Arcadia Public Library

A diverse collection of archival footage and interviews of Jean Rouch. Jean Rouch's prolific film career began in French West Africa, where he worked as a civil engineer during World War II, supervising road and bridge construction. Previously, in Paris, he had attended the lectures of Marcel Mauss and Marcel Griaule. In 1946, traveling down the Niger River, Rouch shot his first film with a 16mm Bell and Howell camera, developing an original style...

Donso, a West African hunterman, learns the importance of living in harmony with nature and the necessity of placing humans among, not above, all other living things.

Offers a chronological history of West Africa and provides an overview of the climate, geography, and people of the region.

Sarah's grandpa gives her a special shell and says if she listens carefully she can hear the sea, but all she hears are everyday village noises.

Keita creates a unique world where the West Africa of the 13th Century Sundjata Epic and the West Africa of today co-exist and interpenetrate. Director Dani Kouyatïr's frames his dramatization of the epic within the story of Mabo Keïta, contemporary boy from Burkina Faso, learning the history of his family. During the film, Mabo and his distant ancestor, Sundjata, engage in parallel quests to understand their destinies, to "know the meaning of...

"After Zélie and Amari bring magic back to the land of Orïsha, the monarchy and military unite to keep control of Orïsha, forcing Zélie to fight to secure Amari's right to the throne and protect the new maji from the monarchy's wrath." -- Zélie and Amari have succeeded in bringing magic back to the land of Orïsha, but the ritual was more powerful than they could've imagined. It has reignited the powers of not only the maji, but of nobles with...

In West Africa in 2070, after fifteen-year-old "shadow speaker" Ejii witnesses her father's beheading, she embarks on a dangerous journey across the Sahara to find Jaa, her father's killer, and upon finding her, she also discovers a greater purpose to her life and to the mystical powers she possesses.

Presents an overview of West African culture and provides step-by-step instructions for using simple household materials to make such traditional items as a mask, a coiled pot, block-printed and woven cloths, and a drum.