Two short documentaries about history and identity, in South Africa and Ghana.
Claudia Snyman is a language researcher trying to save the N/UU language from extinction. She is creating a dictionary with her grandmother, Katrina Esau, who is the last living fluent speaker of this ancient San, or Bushman, language, believed to be 25,000 years old. Claudia is determined that N/UU, once oppressed and derided in colonial times, will come back into use. She painstakingly records the clicks, sounds and words from her grandmother’s memory, and teaches her own children, to keep the spoken language alive. ‘The Last Speaker’ by filmmaker Nadine Angel Cloete, celebrates a disappearing tongue, the proud Bushman identity of Claudia and her grandmother and a deep personal relationship across the generations.
Ibrahim Mahama is an internationally acclaimed artist in Ghana, known for his monumental installations. In ‘Studio Of Archives’ by filmmaker Benjamin Kent, we follow him at work, collecting artefacts and textiles for his installations, which explore the significance of historical memory through everyday objects. Ibrahim lives and works in his Red Clay studio in Tamale, Ghana. It’s a treasure trove of relics, from small domestic items to a collection of huge abandoned aircraft, where visitors can explore their history through these installations. He’s built this studio archive as a place for new conversations about the past, and new imaginations for the future, for young and old alike.
