Horace Ové’s masterpiece “Pressure” is getting the spotlight treatment courtesy of Janus Films and the Brooklyn Academy of Music (Bam).
“Pressure” will screen for two weeks as part of the museum’s ode to Black British cinema. The program, titled “Uncharted Territories: Black Britain on Film, 1963-1986” will take place from May 3 through 7, leading up to the new 4K restoration of “Pressure,” widely regarded as the first Black British narrative feature film.
“Uncharted Territories” features rarely screened work from filmmakers of African and Caribbean heritage based in Britain. The series includes “Burning an Illusion,” directed by Menelik Shabazz (1981), John Akomfrah’s “Handsworth Songs” (1986), “Territories” directed by Isaac Julien (1984), and more. The festival is programmed by Ashley Clark.
Screenings of “Pressure” begin May 10 and will continue through May 23. Herbert Norville, Oscar James, and Frank Singuineau star in the feature that follows a London-born teen (Norville), who is the son of Trinidadian parents.
“Pressure” will screen for two weeks as part of the museum’s ode to Black British cinema. The program, titled “Uncharted Territories: Black Britain on Film, 1963-1986” will take place from May 3 through 7, leading up to the new 4K restoration of “Pressure,” widely regarded as the first Black British narrative feature film.
“Uncharted Territories” features rarely screened work from filmmakers of African and Caribbean heritage based in Britain. The series includes “Burning an Illusion,” directed by Menelik Shabazz (1981), John Akomfrah’s “Handsworth Songs” (1986), “Territories” directed by Isaac Julien (1984), and more. The festival is programmed by Ashley Clark.
Screenings of “Pressure” begin May 10 and will continue through May 23. Herbert Norville, Oscar James, and Frank Singuineau star in the feature that follows a London-born teen (Norville), who is the son of Trinidadian parents.
- 4/29/2024
- by Samantha Bergeson
- Indiewire
Horace Ové, director of “Pressure” (1976), the first full-length Black British film, died on Sept. 16. He was 86.
Ové’s son Zak posted on Facebook: “Our loving father Horace, took his last breath at 4.30 this morning, while sleeping peacefully. I hope his spirit is free now after many years of suffering with Alzheimer’s. You are forever missed, and forever loved. Rest in Peace Pops, and thank you for everything.”
Born in Trinidad in 1936, Ové’s moved to London in 1960 to study interior design. A stint in Rome, during which he worked as a film extra including on Joseph Mankiewicz’s “Cleopatra” (1963), he was exposed to the work of Federico Fellini and Vittorio De Sica, who would become infuences. He returned to Britain in 1965 and covered social and political events in the country while being a student at the London Film School. During the 1960s and 1970s he was one of the...
Ové’s son Zak posted on Facebook: “Our loving father Horace, took his last breath at 4.30 this morning, while sleeping peacefully. I hope his spirit is free now after many years of suffering with Alzheimer’s. You are forever missed, and forever loved. Rest in Peace Pops, and thank you for everything.”
Born in Trinidad in 1936, Ové’s moved to London in 1960 to study interior design. A stint in Rome, during which he worked as a film extra including on Joseph Mankiewicz’s “Cleopatra” (1963), he was exposed to the work of Federico Fellini and Vittorio De Sica, who would become infuences. He returned to Britain in 1965 and covered social and political events in the country while being a student at the London Film School. During the 1960s and 1970s he was one of the...
- 9/17/2023
- by Naman Ramachandran
- Variety Film + TV
The work of pioneering Black British filmmaker Horace Ové will be celebrated this fall with a BFI Southbank retrospective season titled Power to the People: Horace Ové’s Radical Vision.
A 4K restored version of “Pressure” (1976), the first full-length Black British film, which is an exploration of the concerns faced by emerging second-generation West Indians in Britain, will receive a joint restoration world premiere at the BFI London Film Festival and the New York Film Festival on Oct. 11. This precedes the film’s U.K.-wide cinema release by BFI Distribution and on BFI Player on Nov. 3.
The restoration, funded by the BFI Production Board and conducted by the BFI National Archive and The Film Foundation, was made possible with contributions from the Hobson/Lucas Family Foundation and the BFI philanthropy Pioneers of Black British Filmmaking consortium. It was accomplished in collaboration with the Ové family and producer Robert Buckler,...
A 4K restored version of “Pressure” (1976), the first full-length Black British film, which is an exploration of the concerns faced by emerging second-generation West Indians in Britain, will receive a joint restoration world premiere at the BFI London Film Festival and the New York Film Festival on Oct. 11. This precedes the film’s U.K.-wide cinema release by BFI Distribution and on BFI Player on Nov. 3.
The restoration, funded by the BFI Production Board and conducted by the BFI National Archive and The Film Foundation, was made possible with contributions from the Hobson/Lucas Family Foundation and the BFI philanthropy Pioneers of Black British Filmmaking consortium. It was accomplished in collaboration with the Ové family and producer Robert Buckler,...
- 8/21/2023
- by Naman Ramachandran
- Variety Film + TV
Salmon is a Screen Star of Tomorrow 2022 and the creator of BBC, A24 and Big Deal Films series ‘Dreaming Whilst Black’.
Screen Star of Tomorrow 2022 Adjani Salmon received the inaugural Menelik Shabazz legacy award at the UK’s Windrush Caribbean Film Festival, which drew to a close on Friday (June 30) at London’s Genesis cinema.
The award was created in honour of late UK filmmaker Menelik Shabazz, who died in 2021, and is considered one of the godfathers of Black British cinema.
Salmon is an actor-writer-director, whose BBC, A24 and Big Deal Films series Dreaming Whilst Black will air in...
Screen Star of Tomorrow 2022 Adjani Salmon received the inaugural Menelik Shabazz legacy award at the UK’s Windrush Caribbean Film Festival, which drew to a close on Friday (June 30) at London’s Genesis cinema.
The award was created in honour of late UK filmmaker Menelik Shabazz, who died in 2021, and is considered one of the godfathers of Black British cinema.
Salmon is an actor-writer-director, whose BBC, A24 and Big Deal Films series Dreaming Whilst Black will air in...
- 7/5/2023
- by Mona Tabbara
- ScreenDaily
Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. For daily updates follow us @NotebookMUBI.NEWSHam on Rye.Tyler Taormina, director of the idiosyncratic Ham on Rye (2019) and Happer's Comet (2022), has wrapped production on his next feature. Filmed on Long Island, Christmas Eve In Miller’s Point is a Christmas comedy that stars Michael Cera, Elsie Fisher, and Gregg Turkington, plus the progeny of two prominent filmmakers in Francesca Scorsese and Sawyer Spielberg.The Guardian reports that filmmaker Brian Rose is attempting to “recreate” the lost version of Orson Welles’s The Magnificent Ambersons (1942), which was altered significantly by Rko prior to its release. Using “the latest technology to reconstruct lost material and animate charcoal sketches,” Rose has reportedly spent four years recreating “around 30,000 frames” of Welles’s original rough cut in order that viewers can visualize what Welles intended in lieu of seeing the director’s original cut,...
- 6/21/2023
- MUBI
The festival will run across the UK from June 6-21.
The UK’s Windrush Caribbean Film Festival is readying its fourth edition, which will be the first to run under the artistic direction of Emmanuel Anyiam-Osigwe, the founder of the British Urban Film Festival.
The festival will honour the 75th anniversary of the arrrival of the Windrush generation in the UK, the people from the Caribbean countries who came to work in the nascent National Health Service and the sectors facing a post-war labour shortage between 1948 and the early 1970s. Hmt Empire Windrush was one of the ships that carried them to the UK.
The UK’s Windrush Caribbean Film Festival is readying its fourth edition, which will be the first to run under the artistic direction of Emmanuel Anyiam-Osigwe, the founder of the British Urban Film Festival.
The festival will honour the 75th anniversary of the arrrival of the Windrush generation in the UK, the people from the Caribbean countries who came to work in the nascent National Health Service and the sectors facing a post-war labour shortage between 1948 and the early 1970s. Hmt Empire Windrush was one of the ships that carried them to the UK.
- 4/25/2023
- by Mona Tabbara
- ScreenDaily
Film director, producer and activist whose work highlighted structural inequalities and racism in British life
The film director, producer and activist Henry Martin, who has died aged 70, following a long illness, created a groundbreaking body of work depicting black British life, highlighting the structural inequalities and racism, but also the effervescent creativity and shared experiences that allowed black communities to thrive.
Martin began his career through the independent production company Kuumba Black Arts, which he founded with Menelik Shabazz and Imruh Bakari in the late 1970s. In Grove Carnival, a short documentary broadcast by Channel 4 in 1981, he captured the unique creative expressions of the Caribbean immigrant community of Ladbroke Grove, west London, allowing viewers to experience the intensity of its steel-pan bands and costumed masquerades, as well as the multicultural character of the carnival audience.
The film director, producer and activist Henry Martin, who has died aged 70, following a long illness, created a groundbreaking body of work depicting black British life, highlighting the structural inequalities and racism, but also the effervescent creativity and shared experiences that allowed black communities to thrive.
Martin began his career through the independent production company Kuumba Black Arts, which he founded with Menelik Shabazz and Imruh Bakari in the late 1970s. In Grove Carnival, a short documentary broadcast by Channel 4 in 1981, he captured the unique creative expressions of the Caribbean immigrant community of Ladbroke Grove, west London, allowing viewers to experience the intensity of its steel-pan bands and costumed masquerades, as well as the multicultural character of the carnival audience.
- 6/28/2022
- by David Katz
- The Guardian - Film News
Revisiting last year's introduction when putting together 2021's favorites, it is with a shock to realize how little has changed in the wildly disrupted world of cinema under the shroud of the pandemic. The urge to copy-and-paste the whole shebang is quite tempting indeed.What can we say about this year, 2021? We got a little more used to long-term instability. Cinemas and festivals re-opened, only for some to close again. We, like many, ventured carefully out into the world to finally see films again with audiences, all kinds: nervous ones, uproarious ones, spartan ones, and delighted ones. It was an experience both anxious and joyous. We also doubled down on the challenges, but also the pleasures, of home viewing: of virtual cinemas and virtual festivals, of straight to streaming premieres, of trying to capture a social joy in semi-isolation by connecting with others over experiences shared and disparate.The long...
- 12/27/2021
- MUBI
Buff Awards Honor Menelik Shabazz
Burning An Illusion filmmaker Menelik Shabazz will be posthumously handed the Honourary Award at this year’s 16th British Urban Film Festival (Buff) Awards. Barbados-born Shabazz, who died in June, was a pioneer of Black British cinema, best known for 1981 feature Burning An Illusion. Clare Anyiam-Osigwe, Co-Executive producer of the Buff Awards, said: “As a custodian of the culture, it goes without saying that the untimely passing of Menelik Shabazz will be noted and recognised at our biggest night of the year and, like with several of our awards which are named after significant Black figures, Menelik’s legacy will never be forgotten as long as Buff is breathing.” The likes of Ophelia J. Wisdom (Navy), Emiko (Baby Boy) and Rez Kabir (Unintentionhell) are nominated in major categories. Elsewhere, Black Creative by Meena Ayittey and Ultraviolence by Ken Fero are set to battle it out for the Best Documentary Award.
Burning An Illusion filmmaker Menelik Shabazz will be posthumously handed the Honourary Award at this year’s 16th British Urban Film Festival (Buff) Awards. Barbados-born Shabazz, who died in June, was a pioneer of Black British cinema, best known for 1981 feature Burning An Illusion. Clare Anyiam-Osigwe, Co-Executive producer of the Buff Awards, said: “As a custodian of the culture, it goes without saying that the untimely passing of Menelik Shabazz will be noted and recognised at our biggest night of the year and, like with several of our awards which are named after significant Black figures, Menelik’s legacy will never be forgotten as long as Buff is breathing.” The likes of Ophelia J. Wisdom (Navy), Emiko (Baby Boy) and Rez Kabir (Unintentionhell) are nominated in major categories. Elsewhere, Black Creative by Meena Ayittey and Ultraviolence by Ken Fero are set to battle it out for the Best Documentary Award.
- 11/19/2021
- by Anuj Radia
- Deadline Film + TV
Scorsese Joins Mundruczó’s ‘Evolution’; Crytpt TV’s First Indian Horror; Buff Lineup — Global Briefs
Martin Scorsese Joins ‘Evolution’ As Exec Producer
Martin Scorsese is joining Kornél Mundruczó’s Cannes title Evolution as an executive producer. This marks his second collaboration with the filmmaker and screenwriter Kata Wéber after Oscar nominee Pieces Of A Woman. “Every new movie by Mundruczó and Wéber comes as a welcome shock to the senses for the viewer and for the filmmaker – they never stop advancing into uncharted territory. With Evolution, they find a way to dramatize the movement of time itself, the ways that we remember and the ways that we forget,” said Scorsese. The pic, which explores a family’s experiences from World War II to present-day Berlin, had its world premiere at on the Croisette earlier this year. It stars Lili Monori (Delta), Annamária Láng (Nothing Really Happened), Goya Rego, Padmé Hamdemir and Jule Böwe (The Silence). The movie is produced by Viola Fügen, Michael Weber and Viktória Petrányi,...
Martin Scorsese is joining Kornél Mundruczó’s Cannes title Evolution as an executive producer. This marks his second collaboration with the filmmaker and screenwriter Kata Wéber after Oscar nominee Pieces Of A Woman. “Every new movie by Mundruczó and Wéber comes as a welcome shock to the senses for the viewer and for the filmmaker – they never stop advancing into uncharted territory. With Evolution, they find a way to dramatize the movement of time itself, the ways that we remember and the ways that we forget,” said Scorsese. The pic, which explores a family’s experiences from World War II to present-day Berlin, had its world premiere at on the Croisette earlier this year. It stars Lili Monori (Delta), Annamária Láng (Nothing Really Happened), Goya Rego, Padmé Hamdemir and Jule Böwe (The Silence). The movie is produced by Viola Fügen, Michael Weber and Viktória Petrányi,...
- 11/9/2021
- by Anuj Radia
- Deadline Film + TV
Next month’s Criterion Channel selection is here, and as 2021 winds down further cements their status as our single greatest streaming service. Off the top I took note of their eight-film Jia Zhangke retro as well as the streaming premieres of Center Stage and Malni. And, yes, Margaret has been on HBO Max for a while, but we can hope Criterion Channel’s addition—as part of the 63(!)-film “New York Stories”—opens doors to a more deserving home-video treatment.
Aki Kaurismäki’s Finland Trilogy, Bruno Dumont’s Joan of Arc duology, and Criterion’s editions of Irma Vep and Flowers of Shanghai also mark major inclusions—just a few years ago the thought of Hou’s masterpiece streaming in HD was absurd.
I could implore you not to sleep on The Hottest August and Point Blank and Variety and In the Cut or, look, so many Ernst Lubitsch movies,...
Aki Kaurismäki’s Finland Trilogy, Bruno Dumont’s Joan of Arc duology, and Criterion’s editions of Irma Vep and Flowers of Shanghai also mark major inclusions—just a few years ago the thought of Hou’s masterpiece streaming in HD was absurd.
I could implore you not to sleep on The Hottest August and Point Blank and Variety and In the Cut or, look, so many Ernst Lubitsch movies,...
- 8/25/2021
- by Leonard Pearce
- The Film Stage
Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. For daily updates follow us @NotebookMUBI.NEWSAbove: The Souvenir Part II. (Courtesy of A24)NYFF has announced its full main slate, which includes Paul Verhoeven's Benedetta, Joanna Hogg's The Souvenir Part II, Julia Ducournau's Titane, Apichatpong Weerasethakul's Memoria, and more. A long-gestating epistolary documentary that consists of a dialogue between Jean-Luc Godard and Iranian filmmaker and intellectual Ebrahim Golestan is set to premiere on the international festival circuit. The project consisted of Golestan sending emails with text and no visuals to Godard, who would respond with visuals and aphorisms. Mel Brooks' memoir, My Remarkable Life in Show Business, will be released November 30. The book is said to follow the "peaks and valleys" of Brooks' storied life beginning with his childhood, retold with his signature irreverent humor. Recommended VIEWINGThe official trailer for Andreas Fontana's riveting political thriller Azor,...
- 8/11/2021
- MUBI
Film-maker and campaigner who chronicled the struggles and experiences of black people in Britain
The groundbreaking film director and activist Menelik Shabazz, who has died aged 67 of diabetes-related complications, produced a compelling body of work depicting the lives of black Britons, underlining their struggles with pervasive racism, and countering the often reductive narratives of the mainstream media.
He began his career with unsparing television documentaries such as Breaking Point: The “Sus Law” Controversy, which helped in the campaign to repeal the police stop and search policy.
The groundbreaking film director and activist Menelik Shabazz, who has died aged 67 of diabetes-related complications, produced a compelling body of work depicting the lives of black Britons, underlining their struggles with pervasive racism, and countering the often reductive narratives of the mainstream media.
He began his career with unsparing television documentaries such as Breaking Point: The “Sus Law” Controversy, which helped in the campaign to repeal the police stop and search policy.
- 7/13/2021
- by David Katz
- The Guardian - Film News
Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. For daily updates follow us @NotebookMUBI.NEWSAbove: Bertrand Mandico's After Blue (Paradis sale).The lineup for the 2021 Locarno International Film Festival includes Piazza Grande screenings of Michael Mann's Heat and Gaspar Noé's Vortex, and the latest by by Bertrand Mandico, Axelle Ropert, Abel Ferrara, Salomé Lamas and more.The great filmmaker and actor Robert Downey Sr. has passed on at age 85. His incredible filmography includes Babo 73 (1964), Sweet Smell of Sex (1965), Chafed Elbows (1966), No More Excuses (1968), Putney Swope (1969), Pound (1970), and Greaser's Palace (1972).In an interview on the Armchair Expert podcast, Quentin Tarantino announced that he has purchased Los Angeles' Vista Theatre, emphasizing that though the theatre will screen both new and old movies, it will be "only film [...] the best prints." Screenwriter and filmmaker Clare Peploe has died. Though best known for her screenplays for Bernardo Bertolucci's Besieged and La Luna,...
- 7/7/2021
- MUBI
Past winners of the first feature prize include Jim Jarmusch, Mira Nair, Naomi Kawase, Steve McQueen, Houda Benyamina and Lukas Dhont.
The Cannes Film Festival has named French actress Mélanie Thierry as jury president for the 2021 Caméra d’Or award reserved for all first features premiering across Official Selection and the parallel sections of Directors’ Fortnight and Critics’ Week.
”Nothing is as fragile or as miraculous as a first movie. This testifies to the courage and the faith of all the directors who, after such a long period of seclusion, succeeded in providing us with a window on the outside world,...
The Cannes Film Festival has named French actress Mélanie Thierry as jury president for the 2021 Caméra d’Or award reserved for all first features premiering across Official Selection and the parallel sections of Directors’ Fortnight and Critics’ Week.
”Nothing is as fragile or as miraculous as a first movie. This testifies to the courage and the faith of all the directors who, after such a long period of seclusion, succeeded in providing us with a window on the outside world,...
- 6/30/2021
- by Melanie Goodfellow
- ScreenDaily
Filmmaker was known for titles such as ‘The Story Of Lovers Rock’ and ‘Burning An Illusion’.
UK filmmaker Menelik Shabazz, known as a pioneer in the development of contemporary Black British cinema, has died aged 67.
Shabazz’s death was confirmed to Screen by his daughter, film curator Nadia Denton, who said he died in Zimbabwe of diabetes-related complications.
The writer, director and producer had relocated to Zimbabwe to work on a new project, The Spirits Return, his first full-length fiction feature in 40 years.
Shabazz is known for films including the 1981 drama Burning An Illusion, which is said to be the...
UK filmmaker Menelik Shabazz, known as a pioneer in the development of contemporary Black British cinema, has died aged 67.
Shabazz’s death was confirmed to Screen by his daughter, film curator Nadia Denton, who said he died in Zimbabwe of diabetes-related complications.
The writer, director and producer had relocated to Zimbabwe to work on a new project, The Spirits Return, his first full-length fiction feature in 40 years.
Shabazz is known for films including the 1981 drama Burning An Illusion, which is said to be the...
- 6/29/2021
- by Michael Rosser
- ScreenDaily
Burning an Illusion director and founder of Black Filmmaker Magazine died while working on a new film in Zimbabwe
Menelik Shabazz, the director and writer who blazed a trail for black film-makers in the UK, has died. The news was confirmed to the Guardian by Shabazz’s daughter Nadia Denton, who said that the director died in Zimbabwe on Monday of diabetes-related complications. Shabazz was working on a new project, The Spirits Return, his first full-length fiction feature since his 1981 debut, Burning an Illusion.
In a statement his family said: “Menelik was a passionate film-maker and forged the way for many black film-makers … We have been touched by the tributes from those that knew him, worked with him and were inspired by his work.”...
Menelik Shabazz, the director and writer who blazed a trail for black film-makers in the UK, has died. The news was confirmed to the Guardian by Shabazz’s daughter Nadia Denton, who said that the director died in Zimbabwe on Monday of diabetes-related complications. Shabazz was working on a new project, The Spirits Return, his first full-length fiction feature since his 1981 debut, Burning an Illusion.
In a statement his family said: “Menelik was a passionate film-maker and forged the way for many black film-makers … We have been touched by the tributes from those that knew him, worked with him and were inspired by his work.”...
- 6/29/2021
- by Andrew Pulver
- The Guardian - Film News
Pioneering British filmmaker Menelik Shabazz, who was a stalwart of contemporary British cinema for over three decades, has died. He was 67.
The director, writer and educator was reportedly in Zimbabwe at the time of his death, where he was believed to be working on his latest project. The news was first reported on Tuesday, and no cause of death has been released.
At 6 years old, Shabazz moved from Barbados to the U.K., where he launched his film career. At 26, he made “Blood Ah Go Run” about the response to a devastating fire that ripped through New Cross in South East London in 1981, killing 13 teenagers and injuring dozens more. The fire was believed to have been deliberate and racially motivated. “It was a historic moment that was important to document,” he said of the tragedy.
His first feature, “Burning An Illusion,” was supported by the British Film Institute (BFI) and...
The director, writer and educator was reportedly in Zimbabwe at the time of his death, where he was believed to be working on his latest project. The news was first reported on Tuesday, and no cause of death has been released.
At 6 years old, Shabazz moved from Barbados to the U.K., where he launched his film career. At 26, he made “Blood Ah Go Run” about the response to a devastating fire that ripped through New Cross in South East London in 1981, killing 13 teenagers and injuring dozens more. The fire was believed to have been deliberate and racially motivated. “It was a historic moment that was important to document,” he said of the tragedy.
His first feature, “Burning An Illusion,” was supported by the British Film Institute (BFI) and...
- 6/29/2021
- by K.J. Yossman
- Variety Film + TV
Menelik Shabazz, the impactful British filmmaker, has died at 67. The news has been widely circulated on social media, with numerous people who worked closely with the director confirming his passing and adding tributes today.
According to arts website alt-africa, he died in Zimbabwe on June 28. No cause of death was given.
Born in Barbados in 1954, Shabazz moved to the UK at age 6. He began experimenting with filmmaking while at college in London and made his first step into his career with the 1976 short Step Forward Youth, a 30-minute documentary about Black youths in London.
After gigs directing television, he embarked on his first feature, Burning an Illusion, which he wrote and directed. The acclaimed movie, supported by the British Film Institute, told the story of a young Black woman’s love life. The pic is said to be only the second ever British feature directed by a Black filmmaker and...
According to arts website alt-africa, he died in Zimbabwe on June 28. No cause of death was given.
Born in Barbados in 1954, Shabazz moved to the UK at age 6. He began experimenting with filmmaking while at college in London and made his first step into his career with the 1976 short Step Forward Youth, a 30-minute documentary about Black youths in London.
After gigs directing television, he embarked on his first feature, Burning an Illusion, which he wrote and directed. The acclaimed movie, supported by the British Film Institute, told the story of a young Black woman’s love life. The pic is said to be only the second ever British feature directed by a Black filmmaker and...
- 6/29/2021
- by Tom Grater
- Deadline Film + TV
The Sheffield DocFest has unveiled its line-up for its 2021 programme that includes the World Premiere of the first instalment of Academy Award winner Steve McQueen’s new series for the BBC, ‘Uprising’.
For the first time, Sheffield DocFest goes nationwide with five premiere screenings showing in up to 16 partner cinemas in cities around the UK, and online, followed by pre-recorded Q&As. It also includes the previously announced Retrospective: Films belong to those who need them – fragments from the history of Black British Cinema.
The celebration of Black British screen culture – curated by guest curators including David Olusoga. Films of all lengths will all be presented as part of the retrospective including titles such as ‘Burning An Illusion’ by Menelik Shabazz, ‘It Ain’t Half Racist’, ‘Mum’ by Stuart Hall, ‘Looking for Langston’ by Isaac Julien, ‘Second Coming’ by Debbie Tucker Green, ‘The Black Safari’ by Colin Luke, ‘Baby Mother...
For the first time, Sheffield DocFest goes nationwide with five premiere screenings showing in up to 16 partner cinemas in cities around the UK, and online, followed by pre-recorded Q&As. It also includes the previously announced Retrospective: Films belong to those who need them – fragments from the history of Black British Cinema.
The celebration of Black British screen culture – curated by guest curators including David Olusoga. Films of all lengths will all be presented as part of the retrospective including titles such as ‘Burning An Illusion’ by Menelik Shabazz, ‘It Ain’t Half Racist’, ‘Mum’ by Stuart Hall, ‘Looking for Langston’ by Isaac Julien, ‘Second Coming’ by Debbie Tucker Green, ‘The Black Safari’ by Colin Luke, ‘Baby Mother...
- 5/17/2021
- by Zehra Phelan
- HeyUGuys.co.uk
If you’ve been jealous of those across the pond that get access to The British Film Institute’s streaming service BFI Player Classics, one will be delighted to hear it’s now coming to the United States. Launching on May 14, the curated collection––which will have offering distinct from its UK counterpart––will kick off with over 200 British or British co-production films picked by BFI experts.
With work by legendary directors Alfred Hitchcock, Michael Powell, Ken Russell, and Ken Loach, it also includes a number of ground-breaking British filmmakers who deserve more attention, including Horace Ové, Laura Mulvey, Ron Peck; Menelik Shabazz, Sally Potter, Gurinder Chadha (I’m British But… 1989), Waris Hussein, and John Akomfrah.
“BFI Player Classics brings together a collection of British films – the cinematic DNA of the UK – that is essential for anyone who wants to see and understand the best of British film,” said Robin Baker,...
With work by legendary directors Alfred Hitchcock, Michael Powell, Ken Russell, and Ken Loach, it also includes a number of ground-breaking British filmmakers who deserve more attention, including Horace Ové, Laura Mulvey, Ron Peck; Menelik Shabazz, Sally Potter, Gurinder Chadha (I’m British But… 1989), Waris Hussein, and John Akomfrah.
“BFI Player Classics brings together a collection of British films – the cinematic DNA of the UK – that is essential for anyone who wants to see and understand the best of British film,” said Robin Baker,...
- 4/26/2021
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
UK Screen Industries Survey Highlights Socio-Economic Imbalance
A new survey has found that the majority of people working in the UK’s screen industries are from a background that is classified as ‘privileged’. The survey, conducted by the Creative Industries Policy & Evidence Centre and backed by ScreenSkills, analyzed data from the latest edition of the Office for National Statistics’ Labour Force Survey in 2019. Their research found that 53% of those surveyed from the screen industries, including the film, TV and games businesses, were from a privileged background. Looking specifically at the careers of key creative roles, specified here as arts officers, producers and directors, the number rose to 61%. That was in comparison with 38% across all industries. The definition of having a privileged background is those who had at least one parent whose job was a higher or lower managerial, administrative or professional occupation. In contrast, the screen industries employed only 25% from a ‘working class’ background,...
A new survey has found that the majority of people working in the UK’s screen industries are from a background that is classified as ‘privileged’. The survey, conducted by the Creative Industries Policy & Evidence Centre and backed by ScreenSkills, analyzed data from the latest edition of the Office for National Statistics’ Labour Force Survey in 2019. Their research found that 53% of those surveyed from the screen industries, including the film, TV and games businesses, were from a privileged background. Looking specifically at the careers of key creative roles, specified here as arts officers, producers and directors, the number rose to 61%. That was in comparison with 38% across all industries. The definition of having a privileged background is those who had at least one parent whose job was a higher or lower managerial, administrative or professional occupation. In contrast, the screen industries employed only 25% from a ‘working class’ background,...
- 4/23/2021
- by Tom Grater
- Deadline Film + TV
The Buff founder and chairman talks inspiration, new talent, and curators.
Emmanuel Anyiam-Osigwe is chairman of the British Urban Film Festival (Buff), which he founded in 2005. He reveals who inspires his viewing choices, following the talent he first noticed at the festival and why it is a great time to be a Black creative.
My editorial nose comes from Menelik Shabazz, who was one of the first prominent Black British filmmakers. I worked for him at the [now-online] Black Filmmaker Magazine (Bfm), which he started in the late 1990s. I’m guided by my wife [writer/director Clare Anyiam-Osigwe], who has a lot more time than I do!
Emmanuel Anyiam-Osigwe is chairman of the British Urban Film Festival (Buff), which he founded in 2005. He reveals who inspires his viewing choices, following the talent he first noticed at the festival and why it is a great time to be a Black creative.
My editorial nose comes from Menelik Shabazz, who was one of the first prominent Black British filmmakers. I worked for him at the [now-online] Black Filmmaker Magazine (Bfm), which he started in the late 1990s. I’m guided by my wife [writer/director Clare Anyiam-Osigwe], who has a lot more time than I do!
- 1/22/2021
- by Ben Dalton
- ScreenDaily
The title of fourth of Steve McQueen’s Small Axe films, Alex Wheatle, practically begs of an addendum: It could just as well start with The Miseducation Of. Or, rather, reeducation. The Alex Wheatle that we meet up top, played by Sheyi Cole, is a man who at one point knew almost nothing. He doesn’t know how to take care of his hair. He doesn’t know about Babylon — which is to say, a Britain whose prime quality is its imperial evil. He doesn’t know about cops and why to avoid them,...
- 12/15/2020
- by K. Austin Collins
- Rollingstone.com
Normally, IndieWire’s Stream of the Day feature focuses on movies that you can watch at home. Today, we’re using this space to call out a few that should be available, but aren’t. At one time or another, we have all probably experienced this frustrating conundrum: You want to watch a movie or TV show that sneaks its way into your consciousness, or was recommended by a trusted source, and, like most people, you first try the streaming services — especially in the current environment — but none of them carry it, not even as a rental or purchase on Amazon or iTunes. That’s especially true for films from black filmmakers.
For example, none of the films from key L.A. Rebellion filmmaker, Haile Gerima are available to stream on any platform, nor is Ivan Dixon’s classic “The Spook Who Sat By the Door” (1973), or Jessie Maple’s 1981 film “Will,...
For example, none of the films from key L.A. Rebellion filmmaker, Haile Gerima are available to stream on any platform, nor is Ivan Dixon’s classic “The Spook Who Sat By the Door” (1973), or Jessie Maple’s 1981 film “Will,...
- 5/7/2020
- by Tambay Obenson
- Indiewire
A frank, funny documentary tells ordinary tales to chronicle the state of modern love in the black British community
Interviews, poetry, dance and music combine in Menelik Shabazz’s frank, funny and accessible account of heterosexual modern love. Focusing on the first-hand experiences of the black British community – from young singletons out and about at carnival to a couple who have been married for 50 years – this shoestring-budget doc lends a non-judgmental ear to opinions that range from the eye-opening to the jaw-dropping. A tighter edit may have reined in some of the woollier psychobabble, but the desire to place abusive relationships within a wider historical context (slavery, emasculation etc) pays dividends. Comedians lend mouthy pizzazz but it’s the ordinary tales that tell the greatest truths.
Continue reading...
Interviews, poetry, dance and music combine in Menelik Shabazz’s frank, funny and accessible account of heterosexual modern love. Focusing on the first-hand experiences of the black British community – from young singletons out and about at carnival to a couple who have been married for 50 years – this shoestring-budget doc lends a non-judgmental ear to opinions that range from the eye-opening to the jaw-dropping. A tighter edit may have reined in some of the woollier psychobabble, but the desire to place abusive relationships within a wider historical context (slavery, emasculation etc) pays dividends. Comedians lend mouthy pizzazz but it’s the ordinary tales that tell the greatest truths.
Continue reading...
- 8/23/2015
- by Mark Kermode, Observer film critic
- The Guardian - Film News
Menelik Shabazz’s exploration of relationships in the UK’s black British community is laidback and likable
Now that “dating” has again become a topic of brow-furrowing media concern, with Tinder being wheeled out as the villain, it’s a relief to come across something on the subject with such laidback warmth. It’s overlong, needing a stricter edit, but engaging and sympathetic. Film-maker Menelik Shabazz looks at dating and relationships in the UK’s black British community, talking to single people, therapists, relationship counsellors and also to comics, including Andi Osho, who can be relied upon to supply a suitably ribald account of what’s at stake.
Continue reading...
Now that “dating” has again become a topic of brow-furrowing media concern, with Tinder being wheeled out as the villain, it’s a relief to come across something on the subject with such laidback warmth. It’s overlong, needing a stricter edit, but engaging and sympathetic. Film-maker Menelik Shabazz looks at dating and relationships in the UK’s black British community, talking to single people, therapists, relationship counsellors and also to comics, including Andi Osho, who can be relied upon to supply a suitably ribald account of what’s at stake.
Continue reading...
- 8/20/2015
- by Peter Bradshaw
- The Guardian - Film News
Screening today at the Chicago African Diaspora International Film Festival (Adiff), June 12-18, hosted by Facets Cinematheque and presented by ArtMattan Productions, is Menelik Shabazz's "The Story Of Lovers Rock." Call it a 90-minute trip down memory lane, Menelik Shabazz’s documentary plays like a love letter to a style of music, the era in which it was born, those who were responsible for its creation, and those who embraced it, ensuring its longevity. From its beginnings in the mid-1970s, in the UK, as an offshoot of Reggae – but a romantic brand of reggae as Shabazz puts it - that would eventually become an internationally exploited style of...
- 6/16/2015
- by Tambay A. Obenson
- ShadowAndAct
Menelik Shabazz can legitimately claim that he has "been at the forefront of Contemporary British Cinema for over 30 years." Filmmaker ("The Story of Lovers Rock," "Burning an Illusion"), producer, magazine publisher (Black Filmmakers Magazine - Bfm), educator and film festival organizer Shabazz has been on the cutting edge of not just black cinema, but of world cinema, for decades. And now, with his latest film, "Looking for Love," which world premiered at the Bfm International Film Festival last week, he takes an unexpected turn and looks at the subject of "black love" and "black relationships" among the younger...
- 6/1/2015
- by Sergio
- ShadowAndAct
The 12th edition of the Black Film Maker Festival (bfmiff2015) - the longest running black independent film festival in the UK - has announced that it's set to return to London after an absence of 4 years. The festival dates will be July 2 to July 5, at the Bernie Grant Arts Centre (Bgac). The festival has revealed its opening night film will be the documentary, “Looking for Love,” by Menelik Shabazz - black British film pioneer, veteran director/producer and the festival founder. “I am proud to present the 12th Edition of the bfm International Film Festival this year. We continue to give audiences the best in black world...
- 4/27/2015
- by Tambay A. Obenson
- ShadowAndAct
Menelik Shabazz can legitimately claim that he has "been at the forefront of Contemporary British Cinema for over 30 years." Filmmaker ("The Story of Lovers Rock," "Burning an Illusion"), producer, magazine publisher (Black Filmmakers Magazine), educator and film festival organizer Shabazz has been on the cutting edge of not just black cinema, but of world cinema, for decades. And now, with his latest film in progress, he takes an unexpected turn and looks at the subject of black love and relationships; and guess what? It’s not just African American men and women who are bemoaning the state of black relationships today. It’s a worldwide...
- 12/30/2014
- by Sergio
- ShadowAndAct
Crowdfund This: 'Looking for Love' - Menelik Shabazz's New Documentary on Black Love & Relationships
Menelik Shabazz can legitimately claim that he has "been at the forefront of Contemporary British Cinema for over 30 years." Filmmaker ("The Story of Lovers Rock," "Burning an Illusion"), producer, magazine publisher (Black Filmmakers Magazine), educator and film festival organizer Shabazz has been on the cutting edge of not just black cinema, but of world cinema, for decades. And now, with his latest film in progress, he takes an unexpected turn and looks at the subject of black love and relationships; and guess what? It’s not just African American men and women who are bemoaning the state of black relationships today. It’s a worldwide...
- 11/26/2014
- by Sergio
- ShadowAndAct
Courtesy of our friends at CaribbeanTales-tv - a partnership between VOD platform Onlinefilm and CaribbeanTales, a Canadian-based production/distribution company. The aim with this collaboration is to provide an online space for Caribbean films, accessible to audiences worldwide - a web portal that's controlled by filmmakers. This Sunday (and the next, September 15), audiences are invited to watch For Free, 24 hours of streaming of Caribbean films on the website.I counted a total of 18 films available - some of them you might be familiar with, given that we've covered them on this site, like: Menelik Shabazz's The Story Of Lover's Rock, Frances-Anne...
- 9/6/2013
- by Tambay A. Obenson
- ShadowAndAct
For those of you in New York, or who will be in New York this weekend... a selection of fiction and non-fiction films in the lineup - some we've covered in the past, like David Oyelowo and Nikki Amuka-Bird in Shoot The Messenger and Menelik Shabazz's ode to Lover's Rock, aptly titled The Story Of Lover's Rock; and others we haven't, like A Family Called Abrew and Time and Judgement. The full lineup, including screening dates and times, locations, and ticket prices, follows below: I'm British But... Black British Filmmakers Speak! is a film series of fictions and documentaries that explore the challenges faced by People of African descent in the UK. The African Diaspora...
- 4/26/2013
- by Tambay A. Obenson
- ShadowAndAct
Opening today at Mist Harlem cinemas for a 1-week run, courtesy of ArtMattan is Menelik Shabazz's The Story Of Lovers Rock. Call it a 90-minute trip down memory lane, Menelik Shabazz’s The Story Of Lovers Rock plays like a love letter to a style of music, the era in which it was born, those who were responsible for its creation, and those who embraced it, ensuring its longevity. From its beginnings in the mid-1970s, in the UK, as an offshoot of Reggae – a romantic brand of reggae as Shabazz put it, that would eventually become an internationally exploited style of music - Lovers Rock served both as a tool of empowerment for its fans – a group made up of mostly young black men...
- 4/19/2013
- by Tambay A. Obenson
- ShadowAndAct
Trinidad & Tobago is a very small country filled with every race, as varied as the innumerable species of rice. "One quality we all share as humans is we are all different from each other," to quote Dylan Kerrigan. T&T seems like a microcosm of the world today at its best. I know I am not seeing the daily or the political problems the people must cope with in their lives, but I do have the privilege not to be a tourist but a participant in trinidad + tobago film festival, a seven year old event. Film, one of the seven new industries this oil-rich republic has designated for development, is vibrant and alive here. This country is not only a tropical paradise with its beaches and its forests, its music and its people of indescribable beauty, but its intelligence -- made of Amerindian, African, East Indian, Asian, Arabic, Spanish, French, British and American traditions as translated by the new generation -- is unique. The new and well-educated generation, as we all know, has a special edge over the old and the mainstream. What do I mean with these flaunting words?
I am astounded by what I have discovered here. The Caribbean multiplicity of island cultures, T&T's proximity to Latin America and how the film festival's founder and director Bruce Paddington sees the film industry developing from this pivotal point inspires me and everyone who attends this festival.
To wax a little bit more poetic: the solution to the "immigration problem" can be solved simply by relabeling the state of the world today as one of Diaspora. When I grew up I thought the word Diaspora pertained exclusively to the Jews. We went through numerous diasporas, from the destruction of the first and second Temples in Jerusalem to the expulsion from Spain, then from all Europe. I think that if the greatest thinkers of the western world had not perished in the Shoah, we would have found words and formulations to deal with the issues of immigration and integration we are facing today. The words immigration and integration are antipodes. Looking at Trinidad & Tobago, immediately apparent and a constant topic of discussion in the society itself, in music, art and film, is Diaspora. The entire human race is represented here as a product of Diaspora, not immigrants, but citizens of a society of people in Diaspora. And the Diaspora of Trinidadians in the world today mainly to Canada, New York, U.K. and Miami sees more Trinidadians outside than in the country itself. Diaspora is the new synthesis of the world today.
Speaking of Diaspora, the country's genius-created instrument, Pan, or the steel drum, the only new musical instrument created in the 20th century, is now a subject of study in most university music schools and has more adherents and orchestras abroad than in the country itself. Pan is compulsory in Finnish primary schools. In France it builds self-esteem and discipline in schools in rough neighborhoods. There are more steelbands in Switzerland (although they are smaller) than in T&T (where a small orchestra has 120 members). In African it is different. Johannesburg ensembles combine pans and marimbas. In Tokyo they are extensions of large corporations. Soon all will come to pan’s Mecca for a grand family reunion. During Carnival, 1,000 steel drum musicians converge here from all over the world where a giant parade and competition called Panorama transform T&T into a musical paradise. You cannot imagine the transformative power of a steel band orchestra (called "pan") unless you experience it first hand.
A grand transmedia project called Pan is now being planned for 2013 by the film and music producer, Jean Michel Giber (his recently completed Calypso Rose is a doc about a 70 year old Calypso singer) and written by Dr. Kim Johnson a noted authority on the pan in collaboration with story consultant Fernanda Rossi who has doctored films that went on to be nominated for Academy Awards®.
And yet another aspect of Diaspora: Canada whose citizens are also spread throughout the world in diaspora and who has the most coproduction treaties in the world is also here lending strong sponsorship support through its Rbc Royal Bank which has banks throughout the Caribbean and Flow which offers internet, telephone and tv throughout the region. This year's focus is on Canada which is celebrating 50 years of diplomatic relations and cultural and creative links between the two countries. Aside from the number of Canadian films screening and the number of Canadian filmmakers attending, Christian Sida-Valenzuela, Director of the Vancouver Latin American Film Festival is on the jury.
The film world here is developing on four levels simultaneously and by design. Inclusive of British, French, Dutch and Spanish colonial and slave-trading traditions, Amerindian, African, Indian, Arab and Asian diaspora communities here are working in film education, festival, production and distribution not only at home but throughout the region of the Caribbean nations, already represented in The United Nations in a 15 member Caribbean Community political consortium called Caricom.
The industry has come to ttff to tell of subsidies and coproduction opportunities, possibilities for marketing and distribution in the global marketplace, and to give immersion workshops on filmmaking and film criticism.
Ttff has formed alliances with Tribeca Film Institute, Cba Worldview -- Commonwealth Broadcasting Association aims to improve U.K. public understanding and awareness of the developing world via the mainstream broadcast and digital media. WorldView supports producers bringing the richness and diversity of the wider-world to U.K. audiences. Cba Worldview provides seed funding to producers to enable them to spend time in the developing world researching stories, identifying characters and locations and shooting taster tapes. Cba Worldview itself has alliances with Tribeca, Sundance and Idfa. Other ttff alliances are with Cuba's Icaic and the Havana Film Festival, Curacao Film Festival which is itself an extension of the Rotterdam Film Festival, U.S.'s National Black Programming Consortium, a part of the Public Broadcasting System and Acp which is the European Union's cultural subsidy arm (separate from Eurimages).
Acp has a fund of €12 million to grant in all areas of culture to reinforce and support access to markets, improve the regulatory environment and reduce unemployment, and it grants €10 million of this to cinema and the audiovisual sector. Acp's Director, Mohamed Ben Shabbaz gave their award to the feature which best epitomizes cultural diversity to the feature Stone Street. On presenting the prize, he reiterated Acp's motto, "No future without culture" and presented the prize on behalf of its membership of 79 countries and their 800 million people while encouraging filmmakers to submit projects which are eligible if produced by any member of the Caribbean, African and Latin American nations included in the Acp for grants.
Because Guadaloupe is French, it can access the French Cnc production subsidies and coproductions with them can share this. The BBC seriesDeath in Paradise has been such a hit that the BBC is renewing the series to the benefit of Guadaloupe's coffers.
Another incentive to make movies in this untapped and untrammeled region of the world is the 35% rebate on monies spent on production in Trinidad.
All this bounty would stir me as a filmmaker anywhere in the world to hasten to find coproducers in these countries to make a movie out of the myriad of stories that exist here. Guadaloupe novelist Simone Schwartz-Bart's great novel written in collaboration with her husband, Andre Schwartz-Bart (Last of the Just), A Woman Called Solitude, one of the most emotionally moving novels I 've ever read, has yet to be made into a movie. Dominican writer Jean Rhys' Wide Saragossa Sea, the prequel to Bronte's Jane Eyre, has been made in 1993 and in 2006 and yet remains mostly forgotten. Perhaps it's time for a remake. Or how about the novels of Antiguan Jamaica Kincaid, Cuban Alejo Carpentier or Martiniquese Edward Glissant?
The winner of the Jury Prize for Best Caribbean Film by a non-Caribbean went to Canadian filmmaker Christy Garland for her documentary The Bastard Sings the Sweetest Song, a documentary that had the strongest buzz here. The trailer alone moved the audience at the awards ceremony to a collective and spontaneous sigh of sympathy. What a fiction adaptation could be made from the stories these people have to tell.
Some filmmakers are already embedding themselves here. Trinidadian native Ian Harnarin comes from Canada and lives in New York. We met at Tiff this year in a mentoring program where he was one of four most promising new filmmakers. His short was executive produced by Spike Lee. He is now working on the feature length film of the short. "I'm extremely happy to be taking my film Doubles With Slight Pepper to the Trinidad & Tobago Film Festival. The film was shot on location throughout Trinidad with a local cast and a lot of local crew. The film has garnered some amazing awards and screened at other festivals around the world, so Ttff will mark a homecoming for it. It's coming to be very special for the local audience to finally see it with the cast and filmmakers." This film is available on iTunes.
Alrick Brown, the director of Kinyarwanda, a hit of last year 's Sundance Ff, led the immersion workshops in documentaries with Fernanda Rossi, a New York based doc scriptwriter. Alrick also teaches at Rutgers and Nyu. Andrew Donsunmu, the director of Restless City which Ronna Wallace has been actively repping since Sundance (she just made a good digital deal for the film) and which will be released stateside by Affrm (as will Kinyarwanda) was part of a very interesting informal discussion which took place on the bus returning from our day at the beach about movement and the almost genetic styles of dance and choices of sports of the African diaspora...like why so many islanders can't swim, why they don't eat fish in Cuba, how Samba, Calypso, and a certain Jamaican dance use the same steps though to different beats. Such animated discussions of intercultural topics are frequent here and always fascinate and animate the participants and residents.
The filmmakers also participated in panels for the industry, sharing their motivation and modi operandi. Christy Garland, director of Bastards Sing the Sweetest Song, filmed in French Guyana spoke of how she enters an unknown culture with a vague idea for a subject and proceeds to draw people out until the story unveils itself to her. Patricia Benoit, director of Stones in the Sun which participated in Wroclaw's American Film Festival for films in post-production competition spoke of her dislike of people always talking of Haiti's "resilence" in the face of all its troubles and wanted to show the hidden wounds of Haitians with their own history while living in New York. The films title comes from the proverb, “Stones in the water don't know the suffering of stones in the sun.” You can read Indiewire's interview with her from Tribeca Film Festival here. Matias Meyer spoke of The Last Christeros, which showed in Toronto and is being sold by FiGa Films, wanting to show not the battles but the spaces between battles when a segment of the 90% Catholic population of Mexico waged war against the state in the 1920s when the government banned religion. American filmmaker Chris Metzler spoke of his film Everyday Sunshine: the Story of Fishbone as a wonderful tribute to failure. Another Trinidadian in Canada, Richard Fung talked of how when he grew up he loved dhalpuri roti and so set out to discover where this spicy flatbread was born in the film Dal Puri Diaspora. Next month Richard will present his film at Nyu. One entire panel discussion was given to The Jamaican Collective's New Caribbean Cinema collection of shorts all made Guerilla style in one day, Ring di Alarm. Shadow and Act covered this last month.
In addition to this productive work of sharing business ideas and sharing the visions of over 120 feature-length and short films, there is the added bonus of being in one of the most amazing spots on earth. Island people, isolated from mainland civilizations and united among themselves by the water which also separates them, have opened their arms and invited us to join them these past few days in celebrating life. They have shared the natural beauty and the music and other arts of their island paradise And imagine the food-- a mix, (like the people themselves) of Caribbean, Indian, Asian, Arabian and African cuisine, all so fresh and with a homemade touch which rivals your own home cooking. Bake and Shark, a deep fried pita stuffed with delicious fresh and tender shark, or Roti, a variation of a curry dish found in India, Doubles, another street food well loved by the people. The economy, supported by its oil industry which contributes 60% to the Gnp, though 40% is Bp, a cause for some political dissension, does not need to rely on tourism for its sustenance. And though this is the wealthiest of all the Caricom countries because of its oil and natural gas, it still has the ubiquitous poverty seen worldwide including in our own United States of America. It is by no means perfect, but...
In Moscow this past June, the event Doors held similar discussions among 25 American distributors and Russian filmmakers about exporting their films and creating viable co- productions. After those three days in Moscow, we were rewarded with the most spectacular trip any of us had ever experienced, driving to St. Petersburg and Petershof, attending the Mariansky Ballet to see Sleeping Beauty and the star ballet dancer of Russia from the best seats in the house, taking a long cruise through St. Petersburg's canals during the White Nights, when the sun never sets. That trip which we were privileged to participate in (thanks to L.A.'s Russian Film Commissioner Eleonora Granata and her boss Catherine Mtsitouridze who hired us to organize) did not surpass the bonus tour ttff gave us industry-ites to Las Maracas beach where we rode the waves in warm water until a tropical rain storm and hurricane type wind, lightning and thunder drove us out of the water to huddle under a shelter until if passed, and the evening Leslie Fields-Cruz of the National Programming Consortium of PBS and I spent with Trinidadian film and music producer, Jean Michel Gibert of Caribbean Music Group, music scholar extraordinaire Tim Johnson and Nestor Sullivan, music legend, steel drum virtuoso and manager of the prize-winning 120 piece steel band orchestra Pamberi at a steel drum orchestra rehearsal for Carnaval. I can say with authority, this experience was on an equal par with the best Russia has to offer.
Validation of the genius of this country can be found in the story of one man, Anthony Williams, who invented the tuned steelpan, and in a discussion I had with another Trinidad filmmaker, Janine Fung, who won the People's Choice for Best Documentary La Gaita. Janine, as you can guess from her name, is of Chinese descent, though thoroughly international and Trinidadian to boot. Her grandmother's extended family lived in Trinidad. Recently the Chinese embassy called her to see if she might research and make a documentary about a Trinidad woman who brought western ballet to China. When they named her she realized it as her grandmother's first cousin who had left Trinidad to study ballet in London and when she toured to China, she captivated the audience and remained to establish western ballet in China. No one in Trinidad is aware of this and Janine now must make the documentary. I love stories like this. Nestor Sullivan whose father played in the same steel drum orchestra which is 70 years old, told me that his grandmother told him he was the spitting image of her father who came to Trinidad somewhere between 1840 to 60 after slavery had been abolished (1833). His father was a Yoruban prince who was never enslaved except when kidnapped and carried to the New World. Looking at Nestor, you know this to be true. His grandmother was born in 1888. When we did the math, I calculated this was around the same time that my own grandmother was born after her mother had come to USA as a bride in 1881.
Filmmaker, Faisal Lutchmedial (Mr. Crab, a delightful short film of a shy 10 year old boy who idolizes and fears his imposing father and hides and escapes into a dream world, where the frightening Mr Crab with his deadly sharp claws awaits him until he hears the real fear in his father's voice when he cannot find him) resides in Montreal, and tells of his family's home in a section of Trinidad which has, to this day, remained almost exactly as it was when his father was a boy in 1945. In fact, he took a photograph of himself standing in the same spot where his father stood as a child and the surroundings are identical. He was looking forward to going there to "lime" for a few days after the festival.
When the two part France TV feature Toussaint Ouveture won two prizes, one for Audience Award for Best Narrative and the other to Jimmy Jean-Louis for Best Actor in a Caribbean film, Jimmy,whose stunning presence is as sweet as his beautiful face, and who is fluent in English, French, Spanish, Italian, and Creole, spoke sponteously of Haiti's continued plight and of the fact that this historical epic deserves to be seen as widely as possible to remind the world that Haiti was the first nation to liberate itself and its slaves from its colonial masters 200 years before most other Caribbean nations declared or were granted their independence.
One other discovery I made was of Dana Verde of 3Ck Media (meaning 3rd culture kids, a term coined in the 50s by cultural anthropologist Ruth Hill Useem). Dana Verde is a Cuban-Jamaican filmmaker who enjoys telling stories from the Latin American and Caribbean Diaspora. After receiving her Ma in Filmmaking from the London Film School in 2008, the Brooklyn filmmaker returned to New York to work as an independent filmmaker – writing and directing spec commercials, music videos and short films. Currently she divides her time between New York and Los Angeles and is venturing into directing feature films that encapsulate a crosscultural perspective. Check out her short Lock and Key on Facebook.
In summation of this whirlwind 4 day trip, it was well worth the 8 hour flight. So immersed was I that I find I must return, and much as I hate to reveal this new untrammeled festival and country, I must tell about it. I was the only press there, but I'm sure it will catch the eye of then rest of the world soon as it is a growth area for film invention and innovation on all fronts, from education (Bruce Paddington who teaches film at the University of The West Indies along with Christopher Meir, a native of Buffalo, New York).to production to marketing and distribution under the aegis of T&T Film Company. Although in the 50s Robert Mitchum filmed The Fire Down Below and Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison in T&T and you can be sure he had a blast there, still I feel like I have discovered it anew!
The awards themselves reflect the complexity of a society which, when its own special voice is raised in unison by its citizens, has the grandly unique and harmonic sound of the music of its own steel band. The gala awards ceremony of the ttff/12 took place at the National Academy for the Performing Arts, Port of Spain. Here is a full list of the winners which can also be found here.
Jury Awards: Best Films
Best Narrative Feature: Distancia, directed by Sergio Ramirez from Guatemala
Best Documentary Feature: The Story of Lover’s Rock, directed by Menelik Shabazz
Best Short: Peace: Memories of Anton de Kom, directed by Ida Does
Best Caribbean Film by an International Filmmaker: The Bastard Sings the Sweetest Song, directed by Christy Garland
Special mentions in the best film category:
Best Narrative Feature: Choco, directed by Jhonny Hendrix Hinestroza
Best Documentary Feature: Broken Stones, directed by Guetty Felin
Best Short: Awa Brak, directed by Juan Francisco Pardo
Jury Awards: Best Local Films
Best Local Feature: Inward Hunger, directed by Mariel Brown
Best Local Short: Where the Sun Sets, directed by Ryan Latchmansingh
Jury Awards: Acting
Best Actor in a Caribbean Film: Jimmy Jean-Louis, Toussaint L’Ouverture, directed by Philippe Niang
Best Actor in a Local Film: Christopher Chin Choy, Where the Sun Sets, directed by Ryan Latchmansingh
Best Actress in a Local Film: Terri Lyons, No Soca, No Life, directed by Kevin Adams
People’s Choice Awards
People’s Choice Award: Narrative Feature: Toussaint L’Ouverture, directed by Philippe Niang
People’s Choice Award: Documentary Feature: La Gaita, directed by Janine Fung
People’s Choice Award: Best Short: Buck: The Man Spirit, directed by Steven Taylor
Other Awards
Film in Development Award: Cutlass, Deresha Beresford & Teneille Newallo
WorldView/Tribeca Film Film Institute Pitch Awards: Ryan Khan, Joaquin Ruano, Natalie Wei
Rbc Focus: Filmmakers’ Immersion Pitch Award: Michelle Serieux
Film that Best Epitomises Cultural Diversity: Stone Street, directed by Elspeth Kydd
Film Criticism Award: Barbara Jenkins, “Three’s a Crowd”, review of Una Noche, directed by Lucy Mulloy
Film Criticism Special Mentions: Dainia Wright, Renelle White
Best Student, University of the West Indies Film Programme: Dinesh Maharaj
AfroPop/National Black Programming Consortium Emerging Documentary Filmmaker Award: Mandisa Pantin
50-Second Film Competition: M Jay Gonzalez...
I am astounded by what I have discovered here. The Caribbean multiplicity of island cultures, T&T's proximity to Latin America and how the film festival's founder and director Bruce Paddington sees the film industry developing from this pivotal point inspires me and everyone who attends this festival.
To wax a little bit more poetic: the solution to the "immigration problem" can be solved simply by relabeling the state of the world today as one of Diaspora. When I grew up I thought the word Diaspora pertained exclusively to the Jews. We went through numerous diasporas, from the destruction of the first and second Temples in Jerusalem to the expulsion from Spain, then from all Europe. I think that if the greatest thinkers of the western world had not perished in the Shoah, we would have found words and formulations to deal with the issues of immigration and integration we are facing today. The words immigration and integration are antipodes. Looking at Trinidad & Tobago, immediately apparent and a constant topic of discussion in the society itself, in music, art and film, is Diaspora. The entire human race is represented here as a product of Diaspora, not immigrants, but citizens of a society of people in Diaspora. And the Diaspora of Trinidadians in the world today mainly to Canada, New York, U.K. and Miami sees more Trinidadians outside than in the country itself. Diaspora is the new synthesis of the world today.
Speaking of Diaspora, the country's genius-created instrument, Pan, or the steel drum, the only new musical instrument created in the 20th century, is now a subject of study in most university music schools and has more adherents and orchestras abroad than in the country itself. Pan is compulsory in Finnish primary schools. In France it builds self-esteem and discipline in schools in rough neighborhoods. There are more steelbands in Switzerland (although they are smaller) than in T&T (where a small orchestra has 120 members). In African it is different. Johannesburg ensembles combine pans and marimbas. In Tokyo they are extensions of large corporations. Soon all will come to pan’s Mecca for a grand family reunion. During Carnival, 1,000 steel drum musicians converge here from all over the world where a giant parade and competition called Panorama transform T&T into a musical paradise. You cannot imagine the transformative power of a steel band orchestra (called "pan") unless you experience it first hand.
A grand transmedia project called Pan is now being planned for 2013 by the film and music producer, Jean Michel Giber (his recently completed Calypso Rose is a doc about a 70 year old Calypso singer) and written by Dr. Kim Johnson a noted authority on the pan in collaboration with story consultant Fernanda Rossi who has doctored films that went on to be nominated for Academy Awards®.
And yet another aspect of Diaspora: Canada whose citizens are also spread throughout the world in diaspora and who has the most coproduction treaties in the world is also here lending strong sponsorship support through its Rbc Royal Bank which has banks throughout the Caribbean and Flow which offers internet, telephone and tv throughout the region. This year's focus is on Canada which is celebrating 50 years of diplomatic relations and cultural and creative links between the two countries. Aside from the number of Canadian films screening and the number of Canadian filmmakers attending, Christian Sida-Valenzuela, Director of the Vancouver Latin American Film Festival is on the jury.
The film world here is developing on four levels simultaneously and by design. Inclusive of British, French, Dutch and Spanish colonial and slave-trading traditions, Amerindian, African, Indian, Arab and Asian diaspora communities here are working in film education, festival, production and distribution not only at home but throughout the region of the Caribbean nations, already represented in The United Nations in a 15 member Caribbean Community political consortium called Caricom.
The industry has come to ttff to tell of subsidies and coproduction opportunities, possibilities for marketing and distribution in the global marketplace, and to give immersion workshops on filmmaking and film criticism.
Ttff has formed alliances with Tribeca Film Institute, Cba Worldview -- Commonwealth Broadcasting Association aims to improve U.K. public understanding and awareness of the developing world via the mainstream broadcast and digital media. WorldView supports producers bringing the richness and diversity of the wider-world to U.K. audiences. Cba Worldview provides seed funding to producers to enable them to spend time in the developing world researching stories, identifying characters and locations and shooting taster tapes. Cba Worldview itself has alliances with Tribeca, Sundance and Idfa. Other ttff alliances are with Cuba's Icaic and the Havana Film Festival, Curacao Film Festival which is itself an extension of the Rotterdam Film Festival, U.S.'s National Black Programming Consortium, a part of the Public Broadcasting System and Acp which is the European Union's cultural subsidy arm (separate from Eurimages).
Acp has a fund of €12 million to grant in all areas of culture to reinforce and support access to markets, improve the regulatory environment and reduce unemployment, and it grants €10 million of this to cinema and the audiovisual sector. Acp's Director, Mohamed Ben Shabbaz gave their award to the feature which best epitomizes cultural diversity to the feature Stone Street. On presenting the prize, he reiterated Acp's motto, "No future without culture" and presented the prize on behalf of its membership of 79 countries and their 800 million people while encouraging filmmakers to submit projects which are eligible if produced by any member of the Caribbean, African and Latin American nations included in the Acp for grants.
Because Guadaloupe is French, it can access the French Cnc production subsidies and coproductions with them can share this. The BBC seriesDeath in Paradise has been such a hit that the BBC is renewing the series to the benefit of Guadaloupe's coffers.
Another incentive to make movies in this untapped and untrammeled region of the world is the 35% rebate on monies spent on production in Trinidad.
All this bounty would stir me as a filmmaker anywhere in the world to hasten to find coproducers in these countries to make a movie out of the myriad of stories that exist here. Guadaloupe novelist Simone Schwartz-Bart's great novel written in collaboration with her husband, Andre Schwartz-Bart (Last of the Just), A Woman Called Solitude, one of the most emotionally moving novels I 've ever read, has yet to be made into a movie. Dominican writer Jean Rhys' Wide Saragossa Sea, the prequel to Bronte's Jane Eyre, has been made in 1993 and in 2006 and yet remains mostly forgotten. Perhaps it's time for a remake. Or how about the novels of Antiguan Jamaica Kincaid, Cuban Alejo Carpentier or Martiniquese Edward Glissant?
The winner of the Jury Prize for Best Caribbean Film by a non-Caribbean went to Canadian filmmaker Christy Garland for her documentary The Bastard Sings the Sweetest Song, a documentary that had the strongest buzz here. The trailer alone moved the audience at the awards ceremony to a collective and spontaneous sigh of sympathy. What a fiction adaptation could be made from the stories these people have to tell.
Some filmmakers are already embedding themselves here. Trinidadian native Ian Harnarin comes from Canada and lives in New York. We met at Tiff this year in a mentoring program where he was one of four most promising new filmmakers. His short was executive produced by Spike Lee. He is now working on the feature length film of the short. "I'm extremely happy to be taking my film Doubles With Slight Pepper to the Trinidad & Tobago Film Festival. The film was shot on location throughout Trinidad with a local cast and a lot of local crew. The film has garnered some amazing awards and screened at other festivals around the world, so Ttff will mark a homecoming for it. It's coming to be very special for the local audience to finally see it with the cast and filmmakers." This film is available on iTunes.
Alrick Brown, the director of Kinyarwanda, a hit of last year 's Sundance Ff, led the immersion workshops in documentaries with Fernanda Rossi, a New York based doc scriptwriter. Alrick also teaches at Rutgers and Nyu. Andrew Donsunmu, the director of Restless City which Ronna Wallace has been actively repping since Sundance (she just made a good digital deal for the film) and which will be released stateside by Affrm (as will Kinyarwanda) was part of a very interesting informal discussion which took place on the bus returning from our day at the beach about movement and the almost genetic styles of dance and choices of sports of the African diaspora...like why so many islanders can't swim, why they don't eat fish in Cuba, how Samba, Calypso, and a certain Jamaican dance use the same steps though to different beats. Such animated discussions of intercultural topics are frequent here and always fascinate and animate the participants and residents.
The filmmakers also participated in panels for the industry, sharing their motivation and modi operandi. Christy Garland, director of Bastards Sing the Sweetest Song, filmed in French Guyana spoke of how she enters an unknown culture with a vague idea for a subject and proceeds to draw people out until the story unveils itself to her. Patricia Benoit, director of Stones in the Sun which participated in Wroclaw's American Film Festival for films in post-production competition spoke of her dislike of people always talking of Haiti's "resilence" in the face of all its troubles and wanted to show the hidden wounds of Haitians with their own history while living in New York. The films title comes from the proverb, “Stones in the water don't know the suffering of stones in the sun.” You can read Indiewire's interview with her from Tribeca Film Festival here. Matias Meyer spoke of The Last Christeros, which showed in Toronto and is being sold by FiGa Films, wanting to show not the battles but the spaces between battles when a segment of the 90% Catholic population of Mexico waged war against the state in the 1920s when the government banned religion. American filmmaker Chris Metzler spoke of his film Everyday Sunshine: the Story of Fishbone as a wonderful tribute to failure. Another Trinidadian in Canada, Richard Fung talked of how when he grew up he loved dhalpuri roti and so set out to discover where this spicy flatbread was born in the film Dal Puri Diaspora. Next month Richard will present his film at Nyu. One entire panel discussion was given to The Jamaican Collective's New Caribbean Cinema collection of shorts all made Guerilla style in one day, Ring di Alarm. Shadow and Act covered this last month.
In addition to this productive work of sharing business ideas and sharing the visions of over 120 feature-length and short films, there is the added bonus of being in one of the most amazing spots on earth. Island people, isolated from mainland civilizations and united among themselves by the water which also separates them, have opened their arms and invited us to join them these past few days in celebrating life. They have shared the natural beauty and the music and other arts of their island paradise And imagine the food-- a mix, (like the people themselves) of Caribbean, Indian, Asian, Arabian and African cuisine, all so fresh and with a homemade touch which rivals your own home cooking. Bake and Shark, a deep fried pita stuffed with delicious fresh and tender shark, or Roti, a variation of a curry dish found in India, Doubles, another street food well loved by the people. The economy, supported by its oil industry which contributes 60% to the Gnp, though 40% is Bp, a cause for some political dissension, does not need to rely on tourism for its sustenance. And though this is the wealthiest of all the Caricom countries because of its oil and natural gas, it still has the ubiquitous poverty seen worldwide including in our own United States of America. It is by no means perfect, but...
In Moscow this past June, the event Doors held similar discussions among 25 American distributors and Russian filmmakers about exporting their films and creating viable co- productions. After those three days in Moscow, we were rewarded with the most spectacular trip any of us had ever experienced, driving to St. Petersburg and Petershof, attending the Mariansky Ballet to see Sleeping Beauty and the star ballet dancer of Russia from the best seats in the house, taking a long cruise through St. Petersburg's canals during the White Nights, when the sun never sets. That trip which we were privileged to participate in (thanks to L.A.'s Russian Film Commissioner Eleonora Granata and her boss Catherine Mtsitouridze who hired us to organize) did not surpass the bonus tour ttff gave us industry-ites to Las Maracas beach where we rode the waves in warm water until a tropical rain storm and hurricane type wind, lightning and thunder drove us out of the water to huddle under a shelter until if passed, and the evening Leslie Fields-Cruz of the National Programming Consortium of PBS and I spent with Trinidadian film and music producer, Jean Michel Gibert of Caribbean Music Group, music scholar extraordinaire Tim Johnson and Nestor Sullivan, music legend, steel drum virtuoso and manager of the prize-winning 120 piece steel band orchestra Pamberi at a steel drum orchestra rehearsal for Carnaval. I can say with authority, this experience was on an equal par with the best Russia has to offer.
Validation of the genius of this country can be found in the story of one man, Anthony Williams, who invented the tuned steelpan, and in a discussion I had with another Trinidad filmmaker, Janine Fung, who won the People's Choice for Best Documentary La Gaita. Janine, as you can guess from her name, is of Chinese descent, though thoroughly international and Trinidadian to boot. Her grandmother's extended family lived in Trinidad. Recently the Chinese embassy called her to see if she might research and make a documentary about a Trinidad woman who brought western ballet to China. When they named her she realized it as her grandmother's first cousin who had left Trinidad to study ballet in London and when she toured to China, she captivated the audience and remained to establish western ballet in China. No one in Trinidad is aware of this and Janine now must make the documentary. I love stories like this. Nestor Sullivan whose father played in the same steel drum orchestra which is 70 years old, told me that his grandmother told him he was the spitting image of her father who came to Trinidad somewhere between 1840 to 60 after slavery had been abolished (1833). His father was a Yoruban prince who was never enslaved except when kidnapped and carried to the New World. Looking at Nestor, you know this to be true. His grandmother was born in 1888. When we did the math, I calculated this was around the same time that my own grandmother was born after her mother had come to USA as a bride in 1881.
Filmmaker, Faisal Lutchmedial (Mr. Crab, a delightful short film of a shy 10 year old boy who idolizes and fears his imposing father and hides and escapes into a dream world, where the frightening Mr Crab with his deadly sharp claws awaits him until he hears the real fear in his father's voice when he cannot find him) resides in Montreal, and tells of his family's home in a section of Trinidad which has, to this day, remained almost exactly as it was when his father was a boy in 1945. In fact, he took a photograph of himself standing in the same spot where his father stood as a child and the surroundings are identical. He was looking forward to going there to "lime" for a few days after the festival.
When the two part France TV feature Toussaint Ouveture won two prizes, one for Audience Award for Best Narrative and the other to Jimmy Jean-Louis for Best Actor in a Caribbean film, Jimmy,whose stunning presence is as sweet as his beautiful face, and who is fluent in English, French, Spanish, Italian, and Creole, spoke sponteously of Haiti's continued plight and of the fact that this historical epic deserves to be seen as widely as possible to remind the world that Haiti was the first nation to liberate itself and its slaves from its colonial masters 200 years before most other Caribbean nations declared or were granted their independence.
One other discovery I made was of Dana Verde of 3Ck Media (meaning 3rd culture kids, a term coined in the 50s by cultural anthropologist Ruth Hill Useem). Dana Verde is a Cuban-Jamaican filmmaker who enjoys telling stories from the Latin American and Caribbean Diaspora. After receiving her Ma in Filmmaking from the London Film School in 2008, the Brooklyn filmmaker returned to New York to work as an independent filmmaker – writing and directing spec commercials, music videos and short films. Currently she divides her time between New York and Los Angeles and is venturing into directing feature films that encapsulate a crosscultural perspective. Check out her short Lock and Key on Facebook.
In summation of this whirlwind 4 day trip, it was well worth the 8 hour flight. So immersed was I that I find I must return, and much as I hate to reveal this new untrammeled festival and country, I must tell about it. I was the only press there, but I'm sure it will catch the eye of then rest of the world soon as it is a growth area for film invention and innovation on all fronts, from education (Bruce Paddington who teaches film at the University of The West Indies along with Christopher Meir, a native of Buffalo, New York).to production to marketing and distribution under the aegis of T&T Film Company. Although in the 50s Robert Mitchum filmed The Fire Down Below and Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison in T&T and you can be sure he had a blast there, still I feel like I have discovered it anew!
The awards themselves reflect the complexity of a society which, when its own special voice is raised in unison by its citizens, has the grandly unique and harmonic sound of the music of its own steel band. The gala awards ceremony of the ttff/12 took place at the National Academy for the Performing Arts, Port of Spain. Here is a full list of the winners which can also be found here.
Jury Awards: Best Films
Best Narrative Feature: Distancia, directed by Sergio Ramirez from Guatemala
Best Documentary Feature: The Story of Lover’s Rock, directed by Menelik Shabazz
Best Short: Peace: Memories of Anton de Kom, directed by Ida Does
Best Caribbean Film by an International Filmmaker: The Bastard Sings the Sweetest Song, directed by Christy Garland
Special mentions in the best film category:
Best Narrative Feature: Choco, directed by Jhonny Hendrix Hinestroza
Best Documentary Feature: Broken Stones, directed by Guetty Felin
Best Short: Awa Brak, directed by Juan Francisco Pardo
Jury Awards: Best Local Films
Best Local Feature: Inward Hunger, directed by Mariel Brown
Best Local Short: Where the Sun Sets, directed by Ryan Latchmansingh
Jury Awards: Acting
Best Actor in a Caribbean Film: Jimmy Jean-Louis, Toussaint L’Ouverture, directed by Philippe Niang
Best Actor in a Local Film: Christopher Chin Choy, Where the Sun Sets, directed by Ryan Latchmansingh
Best Actress in a Local Film: Terri Lyons, No Soca, No Life, directed by Kevin Adams
People’s Choice Awards
People’s Choice Award: Narrative Feature: Toussaint L’Ouverture, directed by Philippe Niang
People’s Choice Award: Documentary Feature: La Gaita, directed by Janine Fung
People’s Choice Award: Best Short: Buck: The Man Spirit, directed by Steven Taylor
Other Awards
Film in Development Award: Cutlass, Deresha Beresford & Teneille Newallo
WorldView/Tribeca Film Film Institute Pitch Awards: Ryan Khan, Joaquin Ruano, Natalie Wei
Rbc Focus: Filmmakers’ Immersion Pitch Award: Michelle Serieux
Film that Best Epitomises Cultural Diversity: Stone Street, directed by Elspeth Kydd
Film Criticism Award: Barbara Jenkins, “Three’s a Crowd”, review of Una Noche, directed by Lucy Mulloy
Film Criticism Special Mentions: Dainia Wright, Renelle White
Best Student, University of the West Indies Film Programme: Dinesh Maharaj
AfroPop/National Black Programming Consortium Emerging Documentary Filmmaker Award: Mandisa Pantin
50-Second Film Competition: M Jay Gonzalez...
- 10/3/2012
- by Sydney Levine
- Sydney's Buzz
I saw the film last year, and also reviewed it on S&A, and it's recommended for you folks up north; so give it a look when it makes its Canadian premiere in less than a month. Call it a history lesson, but an entertaining one, a fusion documentary, which includes dance, live performances, archive footage and comedy sketches that were improvised; a 90-minute trip down memory lane, Menelik Shabazz’s The Story Of Lovers Rock plays like a love letter to a style of music, the era in which it was born, those who were responsible for its creation, and those who embraced it, ensuring its longevity. Details of its Canadian premiere follow below (full trailer...
- 8/10/2012
- by Tambay A. Obenson
- ShadowAndAct
The 19th annual African Diaspora International Film Festival opened in New York on Friday but has only caught my attention today because a modest batch of reviews of what look to be some pretty intriguing documentaries have appeared in the last day or two. The festival runs through December 13.
"In the fleet-footed, engagingly volatile documentary An African Election, the director Jarreth Merz hurls himself into the thick of a political contest defined by high hopes and even higher anxieties," writes Jeannette Catsoulis in the New York Times. "For almost three months in 2008, Mr Merz followed the unsteady progress of the presidential race in Ghana, a country energized by the recent discovery of oil and still reeling from the aftermath of catastrophic floods. To capture the national turmoil, the filmmaker (who grew up in Ghana) assembles a colorful gallery of political insiders, including the candidates — Nana Akufo-Addo of the ruling New Patriotic Party,...
"In the fleet-footed, engagingly volatile documentary An African Election, the director Jarreth Merz hurls himself into the thick of a political contest defined by high hopes and even higher anxieties," writes Jeannette Catsoulis in the New York Times. "For almost three months in 2008, Mr Merz followed the unsteady progress of the presidential race in Ghana, a country energized by the recent discovery of oil and still reeling from the aftermath of catastrophic floods. To capture the national turmoil, the filmmaker (who grew up in Ghana) assembles a colorful gallery of political insiders, including the candidates — Nana Akufo-Addo of the ruling New Patriotic Party,...
- 11/30/2011
- MUBI
Melancholia (15)
(Lars Von Trier, 2010, Den/Swe/Fra/Ger) Kirsten Dunst, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Kiefer Sutherland, Alexander Skarsgård. 136 mins
Never have crippling depression and the end of the world looked so appealing. Personal and planetary orbits are fatalistically set on collision course in Von Trier's latest, as two sisters struggle with life, the universe and each other, but despite the grimness, its strange beauty stays with you.
The Debt (15)
(John Madden, 2010, Us) Helen Mirren, Jessica Chastain, Sam Worthington. 113 mins
A trio of Israeli agents try to abduct a former Nazi, then deal with the fallout decades later in this structurally (over)ambitious spy epic.
Red State (18)
(Kevin Smith, 2011, Us) Michael Parks, Melissa Leo, John Goodman. 88 mins
Smith takes aim at Christian fundamentalism in this cultish horror, which doesn't have the firepower it needs.
The Green Wave (Nc)
(Ali Samadi Ahadi, 2010, Ger) 80 mins
Documentary on Iran's 2009 democratic uprising, mixing reportage, animation and tweets and blogs.
(Lars Von Trier, 2010, Den/Swe/Fra/Ger) Kirsten Dunst, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Kiefer Sutherland, Alexander Skarsgård. 136 mins
Never have crippling depression and the end of the world looked so appealing. Personal and planetary orbits are fatalistically set on collision course in Von Trier's latest, as two sisters struggle with life, the universe and each other, but despite the grimness, its strange beauty stays with you.
The Debt (15)
(John Madden, 2010, Us) Helen Mirren, Jessica Chastain, Sam Worthington. 113 mins
A trio of Israeli agents try to abduct a former Nazi, then deal with the fallout decades later in this structurally (over)ambitious spy epic.
Red State (18)
(Kevin Smith, 2011, Us) Michael Parks, Melissa Leo, John Goodman. 88 mins
Smith takes aim at Christian fundamentalism in this cultish horror, which doesn't have the firepower it needs.
The Green Wave (Nc)
(Ali Samadi Ahadi, 2010, Ger) 80 mins
Documentary on Iran's 2009 democratic uprising, mixing reportage, animation and tweets and blogs.
- 9/30/2011
- by Steve Rose
- The Guardian - Film News
There's a lot of misty-eyed nostalgia in this tribute to the forgotten 70s subgenre of 'lover's rock', but sadly not much archive footage
Menelik Shabazz, who made the pioneering Burning an Illusion back in 1981, has lovingly excavated the somewhat forgotten 70s subgenre of "lover's rock" – the British-born fusion of soft reggae beats with impassioned soul-diva vocals. There's lots of misty-eyed nostalgia from its now-middle-aged adherents – but, sadly, not much archive footage. Presumably, in a pre-camcorder age, if you didn't get on TV, you weren't going to be filmed, and lover's rock seemed to be roundly ignored by the mainstream – unlike the harder sounds of Rastafarian-inspired roots reggae.
Rating: 3/5
SoulReggaeUrban musicAndrew Pulver
guardian.co.uk © 2011 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds...
Menelik Shabazz, who made the pioneering Burning an Illusion back in 1981, has lovingly excavated the somewhat forgotten 70s subgenre of "lover's rock" – the British-born fusion of soft reggae beats with impassioned soul-diva vocals. There's lots of misty-eyed nostalgia from its now-middle-aged adherents – but, sadly, not much archive footage. Presumably, in a pre-camcorder age, if you didn't get on TV, you weren't going to be filmed, and lover's rock seemed to be roundly ignored by the mainstream – unlike the harder sounds of Rastafarian-inspired roots reggae.
Rating: 3/5
SoulReggaeUrban musicAndrew Pulver
guardian.co.uk © 2011 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds...
- 9/29/2011
- by Andrew Pulver
- The Guardian - Film News
Lover's rock influenced the Police and Sade, and gave women a voice in reggae – so why was it sidelined in its native Britain?
In 1979, Janet Kay's piercing falsetto was one of the defining sounds of the summer. Silly Games, her bittersweet ode to a faltering relationship, enjoyed heavy radio play, thanks in part to a subtle arrangement by songwriter/producer Dennis Bovell, a distinctive drum pattern from Aswad's Angus Gaye and distribution on a Warners subsidiary. The song reached No 2, the highest chart placing for a black, British woman at that point. It also signalled a coming of age for lover's rock, the softened, British reggae sub-genre that focused on romance, but, as noted in Menelik Shabazz's documentary The Story of Lover's Rock, involved so much more than setting teenaged heartbreak to a reggae beat.
Though a primarily underground phenomenon, lover's rock influenced pop acts such as the Police,...
In 1979, Janet Kay's piercing falsetto was one of the defining sounds of the summer. Silly Games, her bittersweet ode to a faltering relationship, enjoyed heavy radio play, thanks in part to a subtle arrangement by songwriter/producer Dennis Bovell, a distinctive drum pattern from Aswad's Angus Gaye and distribution on a Warners subsidiary. The song reached No 2, the highest chart placing for a black, British woman at that point. It also signalled a coming of age for lover's rock, the softened, British reggae sub-genre that focused on romance, but, as noted in Menelik Shabazz's documentary The Story of Lover's Rock, involved so much more than setting teenaged heartbreak to a reggae beat.
Though a primarily underground phenomenon, lover's rock influenced pop acts such as the Police,...
- 9/22/2011
- by David Katz
- The Guardian - Film News
There is something missing on the cover of Vanity Fair's latest 'Hollywood Issue'. There are many great young black actors, so why none in this line-up?
Does anything strike you as odd about this latest Vanity Fair cover spread?
Yes, it's their 16th annual "Hollywood Issue", shot as usual by Annie Leibovitz, and intending to herald the bright young things of Tinseltown, just in time for this year's Oscars.
A row of elegantly coiffed pretty young things gaze out from the gatefold, draped on the lawn, showing just the right amount of powdered skin, styled to look just the right side of "available" (yet not too threatening). But look again, isn't something missing? Granted, there are no men on the cover, but let's assume that's intentional. No, what I'm talking about is the complete lack of melanin.
Vanity Fair has looked into its crystal ball and decided that, as far as up-and-coming,...
Does anything strike you as odd about this latest Vanity Fair cover spread?
Yes, it's their 16th annual "Hollywood Issue", shot as usual by Annie Leibovitz, and intending to herald the bright young things of Tinseltown, just in time for this year's Oscars.
A row of elegantly coiffed pretty young things gaze out from the gatefold, draped on the lawn, showing just the right amount of powdered skin, styled to look just the right side of "available" (yet not too threatening). But look again, isn't something missing? Granted, there are no men on the cover, but let's assume that's intentional. No, what I'm talking about is the complete lack of melanin.
Vanity Fair has looked into its crystal ball and decided that, as far as up-and-coming,...
- 2/3/2010
- by Hannah Pool
- The Guardian - Film News
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