Best African documentary movies

After years of swimming every day in the freezing ocean at the tip of Africa, Craig Foster meets an unlikely teacher: a young octopus who displays remarkable curiosity. Visiting her den and tracking her movements for months on end he eventually wins the animal’s trust and they develop a never-before-seen bond between human and wild animal.

The Square looks at the hard realities faced day-to-day by people working to build Egypt’s new democracy. Cairo’s Tahrir Square is the heart and soul of the film, which follows several young activists. Armed with values, determination, music, humor, an abundance of social media, and sheer obstinacy, they know that the thorny path to democracy only began with Hosni Mubarak’s fall. The life-and-death struggle between the people and the power of the state is still playing out.

Rescued from poachers, an endangered baby pangolin embarks on a journey back to the wild with help from a devoted human guardian in this documentary.

South African producer / director JON DAY spent the last 5 years making a documentary about the mysterious rap-rave group, DIE ANTWOORD. Art directed by surrealist photographer, ROGER BALLEN. Narrated by NINJA & ¥O-LANDI'S daughter, 16 JONES.

Louis goes to South Africa where American tourists pay to hunt wild animals in privately owned reserves.

As the world races to lead the way in blockchain technology, could Africa have an advantage? This documentary follows the journey of Bitcoin pioneers as the continent seeks to leverage cryptocurrency to leapfrog standing world economic powers.

A portrait of the groundbreaking Moroccan band Nass El Ghiwane, documenting a series of electrifying live performances in Tunisia, Morocco, and France; on the streets of Casablanca; and in intimate conversations. Storytellers through song and traditional instruments, and with connections to political theatre, the band became a local phenomenon and an international sensation, thanks to their rebellious lyrics and sublime, fully acoustic sound, which draws on Berber rhythms, Malhun sung poetry, and Gnawa dances.

“Filmed in the remains of Soweto’s historic Sans Souci Cinema (1948-1998), YOLO is a makeshift structuralist mash-up created in collaboration with the Eat My Dust youth collective from the Kliptown district of Soweto, South Africa. Vibrating with mic checks and sine waves, resonating with an array of pre-roll sound—this is cause and effect shattered again and again, temporarily undone. O humanity, You Only Live Once!”—Ben Russell

In the slums of Cairo, youth dancing to electro chaabi, new music that blends folk song, electro beats and freestyles chanted in the style of rap. The idea is to merge the sounds and styles so chaotic. One slogan mangling! Victim of corruption and social segregation, youth in neighborhoods exorcise partying. Release of body and a speech repressed transgression religious taboos: more than just a musical phenomenon, Electro Chaabi is a healthy outlet for youth oppressed by the prohibitions imposed.

DramaConsult a film by Dorothee Wenner DramaConsult has initiated an ethnographic expedition from Africa to Europe. The protagonists are real life businessmen from Lagos: A spare parts dealer, a real estate developer and a young shoe manufacturer with high-flying plans. Accompanied by two smart business consultants, the group travels to Germany to link up with potential partners and investors. The film tracks the process of economic intervention as an adventure trip in the era of globalization.

Two halves split by the perseverance of a scorpion. Come on, feet.

TITANIC: THE SHOCKING TRUTH explores the conspiracy theory that the Titanic never sank to the bottom of the Atlantic/. Evidence is documented to support the theory that the Titanic and her sister ship, the Olympic were swapped and the weakened Olympic tragically sank. Were White Star Line and the British government responsible for possibly one of the greatest frauds and sea tragedies in living history?

Raised in an environment where socialism and the pursuit of justice in Egypt were central, the filmmaker navigates through mixed emotions—pride, burden, and alienation—stemming from his and his parents' intense activist lives. His journey to trace back his family's history highlights the substantial emotional and psychological toll this activism took the thee of them.

In search of a subject for their film, a group of directors ask passers-by about their expectations of Moroccan cinema in the streets and bars of Casablanca.

In Rod El Farag, one of the poorest residential areas in Cairo, obtaining meat, fruit and daily bread is a constant struggle. But the sense of community shared by the inhabitants there helps them to some extent overcome their hardships through a social practice known as ‘al Gami’ya’, or ‘the assembly’.

This documentary explores Nigeria's cultural practice of marking, including its origins and meaning as a symbol of identity, beauty and spirituality.

Documentarian Nejib Belkadhi trails amateur Tunisian filmmaker Moncef Kahloucha as he makes his latest feature, Tarzan of the Arabs.

The movie is a collection of episodes from the series "The Choice 2", Ramadan 2021, where the series deals with the heroism of the Egyptian policemen in the face of the dangers that the country was exposed to after the fall of the terrorist Brotherhood in 2013, with a focus on the events of the Rabaa sit-in dispersal, and the events of Kerdasa

Alatha's father calls himself a Mover. Using African dance moves, he helps kids in Khayelitsha township to transcend their hardship (drugs, poverty and abuse) and "find their superpowers." The Mover is also a single father. And while he has helped many kids, he still has difficulty getting his own daughter to find her own powers. But in a tender moment together, this is all about to change.

More than two years after the sudden death of Michael Glawogger in April 2014, film editor Monika Willi realizes a film out of the film footage produced during 4 months and 19 days of shooting in the Balkans, Italy, Northwest and West Africa. A journey into the world to observe, listen and experience, the eye attentive, courageous and raw. Serendipity is the concept - in shooting as well as in editing the film.

Boniface Mwangi is daring and audacious, and recognized as Kenya’s most provocative photojournalist. But as a father of three young children, these qualities create tremendous turmoil between him and his wife Njeri. When he wants to run for political office, he is forced to choose: country or family?

The story of several young women living on the streets of Cairo.

On a handmade set re-creating her Casablanca neighborhood, a young Moroccan filmmaker enlists family and friends to help unearth the troubling lies built into her childhood.

Fajr is a famous temptation star, and the heroine of the first feature film of a young director. She rejects the kissing scene in the film, which provokes the director and the producer, and everyone tries to reach common ground to complete the film and get out of this dilemma.

This film reveals some of Madagascar's secretive and rarely filmed inhabitants, from the apex predator, the fossa, to the aye aye – possibly the weirdest creature on earth.

Since its debut in 1994, Nigeria has qualified for six of the eight FIFA World Cup tournaments, reaching the last 16 on three occasions. They are three-time Africa Cup of Nations winners. And they have placed fifth in FIFA rankings – the highest position achieved by an African team. It’s no surprise, then, that they are affectionately known as the Super Eagles. Bamiro’s fascinating documentary not only details how the team grew in stature, it locates them within the country’s politically turbulent recent history – through the various coups, the imprisonment and execution of writer and activist Ken Saro-Wiwa and many others, and the corporate scandals resulting from widespread pollution. It successfully balances profiles of those involved in the team’s success with figures who have fought to better life across the whole of the country.

Is it possible to look into the future? Does mind over matter really exist? What is true about psychic healing? Is remote viewing real? Where is the boundary between real magical powers and fraud? Find out what scientists have to say.

Amidst a blood shortage crisis in Nigeria, a motorcycle delivery rider carries precious blood to hospitals while trying to ensure he can reach critical patients in time.

Explores the daily life and work of children in Abnoud, a rural village located 600 kilometres to the south of Cairo, where the trains that carry the tourists to the south of Egypt pass through without stopping. A boy outsmarts the meagerness of his circumstances by dripping goat’s milk on a piece of stale bread and turning it into a special sandwich.

Motivated by the public rape of her best friend in the streets of Cairo, the Director uses her camera as her weapon against sexual harassment and embarks on a journey of self-awakening as she confronts her own haunting past.

Between the Rains is a coming-of-age story of Kolei, a shepherd boy whose name translates to “living amongst the goats.” Unfolding over the course of a prolonged drought, viewers are pressed deeper into Kolei’s inner conflict as he questions not only his own identity as a warrior — a path that was chosen for him —but also the erosion of the culture that has shaped every aspect of his life. For Kolei, becoming a warrior not only shapes masculinity and personal identity, but it is also the very foundation on which this community and society root their lives. It is a sacred, guiding pillar.

In the Moroccan desert night dilutes forms and silence slides through sand. Dawn starts then to draw silhouettes of dunes while motionless figures punctuate landscape. From night´s abstraction, light returns its dimension to space and their volume to bodies. Stillness concentrates gaze and duration densify it. The adhan -muslim call to pray- sounds and immobility, that was condensing, begins to irradiate. And now the bodies are those which dissolves into the desert.

Coelacanth (SEEL-uh-kanth): a large fish with limblike fins, armored scales and a tail that no other living fish possesses. This prehistoric fish was thought to have died out with the dinosaurs in the great extinction. It has laid hidden deep in our oceans undisturbed and undetected for 70 million years—a true living fossil. The coelacanth is thought to be related to the creatures that grew legs, breathed air and came ashore nearly 400 million years ago.

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.

Milking the Rhino is a 2009 documentary film that examines the relationship between the indigenous African wildlife, the villagers who live amongst this wildlife and conservationists who look to keep tourism dollars coming in. Both the Massai of Kenya and the Ovahimba of Namibia have spent centuries as cattle farmers. With their lands being turned into protected game reserves, these ancient tribes have turned to tourism as a means of survival. While some environmentalists think that community-based conservation is ideal for these villagers, the dangers of drought and the starvation of their cattle remains a constant reality.

Don't Forget Me follows three Moroccan families with children on the autism spectrum whose parents are struggling to teach them without any help from the government. Autistic kids in Morocco do not have a right to go to school, and when parents are able to find a classroom where their child is accepted, it is up to them to pay for it. The documentary was inspired by Jackie Spinner's two sons she adopted from Morocco when they were infants. The boys also are autistic and now living in the United States. Spinner, a journalist and former Baghdad bureau chief for The Washington Post, returned to Morocco with her sons in 2017 essentially to answer the question: What might have happened if they had stayed?

Coming from every parts of Africa, runs a river of men and women prepared to cross entire continents, pursuing a life that is denied to those that live in the periphery.

The story of the people of the Blue Nile and Nuba Mountains in Sudan, showing how they deal with civil war. Traditionally music has always been part of daily life in these areas, but now, it has a new role in a society challenge by war.

After seeing a grainy video of what is supposed to be an apparition of the Virgin Mary, Abdel Messeh sets out to make a documentary about belief, family and religion, much to the disapproval of his mother.

Roca Partida looks little more than a rocky outcrop inhabited by seabirds. But below the waterline, the steep mountainous walls are surrounded by the greatest concentrations of fish of any reef in the world.

For centuries, indigenous people have lived sustainably while resisting invaders on South Africa's Wild Coast. In this documentary about a David and Goliath court-case struggle against Shell, these communities succeeded in halting oil and gas exploration, winning ongoing protection for their ocean and culture.

On April 14, 2014, the sleepy agrarian town of Chibok, in the North East zone of Nigeria, was thrust into the global spotlight when the terrorist group Boko Haram stormed the community at night and abducted 276 teenage schoolgirls from their dormitories. Daughters of Chibok deals with the aftermath of the kidnappings, and explores topical global issues of gender rights and the right to education.

Meet Ousmane Sembene, the African freedom fighter who used stories as his weapon.

The effects of cancer and its subsequent treatments on an individual, and his family.

A documentary series chronicling the life of egyptian director Youssef Chahine.

As the largest living terrestrial mammals, elephants are usually considered as survivors under even the most dire climatic conditions. But all too often, these majestic giants are killed illegally for their ivory tusks. So, every dead full-grown elephant, whose carcass or skeleton is found with the tusks still in it, is a symbol of paradise – an elephant allowed to die of natural causes instead of bullets, snares or poison.

Ifeoma Fafunwa, Mrs. F., takes up the challenge of staging her play HEAR WORD! about the abuse of women in male-dominated Makoko, a slum with houses on stilts in the lagoon of Lagos. Besides the original cast of Nigeria’s most acclaimed actresses, Ifeoma will cast young women in Makoko who are subject to the same fate as many of the women in Nigeria. Ifeoma connects with them through her personal struggle with her background. Can Ifeoma set a transformation in motion in the heart of the fastest growing city in the world that breaks with the silence culture in Nigeria?

Tapi! is a short documentary that explores a formative moment in the life of Kenyan ritual healer Jackson, one of the last practitioners of the ritual healing practice called utapishi ('tapi'). The leaders of the local Christian church are not happy with the influence of the ritual and decide to go to court. Jackson pushes back against the threat of tapi's prohibition by local Christian church movements who seem to be determined to erase the complex history of a people.

A searing and timely look at the struggle against rampant discrimination in Nigeria today, as seen through the lens of several bold and charismatic, non-conformist youth who fight to live life out loud. Through social media, celebrity and creative expression, they spark a cultural debate that challenges the ideals of gender conformity and human rights in Nigeria.

In the Kenyan bush, a crackdown on ivory poaching forces a silver-tongued second-generation poacher to seek out an unlikely ally in this fly-on-the-wall look at both sides of the conservation divide.

For twenty-three years, five western nations, members of the Soviet bloc and two superpowers were locked into a war never formally declared. It all began in 1966. Once the Draft started, every able-bodied white South African male was called up for service.

Enock is six years old when he is taken to a Confucian Buddhist orphanage and given the Chinese name Alu. He becomes extremely skilled in acrobatics. Suddenly he must make a choice to reunite with the culture of Africa or to sign up for five years in order to study in Taiwan.

The stakes escalate in a longstanding conflict between Indigenous pastoralists and white landowners in Laikipia, Kenya, as unresolved historical injustices and the impact of climate change come to the forefront.

In a household where meal times are a delightful feast full of bonding, fellowship and good eating, 3 members of this tight-knit family are diagnosed with Diabetes Mellitus.

25-year-old Ghofrane dreams of becoming a politician and having an influence on the future of Tunisia. As a young black woman from the working class, it is a dream that requires stamina – and she has plenty of it. Raja Amari’s film follows her up to the election in 2019 when she is on the streets to gather votes and give especially young people renewed faith in democracy in a polarised society plagued by racism and inequality. A smaller film might turn a blind eye on realism in favour of a good story, but here both Ghofrane nor Amari are aware of the exhausting struggles that have to be overcome before she can bring about the change she so fervently longs to see happening. An inspiring film about a true idealist and a rich image of a society full of contrasts.

Hippos and crocs have lived side by side for millennia, but are they cozy bedfellows or arch-enemies? One is a hefty herbivore, the other is the most successful freshwater predator on the planet, so how do they manage to survive together in the same habitat? They each have a unique arsenal of attributes honed by centuries of evolution; muscle power, bite force and ferocious dentition give them the edge in their environment. But once a year, their peaceful semi-aquatic existence turns into a battle for survival.

A documentary that captures fragments of the lives of the Egyptian Jewish community in the first half of the twentieth century until their second grand exodus after the tripartite attack of 1956. An attempt to understand the change in the identity of the Egyptian society that turned from a society full of tolerance and acceptance of one another to a rejection of the minorities. How did the Jews of Egypt turn in the eyes of Egyptians from partners in the same country to enemies?

Jerusalem: Center of the World tells the epic story of the world s most incredible city, capturing the rich mosaic of the city s Christian, Jewish and Muslim communities. Covering a sweeping history of over 4,000 years, the film explores the founding of the city; the birth and convergence of the world s three major monotheistic religions; and the key events in Jerusalem s history as described in the Hebrew and Christian Bibles, the Talmud, the Hagaddah, the Koran, and the Hadith. Highlights include: Mount Moriah, the site of the First and Second Temples; the Church of the Holy Sepulcher; the Dome of the Rock; and the Western Wall. Directed by Andrew Goldberg, and hosted by Ray Suarez (The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer), the film includes interviews with locals, top scholars and clergy.

When two friends collect money for the so-called "suffering in America" in the streets of Accra, is it for fun, political provocation, or a prophecy? Two Swiss filmmakers will answer these questions with the help of seven musicians from Ghana-M3NSA, Wanlov The Kubolor, Adomaa, Worlasi, Akan, Mutombo Da Poet, and Poetra Asantewa-who have written new songs and produced video clips especially for the documentary film Contradict.

Egypt’s Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities has reported that 22 royal mummies will be transferred in a wonderful parade from their present location in the Egyptian Museum in Tahrir Square to their new permanent place in Fustat’s National Museum of Egyptian Civilization, which is located near the Babylon Fortress and overlooks Ain Al Sira in the heart of the historic city of Fustat. This event will take place in Cairo on the 3rd of April. The announcement was made in an official statement, which noted that the parade will start at 6 PM on Saturday and will contain 22 mummies that belong to between the seventeenth and twentieth dynasties. Valley of the Kings, the area of southern Egypt hosting their original tombs.

The construction of the Aswan dam as seen by those who took part in it: engineers, workers, Egyptians, and Soviets.

The thrilling reality of an autistic and blind boy who accepts life with a smile.

The wastelands and crowded streets of an African country are traversed by a woman bearing a wooden cross on her back. She is followed by sellers, beggars and passersby, outraged voices, pity and curious glances. Parallel to her, among a herd of sheep, a lamb toddles its way from the far away mountains into the heart of the city, only to find itself dangling, skinned and headless, on a butcher’s shoulder. In the meantime, under the scorching sun, in a roofless house, a woman is persistently knitting a garment, unwinding a thread coiled over her son’s face. ‘Mother, I Am Suffocating. This is My Last Film About You’ is a symbolic social-political voyage of a society, spiralling between religion, identity and collective memory. “I saw in you what they saw, mother. You deserve your war”.

Chronicling the creative process, intimate collaborations and the fascinating characters behind Africa Express' EGOLI album, recorded in one week in Johannesburg South Africa in 2018 with BCUC, BLK JKS, Blue May, Damon Albarn, DJ Spoko, Dominowe, Faka, Georgia, Ghetts, Gruff Rhys, Infamous Boiz, Mr Jukes, The Mahotella Queens, Moonchild Sanelly, Morena Leraba, Muzi, Nick Zinner, Nonku Phiri, Otim Alpha, Phuzekhemisi, Poté, Remi Kabaka Jr, Sibot and Zolani Mahola.

In 2011, the villagers of Imider shut down a water pipeline to Africa's biggest silver mine to save their oasis. Eight years later, they sing while harvesting the fruits of their militancy.

Filmed over six years, Mother City follows the David versus Goliath battle as activists and domestic workers take on property power and politics in Cape Town – a city still disfigured by spatial apartheid 30 years into democracy. The story begins when the government sells a school, meant for affordable housing, to a private developer. Set against the backdrop of one of the most beautiful cities in the world, this intimate and at times funny narrative documentary charts Nkosikhona (Face) Swartbooi leading a defiant war against government and property developers – on the streets, in the supreme court and in parliament.