Kenyan author and half sister to US president Barack Obama will have her documentary open Zimbabwe’s International Images Film Festival (IIFF) today, in Harare.
Auma Obama’s documentary titled the Education of Auma Obama, tells her tale of during the run up to the 2008 US Presidential elections that brought her brother Obama to power. It was shot on location in Kenya, England and Germany.
According to a review by Variety Magazine, Auma’s tale begins with mother Kezia, who recalls her 1965 meeting with her eventual husband, Barack. Reportedly he was a tough taskmaster, but provided a standard of living above those of most neighbors.
Auma’s viewpoint on her father’s departure to America, and the new life he made for himself, is colored with pain, but the separation was eventually healed with her half-brother’s Kenyan visit (shown in some lovely homemade footage of a younger Obama, later revisiting with wife Michelle).
Auma’s university years in Heidelberg and eventual teaching career proved to be personal triumphs, making pic a positive study in female African achievement.
IIFF engages, interrogates and inspires positive images of women and women’s narratives through film screenings. The 2012 IIFF is themed ‘Women Alive’ and runs from 23 November to 1 December.
Source:The Star
