
Senegalese Laamb Wrestling & The World is Sinking
Two short films from Senegal share this program. The first follows laamb wrestling, the country's most watched sport, ahead of soccer, built on Greco-Roman grappling techniques wrapped in pre-fight dances, drumming, and amulet rituals meant to ward off harm in the ring. Wrestlers who win big matches become national celebrities, drawing crowds and sponsorship money in a country where economic opportunity is scarce, and the film follows fighters training and competing to show how the sport turned into both spectacle and livelihood. The second film turns to Senegal's coastline, where rising seas are eating away at fishing villages and city neighborhoods. Footage shows flooded streets, eroded beaches, and residents describing homes and cemeteries the ocean has already claimed. Interviews with people losing land year by year make the case that climate change is not a future threat here but a present one, reshaping how and where communities can keep living along the Atlantic coast.