Wole Soyinka

To his guests – artists, scientists, writers, philosophers and musicians – Wim Kayzer in Of Beauty and Consolation asks the philosophical question: What makes this life worth living?

Inspired by true life events, in the Oyo Empire in the 1940's, Elesin Oba, the king's chief horseman, succumbs to the lure of beauty and sexual desire on the very evening he is set to die in order to fulfil his lifelong debt of ritual suicide to accompany the dead Alaafin to the realm of the ancestors, he derails from a very important generational and spiritual transaction. This sets in motion a series of catastrophic consequences, in a spell-binding film of emotions, humour, and tragic role reversals that puts ancient beliefs and customs on trial in an ever increasingly post-modern and Western world.

When the slave ships docked in North America, Brazil, and the Caribbean, hundreds of cultures, traditions, and religions landed with the Africans on board, one transcended slavery beyond imagination and remains alive till this day in the New World: the Yoruba culture.

In British-occupied Nigeria, a Yoruba king, the Alafin, has died, and it is the duty of his horseman, Elesin, to accompany him into the afterlife. While lustily enjoying the pleasures of this world, Elesin proudly anticipates his transition to the next – but the sacred ritual is interrupted, resulting in unforeseen tragedy. Inspired by a real-life incident, this masterpiece from Nobel Prize winner Soyinka celebrates a community striving to uphold its culture in the face of colonial power.

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Each episode of the program tells the biography of one of the outstanding writers of world literature: Truman Capote, Howard Phillips Lovecraft, John Steinbeck, Jean Cocteau and many others...

Shout Gladi Gladi is a documentary about hope. It tells the story of one woman's quest to cure fistula and save mother's lives in Africa. Shot in Malawi and Sierra Leone (just prior to the Ebola crisis) this is an intense portrait of the people suffering from fistula and the struggle of those who are not only trying to fix this condition but curtail it through better maternal health care. In addition, it is about women's empowerment, specifically through a radical device from BBOXX, a solar powered generator that provides the women not only with electricity in a region where there is none but also as a means to make money by charging cell phones.

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Khalo Matabane spent two years making the film, interviewing those who knew and loved Mandela, and also those who criticised him. Global thinkers, politicians and artists including the Dalai Lama, Henry Kissinger and Ariel Dorfman talk about the effect of his policies and his decision making. Their thoughts are weighed equally with ordinary South Africans like Charity Kondile, who refuses to forgive her son's apartheid operative murderer. Through these interviews, completed in the last months of Mandela's life, Matabane interrogates for himself the meaning of freedom, reconciliation and forgiveness. By doing so he challenges Mandela's enduring impact in today's world of conflict and inequality. Thought-provoking and reflective, Mandela, the Myth and Me is a moving film which frames Mandela from a fresh, deeply personal perspective. (Storyville)

An African dictator (Wole Soyinka) needs to convince the former king (Rashidi Onikoyi) to legitimize his reign by offering him the ceremonial yam at the upcoming harvest festival.

Focusing on the pressures people feel moving from the security and nurture of village life to the isolate chaos of big city life, Joshua: A Nigerian Portrait tells the story of Joshua Sobitan, a rent-collector living in Lagos.