Top Ten Films

1. Till Death Do Us Part (video clip, realvideo format 2,235kbytes, 10 minutes @56kbps)

Till Death do us Part is a thirty-minute documentary that tells the heart-wrenching story of three widows in eastern Nigeria who suffered harmful traditional widowhood practices.  Nneka, a subsistence farmer, Uche, a sports coach, and Celestina, a housewife, give a personal account of the typical trials and demeaning rites that widows are forced to undergo.  The women reveal their deep emotional, psychological, physical, and economic scars as well as the social stigma associated with widowhood.  Traditional rulers, the clergy, women leaders, lawyers, social workers and other community groups comment on widowhood rites, their history and social implication, as well as the need for change.  The film points to two progressive grassroots organisations that are assisting widows with emotional and legal counsel, training and small-scale loans to help them break the cycle of bondage.

2. Ready or Not: The Future is Ours (video clip, realvideo 1,945kbytes, 8 minutes @56kbps)

This four-minute film combines moving photographic stills with poetry and a haunting soundtrack to present the voice of an unheard generation of Nigerians – the youth.

3. People Speak  About Democracy & Good Governance (4 video clips, realvideo)

As Nigeria ushers in a new political dispensation after decades of military rule, this collection of short films explores the feelings, hopes and dreams of a cross section of the citizenry. Women, the disabled(long clip - 3mins, 000kbytes, 0 mins @56kbps)(short clip - 45secs, 000kbytes, 0 mins @56kbps) and children(long clip - 3mins, 000kbytes, 0 mins @56kbps)(short clip - 45secs, 000kbytes, 0 mins @56kbps) speak out in this poignant and extremely inspiring piece.

4. Scenarios from the Sahel

Seven films that highlight scenarios dealing with HIV and AIDS prevention.  Tapping into the African sense of humour these stories that are African written, African produced and African directed, are true to life, playful and touching glances at the way that we all, young and old, inexperienced or not, negotiate sexual situations.

5. Rhetoric to Reality

This series looks at the progress in achieving greater equality for women- five years after the Beijing conference on women. Women broadcasters from developing countries produced this series on gender equality and human rights.  Against the Odds(video clip, realvideo 2,823bytes, 12 mins @56kbps) from Nigeria, profiles the contributions of two women activists: Chief Bisi Ogunleye the President of the Country Women's Association of Nigeria and the Honourable Temi Harriman, Representative of the Warri City in the Niger Delta.  In No Safe Place from South Africa, the police and the judiciary still don't regard rape and domestic violence as serious crimes - with only one in 20 rapists receiving a conviction and the punishment for wife killing equal to that for fraud.  The stories from other parts of the world all deal compellingly with issues reflecting the diverse experience of womanhood across the world.

6. Teme T Teme

Teme T Teme is a moving parable about progress and the values of family life in Ethiopia. Teme T Teme tells the story of a young 12-year-old boy, Belete. Unable to rely on the rains, his father struggles to grow food for his family. He needs his son, Belete on the farm and wants him to stop school. Belete, however, desires to continue his educations and runs away to the city. But life in the city proves to be just as harsh. It is not long before Belete is made to confront the wisdom of the old Ethiopian proverb “Teme T Teme” which says “with his own hands, he has wrapped a snake around his neck”.

7. Earth Reports

This includes a total of 52 short reports on the state of the planet. ‘Earth Report’ breaks the mould of doom and gloom coverage of the environment. The world is facing an environmental crisis, but around the globe we have found that people are rising to their environmental challenges. “The series aims to be the viewers’ report card on how well the world is achieving the targets set by the Rio Earth Summit,” adds Sir David Attenborough.

8. Beijing Spots

This series of 28 minute ‘spots’ present a snap-shot of gender, power and ownership around the world at the time of the 1995 Beijing Fourth World Conference on Women. Ranging in style from humorous to ironic to shocking, the series tackles issues like pay, heath, sexual stereotypes and violence.

9. Quiet Revolution

Her mother didn’t want her to do it. Her son didn’t think it worth the pain. But Mary Floyd went ahead anyway and took out a loan to start a smallholding. Mother of two, deserted by her drug-addict husband, Mary looked set to become dependent on handouts in her home state of Arkansas – the poorest and most extensive region of rural poverty in the USA. Now her life is transformed. She sells the vegetables she grows direct to supermarkets, she’s buying her own house and she’s well on the road to self-sufficiency. Mary is just one of six dramatic, personal stories in this inspiring series about individuals (from Bangladesh, Honduras, India, Nepal and Zimbabwe) who are overcoming poverty, inequality and environmental devastation to turn their communities into places of hope and promise.

10. Health in the City

This innovative portrait of cities is set to the haunting melodies of the Eurhythmics. Subtitles reveal staggering statistics relating to health and urban settlements: by the year 2000, half of the world’s population live in urban settlements…75 per cent of the cities with over five million people are in the developing world. The urban population is growing seven per cent each year…There are 100 million homeless people across the world. Stunning, and frequently shocking images accompany these captions revealing the potentially explosive nature of today’s cities.

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