THROUGH THE DOOR OF NO RETURN

Through the Door of No Return is a personal journey of the filmmaker, Shirikiana Aina, on a search for her father's footsteps, an ordinary African-American, who she tells us, travelled to Ghana to set up a business and died as a result of Malaria and a punctured kidney. She goes back at night, over the water, called by her father's voice and the voice of her questions surrounding Aina's journey are numerous: "Will they remember us? Did they remember her father? Should they remember us?" The entry point: The Elmina Slave Fort. Entering through the ominous "door of no return," Aina encounters the point of departure for millions of Africans during the African slave trade. One of the 360 such forts in west Africa, 60 are in Ghana- places where Africans were "stored" along with ivory and gold waiting for the ships to come to collect them. It is at this point that Aina meets other "returnees" who are confronting this difficult past, embracing the strength it represents. They are being guided on a solemn tour of the slave dungeons, emerging into the light of day with a renewed sense of identity.

Directors: Haile Gerima