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BLACK GIRL/ BOROM SARRET
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Two films from "the greatest of all African filmmakers" (Jonathan Rosenbaum,     Film Comment). Black Girl (1966, 60 mins.), Ousmane Sembene's        first feature-length film, is a major statement against the lingering culture    of colonialism. A Senegalese woman, working as a governess for a French        family, 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, causing her to fall      into isolation and despair. Borom Sarret (1963, 20 mins.) follows a      horse-cart driver in Dakar struggling through the day and witnessing the       immense gulf between the poor and the bourgeoisie. "The most seminal work of   African cinema" (Ephraim Katz, The Film Encyclopedia). Both films in       Ousmane Sembene---Senegal---1963, 1966---80 mins.
CAMP DE THIAROYE
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Following their honorable service in World War II, a group of black soldiers     from all over West Africa report to a transit camp in Dakar. There, they are     treated little better than prisoners and denied the back pay they were           promised, leading to a mutiny in which they take their French commanding       officer hostage. A devastating account of colonial injustice. "Sembene and Sow have made what is not only a humane, passionate film, but an honest and vital  memorial to those men who died, after the war, at Camp Thiaroye" (Tom Charity,   Time Out Film Guide). In Wolof and French with optional English          Ousmane Sembene/Thierno Faty Sow---Senegal/Algeria/Tunisia---1987---152 mins.
CEDDO
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Although set in the 19th century, this ambitious feature is as relevant to       contemporary society as any of Ousmane Sembene's other films. As Christian and   Islamic forces try to convert a Senegalese village, a band of outsiders          kidnaps the daughter of the village chief in a desperate attempt to hold on to their native traditions. Banned in Senegal for a ridiculous technicality       concerning the spelling of the film's title. "...a vision of a world dominated by exploitation and repression, forces that Sembene portrays as proceeding       unbroken through the present day" (Dave Kehr, Chicago Reader). In Wolof  Ousmane Sembene---Senegal---1977---116 mins.
MANDABI
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This was Ousmane Sembene's first film in color and in a native African           language (Wolof). It was also his first comedy, but none of the director's       sharp social criticisms have been lost in the biting humor. An unemployed man    receives a money order from his nephew, but his windfall becomes a nightmare   of bureaucracy and corruption as he is pursued by creditors, family members,   and friends, while unable to secure the necessary I.D. to cash the money       order. "It works not only as political allegory but as a social comedy, rooted   in the African experience" (Faber Companion to Foreign Films). In Wolof  Ousmane Sembene---Senegal---1968---90 mins.
MOOLAADE
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Ousmane Sembene's film is a powerful polemic directed against the practice of    female circumcision, which is still practiced in a number of African nations     in the name of "purification". In a small village, four young girls flee to      the household of Colle (Fatoumata Coulibaly), a strong-willed woman who vows   to protect them from mutilation at the hands of village traditionalists. Colle casts a "moolaade" spell which will bring harm to anyone who attempts to hurt  those under her care, and the villagers are angry but powerless in the face of   this magic. Winner of the Grand Prize at the 2004 Cannes Film Festival, "to    skip Moolaade would be to miss an opportunity to experience the          embracing, affirming, world-changing potential of humanist cinema at its       finest" (A.O. Scott, The New York Times). In Jula and French with          Ousmane Sembene---Senegal---2004---124 mins.
XALA
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Upon marrying his third wife, a rich and powerful Senegalese businessman finds   himself unable to perform in the bedroom on his wedding night. Shortly           thereafter, his empire starts to crumble. Far from a simple sex comedy,          Ousmane Sembene's fourth feature is "...a biting satire of the 'independence'  supposedly enjoyed by Senegal after the end of French rule" (Chris Dashiell,   CineScene). In Wolof and French with English subtitles.                  Ousmane Sembene---Senegal---1975---123 mins.