Inspired by the Africa Reading challenge, which asks internet users all over the world to read books with an African thematic and review them online in a quest to compile a list of the most interesting books with an African content I’m launching today the African Movie Challenge. The purpose of this project is simple: to make a list of the most interesting movies with an African theme, write about them and inspire and inform people with respect to African movies.

We live in a perverse world in which movies without a famous director or cast are doomed to remain unknown to the West. Beat the Drum, one of the most interesting movies of 2003 hasn’t been casted in any American cinemas because the director was not famous enough for the cinema directors. Despite that, the movie rivals Hotel Rwanda, Blood Diamonds or Constant Gardener in storyline, message, and artistic expression. There are thousands of Africa-related movies that will never be watched in the West if no practical step towards advertising them is taken. I’m taking that step today and hope that with your help I will pile a list of the most inspiring and interesting African movies. With time, I will post various tops divided by genre, regions or themes that will help users have more informed decisions with respect to the Africa-related movies they want to watch.

I am interested in any movies, documentaries or short movies with an African content. Independent movie reviews are more than welcomed if not strongly desired.

Some ground rules:

1. The basic rule of this challenge is that you watch a movie that takes place in Africa, deals with African issues, is written by an African play writer, or talks about Africa.

2. If you’re a blogger or journalist write a review about the movie you watched, set a trackback to this page and post a comment either on this page or in the “Discover African Movies” section of this blog. I will update that section every time I watch and review a movie about Africa.

3. If you don’t have a blog, please email me the review at csarsene at gmail dot com and I will post the review with your credentials in the Discover African Movies section.

4. Submit only 1 review per movie.

5. Provide details to support why you enjoyed or disliked the movie. I always answer the following question at the end of my reviews and I urge you to do the same: “Why watch the movie?”

6. Don’t ruin the fun of the viewers by revealing endings or key plot developments.

7. Compare the movie to other similar movies.

8. If you watched a significant amount of African movies, make a Top ten African Movies list or “African Movies you want to watch” list  and post the link on this page.

9. If you choose to be a part of this challenge and write about more than one movie I will include your name in an “Africa Movie Challenge” review team. This way, users will be invited to visit your site in search for more details about other movies.

10. Contact me if you have any questions or concerns at the above mentioned email address.

To many Westerners, Africa is a place (or even a country!!!) with no history, culture, or inherent traditions. The most famous Africa-related movies have to do with violent crimes (Tsotsi), the West taking advantage of Africa (Blood diamonds, Constant Gardener) or wars and brutality (Hotel Rwanda, Cry Freedom.) While these violent events are a part of Africa’s recent history, they don’t define it. There are plenty of other movies that can give an uninformed Western viewer a more nuanced idea of Africa, or more specifically, parts of Africa that he/she could get interested in. And there are certainly thousands of movies one can choose from.

With the help of this page, those movies will soon be gathered together on a website that can be used as a starting point to a fascinating visual journey through Africa’s past, present and future.