Here’s my latest list of new films with African topics. From now on I’ll number them. So this is N°1.  My plan is to become more systematic and regular about it and drop a list of 10 at a time. I also hope to do it once a week. (If I can’t, I am hoping Basia will pick up the slack.) First up, is “The Ambassador” classed as a documentary film by Danish comedian/film director Mads Brügger as a fake European ambassador in central Africa. I recently watched his last film, “The Red Chapel”, on Netflix. It is a rambling trickster movie where Brügger and two disabled actors of South Korean descent (adopted by Danish parents) travel to North Korea in an attempt to outwit his hosts’ censors. The result is tedium, driven by his droll delivery style. In the end, I was less interested in Brügger’s antics (even his two co-conspirators tire of him), so I am not sure what to make of this new project. Here’s the trailer:

“e’Lollipop” (1975) was an Apartheid teenage buddy movie between two boys, one black and one white. The sort of thing that did well with Apartheid’s censors. Now there’s a sort of sequel focusing on what happened to the black lead in real life:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SmZoXUADnrM

Nelson George, who directed “Brooklyn Boheme” (which I found underwhelming after all the hype), has a new film. “Migrations” is about ‘The Liberators,’ a group of thieves who steal African art from European museums and galleries (locations include Paris, Berlin and New York City) to return it to the continent. The film stars Tigist Selam and Saul Williams. Chris Rock has a cameo:

Then there’s “London River” about a Senegalese immigrant living in France whose son died in the July 7, 2o05 bombings in London:

The trailer for “Fishing Without Nets”, a film about Somali pirates, that made it into Sundance 2012 Shorts Program earlier this year:

The trailer for “African Cowboy” by Rodney Charles. “A Namibian cowboy is beaten and left for dead in the vast desert, after standing up to a trans-national posse of brutal land-grabbers. However, things change when he’s rescued by a mysterious gun-slinger with reasons of his own to get even with the posse” (via Shadow and Act):

http://vimeo.com/33554565

Also, via Tambay of Shadow and Act, comes the teaser for the 25 minute Samurai short, “Hasaki Ya Suda” by French-Burkinabe filmmaker Cedric Ido, which joins other continental films with a sci-fi bent like “Pumzi” and Teboho Mahlatsi’s “Meokgo and the Stickfighter”:

http://youtu.be/S9IHKtk187w

The little older “Mystery of Birds” with its tale of Nigerian immigrant resilience in the United States:

“Kenya Boys”, a documentary about four young men trying to make it onto that country’s TV version of “America’s Best Dance Crew”:

Finally, a teaser for “Down” by South African filmmaker Lev David:

http://vimeo.com/31473409