Our World in Zanzibar
(Florence Ayisi , 2007, 35’)
Synopsis
Our World in Zanzibar is an exposé about women’s migration. It unveils the personal accounts of foreign women living in Zanzibar, Tanzania. Through workshops, candid discussions, in-depth interviews and staged performances, this documentary film presents the micro worlds of women from the USA, The Netherlands, Peru/Spain and England. Why have they journeyed to Africa? What are they escaping from? What made these women to leave their comfortable lifestyles in the West? Is this ‘reverse migration’ from the wealthy West to a continent consistently represented as a place of perpetual poverty, and disease permanent or transitory? The women share intimate stories about why they left their homelands. What can Africa, supposedly the poorest continent, offer women from the wealthy West? What are they searching for? Is this Island on the Indian Ocean a place for the women to live their dreams? One woman says here in Zanzibar “I can be a big fish in a little pond.”
Festival Screenings Highlights
Chapter Arts Cinema, Cardiff, Wales, U.K.
Cambridge African Film Festival, U.K.
The New Face of Africa Film Series (SLC Film Center), Utah, USA
Africa Diaspora Film Festival, (ADFF), New York, USA
Zanzibar International Film Festival, (ZIFF)