|
Event
'BACK TO THE ROOTS' FILM SERIES Weekend Pass
'BACK TO THE ROOTS' FILM SERIES
A compilation of films about individuals of African descent reclaiming and commemorating their African heritage and culture.
Friday, August 1, 2014
6:30pm RETURN TO GOREE (FREE SCREENING)
A musical road movie, Return to Gorée follows Senegalese singer Youssou N'Dour's historical journey tracing the trail left by slaves and the jazz music they created. Youssou N'Dour's challenge is to bring back to Africa a jazz repertoire of his own songs to perform a concert in Gorée, the island that today symbolizes the slave trade and stands to honor its victims.
From Atlanta to New Orleans, from New York to Bordeaux and Luxembourg, the songs are transformed, immersed in jazz and gospel. Transcending cultural divisions and rehearsing with of some of the world's most exceptional musicians, Youssou N'Dour is preparing to return to Africa for the final concert.
Saturday, August 2, 2014
2pm HOMECOMING
After years spent in exile, three African National Congress veterans return to post-Apartheid South Africa and discover how much has changed in their homeland. Inspired by the real-life experiences of filmmaker and screenwriter Zola Maseko, Homecoming provides the moving account of Charlie, Thabo, and Peter: three lifelong friends who struggle to maintain their powerful bond, pursue their individual paths in life, and integrate themselves back into a society that has endured considerable social and political change. (South Africa, 2005, 90 min, Norman Maake, dir., Drama)
4pm ALUKU LIBA: MAROON AGAIN
When the army cracks down on illegal gold mining in the Amazon forest, Loeti is forced to flee and use the skills he learned as a child to survive in the forest. A drifter who has spent years away from his village in southwest French Guyana, Loeti must find his way home and be reunited with his people, the Aluku, for he yearns to reclaim his Maroon culture. Upon his return, he finds his home an evolving space where old Aluku traditions and values are both challenged and influenced by modern society. Thrown into a turbulent reunion with his past and coping with what remains of his ancestors' customs and practices, Loeti learns that in this modern day and age it will take an unremitting, genuine effort to be Maroon Again. (Canada/French Guiana/Suriname, 2009, 90 min, Nicolas Jolliet, dir., Documentary, Drama)
6pm THE JOURNEY OF THE LION
Howard A. Trott or "Brother Howie," is a Jamaican Rastifari who dreams of the land of his ancestors: Africa. Disillusioned with modern civilization, he lives with his two children in a humble shack on the outskirts of Kingston while having dreams of repatriation in Africa. When Brother Howie receives a letter from an estranged sibling inviting him to visit London, he leaves Jamaica for the first time and embarkswith great humor and sensitivityon a journey that takes him to Europe and to the continent he incalculably cherishes. (Jamaica/Germany, 1992, 90 min, Fritz Baumann, dir., Documentary, Drama)
Sunday, August 3, 2014
2pm GLORIOUS EXIT
Jarreth Merz, a Swiss-Nigerian actor living in Los Angeles, is summoned to Nigeria to bury his father. Although he accepts the Nigerian mandate traditionally imparted to the eldest child, Jarreth struggles with this moral, familial duty and accepting Nigerian traditions and an extended family whom he hardly knows. The final product emerges as an important anthropological introduction to some of the most fundamental rules by which Nigerian society operates. Delineated from the film's most dramatic scenes is the stark differences in which Westerners and Africans commemorate the burial of a loved one. (Nigeria/Switzerland, 2008, 75 min, Kevin Mertz, dir., Documentary)
4pm BOMA TERVUREN, THE JOURNEY
Boma Tervuren illustrates the astonishing and tragic saga of 267 Congolese individuals brought to Brussels for the 1897 World's Fair. After four, gruesome months towards Belgium, they were subject to exploitation and abuse by being exhibited before thousands. Subjected to severe maltreatment and open exposure to the cold, foreign climate, many Congolese fell prey to disease and lost their lives. One hundred years later, Congolese compatriots return to the scene of these casualties and question Belgians about the unimaginable horror that was the 1897 "human zoo." Ultimately, Boma Tervuren revisits a century when stereotyped conceptions about Africans prevailed and the White gaze oscillated between paternalism and contempt. The film implicitly inquiries, "How much have these perceptions changed?" (Belgium, 1999, 54 min, Francis Dujardin, dir., Documentary)
6pm SONS OF AFRICA
In 1979, after a brutal war, the army of Julius Nyererefounding father of Tanzaniaoverthrew Ugandan dictator Idi Amin. Nyerere's army forced Amin and his family into exile in 1979, ending Idi Amin's blood soaked regime. Now, more than 30 years later, the sons of Idi Amin and Julius Nyerere have come together for a symbolic act of reconciliation: to climb Mount Kilimanjaro, Africa's highest mountain, together. As Madaraka and Jaffar make their way up the Roof of Africa, they discuss the way they see one another, the relationships they had with their powerful fathers, and the future of contemporary Africa. (Tanzania/USA, 2013, 57 min, James Becket, dir., Documentary)
|
|
 |
LocationTeachers College, Columbia University (View)
525 West 120th Street - Room 263 Macy
New York, NY 10027
United States
Categories
| Kid Friendly: No |
| Dog Friendly: No |
| Non-Smoking: Yes! |
| Wheelchair Accessible: Yes! |
|
Contact
|
