African Diaspora Film Fest: As True to Its Mission as Ever

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Parent Category: Film Festivals

Category: Previews

Published on Sunday, 20 November 2011 05:00

Written by L E Shannon

The 19th annual African Diaspora International Film Festival (ADIFF) is screening November 25 - December 13, 2011 at the Thalia Theatre at Symphony Space, the Quad Cinema, Schomburg Center for Black Culture and Teachers College at Columbia University in Manhattan, New York City.

ADIFF is the first film festival focusing on the human experience of people of color. The Festival begins every year on the last Friday of November during the Thanksgiving weekend.

Since its launch in 1993, ADIFF’s mission has been to present these films to diverse audiences, redesign the Black cinema experience and strengthen the role of African and African descent directors in contemporary world cinema.

"By placing the spotlight on innovative films that would otherwise be ignored by traditional venues, the Festival offers a unique platform for conveying African Diaspora artistic styles and craft in film."

The Opening Night film is The Story of Lovers Rock, directed by Menelik Shabazz, a documentary about " romantic reggae," the highly infectious music that swept Britain in the late 1970s and 80s. From there, it became "a global brand through the likes of UB40 and Maxi Priest."

Also screening on Opening Night is Shabazz's classic film Burning an Illusion. Shabazz will be present for a Q&A.

The Centerpiece Screening is David is Dying, directed by Stephen Lloyd Jackson, the story of a hedge fund manager who learns he is HIV-positive and may have infected his fiancé and unborn child. The film won Best Director and Best Actor awards at the 2011 American Black Film Festival.

The Gala Screening Is Buried Secrets / Dowaha, directed by Raja Amari (Tunisia/ Switzerland). A woman and her two adolescent children live in the underground servant's quarters of a deserted mansion, unbeknownst to the world. But not for long.

The ADIFF 2011 Filmmaker In Residence is Cuban-born Sergio Garal. The Afro-Cuban filmmaker, who lives in Miami, has "dedicated his cinematic work to promoting a better understanding of Afro-Cuban and Afro-Caribbean history and culture." From Garal's award-winning output, the Festival is screening:

The Other Francisco / El Otro Francisco (1974)
Rancheador / Slave Hunter (1975)
Maluala (1979)
Garal's trilogy is a dramatization of "slavery in the colonial era and its legacy in Cuban and Caribbean societies."

Three of Garal's other films being screened are:

Two Times Ana / Dos Veces Ana (New York Premiere)
Two women, both named Ana, live lives that are the same, only different. One is an actress who dreams of Hollywood success, and the other is a checkout girl in a Miami market.

Placido, the Blood of the Poet (1986)
Based on the novel Francisco by Anselmo Suárez y Romero, the film tells of "a slave descendent Cuban poet accused of leading a conspiracy against the Spanish colonial government."

Maria Antonia (1990)
A woman in 1950s Havana tries to regain her former life and lover after being released from prison.

Several eye-opening documentaries are being screened, including:

The Big Banana (New York premiere)
dir. Franck Bieleu (Cameroon)
This new documentary exposes multinational corporations as they exploit the working poor in banana plantations, "the adverse impact of corporatocracy government on the people while reaping super profits for corporations." There is no higher praise for a good documentary than to be banned -- and Cameroon has done just that.  

Let's Make Money
dir. Erwin Wagenhofer (Austria)
The global finance mavens we have to thank for the economic disaster are shown in contrast with the people who are really paying the tab: the poor and the struggling middle class.

Scientists Under Attack: Genetic Engineering in the Magnetic Field of Money
dir. Bertram Verhaag (Germany)
The careers of two scientists were ruined when they warned against using and selling genetically modified foods. This exposé asks the question: does science stand a chance when it goes up against the money and power of agro-chemical multinational corporations?

The First Rasta
dir. Hélène Lee (France/Jamaica)
The film pays tribute to Leonard Percival Howell (1893-1981), the First Rasta, who left Jamaica in the early 20th century to travel the world as a sailor. Upon his return years later, he took what he had seen and learned and founded Pinnacle, the first Rasta community.

The Black Mozart in Cuba
dir. Steve James, Stephanie James (Guadeloupe)
This documentary resurrects the life and music of Joseph Boulogne, Le Chevalier de St. George, a black classical composer and violin virtuoso born in Guadeloupe in the mid-18th century. An event in his honor was held in Cuba in 2005.

Gulpilil: One Red Blood
dir. Darlene Johnson (Australia)
David Gulpilil's life straddles two worlds: that of a movie star, as Australia's premiere Aboriginal actor, and as a native village elder. This documentary shows how he manages.

Machete Maidens Unleashed!
dir. Mark Hartley
B movies in the Marcos years are explored in this documentary about genre filmmaking in the Philippines, with a range covering "karate-kicking soul sisters, snake-loving babes, anorexic Rambos, sexy revolutionaries and gun toting nuns".

Post-screening question-and-answer sessions and panel discussions are part of the program, including:

• Multiracial Cinema in Europe
• Monetizing Independent Cinema
• A Conversation about Cuba

True to its mission, the Festival is indeed an eclectic feast of cinema.

For further information go to www.NYADIFF.org.

African Diaspora International Film Festival
November 25 - December 13, 2011

Schomburg Center for Black Culture
135th St. and Malcolm X Blvd.
New York City

Quad Cinema
34 West 13th St.
New York City

Teachers College
Columbia University
525 West 120th St.
The Chapel - 125 Zankel
New York City

Thalia Theatre
Symphony Space
2537 Broadway @ 95th St.
New York City

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