Co-presented by Maysles Documentary Center, The Documentary Forum at CCNY, City College Center For The Arts, and Third World Newsreel
Part 1, The Early Years 1600-1930 (William Miles, 1980, 60 min.)
Part 2: The The Depression Years 1930-1940 (William Miles, 1980, 60 min.)
Though arguably no other New York City neighborhood has generated as many conflicting representations as Harlem, one singular documentary stands out: I Remember Harlem, directed and produced by legendary filmmaker William Miles. Miles’ epic lovingly renders the diverse, 350-year history of Harlem as both a living, breathing neighborhood and as the cultural hub of African-American life.
This is a FREE event!
Post-screening discussion with: Sam Pollard, Boukary Sawadogo, Laurie Woodard, and Ann Bennett; Moderated by Vanessa Valdés
Reception at 6:00PM; screening at 6:30PM
Sam Pollard is an award-winning feature film and television video editor, documentary producer/director and New York University professor whose career spans almost thirty years. His documentaries have appeared on HBO and PBS American Experience among many others. He has co-produced documentaries with Spike Lee and edited a number of his feature films. He has won multiple Emmy awards and the George Foster Peabody award. From time to time, he serves on advisory committees for the National Endowment for the Humanities, National Endowment for the Arts, and the Independent Television Service (ITVS).
Dr. Boukary Sawadogo was born in Côte d’Ivoire and educated in Burkina Faso, Senegal and the USA. His research and teaching interests are focused on African cinema, documentary and Black world experience. Boukary has published extensively on Francophone African cinema, including a book Les Cinémas francophones ouest africains, 1900-2005. HIs documentary Salut Y'al: African Teachers on the Bayou was selected by the 2013 African World Documentary Film Festival. The newest directions of Boukary's research include the study of comedy and digital technologies in African cinemas, African TV series, and the questions of identity and mobility in the African diaspora. In that regard, Boukary is currently working on his second book project on comedy and entertainment in African cinema.
Ann Bennett is an Emmy nominated documentary filmmaker and multimedia producer. She produced the NAACP Image Award winning PBS feature documentary, "Through A Lens Darkly: Black Photographers and the Emergence of a People" as well as the multi-platform community engagement initiative, "Digital Diaspora Family Reunion" (DDFR). Bennett's film credits include; 'Citizen King' and 'Fisk Jubilee Singers' for the PBS series "American Experience", 'Hymn for Alvin Ailey' for "Dance in America", and the award winning PBS mini-series; 'Africans in America' and 'America's War on Poverty'. Bennett is a graduate of Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism and Harvard College.
Dr. Vanessa Valdés is the director of the City College of New York’s Black Studies Program. She is an associate professor of Spanish and Portuguese in CCNY’s Division of Humanities and the Arts. Her research interests include comparative studies of Black cultural productions throughout the Americas, including the Caribbean and Brazil. She is the author of the critically acclaimed “Diasporic Blackness,” about the life and times of Harlem Renaissance historian, writer and activist Arturo Alfonso Schomburg. Her other books include “Oshun's Daughters: The Search for Womanhood in the Americas,” “Let Spirit Speak!” and “The Future Is Now.” Valdés also serves as book review editor of the literary platform “sx salon,” and series editor of “Afro-Latinx Futures” at SUNY Press.
Laurie Woodard began her professional life as a dancer with the Dance Theater of Harlem. She completed her BA in History at Columbia University and her Ph. D in History and African American Studies at Yale University. Her research focuses upon the intersection between the cultural and political realms and employs interdisciplinary methodologies, drawing from performance studies, critical race theory, and women and gender studies. She was the recipient of the National Endowment for the Humanities Schomburg Scholar-in-Residence Fellowship and the Sylvia Arden Boone Prize. Her work has appeared in The New York Times and American Quarterly. She is the recipient of a 2018 National Endowment for the Humanities Faculty Award and is currently completing a manuscript on the life and work of performing artist and civil rights activist Fredi Washington.
This program is part of:
Made In Harlem: Remembering The Renaissance (February – June 2020)
Made In Harlem: Remembering The Renaissance, on the occasion of the Harlem Renaissance’s landmark 100th anniversary uses the wide-ranging lens of documentary film to capture and commemorate, explore and expand the many layers of experience that made up--and continue to make up--the Harlem Renaissance. The series brings together a variety of mostly nonfictional film sources to examine visual representations of the Renaissance and the lasting influence of these representations on political and artistic output, collective memory, present-day black experiences, and the Harlem of today.
Film courtesy of the William Miles Collection, Washington University Libraries.
This series is supported by the West Harlem Development Corporation
