An unlikely pair to become international celebrities, husband-and-wife duo Martin & Osa Johnson found themselves as America’s foremost filmmaker-explorers after the success of their first few documentaries on the native tribes of Africa and Southeast Asia. For SIMBA: THE KING OF THE BEASTS, they forded crocodile-infested rivers, braved stampeding elephants and stared down angry rhinos in order to film lions in their natural habitat. Their work directly...

Life was peaceful in Kenya's coastal slum of Owino Uhuru until the smoke of an illegal lead-smelting plant polluted the soil and air. The plant that was operating at the heart of this poor community left a path of destruction in its wake: dead workers, hundreds of failed pregnancies and dozens of children suffering lifelong health effects of lead poisoning. They managed to get the factory closed, but Owino Uhuru remains contaminated today. Combining...

In 1952, Ousmane Sembene, a dockworker and fifth-grade dropout from Senegal, began dreaming an impossible dream: to become the storyteller for a new Africa. SEMBENE! tells the unbelievable true story of the father of African cinema, the self- taught novelist and filmmaker who fought, against enormous odds, a 50-year battle to return African stories to Africans. SEMBENE! is told through the experiences of the man who knew him best, colleague and biographer...

A Kalahari Family is a five-part, six-hour series documenting 50 years in the lives of the Ju/'hoansi of southern Africa, from 1951 to 2000. These once independent hunter-gatherers experience dispossession, confinement to a homeland, and the chaos of war. Then as hope for Namibian independence and the end of apartheid grows, Ju/'hoansi fight to establish farming communities and reclaim their traditional lands. The series challenges stereotypes of...

Based on historical facts, the African descendent and Reunion born Trules composed the opera Maraina, recounting the story of the first settlers of the Indian Ocean islands. Voyaging between Reunion, Madagascar and Paris, An Opera from the Indian Ocean traces the cast's journey to the place where it all began: Fort-Dauphin in southern Madagascar, at the end of the African continent. The opera singers perform this contemporary music for an audience...

In this riveting historical drama, 10 political activists (including Nelson Mandela and his inner circle of Black and Jewish supporters) face a possible death sentence for conspiracy to commit sabotage after they are arrested by the apartheid South African government during a raid in the town of Rivonia during the summer of 1963. Bram Fischer, a sympathetic lawyer, risks his career and freedom to defend these men. Gold Award winner at the 2017 **Mill...

Ramses the Great ruled for 67 years and was considered one of Egypt's greatest pharaohs. The pillars of his reputation were classic: warfare and building.

One of the greatest individuals in Egyptian history, Hatshepsut appears in no official Egyptian record. When she died, she was "King of Upper and Lower Egypt." How did she handle the three core activities of kingship - building, warfare, and trading expeditions? Why was her name later systematically expunged?

A Hugo Zemp Film.. Among the Senufo people of northern Cote d'Ivoire, the balafon (xylophone with calabash resonators) is an emblematic musical instrument. This film shows balafon orchestras playing in five villages during the two principal days of funeral festivities, celebrations that include the most important rites, ceremonies and rejoicings in the life of the Senufo. During dialogues with Sikaman, a young musician who acted as research assistant...

Among the Senufo people of northern Cote d'Ivoire, the balafon (xylophone with calabash resonators) is an emblematic musical instrument. Returning to Senufo country 40 years after his first encounter with balafon music in 1958, ethnomusicologist Hugo Zemp recalls memories of this and subsequent visits in the early 60s, before participating in a musical event of startling impact.. Six orchestras, playing simultaneously but independently, circle with...