Films

The African Library’s film collection consists of more than 2500 DVDs. It focuses mainly on films made by African filmmakers, but also includes films and documentaries made by non-Africans. A number of the films have been screened at the Africa in the Picture Festival in Amsterdam (discontinued as of 2013) - the festival’s archives are held at the African Library.

All films are listed in the library’s online catalogue and can be searched according to title, director or subject. Refine your results by selecting resource type ‘Videos’ to the left after a simple search, or limit your advanced search by ‘material type’. For all the African Library's films, click here (subject heading videos (form)).

Most films can be borrowed by the public. An external DVD-Drive can be borrowed for one week. Those films that cannot be loaned for copyright reasons can be viewed in the library.

Increasingly, the African Library gives access to online films, accessible to staff and students of Leiden University. Films made in Togo, Mali and Burkina Faso between 1973 and 2009 by Emile van Rouveroy van Nieuwaal are available via Wikimedia Commons. Trailers or complete films about Africa can also be found via the ASCL YouTube Channel.

For more films on Africa, consult the following databases available via the catalogue of Leiden University Libraries:

Ethnographic Video Online offers more than 750 hours of classic and contemporary documentaries (restricted access)
Current Affairs in Video features films and documentaries on global events and trends. It contains 500 hours of content (restricted access)

The African Library also has more than 500 publications (books, periodicals and articles) on African cinema.

Films in the ASCL collection by country:

Posted on 28 November 2011, last modified on 10 July 2025

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Films