It should be 2.5-3 pages long.  It is due on Friday, May 25^th.

YOU MUST GET PERMISSION FROM YOUR PARENTS TO WATCH A MOVIE RATED “R”

Hotel Rwanda (2004) (About the Rwandan genocide in the 1990s)

Cry Freedom (1987) (Denzel Washington as Steve Biko, activist against South African apartheid)

Sarafina! (1992) (Musical about South African apartheid)

Power of One (1992) (British kid growing up in South African apartheid)

Darfur Now (2007) (Documentary about genocide in Sudan)

White King, Red Rubber, Black Death (2003) (Rubber trade in King Leopold’s colonial Congo)

God Grew Tired of Us: The Story of Lost Boys of Sudan (2006) (Child soldiers in Sudan)

The Wooden Camera (2003) (Two kids in post-apartheid South Africa find a camera and a gun)

Battle of Algiers (1965) (Battle for Algerian independence from France)

Chocolat (1988) (French colonialism in Cameroon, not the film about chocolate with Johnny Depp)

Lumumba (2000) (First president of the Congo that was assassinated by the United States)

Roots (1977) (Epic series about slavery – only watch the first 2 hours)

Cry Freetown (1999) (Civil war in Sierra Leone, real-life Blood Diamond)

Tsotsi (2005) (Set in one of South Africa’s segregated slums outside Johannesburg)