Africa

From Focus Features comes Africa First: Volume One, a joyous collection of innovative and original short films from around the African continent.

This is the story of the rise and fall of one of the legendary forces of warfare. During its brief existence, the Afrika Korps forced the Allied forces ranged against it into a for war of attrition, thereby cementing its place in the annals of military history. The Afrika Korps will be forever associated with its brilliant commander Erwin Rommel, the Desert Fox of legend.

Safari tour guide David Webb (Robert Powell) takes a job as head of security on the luxury train Pride of Africa and discovers that the wealthy passengers can be just as dangerous as the wild animals he knows so well. As the train sets off across the lush countryside, Webb contends with a dangerous kidnapping plot, a heated lovers' quarrel and a possible murder in this made-for-TV mystery set in the 1930s.

Discover Black South African music from the apartheid era in this documentary that explores a wide panorama of styles, from Zululand roots to Soweto street singing, and features artists such as Ladysmith Black Mambazo and the Mahotella Queens. Ignored by the global community and suppressed from within the country by the local government, Black South African music used themes of joy and anger to promote resistance.

Instead of inundating you with facts overlaid on a voice-over narration, "Serengeti Life" boasts a gorgeous classical score -- including such tracks as "Slavic Dance" by Bedrich Smetana, "Habanera" by Georges Bizet and "Bolero" by Maurice Ravel -- that plays over a collage of wildlife scenes. Viewers are encouraged to sit back, relax and enjoy the animals, which range from birds and turtles to giraffes and elephants in their natural habitat.

Featuring some of the world's top bands and hosted by British Prime Minister Tony Blair and Nelson Mandela, this 2001 concert in London's Trafalgar Square celebrated the seventh anniversary of free elections in South Africa. Songs include "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" (Mbawula featuring The Manhattan Brothers), "One Love" (Dave Stewart featuring Gary "Mudbone" Cooper), "Losing My Religion" (R.E.M.) and many others.

Bheem's plans for an exciting African safari are interrupted when he finds that an evil ruler is using magical powers to cause drought through the land.

Long a target for poachers, the rhino has been hunted for their horns across Africa. In The Last Horns of Africa, debut documentary feature director Garth De Bruno Austin follows those who are putting their lives on the line to protect the animal, from a hidden rhino orphanage to the Kruger National Park. With unparalleled access the filmmakers have created a compelling documentary that explores conservation, the illegal wildlife trade, and rhino poachers.

Our African Roots is the first documentary to feature an African-Australian host actively interrogating Australia’s colonial history. Commissioned by Australian multicultural broadcaster SBS, the ground-breaking film challenges a nation that spent much of the 20th Century advocating for a racially exclusive White Australia to confront its multiracial past.

Africa and Schweitzer is a rarely-seen, excellent documentary made while Albert Schweitzer was still alive. Narrated by Lowell Thomas and photographed by Ingmar Bergman's cameraman, Sven Nyquist, it gives a revealing look at the great humanitarian.

Colour amateur documentary from 1939 on life in South Africa and Southern Rhodesia, produced by Frances Hotham. Part 1 (South Africa) includes arrival at Durban, Natal and Howick Falls, war dances at Inanda (Natal) and the Rose Deep Gold Mine (Johannesburg). Also, Cecil Rhodes’ grave and views of the Victoria Falls. Part 2 (Rhodesia and the Cape Peninsular) includes the Zambezi river and gorges, Umtali, Kruger National Park, Cape Town, Cape Peninsula, Cecil Rhodes’ memorial, Table Mountain and Kalk Bay.

Going in depth into her father’s photo archive and diaries about his experience during the military service at the Sahara Spanish colony in 1964, Pilar spots the lost paradise where he always would try to come back. In the eighties and nineties, after the failure of his family project, Manuel Monsell will start to traveling to the Maghreb. Again with his photo camera, he will run after the beauty of some portraits which could move him to the place of his dreams. But all these trips reveal much more about the place of departure than about the place of destination. Romantic love, independence and family compose a stage of a refuge that getting itself broken, it commit ourselves to ask not only about our more sincere desires but also about the need of rethinking the sense of these old words.

At the beginning of the 20th century in Jacqueville, near Abidjan in the Côte d'Ivoire, traditional music was forbidden by the missionaries. But the inhabitants' enjoyment of their local festivals proved stronger, and the little town developed its own brass band. This is the story of that brass band, a brass band that isn't at all like a military band. It's a dancing brass band, an African brass band, that accompanies all the big and little moments of life: national festivals, religious ceremonies, funerals, fetes and celebrations, a musical game involving a football, tunes from the famous Mapuka dance, or the experimental use of sacred drums together with the brass band. A lively debate between the musicians, in which a sense of humor is clearly present, as they examine fundamental questions about their tradition and its transformations in the context of the life of people today.

What does it mean to be an African born in America? Am I: Too African to be American or Too American to be African explores the complex identity formations of young African women living in America and West Africa who identify bi-culturally. It specifically looks at how they wrestle with the concepts of race, complexion, gender, and heritage among other issues.

WHEN I SAY AFRICA unpacks the problematic white savior narratives that are at the root of Western entanglements with Africa. As white filmmakers we intend the film to be a space where self awareness and a critical view of media, pop culture and humanitarianism can lead Western audiences to reflect on their complicity in systems of global privilege. The film sets out to disrupt problematic narratives and asks audiences to think about different ways of representing and engaging with the continent.

In Kenyan offices and Malian farms, in Moroccan tea houses and Nigerien huts normal people of various backgrounds go about their lives. On a single day at the messy juncture of tradition and modernity, six people from different geographic and cultural backgrounds describe six versions of the African story.

fantasy tale about a young Zulu who leaves his village to go to the city, falls in love with the new music he hears there, and returns home to form a Zulu jazz band. The South African production and distribution company African Films followed up the success of Zonk! with Song of Africa. This is a fantasy tale about a young Zulu who leaves his village to go to the city, falls in love with the new music he hears there, and returns home to form a Zulu jazz band – which then goes to the city to compete with other bands, and comes out on top. As in the earlier films, the impact of American jazz and popular music is enormous. Like African Jim and Zonk!, Song of Africa draws on the best talent from the townships. Director Emil Nofal and director of photography Dave Millin ensure high production values, making it an above-average B-movie.

Filmed in Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda. Beginning with Genesis, the film follows the progress of civilization through to modern day Nairobi. Biblical themes combine with pulsating African music, wild animal sounds, and vivid imagery. Unusual juxtapositions of Bob Fulton's quick cuts and Brown's big lens shots of mega fauna and tribal dances mesmerize viewers.

A documentary about the family of the late Bob Marley and their first trip to Ethiopia to attend the annual Africa Unite concert.