With so many
incidents of abuse of power taking place in the world, the African Diaspora
International Film Festival is more than ever seeking to be a means of bringing
people together and promoting dialogue, according to the organizers.
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| Diarah N'Daw-Spech and Reinalso Barro-Spech, organizers. |
“This is an
international festival that’s Afro-centric, but the aim is not to divide people
but to promote and reshape the discourse,” says Diarah N’Daw-Spech, who
co-founded the festival with her husband Reinaldo Barro-Spech.
Presented annually
in New York, Washington, Chicago and Paris, the event’s fourth European edition
takes place from Sept. 5 to 7 this year in the French capital, with the films
aimed at generating discussion about the causes and effects of racism both in
the United States and Europe.
The movies
should also encourage people of African descent to discuss what being part of
the Diaspora means, said N’Daw-Spech, the daughter of a Malian father and
French mother, and whose husband was born in Cuba of mixed Haitian-Jamaican
heritage.
“When you
talk about the African Diaspora, everybody has their own understanding of what
this means, although most people think of people coming from Africa,” N'Daw-Spech told SWAN.
“But you can have roots in Africa without having been born there, and we want
to look at the whole black experience.
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| An image from Freedom Summer |
“It’s like
opening a window on another world for people who either want to learn about
themselves or who want to be exposed to others’ cultures,” she added “We see
the festival as a way to create bridges across cultures, even across cultures
of people of African descent.”
That is one
of the reasons for the broad scope of the event. The opening film, Freedom Summer, puts the spotlight on
the history of the American South, for instance, with a gripping documentary
about the violence that met activists trying to encourage voter registration in
Mississippi in 1964.
Director
Stanley Nelson uses footage and testimony from the volunteers of the then Student
Nonviolent Coordinating Committee to portray the injustices that occurred in the
state, which “remained virulently committed to segregation” in the Sixties.
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| Working to advance human rights in Freedom Summer. |
Many of the Committee’s
members were young white students who, according to the film, were
“transformed” by their work in Mississippi. Their story and the experiences of
the African-Americans they supported remind viewers of the sacrifices made just
50 years ago to ensure civil rights for all.
Nelson will
be available for a public discussion after the screening, as such debates are
an integral part of the festival, N'Daw-Spech said.
Other films
are set in countries ranging from Jamaica to Cameroon and cover a diverse range
of subjects that affect the African Diaspora. From the Caribbean come two films
- a dramatic feature and a documentary - about the impact of legislation in the
United States, Canada and the United Kingdom that allows foreign-born
individuals convicted of crimes to be deported to their countries of origin.
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| A scene from Home Again |
The
deportations create enormous problems for both the home nations and the
individuals, many of whom grew up abroad. In Home Again, a feature directed by Sudz Sutherland, three
individuals from varying backgrounds come into conflict with this legislation.
After their forced return to Jamaica, their ostensible “home” country, these characters experience a series of challenges and violent situations that test their survival skills. They end up learning much about themselves as well as their environment.
The second
film dealing with this subject is Deported
(Expulsés), which “gives a voice” to
offenders from the United States and Canada who have been deported to Haiti
after serving their prison sentence in North America. Their offences ranged
from violent crime to drunk-driving and petty theft, and the film focuses on
their attempts at re-integration in the country of their birth.
Directors
Rachèle Magloire and Chantal Regnault construct Deported around trips in Haiti (where they followed their characters for
three years) and events in North America where some families have no idea of
the lives of those who have been sent back.
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| The deported face new challenges in Home Again. |
Discussions
will also accompany the screening of Deported,
and N’Daw-Spech says she hopes the festival will highlight this under-reported
issue.
Another topical
film is Otomo, a feature that shares
a glimpse into the day-to-day world of refugees. This film reconstructs the true
story of a West African asylum seeker in Stuttgart, Germany, who physically
assaulted a ticket inspector on the subway, fled the scene, and became the target of
a huge manhunt.
The film shows
how institutionalized racism drives a disempowered individual to violence and
inhumanity, according to its director Frieder Schlaich, and this subject is
particularly pertinent as Europe debates how to deal with undocumented migrants
and its Roma population.
Moving to the
arts, the festival includes a film about music with Tango Negro. This documentary, by Angolan director Dom Pedro, “explores
the expression of African-ness inherent in the dance of the ‘tango’ and the
contribution of African cultures to the dance’s creation”.
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| Tango Negro explores the African origins of tango. |
Pedro
provides insight into the dance’s origins and cultural significance, depicting
the social life of African slaves, and he brings together musical performances
and interviews from tango enthusiasts, historians and various participants.
Other films
being screened include Names Live Nowhere,
a docu-drama that gives a candid
portrayal of the lives of African immigrants in Belgium; and W.A.K.A., a feature set in Douala,
Cameroon, about a young waitress who becomes pregnant, has no one to turn to, and
who faces the decision of whether to terminate her pregnancy or have her child.
“What we hear
from viewers is that the films that we bring are works that people don’t have
access to at all,” says N’Daw-Spech. “So that gives us inspiration to keep
going. We’re not interested in films that don’t have a serious topic or are
one-dimensional. All the films have a message.”
For more on the Paris schedule, in English, go to: http://fifda.org/paris-adiff-2014-english/ The annual New York presentation of the festival will take place in November.
