DocWatchers Presents: A World Not Ours

Thursday, November 20th, 7:00pm

DocWatchers Presents:

(Curated by Hellura Lyle)

A World Not Ours

Mahdi Fleifel, 2012, 93 min.

Director Mahdi Fleifel's first documentary feature is a uniquely engaging and personal project. Drawing on a family history of video-taping, Fleifel offers an intimate glimpse into the Ain el-Helweh refugee camp in Lebanon—a settlement of less than a square mile that's home to over 70,000 people and has existed for over 60 years. Dubai-born and London-based writer, director, and cinematographer Fleifel spent his formative years in the camp in the 1980s, before his family settled in Denmark. For years he's been returning and keeping a video diary, and in A World Not Ours he provides a frank yet affectionate portrait of the community. Fleifel's conversations with the camp residents provide an unfiltered take on Palestinian grievances with Israel, Lebanon, and their own political leaders. Elsewhere he explores how residents use the World Cup series to articulate their own ideas of home, community, victory, and hope. Engaging and accessible, with a quirky, upbeat soundtrack, Fleifel's personal journey offers a fresh and inviting point of entry to a thorny political history.

Q&A (via Skype) with Director Mahdi Fleifel & Reception to follow screening.

Trailer: vimeo.com/57316804

BPT: http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/916758

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/645662225552017/

DocWatchers Presents: Alice Walker: Beauty In Truth

Thursday, November 13th, 7:00pm

DocWatchers Presents:

(Curated by Hellura Lyle)

Alice Walker: Beauty In Truth

Pratibha Parmar, 2013, 84 min

Alice Walker: Beauty in Truth offers a penetrating look at the life and work of this artist, human rights activist, and self-confessed renegade. Though Walker broke into national prominence in 1983 as the first black woman to win the Pulitzer Prize, her influence on American literature was already well-established. Director Pratibha Parmar traces Walker's extraordinary journey from the cotton fields of Georgia, through her precarious life as a black rights activist living in an interracial marriage, to her international fame as the writer of The Color Purple. But the success of that novel, as well as the subsequent film and stage versions, came at a high price. Employing intimate interviews with Walker and members of her inner circle including Angela Davis, Quincy Jones, Gloria Steinem, Howard Zinn, and Walker's ex-husband, Beauty in Truth seeks not simply to document Walker's many achievements, but to restore her to her rightful place in history; not only as a key literary figure of the 20th Century, but as a profoundly influential activist whose inspiring journey reflects the national story of our country and people during a time of great historical change.

Q&A (via Skype) with Director Pratibha Parmar & Reception to follow screening.

Trailer: vimeo.com/29261995

BPT: http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/916353

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/645662225552017/

DocWatchers and the African Film Festival Present: Amandla!: A Revolution in Four-Part Harmony

Thursday, November 6th, 7:00pm

DocWatchers and the African Film Festival Present:

(Curated by Hellura Lyle)

Amandla!: A Revolution in Four-Part Harmony

Lee Hirsch, 2002, 103 min

Amandla!: A Revolution in Four-Part Harmony depicts the extraordinary role of freedom songs in the very long struggle against apartheid in South Africa.Featuring Miriam Makeba, Hugh Masekela, Abdullah Ibrahim, Vusi Mahlaselaand others, the film uses a mixture of interviews, musical performances and historical film footage. Amandla follows South Africans’ stories to be told through the voices of the people themselves.Amandla!is a beautifully crafted film which gives a fresh perspective on the importance of resistance songs throughout a conflict. This celebratory film is a testimony to the power of song and reveals that the inspiration of music provides fuel for the soul.

Q&A with Director Lee Hirsch & Reception to follow screening.

Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pkv2dUcGAn4

BPT: http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/916014

Facebook (general for all DocWatchers): https://www.facebook.com/events/645662225552017/

Doc Watchers

Thursday, September 18th, 7:00pm

Doc Watchers

Curated by Hellura Lyle

The New Black

Yoruba Richen, 2013, 74 min.

The New Black tells the story of how the African-American community is grappling with the gay rights issue in light of the recent gay marriage movement and the fight over civil rights. The film documents activists, families and clergy on both sides of the campaign to legalize gay marriage and examines homophobia in the black community’s institutional pillar—the black church and reveals the Christian right wing’s strategy of exploiting this phenomenon in order to pursue an anti-gay political agenda

Followed by Q&A with Director Yoruba Richen.

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GX4XiTSuuF0

http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/830370

(Preceded by…)  Flying Solo: A Transgender Widow Fights Discrimination

Leslie Von Pless, 2014, 8 min.

At 92, Robina Asti, a World War II veteran and pilot, tells her story of living as a transgender woman since 1976 and her fight to be treated like any other widow.

Post-screening reception sponsored by Harlem Pride.

Fostering fellowship and informed discussion within Harlem’s LGBT community.

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/274739146060336/

BPT: http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/830370

Thursday, September 11th, 7:00pm

Doc Watchers & African Film Festival Present:

God Loves Uganda

Roger Ross Williams, 2013, 83 min.

As an American-influenced bill to make homosexuality punishable by death wins widespread support, tension in Uganda mounts and an atmosphere of murderous hatred takes hold. God Loves Uganda explores the role of the American evangelical movement in Uganda, where American missionaries have been credited with not only building schools and hospitals, but also promoting dangerous religious bigotry, God Loves Uganda is a provocative and harrowing exploration of religious fundamentalism in the post-colonial world.

Followed by Q&A with Editor Benjamin Gray.

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m3_hKv4pEM4

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/274739146060336/

BPT: http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/830354

(Preceded by…)  One Year Lease

Brian Bolster, 2014, 11 min.

Told almost entirely through voice mail messages, One Year Lease documents the travails of Brian, Thomas, and Casper as they endure a year-long sentence with Rita, the cat-loving landlady.

Post-screening reception sponsored by Harlem Pride.

Fostering fellowship and informed discussion within Harlem’s LGBT community.

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/274739146060336/

BPT: http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/830354

Doc Watchers

Thursday, September 4th, 7:00pm

Doc Watchers

Curated by Hellura Lyle

Out In the Night

Blair Dorosh-Walther, 2014, 75 min.

Out in the Night is a documentary that tells the story of a group of young African American lesbian friends who are out, one hot August night in 2006, in the gay friendly West Village in New York City. When they are violently and sexually threatened by a man on the street, they defend themselves and are charged and convicted in the courts and in the media as a 'Gang of Killer Lesbians'.

Screening followed by Q&A with Director Blair Dorosh-Walther, and film subjects Renata Hill, Patreese Johnson & Terrain Dandridge.

Trailer: http://vimeo.com/58462469

(Preceded by…)  How To Be A Girl

Directed & Animated by Marlo Mack, 2014, 7min.

When Marlo Mack’s son was three years old, he told his mom that she was actually her daughter.  Three years later, she is the mother of a happy, confident, six-year-old girl.  How To Be A Girl tells the story of how one mother let go of the son she never really had and wound up with a beautiful transgender daughter.

Post-screening reception sponsored by Harlem Pride.

Fostering fellowship and informed discussion within Harlem’s LGBT community.

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/274739146060336/

BPT: http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/830338

Doc Watchers Presents A Women's History Month Special

Thursday, March 20th, 7:00pm

Doc Watchers Presents A Women's History Month Special

Curated by Hellura Lyle

The Exhibition

Damon Vignale,2013, 92 min.

In an attempt to deflect the public gaze away from Canada's most notorious serial killer and onto the lives of his victims, artist Pamela Masik creates paintings of the murdered women. However, her work is quickly met with a backlash from the victims' families and the Vancouver Aboriginal community. Over a six year period, The Exhibition follows Masik’s struggle to exhibit this collection of paintings, and the public outcry that ensued.  All of this amidst a shocking murder trial; an inquiry into the police department’s failed investigation; and the families’ search for answers in Canada’s largest serial murder case in history. Unafraid to confront moral ambiguity, The Exhibition examines every nuance of the debate over whether her work is art, tribute, or exploitation.

Q&A (via Skype) with director following the screening.

Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4LUUpY1n2I0

BPT: http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/584000

FB: https://www.facebook.com/events/570360526394109/

Doc Watchers Presents A women History's Month Special

Thursday, March 13th, 7:00pm

Doc Watchers Presents A Women's History Month Special

(A Special Co-Presentation with the New York African Film Festival)

Curated by Hellura Lyle

Joy, It’s Nina

Jane Thorburn, 2012, 34 min

Shot in England and Nigeria and performed and written by Joy Elias-Riwan, this evocative and original film builds on the experiences and emotional lives of West African women living in the UK separated from their families. The stories are based on news and court reports and Joy Elias-Rilwan's own life, including voicemails left on her answer-machine by the legendary singer Nina Simone, her friend and self proclaimed 'Spiritual Mother'.

Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ibmmCjHCtJs

Menstrual Man

Amit Virmani, 2013, 63 min

There are men who squirm at the mention of a woman’s period, and then there’s Arunachalam Muruganantham. Considered a madman and pervert by his community, he ignored his detractors and made his dream—low-cost sanitary pads made by and for rural Indian women—a reality. Menstrual Man is the inspiring story of a hero who rises above poverty and a lack of education to become a superstar social entrepreneur in the business of breaking cultural taboos and re-inventing the economic pyramid. Muruganantham is leading a movement, not a company. And it’s spreading.

Q&A (via Skype) with director Amit Virmani following the screening.

Trailer: http://youtu.be/S3567Hx_U98

BPT: http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/583980

FB: https://www.facebook.com/events/349371178539007/