Classic film posters featuring Lupita Tovar and Dolores del Rio are showcased at LA Plaza de Cultura y Artes, a center of Mexican American culture and arts seen adjacent to historic Olvera Street downtown Los Angeles Wednesday, April 13, 2011. With an exhibit that includes interactive materials, crosses, letters, paintings, a small canon and other historical artifacts, the first cultural center in Los Angeles dedicated to the Mexican and Mexican American heritage will open to the public on Saturday, April 17.
Anthology Film Archives Presents United We Stand: South African Cinema during Apartheid
UNITED WE STAND: SOUTH AFRICAN CINEMA DURING APARTHEID
April 7 – April 18
“Presented for the first time in the United States, this thoughtfully curated program by South Africa-based Trevor Taylor, US-based Seagull Films and UK-based Contemporary Films, offers an important, authentic, and in-depth look at South Africa under Apartheid. Deeply moving, and not to be missed.” –Danny Glover, actor, activist, and Co-Founder Louverture Films
This unique selection of films helps bring South Africa’s complex history into focus. Providing a unique insight into the resistance cinema made in South Africa, the series presents nine programs, comprising 14 landmark works. Since access to the means of production was systematically denied to black filmmakers, almost all the films in the series were made by white directors – until the fall of Apartheid, only three black filmmakers were able to operate: Simon Sabela, who made domestic, non-political dramas; Gibson Kente, whose film HOW LONG? was seized by the authorities (and was unavailable for this series); and Lionel Ngakane, who made films, in exile, in the UK (several of which we will screen here). Nevertheless, all the films in the series were made in opposition to the apartheid ideology (with the exception of TO ACT A LIE, a government propaganda piece). Apart from END OF THE DIALOGUE, none were made clandestinely, but they all faced censorship, bans, and/or delayed releases, and were denied access to widespread distribution, screening only at independent venues. Coming on the heels of the 20th anniversary of Nelson Mandela’s release from prison, this is an illuminating survey of a cinema produced within an oppressive social and political system (one whose legacy is still felt in South Africa today), UNITED WE STAND offers a fascinating perspective on the phenomenon of Apartheid.
Presented with the invaluable support of Rafik Video (www.rafikvideo.com).
Special thanks to Alla Verlotsky (Seagull Films), Eric Liknaitzky (Contemporary Films), Trevor Taylor, Gary Palmucci (Kino), Roselly A. Torres Rojas (Third World Newsreel), and Connie Field (Clarity Films).
Upcoming Screenings
- Jans Rautenbach
KATRINA
April 13 at 7:00 PM - YOU HAVE STRUCK A ROCK / END OF THE DIALOGUE / TO ACT A LIE
April 13 at 9:15 PM - THE HIDDEN FARMS / MY COUNTRY MY HAT
April 14 at 6:45 PM - THE BURNING / LAND APART
April 14 at 9:00 PM
Victoria & Albert Museum Presents Figures and Fictions: South African Photography
“The first UK exhibition of contemporary South African photography from the last ten years is shown at the V&A from April 12 through July 17, 2011. Figures and Fictions: Contemporary South African Photography features over 150 works by some of the most exciting and inventive photographers living and working in South Africa today.
“The exhibition presents the vibrant and sophisticated photographic culture that has emerged in post-apartheid South Africa. The works on display respond to the country’s powerful rethinking of issues of identity across race, gender, class and politics. The photographs depict people within their individual, family and community lives, practicing religious customs, observing social rituals, wearing street fashion or existing on the fringes of society. All the photographers question what it is to be human at this time in South Africa.”
Art Daily 04/13/11
Click here to read the entire article.
Helsinki African Film Festival: May 12-15 2011
Welcome to the 2nd
Helsinki African Film Festival
Following the success of the first HAFF, we are delighted to welcome you to yet another program of entertaining and thought-provoking films from Africa!
This year’s festival theme is Women’s Voices and Visions, focusing on African women as directors, producers or leading actors. The program is diverse in terms of genre, subject matter and the rich humanity of the continent. These inspiring films will definitely tickle your senses and your intellect, whether you happen to be a male or female fan of quality films. African women filmmakers are transforming what has largely been a male domain, and they are doing it with a sense of passion, humour and political awareness that HAFF is proud to bring to Finland.
HAFF now has a national dimension. A selection of films from the festival will be screened at regional film centers around Finland. This year we will also show four films in Kiasma in collaboration with the ARS11 exhibition.
Tickets will be available from this website starting in March, when the full festival program is revealed. Last year tickets sold out fast, so book early to avoid disappointment. We look forward to seeing you in May!
Wanjiku wa Ngugi
Festival Director
Helsinki African Film Festival
Following the success of the first HAFF, we are delighted to welcome you to yet another program of entertaining and thought-provoking films from Africa!
This year’s festival theme is Women’s Voices and Visions, focusing on African women as directors, producers or leading actors. The program is diverse in terms of genre, subject matter and the rich humanity of the continent. These inspiring films will definitely tickle your senses and your intellect, whether you happen to be a male or female fan of quality films. African women filmmakers are transforming what has largely been a male domain, and they are doing it with a sense of passion, humour and political awareness that HAFF is proud to bring to Finland.
HAFF now has a national dimension. A selection of films from the festival will be screened at regional film centers around Finland. This year we will also show four films in Kiasma in collaboration with the ARS11 exhibition.
Tickets will be available from this website starting in March, when the full festival program is revealed. Last year tickets sold out fast, so book early to avoid disappointment. We look forward to seeing you in May!
Wanjiku wa Ngugi
Festival Director
In memoriam: Sidney Lumet, 86
“Although he was not as widely known to the general public as directors like Scorsese, Spielberg, Eastwood and Spike Lee, his films were at the center of our collective memories. To name only a few of their titles is to suggest the measure of his gift.”
Chicago Sun-Times 04/10/11
“It was the messy business of simply being human that the filmmaker found so compelling. Whatever the forces that pushed him in that direction, we are forever richer that he was drawn to moral ambiguity, and the high price exacted by integrity and corruption alike.”
Los Angeles Times 04/10/11
The Day Diplomacy Died with Bernie Dwyer: April 12 @ BFC/A
The Day Diplomacy Died
Come see the film and meet the filmmaker.
This new documentary by Bernie Dwyer and Roberto Ruiz Rebo exposes the story behind the lock up of 75 “independent” journalists, trade unionists, and librarians in Cuba in 2003 through the eyes of four ex-Cuban state agents working undercover. The mainstream media never fully investigates the role played by the US diplomats in Cuba in controlling the “dissidents” movement. In this film former Cuban undercover agents speak out for the first time on film about the inner workings of the dissident groups they infiltrated and the various plans, supported by the U.S.044 government, that were being developed to destabilize Cuba.
April 12th at 7:00pm
Black Film Center/Archive
Rm 044 Wells IU Library
Tenth and Jordan
Bloomington, IN
Television News in North America
Network Aimed at Black Audience Announced for Fall
“Atlanta-based Bounce TV will be an over-the-air channel supported by sponsors, showing programs for blacks ages 25 to 54. It is designed to be carried on the digital signals of local television stations, and it doesn’t necessarily want to compete with existing cable networks like BET, TV One or Centric, said Ryan Glover, a former Turner Broadcasting executive and member of the Bounce leadership team.”
Backstage 04/06/11
TelAfric Television Network
“TelAfric Television Network is North America’s first African owned Television Network featuring an array of diverse channels from Africa and around the global African Diaspora, with programming in film, music, sports, news, talk shows, soaps and more.”
Ghana Web, Diasporian News 04/07/11
Click here to read the entire article.
Kinshasa Symphony Opened the New York African Film Festival
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_vTk0XsgZV4]
In case you missed the Opening Night of the New York African Film Festival, here’s a trailer for the documentary Kinshasa Symphony, which examines the extraordinary musical group L’Orchestre Symphonique Kimbanguiste (Kinshasa Symphony Orchestra) from Democratic Republic of the Congo.
About the festival:
The Film Society of Lincoln Center (FSLC) and African Film Festival, Inc. (AFF) will present the 18th New York African Film Festival (NYAFF) in celebration of the United Nations International Year of Peoples of African Descent, which serves as the festival’s guiding theme. This year’s NYAFF will also commemorate the 50th anniversary of independence in both Sierra Leone and Tanzania, countries from which much of the African Diaspora draws its roots.
The festival, which will include 15 features and 16 short films by emerging and veteran filmmakers from 24 countries, will commence with a screening of rare archival footage from the Russian State Archives of both Sierra Leone and Tanzania’s 1961 liberation from the United Kingdom. The NYAFF will include classic and contemporary films, as well as presentations by visual and performing artists paying tribute to historic moments and luminary figures who have been influential in the arts and culture of the Diaspora.
The NYAFF will run from April 6 through 12 at The Film Society of Lincoln Center, and throughout April and May at the Museum of Arts and Design, Columbia University’s Institute of African Studies, The Big Screen Project, and the Brooklyn Academy of Music’s BAMcinématek.
Click here for more information about events and schedules.
Film Inside Out: Black Filmmaker Brunch, May 7th
Network and share a meal with local and national filmmaking pros as they discuss the “business” of show business. Join NAACP Image Award nominee Ava DuVernay, “I Will Follow” , Sundance Award Winner Alrick Brown, “Kinyarwanda” and Alyce Emory, veteran film festival organizer and consultant as they share their work and insider commentary on Black Hollywood and the business of making a film and getting it seen.
Click here for more details.