A Fuga (Brazil) – An animated short about an escaped prison in Egypt 50 BC. As he struggles across the desert he embarks on a journey of a lifetime. If I knew anything about Egyptian mythology, I am guessing I would have understood the symbolism of the things he saw. 7/10

Kaleidoscope (Kenya) – A haunting piece where a woman in a bad relationship ends up in an inescapable room. I did not understand the ending, but the movie was sufficiently haunting. 6/10

Give a Man a Mask and He Will Tell You the Truth (Zimbabwe) – Here is my second 10/10 of the festival. How do you tell the story of men having sex with men, something that is illegal in Zimbabwe? You flip filmmaking upside down and make sure that things are beautifully out of focus, so you can hear the voices when the identities are protected. The filmmaker also used beautiful masks – to represent the mask the men must wear, lest society discover who they are – in a technically outstanding documentary. 10/10

Black Head Cow (Tanzania/UK) – I have to go based on what I saw, not on what the filmmakers said about the film after I saw it…Dealing with the sensitive issue of young women being married off early and not being allowed to go to school, this film did a nice job of setting up the dilemma for the audience to ponder. There were no answers given – and that may be the best way to handle this. 7/10

Cream (South Africa) – This short film about racial identity goes a bit overboard. There is no question the attempted lightening of skin happened. There is no question that people have problems with how police handle race. There is no question that there are messed up families. To accomplish throwing everything together there was a lot of forced pontificating. 5/10

The Secret of Happiness (Rwanda) – There was no ice cream, no elephants, no giraffes and no cats in the movie, so I am not sure it was my secret of happiness. This is another film that looks at questionable traditions, in this case the requirement for young women to stretch their labia to please one’s husband. The topic certainly needs to be discussed, but this film isn’t the best path to that discussion. 6/10

Cheusi Dawa (Tanzania) – This is a weak after school special with bad translations. If only it were as simple to turn your life around as it is in this movie…one sister fails school but after a few months gets her dream job because she is a focused hard studier and the other sister has to choose her career or her man. Coincidentally, her hero is available to talk to her. 4/10

Binti Zanzibar (Tanzania) – Author’s Note: I know at least one person in this film. I have tried to not let that raise my film rating too much. This film was a laugh fest. Dealing with the issue of a young woman missing out on education and being forced to marry (see Black Head Cow above), this movie does it completely wrong. The filmmakers were there and listened to all the laughter (at the movie, not with the movie) – and then tried to talk about how it was a serious subject. Bad ‘B’ movie. 1/10

Thank You for the Rain – (UK/Kenya) – This one was very close to also getting a 10. This movie is about a Kenyan farmer who tries to get his community to take climate change seriously as his village suffers from devastating droughts followed by even worse floods. He then gets the opportunity, as people in Europe hear of what he is doing, to go speak at the Paris Climate Change Conference. The farmer himself films parts of the film and it is very well done. But it could have been a little better. 9/10

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