The Center for International Exhibition and Performance since 1987
PAN AFRICANISM FILM FESTIVAL ON CAN TV21
Saturdays at 8:00 pm
9/9/23 #1 Mama Africa
9/16/23 #2 Tango Negro
9/23/23 #3 Quilombo
9/30/23 #4 8:00 pm - Festac '77 (26:00) , 8:30 pm - Aces (17:54), 9:00 pm Human Behavior (14:45)
10/7/23 #5 Abdias Do Nascimento
10/14/23 #1 Mama Africa
10/21/23 #2 Tango Negro
10/28/23 #3 Quilombo
11/4/23 #4 8:00 pm - Festac '77 (26:00) , 8:30 pm - Aces (17:54), 9:00 pm Human Behavior (14:45)
11/11/23 #5 Abdias Do Nascimento
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Mama Africa: Directed by Mika Kaurismäki. 2011. 1 hr 30 min
With Miriam Makeba, Bageot Bah, Harry Belafonte, Stokely Carmichael. Documentary about Miriam Makeba.
Tango Negro Directed by Dom Pedro 2013. 1 hr, 33 min
The African Roots of Tango by Angolan filmmaker Dom Pedro explores the expression of Tango's Africanness and the contribution of African cultures in the creation of the tango. Tango was a reflection of the social life of the slaves that were taken to South America - including Argentina and Uruguay - mostly from central Africa, particularly from the former Kongo Kingdom. Director Dom Pedro reveals the depth of the footprints of the African music on the tango, through this rich movie combining musical performances and interviews from many tango fans and historians in Latin America and Europe, including the renowned Argentinean pianist Juan Carlos Caceres.
Quilombo Directed by Carlos Diegues. 1984 1 hr. 54 min
Palmares was a 17th-century quilombo, a settlement of escaped slaves in the mountains of northeast Brazil. The story follows a group of plantation slaves, among them Abiola (Tony Tornado), who revolt in 1650 during the Dutch-Portuguese War (1601-1661) and escape to the mountains and the city of Palmares, where they join other former slaves who have already been living there peacefully and autonomously. On arrival, Abiola suggests that Palmares trade with a friendly squatter. The leader of Palmares, Acotirene (Alaide Santos), disagrees, but realizes that she is getting old and times are changing. After consulting a divination tray, she anoints Abiola the new leader and renames him Ganga Zumba and places him under the protection of Xango, who manifests himself though Ganga Zumba in trance. Ganga Zumba goes on to become a legendary king (see Diegues' film "Ganga" about the life of this character in particular). Ganga Zumba and his people keep Palmares safe for years.
Festac ‘77 Directed by Phillip Gaunt. 1977. 26 min.
Impressions of the Second World Black and African Festival of Arts and Culture (Festac '77), held in Lagos in September 1977. The festival was co-organized by the Government of Nigeria and UNESCO and it represented the culmination of many investigations and diversity of expression.
Early in 1977, thousands of artists, writers, musicians, activists and scholars from Africa and the Black diaspora assembled in Lagos for FESTAC ’77, the 2nd World Black and African Festival of Arts and Culture. The event came 11 years after the First World Festival of Negro Arts, held in Dakar, and 8 years after the First Pan-African Cultural Festival was held in Tangiers.
With a radically ambitious agenda underwritten by Nigeria’s newfound oil wealth, FESTAC ’77 would unfold as a complex, glorious and excessive culmination of a half-century of transatlantic and pan-Africanist cultural-political gatherings.
Abdias Do Nascimento Directed by Aída Marques. 2011. 95 min
Documentary about the life of Abdias do Nascimento, a leader of the Afro-Brazilian community in Brazil. Actor, Playwright, Artist, Poet, Founder of Brazil's Teatro Experimental do Preto (Black Experimental Theater) and Museu de Arte Negra (Museum of Black Art), finally a Politician, elected to the Brazilian Federal Chamber of Deputies in 1983 and 1987, and served in the Brazilian Senate from 1997-1999. Abdias do Nascimento died in 2011.