Congo Business Case

Friday, October 23rd, 7:30pm
Congo in Harlem 7
Presented by Friends of the Congo and True-Walker Productions
Congo Business Case

Congo Business Case
Hans Bouma,The Netherlands, 2013, 81min.
(French, Dutch & Lingala w/ English subtitles)
Disillusioned by his experience at the United Nations, Daniel Knoop quits his job as a development worker and starts up his own business. He believes Congo can turn into the granary of the African continent. The Congolese farmers receive Daniel as a savior because he is the first trader to arrive since the civil war ended. A year later, the project has failed miserably and Daniel leaves without a word, leaving the farmers to wonder what really happened.

Followed by Q&A with filmmaker Hans Bouma and Eastern Congo Initiative’s Harper McConnell.

This presentation is made possible in part with public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts’ Electronic Media and Film Presentation Funds grant program, administered by The ARTS Council of the Southern Finger Lakes.

Mukwege, the Doctor Who Saves Women

Thursday, October 22nd, 7:30pm
Congo in Harlem 7
Presented by Friends of the Congo and True-Walker Productions
Co-presented by Panzi Foundation USA
Mukwege, the Doctor Who Saves Women

Mukewege, the Doctor Who Saves Women
Angèle Diabang, Senegal/DR Congo, 2015, 52 min.
(French & Swahili w/ English subtitles)
Dr. Denis Mukwege is a gynecologist and the founder of Panzi, a hospital whose primary mission is treating women who have been raped – casualties in the DR
Congo’s decades-long war. At the hospital, Mukwege and his mostly female team provide reconstructive surgery and psychological counseling as well as literacy and other programs designed to help patients reintegrate into a society that has a history of shaming and ostracizing rape survivors.

Followed by Q&A with filmmaker Angèle Diabang and special guests.

This presentation is made possible in part with public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts’ Electronic Media and Film Presentation Funds grant program, administered by The ARTS Council of the Southern Finger Lakes.

Rêve Bokoluka / Rêve Kakudji

Wednesday, October 21st, 7:30pm
Congo in Harlem 7
Presented by Friends of the Congo and True-Walker Productions
Rêve Bokoluka / Reve Kakudji

Rêve Bokoluka
Jay Safari, DR Congo, 2015, 10 min
(French & Lingala w/ English subtitles)
In Kinshasa, a Congolese street musician struggles to survive.

Rêve Kakudji
Ibbe Daniels & Koen Vidal, Belgium, 2013, 62 min.
(French, English, Italian & Swahili w/ English subtitles)
He traveled to Europe to achieve his dream of becoming a top opera singer. Although Serge's artistic ambitions are pure and uncomplicated, the reactions among his environment and audiences are often ambiguous and divided. While some people respect and acknowledge his artistic vocation, others see him as an exotic oddity, or complain that that his African timbre jars with classical opera. Serge refuses to be discouraged by any of this. On the contrary, he wants to hold up a mirror to Western culture and confront it with its underlying beliefs. He also wants to use his story and experiences in the west to bring opera to Congo. Together with his countrymen and women, he wants to found a Congolese opera tradition based on African stories that will inspire people to follow their dreams.

This presentation is made possible in part with public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts’ Electronic Media and Film Presentation Funds grant program, administered by The ARTS Council of the Southern Finger Lakes.

Empire of Dust

Tuesday, October 20th, 7:30pm
Congo in Harlem 7
Presented by Friends of the Congo and True-Walker Productions
Empire of Dust

Empire of Dust
Bram Van Paesschen, Belgium, 2011, 77 min.
(Swahili, French & English w/ English subtitles)
Lao Yang and Eddy both work for a company called CREC (Chinese Railway Engineering Company). They have just set up camp near the remote mining town of Kolwezi in the Katanga province of the RDC. The goal of the company is to redo the road - covering 300km - that connects Kolwezi with the capital of the province Lubumbashi. Lao Yang is head of logistics of the group. With his Congolese translator Eddy Lao attempts to procure equipment, building materials and food from local Congolese entrepreneurs. What follows is a harsh, but light-hearted roller coaster of negotiations, misunderstandings, and culture clash.

Followed by Q&A with filmmaker Bram Van Paesschen and special guests.

This presentation is made possible in part with public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts’ Electronic Media and Film Presentation Funds grant program, administered by The ARTS Council of the Southern Finger Lakes.

Early Silent Colonial Films

Monday, October 19th, 7:30pm
Congo in Harlem 7
Presented by Friends of the Congo and True-Walker Productions
Early Silent Colonial Films

Early Silent Colonial Films
(Courtesy of CINEMATEK)
Ernest Genval, Belgium, 1926-1938, 65 min.

A collection of short silent films made by Belgian cinematographer Ernest Genval. These films, mostly commissioned by the Belgian Within the Work Fair (1926, 5min), and The Life of the Watermen (1938, 13min).

Followed by Q&A with filmmaker Jean-Michel Kibushi.

This presentation is made possible in part with public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts’ Electronic Media and Film Presentation Funds grant program, administered by The ARTS Council of the Southern Finger Lakes.

Docwatchers Cuba:an African Odyssey

Thursday, October 15th, 7:00pm
Doc Watchers & African Film Festival, Inc. Present:
Cuba: An African Odyssey

Jihan El-Tahri, 2015, 117 min
This film chronicles the crucial role that Cuba played in securing the independence of nations throughout Africa. At the very height of the Cold War, Cuba risked the enmity of both superpowers by its unwavering commitment to the principle that Africa should be governed by the genuine representatives of its peoples. Cuba provided invaluable support to liberation struggles throughout the continent. The film reveals incredible events that span thirty years, from Che Guevara's covert mission to avenge the death of Patrice Lumumba, to Fidel Castro's command of the decisive battle in Angola and the negotiations with Apartheid South Africa that finally ended the war.

Reception to follow screening.

Stretch and Bobbito: Radio That Changed Lives

Monday, October 5th-Sunday, October 11th, 7:30pm
Stretch and Bobbito: Radio That Changed Lives
 

Bobbito Garcia, 2015, 95 min
During the 1990s, Stretch and Bobbito introduced the world to an unsigned Nas, Biggie, Wu-Tang, and Big Pun as well as an unknown Jay-Z, Eminem, and the Fugees. The total record sales for all the artists that premiered on their radio show exceed 300 million. The late night program had a cult following in the art/fashion world and prison population as well. All would loyally tune in for the humor just as much for the exclusive tunes. Stretch and Bobbito brought a unique audience together, and created a platform that changed music forever.

October 5th: Q&A with Stretch, Bobbito and Kool Keith
October 7th: Q&A with Lord Sear
October 8th: Q&A with editors Emir Lewis and Mariah Rehmet
October 9th: Q&A with producer Omar Acosta
October 10th: Q&A with interviewees Zuhirah Khaldum-Diarra and Tyesh Harris
October 11th: Q&A with Stretch and Bobbito

Black Panther Party Film Festival - The Black Panthers: Vanguard of a Revolution

Saturday, October 3rd, 4:00pm

The 7th Annual Black Panther Party Film Festival

(7. * We want an immediate end to POLICE BRUTALITY and MURDER of Black people)

Produced by the Black Panther Commemoration Committee, NY

The Black Panthers: Vanguard of a Revolution

Freeman Brothers

2015, 15 min.

The story of the Roland and Ronald Freeman is the story of the Los Angeles Black Panthers. Roland Freeman, an original member of the Southern California Chapter of the Black Party for Self-Defense died in 2014 in New York. Freeman was bringing back the ashes of his brother Ronald Freeman, 69, also an original member of the Black Panther Party who had passed away a week before from cancer, when he had a heart attack and immediately died. With the deaths of Ronald and Roland Freeman, three original Black Panther members from Los Angeles had passed away in 2014 including Wayne Pharr. Ronald and Roland Freeman joined the Southern California Chapter of the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense in 1967. They were both a part of the original membership of fewer than 20 people and were active participants in the shootout on Dec. 8, 1969 involving over 300 LAPD officers and the SWAT team.

The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution

Stanley Nelson, 2015, 113 min

The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution is the first feature length documentary to explore the Black Panther Party, its significance to the broader American culture, its cultural and political awakening for black people, and the painful lessons wrought when a movement derails. Master documentarian Stanley Nelson goes straight to the source, weaving a treasure trove of rare archival footage with the voices of the people who were there: police, FBI informants, journalists, white supporters and detractors, and Black Panthers who remained loyal to the party and those who left it. Featuring Kathleen Cleaver, Jamal Joseph, and many others, The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution is an essential history and a vibrant chronicle of this pivotal movement that birthed a new revolutionary culture in America.

Post-screening Q&A with producer Laurens Grant and original members of the BPP.

Remembering our Political Prisoners over 800 years in Captivity

* 7. of the The Black Panther Party for Self-Defense Ten-Point Platform and Program, 1966

Black Panther Party Film Festival - (T)error

Saturday, October 3rd, 7:00pm
The 7th Annual Black Panther Party Film Festival
(7. * We want an immediate end to POLICE BRUTALITY and MURDER of Black people)
Produced by the Black Panther Commemoration Committee, NY
(T)error

Voices of Three Political Prisoners: Jalil Abdul Muntaqim
Eve Goldberg and Claude Marks, 2002, 20 min
Jalil Abdul Muntaqim (formerly Anthony Bottom) was 19 years old when he was arrested. He is a former member of the Black Panther Party and the Black Liberation Army, and is one of the longest held political prisoners in the world. This documentary is a unique opportunity to hear Jalil’s story. While in San Quentin prison in California in 1976, Jalil launched the National Prisoners Campaign to Petition the United Nations to recognize the existence of political prisoners in the United States and in 1997 Jalil initiated the Jericho Movement. Over 6,000 supporters gathered in the Jericho ’98 march in Washington DC and the Bay Area to demand amnesty for US political prisoners on the basis of international law. The Jericho Amnesty Movement aims to gain the recognition by the U.S. government and the United Nations that political prisoners exist in this country and that on the basis of international law, they should be granted amnesty because of the political nature of their cases.

(T)error
David Felix Sutcliffe and Lyric R. Cabral, 2015, 93 min
A real-life thriller, (T)error is the first documentary to place filmmakers on the ground during a live FBI counterterrorism sting operation. With unprecedented access to an active informant - Saeed "Shariff" Torres, a 63-year-old former Black Panther - viewers get an unfettered glimpse of the government's counterterrorism tactics and the murky justifications behind them. (T)error illuminates the fragile relationships between individual and surveillance state in modern America, and asks who is watching the watchers?

Post-screening Q&A with filmmakers David Felix Sutcliffe and Lyric R. Cabral.

Closing Reception.

Remembering our Political Prisoners over 800 years in Captivity
* 7. of the The Black Panther Party for Self-Defense Ten-Point Platform and Program, 1966

Black Panther Party Film Festival - Lords of the Revolution

Friday, October 2nd, 7:00pm
The 7th Annual Black Panther Party Film Festival
(7. * We want an immediate end to POLICE BRUTALITY and MURDER of Black people)
Produced by the Black Panther Commemoration Committee, NY
Lords of the Revolution

Emory Douglas: The Art of the Black Panthers
Dress Code, 2015, 8 min
Emory Douglas was the Revolutionary Artist and Minister of Culture for the Black Panther Party. Through archival footage and conversations with Emory we share his story, alongside the rise and fall of the Panthers. He used his art as a weapon in the Black Panther Party’s struggle for civil rights and today Emory continues to give a voice to the voiceless. His art and what the Panthers fought for are still as relevant as ever.

Lords of the Revolution
VH1, 2009, 60 min
In the 60s, there were few radical groups more controversial that The Black Panthers. Led by the dynamic personalities of Bobby Seale, Huey Newton and Eldridge Cleaver, the Panthers boldly challenged white America to deliver justice and opportunity for all. Armed with guns and clad with berets and leather jackets, the Panthers advocated self-defense; initiated social service programs nationwide; and became a defiant symbol of Black Power. The also become a target as the FBI and police waged a bloody war to bring the party down.

Post-screening Q&A with original members of the BPP.

Remembering our Political Prisoners over 800 years in Captivity
* 7. of the The Black Panther Party for Self-Defense Ten-Point Platform and Program, 1966

Florence, Arizona

Wednesday, September 30th, 7:30pm
Florence, Arizona

Andrea Scott, 2015, 84 min
Florence, Arizona is a cowboy town with a prison problem. Founded in 1866, this bastion of the Wild West is home to 8,500 civilians and 17,000 inmates spread over nine prisons. Through an unconventional lens, the documentary film “Florence, Arizona” weaves together the stories of four key residents of Florence, whose lives have all been shadowed in some way by the surrounding prison industrial complex. The result is an intricately crafted cinematic tapestry, threaded through with deep strands of Americana, humor, intimacy, and pathos, revealing as much about ourselves as it does about our modern carceral state.

Director Andrea Scott in attendance, post-screening Q&A moderated by film critic and writer Eric Hynes.

Black Panther Party Film Festival - Murder of Fred Hampton

Saturday, September 26th, 4:00pm
The 7th Annual Black Panther Party Film Festival
(7. * We want an immediate end to POLICE BRUTALITY and MURDER of Black people)
Produced by the Black Panther Commemoration Committee, NY
Murder of Fred Hampton

But You Can’t Kill a Revolution
16 min
A TV network investigation team visits a small Louisiana town to film racial profiling and the police killing of an unarmed grandfather on his porch. There they find out that the town is also home to the grave of Black Panther Party Leader, Fred Hampton, and the dynamic Illinois State Chapter Chairman. Hampton was killed in an illegal Chicago police raid in 1969. Activists around the world remember "Chairman Fred", but so does the Ku Klux Klan. "You can jail a revolutionary, but you can't jail the revolution! You can kill a revolutionary, but you can't kill the revolution!!!" - Fred Hampton

Murder of Fred Hampton
Howard Alk & Mike Gray, 1971, 88 min.
The FBI/Police assassinated Black Panther leaders Fred Hampton & Mark Clark in a pre-dawn raid on December 4th, 1969. This film documents the scene of the crime and also includes original footage of Fred Hampton speeches and activities of The Black Panther Party in Chicago.

Post-screening Q&A with Attorney King Downing.

Remembering our Political Prisoners over 800 years in Captivity
* 7. of the The Black Panther Party for Self-Defense Ten-Point Platform and Program, 1966

Black Panther Party Film Festival - 365 Days of Marching / Justifiable Homicide

Saturday, September 26th, 7:00pm
The 7th Annual Black Panther Party Film Festival
(7. * We want an immediate end to POLICE BRUTALITY and MURDER of Black people)
Produced by the Black Panther Commemoration Committee, NY
365 Days of Marching / Justifiable Homicide

365 Days of Marching: The Amadou Diallo Story
Veronica Keitt, 2008, 90 min
February 4, 1999, Amadou Diallo was gunned down in a hail of 41 bullets by 4 New York City Police Officers. The people took to the streets charging the NYPD with police brutality and over the next two years that followed, a series of marches and protests was set into motion that would forever change the lives of New Yorkers. 365 Days of Marching- the Amadou Diallo Story recounts that bitter and yet compelling part of New York City history.

Justifiable Homicide
Jon Osman and Jonathan Stack, 2002, 85 min
On Jan. 12, 1995, two young Puerto Rican residents of the Bronx, Anthony Rosario and Hilton Vega, were shot to death by detectives of the New York Police Department. The officers said they were acting in self-defense, firing on two men in the act of committing an armed robbery. A grand jury believed them, and no charges were brought against them. The makers of Justifiable Homicide suggest that the subsequent firings of the director of the review board and the investigators assigned to the Rosario-Vega case were a result of the Giuliani administration's desire to make the case go away. Justifiable Homicide is an exploration of the killings and their aftermath.

Post-screening Q&A with 365 Days of Marching: The Amadou Diallo Story director Veronica Keitt and Justifiable Homicide subject (and mother of the late Anthony Rosario), Margarita Rosario.

Remembering our Political Prisoners over 800 years in Captivity
* 7. of the The Black Panther Party for Self-Defense Ten-Point Platform and Program, 1966

Black Panther Party Film Festival - 1971

Friday, September 25th, 7:00pm
The 7th Annual Black Panther Party Film Festival
(7. * We want an immediate end to POLICE BRUTALITY and MURDER of Black people)
Produced by the Black Panther Commemoration Committee, NY
1971

Johanna Hamilton, 2014, 79 min
On March 8th, 1971, eight ordinary citizens broke into an FBI office in Media, PA. Calling themselves the Citizens' Commission to Investigate the FBI, they removed every file in the office. Mailed anonymously, the stolen documents started to show up in newsrooms. The heist yielded a trove of damning evidence. The most significant revelation was COINTELPRO, a controversial, secret, illegal surveillance program overseen by lifelong Bureau director J. Edgar Hoover. Despite one of the largest investigations ever conducted, the FBI was unable to catch the burglars. Those responsible have never revealed their identities. Until now. For the first time the burglars have decided to speak about their actions. 1971 is their story, examining the consequences and implications of their actions - then and now.

Post-screening Q&A with Betty Medsger, Washington Post journalist and the author of “The Burglary: The Discovery of J. Edgar Hoover’s Secret FBI.”

Remembering our Political Prisoners over 800 years in Captivity
* 7. of the The Black Panther Party for Self-Defense Ten-Point Platform and Program, 1966

Jock Docs Presents: Fast Break

Don Zavin, 1978, 105 min
Evoking a cinema verite feel not found in most sports documentaries, Fast Break examines the 1977 Portland Trailblazers basketball team in a surprisingly personal and compelling fashion. Inter-cutting excerpts from the 1977 playoff / championship season, the film steps outside of the basketball court, and into the everyday lives of the Trailblazers, as well as their coach Jack Ramsey. Whether it’s biking the Oregon coast with star center Bill Walton, hosting a kids basketball camp with Dave Twardzik, or joking with Maurice Lucas at the pool – Fast Break lets the players speak for themselves: about basketball, life and playing in Portland.

Curated and Introduced by Laura Coxson, producer of Albert Maysles’ Iris

The Last Season

Sara Dosa, 2015, 78 min
Amid the bustling world of Central Oregon’s wild mushroom hunting camps, the lives of two former soldiers intersect. Roger, a 75 year-old sniper with the US Special Forces in Vietnam, and Kouy, a 46 year-old platoon leader of Cambodia’s Khmer Freedom Fighters who battled the Khmer Rouge, come together each fall to hunt the elusive matsutake mushroom, a rare mushroom prized in Japanese culture and cuisine. However, the pair discover more than just mushrooms in the woods: they find a new life, and livelihood; and, a means to slowly heal the scarring wounds of war. Told over the course of one matsutake mushroom season, The Last Season is a journey into the woods, into the memory of war and survival, telling a story of family from an unexpected place.

Q&A with executive producer Josh Penn (Beasts of the Southern Wild) on Saturday, September 19th and composer Osei Essed on Sunday, September 20th.

Jazz on Film: This Is Gary McFarland

Kristian St. Clair, 2006, 75 min
The film features appearances by such jazz legends as Clark Terry, Bob Brookmeyer, Steve Kuhn, Phil Woods, Sadao Watanabe, and Airto Moreira. Gary McFarland was a brilliant jazz composer who died way too young. Join us for the New York debut of this acclaimed documentary film about McFarland’s life, times and music. If you like film and classic jazz, this is the place to be.

Q&A with Kristian St. Clair, director of This is Gary McFarland.

A Filmless Festival

Wang Wo, 2015, 85 min
This film documents the 11th Beijing Independent Film Festival in 2014, from the preparations before the opening ceremony to the process of its forced cancellation, the event which spurred the Cinema on the Edge series. The footage used for the film was captured by audience members, local artists, invited directors and special guests, festival volunteers and workers, as well as journalists and members of the media. It is a film produced by the collective.

Q&A about independent filmmaking in China with filmmakers Wang Wo, Huang Ji, and the Cinema on the Edge organizers J.P. Sniadecki, Karin Chien and Shelly Kraicer.

Cut Out the Eyes

Xu Tong, 2014, 80 min.
Er Housheng is a blind musician who travels Inner Mongolia with his lover/partner Liu Lanlan performing the saucy, sensationally bawdy form of musical duet comedy called er ren tai. Er’s female audiences are particularly enthralled with his combination of sensuality, Rabelaisian earthiness, and frankly socially subversive lyrics. Director Xu’s specialty is to train his piercingly observant documentary camera — intimate and complicit, rather than coldly objective — on unique Chinese characters like Er, using them to probe deep beneath the surface of China’s clash of rural traditions with its urbanizing contemporaneity. The result is, on one hand, an enthralling ethnographic showpiece; but it’s at its core a passionate and frenzied psycho-drama of lust, violence, and genius.

Q&A with NYU professor and Reel China co-curator Angela Zito.

BLACKTRANSEVERYTHING Film Festival - Trans Lives Matter! Justice for Islan

Trans Lives Matter! Justice for Islan
Seyi Adebanjo, 2015, 12 min

#BLACKTRANSEVERYTHING was organized for this weekend in August to honor Islan Nettles, who was attacked and killed August 17th in Harlem across from a police precinct in 2013. Islan was a 23 year old black trans women whose murder stirred NYC community and black trans leadership.The site of her attack is 20 blocks away from where we’re holding this festival, and the violence that black trans people face daily continues to be a real threat everyday. Murders of black trans women in NYC like Amanda Milan in 2002 and the continued violence against black trans bodies like our sister India Clarke who was recently killed in Florida are only part of the struggle. We’ll be screening Trans Lives Matter! Justice for Islan Nettles, a multimedia photography piece by Seyi Adebanjo and a powerful and intensely moving document of a community vigil for Islan Nettles.

Following the screening there will be a vigil and speak out about the violence on black trans bodies.