For my Primary Research I want to find out if African films relate to Western audiences without alienating them with language and cultural boundaires. For this, I will need to screen at least two African films to a Western audience, hopefully of different ages and education to get a better overall result. I will then conduct personal interviews with each person as well as a final focus group discussion to gather overall ideas. I will record my findings by hand, and possibly record the interviews.
The two films I will be screening are :
'Tsotsi'
Director: Gavin Hood
Release Date: August 2005
Plot Summary: In Johannesburg, the small time criminal Tsotsi is a teenager without feelings, hardened by his tough life. After killing a man with his gang in a robbery; hitting the gangster Boston of his gang; humiliating a crippled beggar along one night, Tsotsi hijacks a car and under the despair of a woman, he shoots her in the stomach. While driving the car, Tsotsi finds that there is a baby on the back seat and the woman was a desperate mother. He brings the baby to his house in the slum and becomes attached to him. For six days, the baby changes his behavior, arousing and developing the sense of empathy and humanity in the cold blood killer.
'Yaaba'
Director: Idrissa Ouedraogo
Release Date: October 1989
Plot Summary: A small african village. The story focuses on Bila, a ten year old boy who befriends an old woman, Sana. Everybody calls her 'Witch' but Bila himself calls her 'Yaaba' (grandmother). When Bilas cousin Nopoko gets sick it is Sana's medicine who rescues her.
