Seventh Annual Summer Film Series

Wolfsonian Museum – FIU From Aug 2nd through Aug 30th, 2007The Wolfsonian-FIU’s Seventh Annual Summer Film Series continues to explore national identity in film and this year it examines challenges posed by post-colonialism to such countries as Senegal, Ghana, Ethiopia, Guinea-Bissau, and others. The film series take place each Thursday in August at 7:00 p.m. Screenings Calendar Thursday, August 2nd, 2007. 7:00 p.m. Black Girl (La noir de…) Senegal, Ousmane Sembene, 1966, DVD, 60 min, French with English subtitles) Winner of the Jean Vigo Prize, this film examines post-colonial Senegal through the eyes of Diuoana, a Senegalese servant working for a French couple in Dakar. When her employers return to France, her journey with them exposes a mutual struggle to move beyond their colonial roles and forge a new relationship in a world quickly outgrowing imperialism. August 9th, 2007. 7:00 p.m. Heritage Africa (Ghana, Kwah Ansah, 1989, DVD, 111 min) Director Kwah Ansah presents the story of a civil servant’s rise through the British colonial system in Ghana. Through formal colonial education, Kwesi Atta Bosofemi (or Quincy Arthur Bosomfield, as he is called by the British) earns the privilege of being part of the African elite but to maintain this status, he must renounce his African heritage and adopt a more Western set of values. August 16th, 2007. 7:00 p.m. Mortu Nega (Guinea-Bissau, Flora Gomes, 1998, DVD, 85 min) After five centuries of Portuguese colonization and a decade of armed struggle, in 1973 independence was proclaimed in Guinea-Bissau. Mortu Nega, set in 1973, follows Dominga on her journey to join her husband, Sako, a liberation fighter. The film captures Cabral’s assassination, the ending of the hostilities, and the reconstruction of the economically and spiritually devastated country. August 23rd, 2007. 7:00 p.m. Blood Is Not Fresh Water (Ethiopia, Theo Eshetu, 1998, DVD, 56 min,English, Amharic, and Italian with English subtitles) Ethiopian-born director Theo Eshetu journeys to his land of origin through the story of his grandfather, Ato Tekle Tsadik Mekuria, an historian. Told in reverse chronology, the film delves into both the mythological and descriptive history of Ethiopia, creating an unexpectedly rich and complex portrait of the land’s identity. August 30th, 2007. 7:00 p.m. African Shorts. This grouping of short films examines the ways in which cinema has been used as a political and social tool to explore and deconstruct the legacies of colonization. The films also offer commentary on cinema’s role in addressing contemporary issues facing the African Diaspora. Toi, Waguih. (Egypt/France, Namir Abdel Messeeh, 2005, DVD, 28min, French & Arabic with English subtitles) You, Waguih, is the story of a relationship between a screenwriter son and his father, told through the silence of the father’s feelings about his political life. Grand Prize winner at Rencontres du Moyen Metrage de Brive Festival. Bè Kunko (Everybody’s problem) (Guinea/France, Cheick Fantamady Camara 2004, DVD, 31min, English Krio, Malinké, Susu & French with English subtitles) Depicts the spiral of violence that a group of teenagers fall into as they struggle to survive from day-to-day in a Guinean refugee camp in the capital of Conakry. My Lost Home / Ma Maison Perdue. (Morocco/France, Kamal El-Mahouti, 2001, DVD, 19min, French & Arabic with English subtitles) Kamal El-Mahouti arrived in France in 1970, when he was six years old, and lived in a housing project for the next twenty years.