Why Are They Here? Chinese Stories in Africa

Film

by Yara Costa

Details

Ghana, Lesotho and Mozambique / 2011 / 35mins / Documentary / Sotho, Akan and English

A tiny village in Lesotho, an isolated island in Mozambique, the bustling capital of Ghana...poor Chinese immigrants come here hoping to thrive and prosper find themselves facing all kinds of obstacles - even death. This film takes a close look at three stories representing the most personal encounters between Africans and Chinese in the past ten years.

About the Director

Yara Costa

Yara Costa is a journalist and director from Mozambique. After living in Angola and South Africa and working in Brazil as a reporter, she decided she wanted to tell the untold stories of Africa and help to counter the negative stereotypes that so often characterize the continent in Western media. In 2009, she received a scholarship to study news and documentary filmmaking at NYU. She made her first film, Why Are They Here? Chinese Stories in Africa, in 2011. After studying at EICTV (International Film School of San Antonio de los Baños) in Cuba, she made The Crossing, a short film about the tensions between Haiti and the Dominican Republic told through the personal story of a 16-year-old Haitian student who jumps the border daily to go to school. Between God & I is Yara’s first feature documentary. Learn More