A Single Word
All Films
•
1h 2m
Leaving December 15
Directed by Khady Sylla and Mariama Sylla | 63 mins | 2014
Begun by Sylla and completed by her sister, Mariama, after Khady’s death in 2013, "A Single Word" connects the essay film to the oral historical tradition of the griots—West African storytellers, musicians, and poets who act as repositories of family genealogies and events past and present in their communities. The Sylla sisters’ grandmother, Penda Diogo Sarr, bearing prodigious memory and a deep well of folk wisdom accumulated through the years, is at the center of "A Single Word," but it is as much a lyrical document of daily life in rural Senegal as it is the study of a single character, a contemplation of language as the storehouse of memory in which the filmmakers continue, through their own means, the invaluable archival efforts of their subject.
Up Next in All Films
-
A Very Easy Death
Directed by Mary Stephen | 8 mins | 1975
Mary Stephen’s metaphor-rich, deeply compassionate contemplation of her mother’s death and its aftermath, which takes its title from the 1964 book by Simone de Beauvoir. -
A White, White Day
Directed by Hlynur Pálmason | 109 mins | 2019
Hlynur Pálmason’s second film opens with the Icelandic proverb that gives "A White, White Day" its title: “On such days when everything is white, and there is no longer any difference between the earth and the sky, then the dead can talk to us who are... -
Actress
Directed by Sebastian Pardo | 11 mins | 2015
An aspiring actress moves to Los Angeles to pursue her dream, and finds herself orbiting the periphery of show business, while everyday life muddies what exactly her path might be. Ana Coto, star of horror blockbuster "OUIJA", leads Sebastian Pardo’s n...
