The Theatre of The Riverside Church and ArtMattan Productions have joined forces to present an eclectic slate of award winning, thought provoking and entertaining films from Africa and the African Diaspora in the African Diaspora Film Festival in November/December and the African Diaspora Summer Film Series in August. More...
African Diaspora Summer Film Series
August 20-29, 2010
OPENING NIGHT FILM 8/20 7:30pm
NY PREMIERE
Reception 6:30pm
Happy Sad (2008/Trinidad & Tobago)
Dir: Dianah Wynter
Passions are unleashed, laying bare souls and revealing long hidden secrets when 17-year-old Mandy Graham goes to live with her father’s dysfunctional family after her mother is sent to prison. Profound changes occur in the lives of several people who she never knew.
Q&A with director and lead actress after the screening.
Aug 21 4pm
Cape Verde My Love (2007/Cape Verde)
Dir. Ana Ramos Lisboa Praďa, Cape verde.
The calm lives of childhood friends Laura, Flavia and Bela erupt when Ricardo, Flavia's husband, rapes his pupil Indira, Laura's 13-year old eldest daughter.
In Portuguese with English subtitles
Aug 21 8:00pm
Nothing but the Truth (2008/South Africa)
Dir. John Kani
A gripping investigation into the complex dynamic between the people who remained in South Africa and risked their lives to lead the struggle against apartheid and those who returned victoriously after living in exile. 63-year-old librarian Sipho Makhaya prepares for the return of the ashes of his brother Themba, recently deceased while in exile in London after gaining a reputation as a hero of the anti-apartheid movement.
Aug 21 6pm
World Premiere
Greening the Revolution (2010/USA)
Dir. Katie Curran
This powerful documentary investigates today's globalized, profit-centered food system -- while agribusiness reaps record wealth, starving protesters cry for affordable food and peasants choose between land and death. Filmmaker Katie Curran traveled through Mexico, Cuba, India, Kenya, Zambia, Brazil, Haiti and the United States to capture intimate footage of food crisis and justice, with interviews from farmers, workers and activists, government and corporate officials, and intellectuals such as Howard Zinn, Vandana Shiva and Noam Chomsky.
Aug 22 2pm
Hearing Radmilla (2010/USA)
New York Premiere
Dir. Angela Webb
The portrait of singer Radmilla Cody, who was crowned the first Black Miss Navajo Nation in 1997-1998, follows her controversial reign, the development of her musical career and the realities of falling in love with an abusive man.
Aug 22 4:00pm
Sara Gomez: an Afro-Cuban Filmmaker (2005/Cuba/Switzerland) Dir. Alessandra Muller
A rich, multilayered documentary about the first female Cuban filmmaker Sarah Gomez. Get closer to a revolutionary filmmaker who invented new landscapes and brought together opposite worlds with intersecting concerns about the Afro-Cuban community and the value of its cultural traditions, women's issues, and the treatment of the marginalized sectors of society.
In Spanish with English subtitles.
Aug 27 6pm
NY Premiere
Sweet Crude: A Film about the Niger Delta (2009/USA/Nigeria) Dir. John Anderson
Like the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, this powerful documentary tells the story of the people of Nigeria’s Niger Delta, who have experienced the same ordeal for years. In a small corner of the most populous country in Africa, billions of dollars of crude oil flow under the feet of a desperate people. Immense wealth and abject poverty stand in stark contrast. The environment is decimated. What if the world paid attention before it was too late?
Q&A with director after the screening.
Aug 27 8pm
Ava & Gabriel: A Love Story (1990/Curacao/Netherlands)
Dir. Felix de Rooy
Commissioned to paint a mural of the Virgin Mary in St. Anna's Church in Curacao in the 1940s, painter Gabriel Goedbloed falls victim to controversies, hypocrisies and intrigues as the colonial Antillean society proves less than tolerant towards the black painter, especially after he chooses as his model a beautiful young black teacher, Ava, who is engaged to a white police officer.
In Papiamento with English subtitles.
DVD launch by ArtMattan Productions. Get 50% discount with ticket stub.
Aug 28 4pm
W.A.R. Stories: Walter Anthony Rodney (2009/USA/Guyana)
Dir. Clairmont Chung
This film covers the life of world renowned, historian, author, and activist Dr. Walter Rodney who was assassinated in 1980, at age 38, in his native Guyana. Focusing on the last years of Dr. Rodney’s life, this enthralling documentary tells the story of a man who dedicated and ultimately gave his life to the struggle for equal rights and justice. Q&A with director after the screening.
Aug 28 6:00pm
The Wedding Song (2009/Tunisia)
Dir. Karin Albou
Tunis, 1942. Nour and Myriam, 16, friends since childhood, live in the same house in a modest neighborhood where Jews and Muslims live in harmony. Each one secretly desires the other girl's life, Nour wanting go to school like her friend, Myriam envious of Nour’s engagement, dreams of love. In November 1942, the German army enters Tunis. Life changes drastically when Myriam's mother decides to marry her daughter to a rich doctor, and Myriam sees her dreams of love suddenly fade away.
In Arabic and French with English subtitles.
Aug 28 8:00pm
NY Premiere
Burn: The evolution of an American City (2010/USA)
Dir. Harold Jackson III
A revealing documentary about the 1921 Tulsa Oklahoma Race Riot which decimated the Greenwood District of the city nationally known at the time as the "Negro Wall Street”. The film explores the amazing complexity of what seems today a simple and happy place and goes into a deep analysis of the social, economic, religious, and human ethics associated with this historic drama yet to be fully investigated and dealt with.
Aug 29 2pm
Arugba (2008/Nigeria)
Dir. Tunde Kelani,
Set against the backdrop of a corrupt society seeking cleansing, rebirth and nationhood, with all its attendant intrigues, the film intimately presents a world in which modernity and tradition exist alongside each other but seldom in equilibrium. “Arugba” - young virgin -is a beautifully executed film which functions as an allegory for contemporary Nigeria.
Yoruba with English subtitles.
Aug 29 4:30pm
NY Premiere
« La Colombiana » Passing the Torch
2009/ Colombia-United Kingdom) Dir. Jake Holmes
Music Performance by Amanda Homi
This story of the legendary Afro-Colombian singer, Totó La Momposina, exemplifies the living tradition of Afro-Colombian music. An intimate portrait, the film follows the singer as she struggles to keep her culture alive through her children and grandchildren who travel with her to Colombia’s Caribbean coast.
In English and Spanish with English subtitles.
Following Screening a special
musical performance by
Amanda Homi (film host and co-producer)
Irresistible hooks, infectious rhythms, and slice-of-life stories from her global adventures will inspire you to sing and dance along.
© 2008 The Riverside Theatre. All rights reserved. Photos by Richard Conde unless otherwise noted.