- “Thomas Sankara: The Upright Man”
Marxist leader Thomas Sankara seized power of the former French colony Upper Volta in 1983 in a military coup engineered by Blaise Compaoré. Sankora renamed the country Burkina Faso (“Land of the Upright Man”) and was an anti-imperialist icon in African until he was assassinated in a 1987 coup that brought Campaoré the presidency—a position he still holds.
Robin Shuffield’s 2006 documentary Thomas Sankara: The Upright Man screens along with Djibril Diop Mambety’s Senegalese dramatic short The Little Girl Who Sold the Sun. The screenings are part of the monthly Black World Cinema series, Thursday, May 6 at 7 PM at Chatham ICE Theaters, 210 W. 87th; $5. Trailers after the jump.