NOVEMBER 20: AKIRA’S HIP HOP SHOP (DIRECTOR'S CUT) & ELI’S LIQUOR STORE

African American and Asian American interactions

AKIRA’S HIP-HOP SHOP

(37 mins., special public screening of the director’s cut!)

Time: 7:00 PM
Location: Hidmo Eritrean Cuisine, 2000 Jackson Street (Metro bus #14)
Admission: Suggested donation of $5.00
Filmmaker Joe Doughrity will be present for a Q&A session!

Written and directed by Joe Doughrity

Akira’s Hip Hop Shop stars James Kyson Lee (”Heroes”) and Emayatzy Corinealdi (”The Young & the Restless”).

An interracial love story about a Japanese immigrant in love with hip hop who meets a young Black woman with a passion for Asian cuisine and culture.

ELI’S LIQUOR STORE 16 mins.

Written and directed by Arnold Chun and Alonzo Jones . Co-produced by Yealee Song and Joseph H. Shim.

Set in Los Angeles’ Koreatown circa 1999. It’s the story of Elijah Gooden, a 43-year-old African-American man from Atlanta, Georgia. He graduated from Georgia Tech University and worked in corporate America before moving his family to Los Angeles to start his own business. He and his family experience culture shock and adversity as they struggle to build their livelihood in an area dominated by Asian-American business owners.

…....................

Joseph Doughrity - Film Makers Bio:

Joseph Doughrity (”Joe D.”) is a writer, producer, and director. The son of an educator, Joe grew up an avid reader and developed hobbies ranging from sports to comics, videogames, and a fascination with Japanese culture. His first job in Hollywood was as a Production Assistant on John Singleton’s debut film “Boyz N the Hood”. This was the start of a five-year collaboration with the Oscar nominated director including serving as his personal assistant on the films “Poetic Justice” and “Higher Learning”.

Joe recognized the significance of the Internet early and worked in the dotcom industry beginning in 1999 as a Content Provider for new media startup Psylum, Incorporated. When Psylum was purchased by USA Networks’ Sci-fi Channel, Joe was chosen to re-launch the Psycomic website and recruited iconic filmmaker Kevin Smith (”Clerks”) to write a weekly column that became the basis of his book Kevin Smith Speaks. Psycomic became a leading destination on the Internet for fans of comic books and graphic novels. He continues to work on the web serving as the Video Editor for PopCultureShock.com, a leading news, review, and interview site focusing on comics, movies and videogames.

Joe has written and edited for comic books (for Caliber Press, publishers of The Crow and U.N. Force), magazines (The Source, Rappages, Straight From the Lip), and motion pictures (see partial credits below). As a documentarian, he created electronic press kits for the urban romance “Jason’s Lyric” and Tony Bill’s “A Home of our Own”. Joe’s “Seven Days in Japan”, a documentary he wrote, produced and directed, won Best Documentary at the 2005 San Diego Comic-con Film Festival beating out films which cost ten times its modest budget. “Seven Days in Japan” went on to screen at the Pacific Media Expo and premiered on cable’s BET-Jazz channel in February of 2007.

As a screenwriter, Joe has written for studios and production companies such as HBO (”Wheels of Steel: The KRS One/Scott La Rock Story”), Mandalay Films (”Grandmaster Flash”) and New Line Cinema. His recent scripts include “Motown Miracle: Soul on Ice”, the true story of a Black hockey team from his native Detroit, “Cornerstore”, a day in the life look at a liquor store, and “Akira’s Hip hop Shop”, an interracial romantic dramedy about an Asian man and a Black woman.

Joseph received his BFA from Columbia College-Hollywood where he majored in Cinema Studies. He is a member of the Writers Guild of America.

The Fall 2008 Underground Railroad series begins Sept. 24!

The Underground Railroad Film Series is the neighborhood participation component of the Langston Hughes Performing Arts Center’s African American Film Festival. The URFS uses the metaphor of the Underground Railroad to illuminate that community can exist over many miles and many backgrounds with one common cause. Each month from September through February, at various ‘safe houses’ in greater King County, the Underground Railroad Film Series partners with community groups, organizations and traditionally marginalized populations to host a screening of films by or about Black people that intersect across cultures, providing opportunities for community engagement and self-reflection. This moveable feast of provocative films is deepened with post-screening panels that provide context, stimulate thoughtful discussions that wind back to the Underground Railroad: Community can exist over many miles and many backgrounds with one common cause: Human integrity for all.


SEPT. 24: HOW DO I LOOK Documentary – USA 2006; 80min Director- Wolfgang Busch A chronicle of the gay Harlem Ball tradition, featuring the gritty and glamorous testimony of African American and Latino gay & transgendered people who excited the runways of Harlem and beyond. Panel Discussion to follow. Time: 7:00 pm Location: Central Cinema, 21st @ Union streets, central Seattle. Admission: $5.00 Pictured: Anthony Revlon. Photo credit: Matusha. Presented in partnership with the Seattle Lesbian and Gay Film festival, which begins October 17!

LHAAFF partners with the NW Film Forum to present two films about African American popular music

WATTSTAX

at the Northwest Film Forum, June 8-June 12. Showtimes at 7:30 PM and 9:30 PM.

1515 12th Ave, Seattle WA 98122
Phone: (206)329-2629
Fax: (206)329-1193
Located on Capitol Hill between Pike and Pine.

http://www.nwfilmforum.org/cinemas/calendar.php#wattstax

Co-presented by the Langston Hughes Performing Arts Center African American Film Festival
Sponsored by Easy Street Records
(Mel Stuart, USA, 1973, 35mm, 98 min)

A legendary concert film, WATTSTAX documents the Woodstock of black America. The Stax label, along with Tamala Motown, was one of the greats of American soul, funk and R&B recording. With a lineup that included such greats as Isaac Hayes, Booker T & the MGs, the Emotions and many more, the Stax label oozes cool. WATTSTAX represents both a fantastic timepiece and a prophetic look into the future. Held in 1972 to commemorate the 1965 Watts riots, the concert "drew an overwhelmingly African-American crowd of 100,000 and turned into a memorable black-pride event," according to the BALTIMORE CITY PAPER. Director Mel Stuart not only focuses on the big names on the Coliseum's stage but also takes his camera out into the community, watching and listening to Watts residents talk about everyday life in the inner city.

and
RESPECT YOURSELF: THE STAX RECORDS STORY
June 8-June 12. Showtimes at 7:30 PM and 9:30 PM.

Co-presented by the Langston Hughes Performing Arts Center African American Film Festival
Sponsored by Easy Street Records
(Morgan Neville, Robert Gordon, 2007, USA, BETA, 115 min)

To celebrate the 50th anniversary of Stax Records, Morgan Neville (THE COOL SCHOOL) and Robert Gordon (MUDDY WATERS: CAN'T BE SATISFIED) made a chronicle of the rise of the Memphis soul label that changed the world. RESPECT YOURSELF is jammed with amazing archival rarities, live performances, forgotten TV appearances, home movies, news footage and lost recordings of all the legendary Stax artists -- from Otis Redding and Isaac Hayes to Booker T & the MG's, Sam & Dave and The Staples Singers. Their definitive film is also a story of the civil rights movement and how the music created at Stax mirrored the glories and pains of that struggle.

DATE CHANGE & LOCATION ANNOUNCEMENT! "This is Nollywood"

The Langston Hughes African American Film Festival Underground Railroad Film Series presents

THIS IS NOLLYWOOD
56 minutes, 2007, Nigeria. Producer: Franco Sacchi and Robert Caputo
Friday, November 16, 2007 at the Harry Thomas Community Center at Lee House in the New Holly neighborhood, South Seattle, 7315 – 39th Avenue South . $5.00 suggested donation . Street parking is available. There may also be free after-hours parking in the health center parking lot.

First came Hollywood, then Bollywood and now Nollywood, Nigeria’s booming film industry, which released 2000 feature features in 2006 alone. Where else can you shoot a full-length dramatic film for $10,000 in 7 days? Until recently little known outside its own country, THIS IS NOLLYWOOD explains why Nigerian video production is becoming recognized as a phenomenon with broad implications for the cultural and economic development of Africa.

The industry is wholly self-sustaining, receiving no foreign or government assistance. Directors of these films are proud to admit that their intended audience is the average Nigerian not international film festivals. There are an amazing 55,000,000 video players in Nigeria reaching 90% of the population.

Before the rise of Nollywood, Nigerians saw mostly American Westerns, Hong Kong Kung Fu movies and Bollywood musicals. In contrast, Nollywood appeals to a hunger for indigenous stories with characters and situations audiences can easily relate to. The popularity of these films has spread across English-speaking Africa and their stars have become celebrities from Zambia to Ghana. Nollywood also provides a vital, constantly up-dated link between the vast Nigerian diaspora and their home culture. Thousands of Nigerian films are already available to immigrants to the United States both on DVD and over the internet.

The Nollywood phenomenon is doubtless an expression of the resourcefulness and vigor of Nigerian society. But it also raises questions about the potential social impact of commercial cinema, especially in the developing world. Does Nollywood in fact depict daily Nigerian life any more accurately or incisively than Hollywood portrays American society? Does it dare expose the kleptocracy which for forty years has kept its citizens impoverished by pocketing the nation’s immense oil wealth? As for cultural preservation, Nollywood narratives seem more influenced by international genres like the action thriller and the soap opera than Yoruba drama or Ibo folk tales. Can we reasonably hope that a cinematic Chinua Achebe or Wole Soyinka will emerge out of the frenetic deal-making of Lagos? Superstar Saint Obi optimistically predicts that “I believe very soon we are not only going to have better movies, we’ll have that original Nigerian movie.” For the time being, hard-pressed Nigerians are at least getting their own version of the vicarious excitement and undemanding escapism, which have become the prime commodities of the Information Age. For us, these films may give clearer insights into the apprehensions and aspirations of the average Nigerian than any documentary or political drama.

This documentary film is a partial but intensely focused image from a dense picture—the current cinematic phenomenon in Nigeria which its title proclaims. With an admirable sense of humor, it captures the gritty and confounding optimism that keeps Nigeria going, against all rational expectations. In its innovative approach to narrative and the contingencies of production characteristic of the industry, This is Nollywood becomes the drama it seeks to document, without losing direction.

Akin Adesokan, Indiana University


This is Nollywood captures the problems and dynamism of making movies in Nigeria while giving a vibrant introduction to this fast growing movie industry. Dealing with rainstorms, missing stars, and power cuts, we see the pressure on Nigerian moviemakers and the guerilla filmmaking they have invented to cope. As the director Bond Emeruwa says, “In Nollywood we don’t count the walls, we have learned ways to climb them”.

Brian Larkin, Barnard College; Columbia University

Underground Railroad Film Series: Stop #3

The Langston Hughes African American Film Festival Underground Railroad Film Series presents

THIS IS NOLLYWOOD, Thursday, November 15, 2007 – location TBA. Please call (206)326-1088 or visit www.langstonblackfilmfest.org or http://lhaaffbside.blogspot.com/ for updated news about location. $5 suggested donation at the door.

56 minutes, 2007, Nigeria. Producer: Franco Sacchi and Robert Caputo. Associate Producer: Aimee Corrigan; Director: Franco Sacchi

First came Hollywood, then Bollywood and now Nollywood, Nigeria’s booming film industry, which released 2000 feature features in 2006 alone. Where else can you shoot a full-length dramatic film for $10,000 in 7 days? Until recently little known outside its own country, THIS IS NOLLYWOOD explains why Nigerian video production is becoming recognized as a phenomenon with broad implications for the cultural and economic development of Africa.

The industry is wholly self-sustaining, receiving no foreign or government assistance. Directors of these films are proud to admit that their intended audience is the average Nigerian not international film festivals. There are an amazing 55,000,000 video players in Nigeria reaching 90% of the population.

Before the rise of Nollywood, Nigerians saw mostly American Westerns, Hong Kong Kung Fu movies and Bollywood musicals. In contrast, Nollywood appeals to a hunger for indigenous stories with characters and situations audiences can easily relate to. The popularity of these films has spread across English-speaking Africa and their stars have become celebrities from Zambia to Ghana. Nollywood also provides a vital, constantly up-dated link between the vast Nigerian diaspora and their home culture. Thousands of Nigerian films are already available to immigrants to the United States both on DVD and over the internet.

The Nollywood phenomenon is doubtless an expression of the resourcefulness and vigor of Nigerian society. But it also raises questions about the potential social impact of commercial cinema, especially in the developing world. Does Nollywood in fact depict daily Nigerian life any more accurately or incisively than Hollywood portrays American society? Does it dare expose the kleptocracy which for forty years has kept its citizens impoverished by pocketing the nation’s immense oil wealth? As for cultural preservation, Nollywood narratives seem more influenced by international genres like the action thriller and the soap opera than Yoruba drama or Ibo folk tales. Can we reasonably hope that a cinematic Chinua Achebe or Wole Soyinka will emerge out of the frenetic deal-making of Lagos? Superstar Saint Obi optimistically predicts that “I believe very soon we are not only going to have better movies, we’ll have that original Nigerian movie.” For the time being, hard-pressed Nigerians are at least getting their own version of the vicarious excitement and undemanding escapism, which have become the prime commodities of the Information Age. For us, these films may give clearer insights into the apprehensions and aspirations of the average Nigerian than any documentary or political drama.

This documentary film is a partial but intensely focused image from a dense picture—the current cinematic phenomenon in Nigeria which its title proclaims. With an admirable sense of humor, it captures the gritty and confounding optimism that keeps Nigeria going, against all rational expectations. In its innovative approach to narrative and the contingencies of production characteristic of the industry, This is Nollywood becomes the drama it seeks to document, without losing direction.

Akin Adesokan, Indiana University


This is Nollywood captures the problems and dynamism of making movies in Nigeria while giving a vibrant introduction to this fast growing movie industry. Dealing with rainstorms, missing stars, and power cuts, we see the pressure on Nigerian moviemakers and the guerilla filmmaking they have invented to cope. As the director Bond Emeruwa says, “In Nollywood we don’t count the walls, we have learned ways to climb them”.

Brian Larkin, Barnard College; Columbia University

UPDATE: Corrected bio for S. Pearl Sharp, April 29 guest filmmaker

The LHAAFF regrets that an incorrect bio was published in the print version of the program book. Guest filmmaker S. Pearl Sharp will present her acclaimed documentary THE HEALING PASSAGE: VOICES FROM THE WATER on Sunday, April 29 at 1:00 PM. Admission is $7.00. A correct version of the bio follows:

S. Pearl Sharp's work focuses on cultural arts, health and Black history. An
independent filmmaker, she created the semi-animated film short Picking Tribes, with watercolors by artist Carlos Spivey; Life Is A Saxophone, on poet Kamau Daa'ood; a controversial women's health video, It's O.K. To Peek, produced with Arabella Chavers-Julien; and Back Inside Herself, a poetic short. S. Pearl wrote and directed numerous arts documentaries for the City of Los Angeles' CH 35, with Exec. Producer Rosie Lee Hooks, including Central Avenue Live!, L.A. to L.A., Spirits of the Ancestors and Fertile Ground: Stories From the Watts Towers Arts Center. She is Supervising Producer for five new short films addressing gang violence, sponsored by the Black Hollywood Education and Resource Center (BHERC). Sharp’s most recent work is The Healing Passage/Voices From The Water, an award-winning, feature length documentary that addresses the present-day residuals of the trans-Atlantic slave trade through the work of cultural artists.

S. Pearl writes "soft songs, hard poems and 3rd eye music." Her essays and
commentaries are heard on NPR radio, and she is the current Poet Laureate
of the Watts Towers Arts Center. Her published literary works include Black Women For Beginners (Writers and Readers), the plays Dearly Beloved and The Sistuhs, four volumes of poetry and a spoken word CD, On The Sharp Side. She worked with esteemed actress Beah Richards on There's A Brown Girl In The Ring, a collection of the actress' essays, later adapting them to stage.

Based in Los Angeles, S. Pearl is both a practitioner and student of holistic healing. www.aSharpShow.com

...

About the film:

How do we heal from the residuals of The Middle Passage?Cultural artists, along with historians and healers, look at present day behavior that is connected to the Trans-Atlantic slave trade. For more than 300 years Africans were carried from their homeland, across the Atlantic Ocean ("The Middle Passage"), into chattel slavery in the Americas and the Caribbean. The residual impact of this African Holocaust still reverberates in the world today through psychological trauma, genetic memory, personal and community consciousness. The artists use music, dolls, dance, altars, spoken word, visual art and ritual to create paths to healing.
With commentary by historian Dr. Yosef A. A. ben-Jochannan (Dr. Ben), Goree Island curator Boubacar Joseph Ndiaye, health professionals Lola Kemp and Dr. Olivia Cousins, and Maafa Conference founder Rev. Dr. Johnny Ray Youngblood. And the artistry of actress CCH Pounder, Brother Yusef the Bluesman, bassist Nedra Wheeler, writer/singer Shonda Buchannan (Nyesha Khalfani), doll maker Angela Briggs, visual artists Ra6 and Abbey Onikoyi and others.

AFROPUNK director James Spooner returns to Seattle tonight, April 28!

Don't miss tonight's rare opportunity! The LHAAFF welcomes back AFROPUNK director, James Spooner, with this special presentation of a festival version of his forthcoming feature, WHITE LIES, BLACK SHEEP about a young Black man and his struggles with identity and integration in Manhattan's club/punk scene. Post-screening Q&A with director James Spooner. Admission is $7.

UPDATE: Sunday, April 29 closing event

Due to insurance coverage restrictions, we regret that we are unable to have live horses at the April 29 closing reception at 5:00 p.m. April 29. However, we DO have our special guests, members of the Northwest Black Horsemen, who are traveling from around Washington State to join us at 4:00 PM for the screening of the inspiring documentary, THE FEDERATION OF BLACK COWBOYS. The Horsemen will demonstrate bullwhip and lasso techniques, all skills that were part of daily life in cattle drives and ranch work in the old West. Many of the horsemen have performed in rodeos and all have been involved with horseback riding for many years. Ask questions, see the demonstrations, and learn more about the historic role of African Americans in the West!

The film start time has changed from 3:00 PM to 4:00 PM. A festive reception with delicious food from Seattle's own Jones Barbeque follows. Admission: $10 (includes food).

Blaxploitation films: Friday, April 27

Greetings!

We are coming down to the final days of our little gem of a festival with a one-two weekend punch sure to please all audiences!

Friday is packed! Take the afternoon off and join us for a long lunch matinee featuring the world premiere of David Walker's Uncle Tom's Apartment @ 12:30. Order lunch and we'll bring it to your seat. Plays with American Red and Black, Through Martha's eyes and The Hardest Part.

Then, go home and get your Afro wig and join us for a Blackbuster evening when Walker presents Macked, Hammered, Slaughtered and Shafted. This riveting documentary features all the favorites from the heyday of Blaxploitation - Ron O'Neal, Pam Grier, Fred Williamson all talk about how blaxploitation films saved an ailing hollywood machine.

And screw your wig on tight, cause the Hip Shakin' Papa is here! RUDY RAY MOORE IS DOLEMITE. He will join us at the Royal Esquire Club tonight at 9:00 PM to screen his latest world premiere film Dolemite Explosion.

Macked, Hammered, Slaughtered, Shafted & Dolemite Explosion Date: Tonight! Time: 7PM and 9PM Location: Langston Hughes & Royal Esquire Club More info: 206.326.1088 or 206.684.4758

Saturday and Sunday at Langston Hughes Join us for a weekend variety of films that are sure to satisfy! Saturday features an animation workshop with Shawnelle and Shawnee Gibbs of Adopted by Aliens , an African Film Marathon and the premiere of White Lies, Black Sheep with AFROPUNK director James Spooner and featuring Seattle native, Ayinde Howell. Sunday features S. Pearl Sharp as she presents her beautiful film about the effects of the middle passage titled, the Healing Passage. The festival closes with the poignant documentary and an old fashioned barbecue picnic sponsored by Jones Barbecue. $10 gets you a film-The Federation of Black Cowboys, a meal, courtesy of Jones Barbecue, and a chance to meet a real live Black cowboy! Truly a family treat! DATE: Saturday and Sunday TIME: check schedule for times LOCATION: Langston Hughes Performing Arts Center MORE: Call 206.326.1088 or Langston @ 206.684.4758

Music is My Life, Politics

Tonight: MUSIC IS MY LIFE…THE OSCAR BROWN, JR. STORY at the LHAAFF


Come to the Langston Hughes Performing Arts Center tonight, April 26, at 7:30 PM for this wonderful documentary on life and work of Oscar Brown, Jr., the great jazz musician, union leader, political candidate, and social commentator. Director Donnie L. Betts will be present for a special post-show Q&A. Don’t miss this rare opportunity and inspiring film experience! General admission: $7. Children age 12 and under: $2.

The Langston Hughes African American Film Festival continues tomorrow with great matinee films and an evening Blaxploitation presentation.

Guest filmmaker Donnie L. Betts on KCPQ-13 (Seattle)

Seattle area residents - tune in to Fox affiliate KCPQ-13 for the Thursday, April 26 local morning news broadcast between 8:30 a.m. - 9:00 a.m. to see an interview with documentary filmmaker Donnie L. Betts!
Mr. Betts will present his documentary, MUSIC IS MY LIFE, POLITICS MY MISTRESS: THE STORY of OSCAR BROWN, JR. at the Langston Hughes African American Film Festival on April 26 at 7:30 p.m. Stay for the post-screening Q&A session.

SWAHILINI (April 28, 2:30 pm African Film Marathon)

About SWAHILINI (Seattle premiere, April 28 at 2:30 pm)

An African musical and social documentary by Pierre Klochendler

SWAHILINI renders through songs the daily life of Daddy, street songster in Dar es Salaam's most dangerous slum. A social, musical, testament to the sad glory of poverty outlasting misery in a world of double negation – what Daddy lacks is no more than a measure of what he needs...

The calling card of this young Congolese musician; an illegal migrant in Tanzania, stranded in Dar es Salaam’s biggest squatter camp, Manzese, a forbidding place known locally as ‘The Hyena’s Den’ – its name conjuring up an old-style Sicilian atmosphere. This squalid squatter camp has the raw grey face of salvaged scrap where nothing is lost, nothing created, dangerous – Hatari!

Through its non-descript alleys the author follows the fortunes of this street artist, as he seeks to make his way to the recording studio. Daddy Maisha is a GRIO, a songster of Swahili life in the urban slums of modern Africa, a repository of the culture of the dispossessed, a coryphaeus of those who own nothing, who envy those who have almost nothing.

Born out of mutual trust, – both moral and practical: a first film for a first album, “Swahilini” and “Fleur Rose” –, “Swahilini” tells the improbable friendship between Daddy and Pierre, the “first white man of Manzese”, who lived in Manzese, who filmed and directed the account of daily life in Manzese.

Manzese is an urban fabric in rags, dressed in non urbane relations; where friendship and protection are traded in the margins of Law – Sheria.

The street code: a rite of passage, a right of passage that the camera must negotiate through the daily interaction filmed over one year between the people of Manzese and the white man – Mzungu.

Daddy is Pierre’s protector, his African eyes and ears.

Temporary by nature and definition, this squatter camp exudes an overwhelming sense of oppressive everlastingness, the hand-me-down poverty of a contemporary urban slum. Manzese – where the living have no distinguishable past, but a very lively place - humanity in constant flow, in transit, on the run, clandestine.

Clandestine too, “the white man of Manzese”, whom its people nickname Mzungu kachoka, “the weary white man near his end”, because his plastic flip-flop sandals lead him where litter carves out the abject geology of its forlorn terrain.

Daddy Maisha introduces Pierre to the people of this makeshift world; in humility, they open their doors – and their hearts. They speak, they rap the pulse of daily life, they rap the word of God, they audition in the streets, and they dance a Capella their passion for music, their faith in the feisty street tunes of freedom of those who have nothing to lose. But, the bare threads of their lives are no musical score; it is a pitiful predicament of their destitution.

Tuned in to their beat, “Swahilini” is both musical and social testament to the sad glory of the human condition trapped below the ‘poverty line’; through Daddy Maisha’s story and of his music, it is also testament to the simplicity of living Lumpen poverty, in accordance with the popular Kiswahili saying “the poor man’s wealth is in the strength of his own labor.” It is a world of double negation: what the people of Manzese lack is no more than a measure of what they need. This is a place where misery and poverty are in constant struggle, where the poor seek to outlast misery.

At once personal and general, at once fictitious and realistic, it is a multi-voiced reflection on the practical conditions which define what it means to survive, to sustain body and soul, on less than a dollar a day:

Their water and their food, their lust for money and the money of love, their friends and their family, their roots and their memories, their futureless future, their confrontation with the stranger in their midst, with the ‘White world’ beyond.

Through the voice of this songster on a tin-roof, “Swahilini” offers an intimate encounter with the Africa-of-the-disinherited – a sentimental and a movingly lyrical look at the dreams of men and women who are only what they have, who live for having, and not for being.

- description by Pierre Klochendler

Comments from the Curator:

The film reveals modern Africa as a complex place -- unromanticized, with people speaking honestly about their view of colonialism, daily life, and the all-encompassing need for money. Daddy Maisha records AIDS awareness songs and is connected to his community of Manzese, greeting men and women alike with a familiar 'soul shake'. He prays before beginning the recording of his first album, "Fleur Rose".

Contradictions and ironies abound. At a flea market, a Muslim woman tries on a bra over her hijab. The derelict building where unemployed young men hang out to smoke dope, gamble, and dream of emigrating to Europe or North America to make money, bears graffiti such as 'Nas', the name of an American rapper, and 'Tesco', the name of a British retail chain, on its walls. A plastic bucket, beaten with two Afro combs, becomes a percussion instrument.

The traditional walls between filmmaker and subjects are removed as Tanzanians speak directly about inequalities of wealth and power and the damage of colonialism to the heart and psyche. "I 'm not afraid of you or Osama," declares one young flaneur.

Poverty and struggle are presented honestly and directly. A man who earns $4 USD/ day by hauling 476 pound sacks greets the filmmaker with a not-quite-teasing shout of , "Hey, white man, give me my wage!" Again and again, the cyncism, belief that all Whites are wealthy, and a hard-eyed pragmatism reveal themselves. Neighbors ask Maisha, "Why are you working? A White man is looking after you."

Daddy Maisha records AIDS awareness songs and is connected to his community of Manzese, greeting men and women alike with a familiar 'soul shake'. He prays before beginning the recording of his first album, "Fleur Rose".

A limited number of copies of Daddy Maisha’s CD are available for sale ($20) at the merchandise table in the festival lobby. All sale proceeds will go directly to Daddy Maisha.

Other films screening during the program include:

THE SWENKAS

Among the laborers working in Johannesburg are a group of men who transform themselves every Saturday night into Swenkas. They wear finely tailored Western suits and participate in a competition that is part fashion show, part beauty contest, part talent. Director: Jeppe Rønde.2004. 72 min.

SUFFERING & SMILING

Political dissident, musician, and cultural figure Fela Anikulapo Kuti. Relatives and fellow musicians give accounts of how Nigeria's government harassed Kuti. Includes an account of how his son, Femi Kuti, has become a musician and dissident in his own right. Director: Dan Ollman.2007. 60 min.

General admission to the program, which includes all 3 films, is $7.00.