Zanzibar Film Festival – Wednesday, July 12, 2017

Dent de lleo (Spain) – A young girl blows a dandelion in to the air and dreams about the people and lands that the dandelion sees. A well done peaceful movie that reminds us of the possibilities that we should all dream about. 8/10

Roger (Spain) – This stop-action, claymation, James Bond-influenced movie is fun. Disfigured clay character Roger Bowtie is thrown aside and replaced. After fighting depression, he takes advantage of the workshop where he was thrown and remakes himself. A definite see. 9/10

Indulge Me (Kenya) – He tells us why he was unhappy and how their relationship fell apart. And at the end, we have the necessary surprise ending. It is not the most original, but it does its job well enough. 6/10

Tunu na Kito (Tanzania) – This film has too many problems. The animation rendering was not complete. The sound, instead of sounding like fish under water, sounds like a couple of people in an echo filled hallway. And there were no captions, so I had to go just on action and my small Swahili vocabulary. Incomplete. Please rework and resubmit.

Jeshi la Mashujaa (Tanzania) – This is another Tanzanian animation without captions. From what I can tell a boy doesn’t eat his vegetables and the bacteria attack him…until the fruits and vegetables save him. This is the type of short that would be shown on Saturday morning between violent cartoons to let the network believe that they are educational. 2/10

Edem Saved Me (Ghana) – This paper cut animation of folktale works well. Put in to a difficult situation, one character must retrieve the valuable jewel from far away. As his journey becomes more difficult his best friend arrives with help. If we choose to use television to educate the children, this is how we should be teaching about our culture. 7/10

Purpose (Nigeria) – I think this was a rap video. Or rather a spoken poem set to pictures. I can’t say that I liked it, although there was nothing inherently wrong with it. It just wasn’t for me. 5/10

TIS (France) – A piece of paper gains self-awareness and grows as a “person.” This short was beautifully produced (although the trees got a little scary in places) and is a must see. 9/10

Voice from 10,000 Miles (Australia) – How does one deal with learning that a loved one was killed in a terrorist attack when you are 10,000 miles away? This piece makes you think. 7/10

Free Basics (India) – A rural village gets “modern digital” and the world is a better place…or at least that is the expectation. But it turns out that the online world is full of seedy characters too. A fun take on the “future”. 7/10

Kipawa (USA) – This was an infomercial. And I did not buy, donate, or join. 4/10

A Man’s Story (Canada) – When you are born in a violent household, violence may be all you know. But there comes a time when it must end. 6/10

The Photograph (Tanzania) – The lighting and camera work was very good. The fight sequences lacked authenticity and the story was not completely clear. Having spoken to members of the film crew, I believe that there is great stuff in the future for this local film company. 6/10

Lodgers (Nigeria) – Just because you are highly skilled in your country doesn’t mean that going to work in another country is going to be easy. Although some of the humor is repetitive, there were definitely a few laugh out loud moments. 7/10

Blaxploitation (Italy) – I liked the second half of this movie much better as we hear from a number of Afro-Italian actors that struggle to make it in Italian cinema. I would have liked to have heard from non-minority Italian actors to see how different the experiences and struggles are. 7/10

Keeping the Beat (UK) – I don’t like documentaries where the narrator is a foreigner talking how their three weeks in an exotic location was life changing. There were also enough technical issues to be distracting. But I did learn a few things about the Zanzibar music scene. 4/10

Arts of the Monsoon (USA) – Oman and Zanzibar share a history and this movie explores the fashion, music, architecture, and artwork that ties the two together. A very nice piece with the added benefit of having a few people that we know in it. 8/10