aya catalogue 2014-2015

2014 Catalogue

About us Aya Distribution is an international sales and distribution company with a particular focus on African cinema. We distribute pioneering titles that excite curious minds, inspire imagination, and even change how people see the world.

Our unique catalogue is comprised of award-winning feature films and documentaries from Africa, Europe and the US. Our sales and distribution arm works hard to distribute these titles across a variety of different platforms; including cinemas, DVD distributors, television broadcasters, video on demand platforms and in-flight entertainment channels.

Mission• To work with partner organizations to acquire and distribute the latest African productions

• To help filmmakers exhibit their work in cinemas around the world, on in-flight entertainment channels, through DVD release and international television.

African Gothic Gabriel Bologna | South Africa 2014 | 90 mins | Feature fiction

After witnessing a horrific crime, a couple tries to bury their traumatic past by constantly reenacting it. When an outsider pays them a visit he gets caught up in their twisted game. They will stop at nothing to keep their secret safe. Set in Apartheid South Africa, African Gothic is a screen adaptation of the famous Afrikaaner playwright Reza de Wet's "Diepe Grond".

Rights available: Worldwide

Algiers Murders Faith Isiakpere | South Africa 2011 | 120m | Feature fiction

This dark narcotics thriller is set against the violent background of the amphetamine and cocaine trade. Based on a series of police instigated killings that took place in New Orleans in 1980, The Algiers Murders is a relentless narrative of power, manipulation, murder, corruption and degradation. In a world turned sour and sordid by tarnished ideals, one man is on a quest for redemption and justice. With a strong local and international cast, this highly entertaining crime drama is set in a city of many nationalities and accents, driving home the point that it could be anywhere.


Beatrice Mtetwa and the Rule of LawLorie Conway | 2013 Zimbabwe / USA | 56m | English | Documentary

Beatrice Mtetwa and the Rule of Law features one of the bravest lawyers in Africa, Beatrice Mtetwa in Zimbabwe. In spite of beatings by police, she has courageously defended in court those jailed by the Mugabe government - peace activists, journalists, opposition candidates, farmers that had their land confiscated, ordinary citizens that had the courage to speak up.


Beti and AmareAndy Siege | Ethiopia/Germany 2013 | 1h34m | Amharic with English subtitles | Feature Fiction

To celebrate Halloween African style, this unique, strangely engaging and genre-blurring film is part fantasy sci-fi, part historical romantic drama. Set in 1936 in an Ethiopia disrupted by World War II, it follows Beti, a young Ethiopian girl who flees Mussolini’s troops to the more peaceful south of the country. As the enemy moves closer and her situation reaches a crisis, an unexpected arrival from the sky irrevocably changes the course of her existence. Alternating between dreamlike and nightmarish, this low-budget but innovative film makes stunning use of landscape and powerful imagery for an intensely visual experience.


Jogo De Corpo (Body Games)Richard Pakleppa | Brazil/Angola 2014| 1h27m | Portuguese with English subtitles | Documentary

This film presents a sensual tapestry of combat games from both sides of the Atlantic, a story driven by a need of Mestre Cobra Mansa’s to understand the ancestry of the art form, Capoeira, as part of a wider concern with his Afro-Brazilian heritage. The search for roots starts in Rio where, as a 12-year-old street child Cobra found survival and self-esteem in the games of Capoeira. Through him we discover a story of combat games, dances and music that connect Brazil and Africa from the time of slavery to today.


Hear Me MoveScottnes L. Smith | South Africa 2014 | 1h30m | Feature Fiction

The endearing and highly entertaining Hear Me Move tells the story of Muzi, the son of an amazing pantsula dancer, who embarks on a journey of self-discovery in order to learn the truth about his father’s death and come to terms with his own identity. But will Muzi embrace his destiny and become the man he is meant to be? Hear Me Move is an exciting new South African feature film, creating a local challenge to a genre that includes such well-loved films as Fame and Step Up.

Rights available: Worldwide (Excluding Africa)

Milking the RhinoDavid E. Simpson | Kenya 2009 | 85mins | Documentary

A ferocious kill on the Serengeti...warnings about endangered species...these cliches of nature documentaries disregard a key part of the landscape: villagers just off-camera who navigate the dangers and costs of living with wildlife. Africa is emerging from a history of "white man conservation" that displaced indigenous people, banned subsistence hunting, and fueled resentment. Now, a revolution in grass-roots wildlife conservation is turning poachers into protectors. But change doesn't come easy. With memorable characters and spectacular locations, Milking the Rhino tells joyful, penetrating and heartbreaking stories from Kenya and Namibia—revealing the high stakes obstacles facing Community Conservation today.

Rights available: Africa only

Kassim The DreamKief Davidson | Uganda 2008 | 86mins | Documentary

Ugandan born American boxer Kassim "The Dream" Ouma has lived a harsh and unbelievable life. At six, Kassim was abducted and turned into a child soldier, forced to experience and perpetrate violent atrocities. Finally fleeing Uganda and training as a boxer in the U.S., he has become the Junior Middleweight Champion of the World. In Kief Davidson's insightful and beautifully shot documentary, Kassim simultaneously prepares to return to Uganda, in the face of a possible death penalty for desertion, to reunite with his family and to win his hardest fight yet, a bout with the Middleweight Champion of the World. Kassim, despite his cruel childhood, is amazingly kind and jovial with his family, friends, competitors, fans and the frightening figures of his childhood.


Pray the Devil Back to Hell Gini Reticker | Liberia 2008 | 72mins | Documentary

Pray the Devil Back to Hell is the gripping account of a group of brave and visionary women who demanded peace for Liberia, a nation torn to shreds by a decades old civil war. The women’s historic, yet unsung achievement finds voice in a narrative that intersperses contemporary interviews, archival images, and scenes of present day Liberia together to recount the experiences and memories of the women who were instrumental in bringing lasting peace to their country.


Otelo BurningSara Blecher | South Africa 2011 | 96m | Zulu with English subtitles Shot in Durban and directed by Sara Blecher (Surfing Soweto), the film tells the story of a group of township kids who discover the joy of surfing. It's set in 1989, against a backdrop of brewing conflict between two political groups in Lamontville. When 16-year-old Otelo Buthelezi takes to the water for the first time, it's clear that he was born to surf. But then tragedy strikes. On the day that Nelson Mandela is released from prison, Otelo is forced to choose between surfing success and justice. This is a beautifully made, insightful and entertaining film that captures a turbulent time in the history of South Africa.

Rights available: Worldwide (excluding Africa)

Taste of RainRichard Pakleppa | Namibia 2012 | English / Afrikaans / Nama | 82 mins | Fiction Feature

Set on a farm in the unforgiving Namibian desert, this film is a poetic exploration of one woman’s journey through drought, loss and love to healing. As the sun burns away her land and her life following a seven-year drought, her future seems destined until an unexpected fork in the road causes her to question everything she has come to expect from her life. As her husband leaves the farm in search of water, a water diviner unexpectedly arrives, bringing new life to the farm. But this beautiful stranger, having fought as a guerilla soldier for the liberation of Namibia, is also plagued with the scars from his own past.


Sons of CubaAndrew Lang | Cuba 2010 | 88mins | Documentary

The legendary Havana Boxing Academy is a boarding school that takes 9 year old boys and turns them into the best boxers in the world. Sons of Cuba follows the stories of three young hopefuls through 8 dramatic months of training and education as they prepare for the biggest event of their lives so far: Cuba’s National Boxing Championship for Under-12s. But during the season, crisis strikes: Fidel Castro is taken ill, and all of Cuba’s Olympic boxing champions defect to the USA. As the championship draws closer, all that the Cuba boys have been taught to believe in is at a historic crossroads.


White Shadow Noaz Deshe | Tanzania/Germany 2013 | 1h57m | Swahili with English subtitles | Fiction Feature

Since 2007 it has become known that albinos in Tanzania, Congo and Kenya have become a commodity – human targets of a lucrative and sinister trade. Witch doctors offer thousands of dollars for albino body parts that are believed to bring good fortune, prosperity and the ability to cure any illness. White Shadow follows the story of Alias, a young albino boy, on the run. After witnessing his father’s murder, his mother sends him away to find refuge in the city, but he soon discovers that wherever he travels the same rules of survival apply. This thought-provoking and beautiful film addresses a little-known topic in a luminous and poignant way.

Rights available: UK and Africa only

ToubaChai Vasarhelyi | Senegal 2013 | Wolof and French with English subtitles | 83mins | Documentary

With unprecedented access, Touba reveals a different face of Islam, one which is so essential to these divisive times. The film chronicles the annual Grand Magaal pilgrimage of one million Sufi Muslims to the holy Senegalese city of Touba. This dynamic and immersive observational film takes us inside the Mouride Brotherhood--one of West Africa’s most elusive organisations and one of the world’s largest Sufi communities.

Rights available: UK and Africa only

Partnerships Africa in Motion Film Festival: Africa in Motion (AiM) is an annual African film festival-taking place in Edinburgh and Glasgow, now in its eighth year, comprising of film screenings and complementary events. We have partnered with Africa in Motion Film Festival in order to keep up to date with the latest African film productions and developments. We will be working with them to form partnerships with filmmakers and put on screenings and events throughout the year. We will also use the festival as a platform to promote our DVD sales amongst new audiences in Scotland, the UK and further afield.

Ro*Co Films: Aya Distribution regards films as more than mere entertainment and strives to acquire films with a moral or political conscious. Due to this shared vision we have joined forces with leading LA based company Ro*Co Films to assist with the African distribution of their unique catalogue of films, such as Oscar winning documentary Hoop Dreams, Pray the Devil Back to Hell and Kassim the Dream.

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[email protected] www.ayadistribution.org Aya Distribution, Room 1, Suite 23, Templeton House, 62 Templeton Street, Bridgeton, Glasgow G40 1DATel: (+44) (0) 7971740678 Aya Distribution CIC is a registered Community Interest Company in England and Wales- No. 7753250

aya catalogue 2014-2015

Documents