Me Broni Ba (My White Baby). 2009. Ghana/USA. Directed by Akosua Adoma Owus. Written by Owusu, from a story by Adwoa Adu-Gyamfi. DCP. In Akan, English; English subtitles. 22 min.
Touki Bouki. 1973. Senegal. Written and directed by Djibril Diop Mambéty. With Magaye Niang, Mareme Niang. DCP. In Wolof; English subtitles. 88 min.
Disillusioned with life in Senegal, a young couple yearn to move to glamorous Paris—as sung by Josephine Baker—and living the life of their dreams. As they embark on a Bonnie and Clyde–esque adventure to secure funds for the trip, they must face the divide between reality and fantasy. Influenced by the youthful spirit and aesthetics of the French New Wave and by African oral traditions, Djibril Diop Mambéty’s Touki Bouki is infused with an outstanding visual and sonic palette that playfully stresses the cultural confluences, ambivalences, and divides between Western Africa and Europe, along with concepts of tradition, modernity, and colonial heritage. In Me Broni Ba, Akosua Adoma Owusu evokes the legacy of European colonialism with a portrait of hairdressers in Ghana who practice hair braiding on white baby dolls, while a young woman shares memories of her immigration from Ghana to the US.