The 2016 film Accra Power is an eclectic look at one of Africa’s most thriving urban settings. The film focuses on a selection of young Ghanaians; the poet Poetra Asantewa, fashion DJ Steloo, gospel scientist Edward Ohemeng Oware, dancer Hadassah Asare, musician Wanlov (one half of Fokn Bois), visual and performance artist Serge Attukwei Clottey, storyteller Mary Yaa Konadu and boxer Abigail Quartey to be our guides around the greater Accra area.

UPRIZE! is a South African film that looks back 40 years at the 1976 Soweto uprising in light of the recent university student uprisings and the #FeesMustFall protests that rocked South African campuses.  Director Sifiso Khanyile explains further, “It’s a glimpse into 70s SA, the cost of the fight for education and freedom, and especially relevant 40 years later as university students take on the ANC government demanding free, quality education.”

AfriDocs also journeys to the USA this month for a music-drenched chronicle of hip-hop, urban culture and fashion. Fresh Dressed is the story of hip-hop fashion that has transformed the style of young people the world over. The film is a rich mix of archival materials and in-depth interviews with rappers, designers, and other industry insiders, such as Pharrell Williams, Karl Kani, Kanye West, Nas, and others.

AfriDocs can be seen every Thursday 9:00/ 21:00 (CAT) on BET Africa, DStv channel 129. For more information: www.afridocs.net, www.facebook.com/AfriDocs, @afri_docs

To watch the June trailer: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL82a6I9kmXXci1RZfBP-1Fbhpqm9aevYJ

1 June

Town of Runners | Jerry Rothwell | Ethiopia | 2012 | 86 min

The world’s best long-distance runners hail from one small town in Ethiopia. In a country long associated with poverty, famine and war, world-record-beating athletes are the source of pride. Many of the world’s greatest runners hail from Bekoji, a remote town in the southern Highlands. In the Beijing Olympics, runners from Bekoji won all four gold medals in the long-distance track events – more medals than most industrial countries.

Sheffield International Documentary Festival, 2012

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d2SVYcSeJ1g

8 June

Accra Power| Sandra Krampelhuber & Andrea Verena Strasser | Ghana | 2016 | 49 min

Accra Power provides an eclectic mix of perceptions of power in one of many thriving urban settings in Africa. It outlines creative and artistic strategies of young Ghanaians situated at the crossroads of tradition and various belief systems, high technological and economic growth, infrastructural deficits and current energy crisis.

Crossing Europe International Film Festival, Austria, 2016

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NgjQu-XeeGw

15 June

UPRIZE! | Sifiso Khanyile | South Africa | 2016 | 58 min

On the morning of 16 June 1976, a group of school children in Soweto gathered peacefully to protest the mandatory inclusion of Afrikaans as a medium of instruction. By nightfall over 200 of them lay dead, mowed down by Apartheid armed forces. Forty years later, this film looks at the world that made these kids, and how in the especially relevant forty years later as university students once again take to the streets to fight the post-apartheid government on the issue of free quality education.

New York African Film Festival, 2017

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mU4mNMiCYTc

22 June

Dear Mandela | Dara Kell & Christopher Nizza | South Africa | 2011 | 93 min

When their shantytowns are threatened with mass eviction, three ‘young lions’ of South Africa’s new generation rise from the shacks and take their government to the highest court in the land, putting the promises of democracy to the test.

Best South African Documentary, Durban International Film Festival, 2011

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Az8qnp8KWwU&t=1s

29 June

Fresh Dressed | Sacha Jenkins | USA |2015 | 82 min

Fresh Dressed is a fascinating chronicle of hip-hop, urban fashion, and the hustle that brought oversized pants and graffiti-drenched jackets from Orchard Street to high fashion's catwalks and Middle America shopping malls. Director Sacha Jenkins' music-drenched history draws from a rich mix of archival materials and in-depth interviews with rappers, designers, and other industry insiders.