ArtMattan Productions is proud to bring you

the Manhattan Neighborhood Network African Diaspora Film Festival

The African Diaspora Film Festival presents films that focus on the richness of the Global Black Experience. Too often, images of African and African descendant peoples are rooted in violence, vulgar comedy or miserabilism. The goal of ADFF is to present entertaining and educational films that are representative of a more complex reality of the life experience of African and African descendants all over the world. Themes present in the Manhattan Neighborhood Network include LEADERSHIP with Fanon: His Life, His Struggle, His Work (Martinique), Papa National Oye (Congo) and Gulpilil: One Red Blood (Australia); SOCIETY and DAILY LIFE with Aces (South Africa), Colobane Express (Senegal), the Great Bazaar (Mozambique), Looking for Life (Haiti); HISTORY with Boma Tervuren: The Last Journey (Belgium/Congo); and MUSIC and SPIRITUALITY with Susana Baca: Memoria Viva (Peru); The Last Rumba of Papa Montero (Cuba/Martinique) and Stambali (Tunisia).

MNN SCREENING SCHEDULE AT A GLANCE

EVERY THURSDAYS AT 12:30PM - Channel TWN 34/78 RCN 82

• 9/20 FANON: HIS LIFE, HIS STRUGGLE, HIS WORK
• 9/27 STAMBALI
• 10/04 SUSANA BACA: MEMORIA VIVA
• 10/11 GULPILIL, ONE RED BLOOD
• 10/18 ACES & PAPA NATIONAL OYE
• 10/25 COLOBANE EXPRESS
• 11/08 BOMA TERVUREN: THE JOURNEY
• 11/15 LA ULTIMA RUMBA DE PAPA MONTERO
• 11/22 LOOKING FOR LIFE
• 11/29 THE GREAT BAZAAR

LEADERSHIP

FRANTZ FANON: HIS LIFE, HIS STRUGGLE, HIS WORK
France/Martinique/ Algeria/Tunisia, 2001, 52 min., documentary in French with English Subtitles, Cheikh Djemai, dir. Frantz Fanon, was a psychiatrist, originally from Martinique, who had become a spokesman for the Algerian revolution against French colonialism. Embittered by his experience with racism in the French Army, he gravitated to radical politics, Sartrean existentialism and the philosophy of black consciousness known as negritude. His 1952 book, ''Black Skin, White Masks,'' offers a penetrating analysis of racism and of the ways in which it is internalized by its victims. While secretly aiding the rebels of the Algerian anti-colonial war as a doctor in Algeria, Fanon cared for victims and perpetrators alike, producing case notes that shed invaluable light on the psychic traumas of colonial war. Expelled from Algeria in 1956, Fanon moved to Tunis where he wrote for El Moudjahid, the rebel newspaper, founded Africa's first psychiatric clinic, and wrote several influential books on decolonization. Frantz Fanon, His Life, His Struggle, His Work traces the short and intense life of one of the great thinkers of the 20th century.

ACES
South Africa, 1999, 17min, short drama in English, Ntandazo "Didi" Gcingca, dir. Aces is the story of a young man who fights against the battering of his mother by his drunken father. The situation escalates until Aces desperately stabs his father to death and is sent to jail for a period of 15 years. Nine years later he is out on parole. However, involved in a violent incident, he kills again within a day's time of his release. Shown with Le Damier, Papa National Oye!

LE DAMIER, PAPA NATIONAL OYE!
Democratic Republic of Congo, 1996, 40 min, comedy in French with English subtitles, Bakupa Kanyinda Balufu, dir. Winner Best Short, FESPACO 1997. A wicked political satire about African dictators, this film tells the story of the president of a fictitious African nation who spends a sleepless night playing checkers with a pot-smoking vagabond who is claimed to be the "all-around champion." However, the rules of the game entail opponents howling vulgar and foul obscenities at one another. The Champion proceeds to insult, and trounce, - the President. His reward - and fate - are not exactly unexpected in this hilarious send-up of living under tyranny. Shown with Aces.

GULPILIL: ONE RED BLOOD
Australia, 2003, 56min, documentary, English, Darlene Johnson, dir. Legendary Aboriginal actor and Australian icon David Gulpilil's life has been one of dueling lifestyles, with his jet-setting movie star life on a completely different plane from his life as an Aboriginal village elder, and director Darlene Johnson manages to capture intimate details from both lifestyles in her 2003 biographical documentary Gulpilil: One Red Blood. At the age of 17, Gulpilil made history as the first Aboriginal actor to appear on film -- in Nicolas Roeg's 1971 Walkabout -- which, in turn, led to a historic acting career that culminated in his receiving numerous awards and an Order of Australia medal. All the while, Gulpilil remained true to his culture by accepting his tribal responsibilities, which include living in a primitive house and procuring his household's daily food and water. As Johnson films a number of very candid encounters with the actor in both settings -- David lives in a tent shed and is quite open about the lack of facilities in his abode and the exploitation he's experienced during his career -- she documents the class differences that still exist between the indigenous population of Australia versus the relatively new white population.

SOCIETY

LOOKING FOR LIFE / CHERCHER LA VIE
Haiti/Germany, 1999, 60 min, doc. in Creole and French with English subtitles, Claudette Coulanges, dir. Looking for Life introduces the viewer to two women, Anne-Rose and Rosemene, each of whom has her own particular way of battling through life. The former makes lunches in a factory yard in Port-au-Prince and sells her meals to the factory workers; the latter is employed in the same factory as a production worker making pullovers and T-shirts. Every day she buys her midday meal on credit from Anne-Rose. Through the connection between these two women, the film reveals part of their daily work and the constant battle for survival that they lead together with other women in Haiti. Going beyond this, however, the film demonstrates the extent to which the importation of North American goods has brought about the collapse of Haitian regional production and ruined Haiti's economy. The connection between the two topics of the film reveals the significant role that Haitian women of today play in an economy that has been bled dry.

COLOBANE EXPRESS
Senegal, 2001, 52 min., documentary, Wolof with English subtitles, Khady Sylla, dir. Public vans provide the traditional and sole means of city transportation in Dakar, Senegal. In a frenzy of activity, from the outskirts to downtown, people from all walks of life as well as fruits, vegetables, chickens, etc. are transported daily in these public vans. Colobane Express opens a window on a slice of life in the busy urban metropolis where drivers and their trainees are always on the go, managing relationships, incidents and conflicts, dealing with the competition and providing an invaluable service to demanding yet appreciating customers.

THE GREAT BAZAAR
Mozambique, 2005, 58min., comedy in Portuguese with English subtitles, Licinio Azevedo, dir. In the suburb of an African city, 12 years-old Paito sells fritters outside his house. One day, a band of young robbers takes his money. He decides he's not going to go home until he recovers what he lost. With this in mind, he heads out for the big city on the same train as the thieves. Looking for work, he begins to live in a market square that at night becomes a dormitory for homeless vendors. There he meets Xano, a boy his age, whose insolent behavior and fearlessness attract him. Unlike Paito, Xano despises work and he steals. Despite this, they become friends. Together, they reinvent the world.

HISTORY

BOMA-TERVUREN, THE JOURNEY
Belgium, 1999, 54min, documentary in French with English subtitles, Francis Dujardin, dir. This is the extraordinary and tragic saga of 267 Congolese men and women brought to Brussels for the 1897 World's Fair. After a four month journey toward Belgium, they are exhibited before a million visitors. Subjected to the crushing gaze of the "Whites" and the cold climate, many fell prey to disease and some even lost their lives. The dead were hastily dispatched in a common grave, sparking a fierce debate in Belgian society. The project was overblown but necessary in the eyes of the first colonizers, who presumed to have tamed the far-flung savages. One hundred years later, Congolese compatriots return to the scene of these events and question the "Whites" of today on the incredible story of that "human zoo." They carry out the ritual of "a return to the earth" by way of reparation for so great a hurt… A film that revisits a century of stereotyped conceptions about Africans. And running through it, the almost aching question: "How is today different?"

MUSIC and SPIRITUALITY

STAMBALI
Tunisia, 1999, 52min, documentary in English and Arabic with English subtitles, Nawfel Saheb-Ettaba, Dir. Stambali is an annual tribute that the disciples of Sidi Saad pay to their master during an initiatory journey and rite of purification that lasts three days. This Tunisian religious ritual brought into the country by Sub-Saharan Africans is a healing ceremony led by musicians who are also healers as they enter into a trance to the mesmerizing rhythm of the "gombri" and "chkackek," and incarnate a deity that takes possession of their body. In Stambali, the camera follows the rhythm of the possessions and dances of the healing ceremony as it develops into an individual and collective hypnosis and takes the audience into the trance of the eroticism that is released by this physical and spiritual representation.

SUSANA BACA: MEMORIA VIVA
Peru/Belgium, 2003, 54min, musical documentary in Spanish with English subtitles, Mark Dixon, Dir. Susana Baca is not only a champion in the performance and preservation of Afro-Peruvian heritage, but also an elegant singer whose shimmering voice sings of love, loss and life. Susana and her husband Ricardo Pereira have founded the Instituto Negrocontinuo "Black Continuum" in Lima, a spirited facility for the exploration, expression, and creation of Black Peruvian culture. While Baca has dedicated herself to researching and performing virtually all forms of Afro-Peruvian folklore, it is the lando that has become her trademark. This slow to mid-tempo, highly evocative mix of Spanish, Indigenous and African rhythms has become what the son is to Cuba, or the samba to Brazil-the lando is the sound of Black Peru.

LA ULTIMA RUMBA DE PAPA MONTERO / THE LAST RUMBA OF PAPA MONTERO
Martinique/Cuba, 1992, 52min, docu-drama in Spanish with English subtitles, Octavio Cortazar, dir. A fascinating film on the rhythmic dance genre known as Rumba, La Ultima Rumba de Papa Montero dances around the life of Papa Montero, one of the famous rumberos of Cuba, assassinated during carnival. A discovery of Cuban traditions and everyday life told through beautiful images, sensual music and dance. The use of Afro-Cuban mythology is the force behind the characters as orishas guide the characters' fate.