Directors: Martin Mhando, Ron Mulvihill
Country: Tanzania/USA
Year:2000
Runtime: 112minutes
English and Kiswahili with English Subtitles
Awards: Zanzibar Int'l Film Festival - Grand Prize Golden Dhow Award for Best Feature and Best Actress, Southern African Film Festival of Zimbabwe - Best Actress, San Francisco Black Film Festival - 2nd Place Feature and Black Filmmakers Hall of Fame
Asira, an African-American Doctor journeys to Africa after securing an appointment with the National Institute of Psychiatric Medicine in Bagamoyo, Tanzania. What awaits Asira is beyond anything she had imagined. Against a backdrop of ancestral spirits, Asira must battle sexism, intolerance, and jealousy from staff members at all levels. Odhiambo, the 'country Doctor' whose practices are viewed skeptically among his own staff, is a former colleague of Asira. It is the ready communication in their relationship that breeds contempt and suspicion of Asira's every move. In the midst of the whirlwind are the patients, some maniacally insane, frightened and disturbed, but it is a very special patient, Samehe who terrifies them all. Samehe has not spoken a word during her 20 years at the institution. With Odhiambo's encouragement, Asira increasingly becomes deeply involved in Samehe's case. As Asira delves into Samehe's past, frightening images from her own dormant memory surface. In a dramatic reversal, Samehe then initiates Asira into a strange world of spirits where she finally meets Maangamizi, the Grandmother of all grandmothers. In an arduous journey, from the dark and spirit-steeped forests lining the banks of the Mississippi to the plains and summits of Tanzania, Samehe and Asira discover a surprising, common bond which offers the hope of deliverance. MAANGAMIZI - THE ANCIENT ONE is a unique story that steps out to reclaim the spiritual connection that threads us together as a global community. The fated union of these two women from two different backgrounds and cultures --and yet united by terrifying memories --and the re-emergence of their independent and collective selves through the intervention of the ancestor -- is a powerful meditation on the human psyche in its confrontation with a hostile world.
Principal Cast: BarbaraO, Amandina Lihamba, Waigwa Wachira, Samahani Kejeri, Mary Chibwana
Producer: Jonathan Demme, Quennae Taylor-Mulvihill
Screenplay: Queenae Taylor Mulvihill
Website Link: http://www.grisgrisfilms.com/maangamizi.htm