BAMcinématek series Creatively Speaking will screen Ebony Goddess Queen of Ile Aiye as part of the Women on the Verge… aka For Colored Girls… (shorts program). This year, the Creatively Speaking series celebrates what the UN has declared “the Year of People of African Descent,” bringing together a selection of films representing the breadth and diversity of people of the African Diaspora curated by Michelle Materre.
Saturday, September 17th at 4:30 PM
Brooklyn Academy of Music
30 Lafayette Avenue
Brooklyn, NY 11217-1486
Admission: $12
Ebony Goddess
Directed by Carolina Moraes Liu
Ebony Goddess follows three women competing to be the carnival queen of Ilê Aiyê, a prominent and controversial Afro-Brazilian group with an all-black membership. The selection is based on Afrocentric notions of beauty in counterpoint to prevailing standards of beauty in Brazil, a country famous for slim supermodels and plastic surgery. Contestants for the title of Ebony Goddess dress in flowing, African-style garments, gracefully performing traditional Afro-Brazilian dances to songs praising the beauty of black women.
(2010, 20min)
A Girl Like Me
Directed by Kiri Davis
A Girl Like Me explores the standards of beauty imposed on today’s black girls. Delving beneath the surface to show how such standards affect self-esteem and self-image, this short documentary serves as a wake-up call for all of us.
(2005, 7min)
La Corona
Directed by Amanda Micheli, Isabel Vega
The contestants are murderers, guerrillas, and thieves. The runner-up will cry when she doesn’t get the tiara, wiping her tears with a tattooed hand, while the winner will be crowned but won’t be invited on a press tour as a role model for young girls. Instead, she will be escorted back to her cell. This is a beauty pageant like no other, and it happens every year in the women’s penitentiary in Bogotá, Colombia.
(2008, 40min)
BAM Rose Cinemas
General admission: $12
BAM Cinema Club Members: $7
Movie Moguls: Free
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