RAFIKI PRODUCTIONS
COMPANY PROFILE AND MISSION STATEMENT
Rafiki is the Kisuaheli word for "friend". When I was little, I was extremely difficult to feed. "Sticky girl," my mother would say. "Iki, iki," quothe I, and the nickname held. So I have always been known as Iki and chose to name my company rafIki as a fun combination of my name and my roots.
rafIki productions does not solicit
scripts or ideas from others. We are focusing on producing
and marketing our own material.
COMPLETED FILMS
written, produced, and directed by Kenny Mann
WALKING WITH LIFE - The Birth of a Human Rights Movement in Africa - 35 mns. Color. Traces the work of Tostan, an NGO that brings human rights education to the people of Senegal with extraordinary results, culminating in the decision by women to end the practice of female genital cutting for good.
TOSTAN: BUILDING PARTNERSHIPS THROUGH HUMAN RIGHTS EDUCATION 34 mns. Color. DVD. 2010 This is the companion film to WALKING WITH LIFE. Administrators and participants in the Tostan program describe how the program has evolved from its roots over 30 years ago. Their philosophy of promoting indigenous African culture in order to teach human rights has enabled them to build long-lasting partnerships with Islamic leaders, with African communities and with individual participants, seen as key in the movement toward positive and sustainable social change.
HUMAN RIGHTS CITIES: PATHS TO PEACE 16mns. Color. DVD 2010 A natural outcome of the movement to teach human rights around the world has been the development of Human Rights Cities in several countries - an initiative of Shulamith Koenig, Founder and Director of the People's Decade for Human Rights Learning (www.pdhre.org) . This film documents the process in the town of Thies, Senegal, and in Washington, D.C. - the first American city to make this commitment.
THE SWAHILI BEAT - 28mns. Color. An upbeat look at the history of East Africa's Swahili coast.
POWERPLAY - 6mns. 16mm. Black and white. 1973. An experimental film using play of hands on the topic of the oppressor and the oppressed.
CHEFA JILA - 58mns. 16mm. Color. 1975. A documentary film about life in a small village on the edge of Lake Zwai in Ethiopia, 20km. from the main road south from Adis Ababa to Kenya.
SUNDIATA - THE HERITAGE OF THE GRIOT - 6mns. Color. 1995. (Writer). Live musicians and original paintings tell the story of Sundiata, the legendary king of the 13th century African kingdom of Mali.
SURRENDER - 14mns. 16mm. Black and white. 2002. Experimental film about a woman contemplating a move forward toward her nextr "incarnation."
INDIA - AND OTHER THOUGHTS - 54mns. Color. 2004. A personal travelogue about a journey alone through southern India.
EARTHWATCH SAMBURU RESEARCH INITIATIVE - 13mns. Color. 2006. A promotional film about the fantastic work that Earthwatch is doing to involve local Samburu people in wildlife conservation in northern Kenya.
RIDING THE EQUATOR - 54mns. Color. A documentary about my parents, Igor and Erica Mann, their escape from Hitler's Europe and their extraordinary lives and work in Africa.
SCRIPTS:
EXPOSED: When an aging female photographer in the Hamptons meets a teenage prostitute fleeing post-9/11 Manhattan, she finds the subject that will bring her the fame she craves, but risks her life in the teenager's chaotic world of criminals on the run.
MARRANO: A Jewish tax collector in the court of Queen Isabel of Spain risks all to save his family when he discovers that his wealth and political clout will not spare him from the Inquisition.