My African Farm

Molly Dineen’s uncompromising portrait of spirited 78-year-old widow, Sylvia Richardson, on her farm in the foothills of Mount Kenya.

Sylvia Richardson has run a farm in the foothills of Mount Kenya for the last 40 years, the last 6 years on her own since her husband died. Often freely offering controversial opinions of her servants, she is now negotiating to sell a group of them the land. Transporting the viewer into Sylvia’s world with a combination of atmospheric location photography and an astute rapport with her subjects, it’s often Dineen’s off-camera questions that provides the greatest insights.

Shortlisted for the Grierson Award in 1988, My African Farm was the first formal commission from the BBC for Molly Dineen who has been one of Britain’s most notable television documentary filmmakers, known for crafting intelligent and sensitive portraits of individuals often underpinned by weightier political issues.