September 26

Congo: White King, Red Rubber, Black Death
Director: Peter Bate
(2004, 100 minutes, Belgium/UK, in English, French and Dutch with English subtitles)
    This true, shocking, astonishing story of what the Belgians did in the Congo was forgotten for over 50 years. Congo: White King, Red Rubber, Black Death describes Leopold II, King of the Belgium’s private colony of the Congo between 1885 and 1908 as a gulag labor camp of shocking brutality. Leopold posed as the protector of Africans fleeing Arab slave-traders but, in reality, he carved out an empire based on terror to harvest rubber. Families were held as hostages, starving to death if the men failed to produce enough wild rubber. Children’s hands were chopped off as punishment for late deliveries. The Belgian government has denounced this documentary as a “tendentious diatribe” for depicting King Leopold II as the moral forebear of Adolf Hitler, responsible for the death of 10 million people in his rapacious exploitation of the Congo. Yet, it is agreed today that the first Human Rights movement was spurred by what happened in the Congo.

Daresalam (Let There Be Peace)
Director: Issa Serge Coelo
(2000, 104 minutes, Chad, in Arabic and French with English subtitles)
    Daresalam is the first African feature film to focus on the civil wars convulsing the continent from Sierra Leone to Somalia. It provides compelling insights into how ordinary people around the world get swept up in extraordinary events. Its timeless story of two childhood friends turned into political foes personalizes the terrible costs of internecine strife.

Le Malentendu Colonial (The Colonial Misunderstanding)
Director: Jean-Marie Teno
(2004, 73 minutes, Cameroon, in English, French and German with English subtitles)
    Le Malentendu Colonial looks at European colonialism in Africa through the lens of Christian evangelism, indeed as the model for the relationship between North and South even today. The film scrutinizes in particular the role of German missionaries in Namibia on the centenary of the 1904 German genocide of the Herrero people. It reveals how colonialism destroyed African beliefs and social systems and replaced them with European ones as if they were the only acceptable routes to modernity.

Shake Hands with the Devil: The Journey of Roméo Dallaire
Director: Peter Raymont
(2004, 91 minutes, Canada)
    Shake Hands with the Devil shows how the international community's general lack of interest in Africa, abandoned the people of Rwanda in their time of greatest need. It looks at General Dallaier's heroic, but ultimately failed efforts to challenge a deliberate policy of inactivity at the highest levels of the U.N. and U.S. to prevent or mitigate the 1994 Rwandan genocide. It documents his return to Rwanda for the 10th anniversary of the genocide, reliving the political and psychological drama in unforgettable detail.

Imperfect Journey
Director: Haile Gerima
(1994, 88 minutes, Ethiopia, in English and Amharic with English subtitles)
    Imperfect Journey introduces acclaimed Ethiopian filmmaker Haile Gerima and Polish journalist Ryszard Kapuscinski as they travel through Ethiopia, from Gondor to the capital Addis Ababa filming and speaking with people along the way.

Films screenings are at 7 pm in the Luce Hall Auditorium, 34 Hillhouse Avenue.
Admission is free and open to the public.