Educational Media Reviews Online

Sisters of the Screen: African Women in the Cinema is an ambitious film about women filmmakers from every region of Africa. These women directors reveal a variety of experiences and interests that help shape the cinema of Africa. Some directors reflect on their position as African directors working in the West, others reflect on their films themes from political to personal, while still others reflect on their roles as women and catalysts for change. Brief excerpts from such African film classics as Dilleme au Feminin, Femmes aux yeux Ouverts, Mondays Girls, Mossane, and Finzan are presented along with directors comments.

Interviews with the directors appeared to be conducted all over the world and at film festivals. The interview with director Ngozi Onwurah was conducted in a busy hallway(?) of the BBC with distracting foot traffic. Cuts between these interviews were done at breakneck speed. Consequently, it was sometimes difficult to know which film clips were connected with which directors. Sound and color were generally excellent. While admirable in its intentions, I felt that the film could have been more carefully edited and structured. Perhaps, fewer directors and some background information on each would have been preferable to the rapid-fire, shotgun approach used in the film.

Some of the excerpted films (Monday's Girls, Finzan, Femmes aux yeux Ouverts) are available through California Newsreel’s Library of African Cinema. Unfortunately, others may be more difficult to locate, but well worth the effort to try.

Certainly, Sisters of the Screen: African Women in Cinema is the only comprehensive video overview of contemporary African women filmmakers, and is valuable for that reason alone, however, I wish it was better focused and more organized. It is recommended for college libraries with active film studies, women's studies and African studies departments.