Africa World Documentary
Film Festival - October 2007
| AWDFF Home | Tivoli Schedule | Ticket Information | CIS Calendar |
CONTEMPORARY ART MUSEUM SCHEDULE - October 11, 12, 13, 2007
Ticket Information
THURSDAY OCTOBER 11TH
6:00 PM – 8 :00 PM
Maasai: A Warrior's Rite of Passage
Brad Minnich (40m, Kenya)
A three day ceremony where over 300 Maasai Warriors, gather together to slaughter over 100 animals and drink sacrificial bull's blood to graduate into Elder-hood. The film will take you inside one of the last indigenous tribes still practicing ancient rituals before they are lost forever.
Mr. Dial Has Something to Say
Celia Carey (60m, U S A)
Southern African-American visual art is the lesser-known 'sibling' of jazz and the blues. Like the music, this improvisational form has influenced many now-famous white American artists. But unlike the musicians, the visual artists have not received recognition for their historical impact on American culture. Why? This film explores the topic of racism and classism in the elite world of the American art museums, schools and galleries, focusing on the experiences of Thornton Dial--79-year-old 'self-taught' artist from Alabama.
FRIDAY OCTOBER 12TH
6:00 PM – 8 :00 PM
Amazones
Valdas Kotovas (29m, Guinea, USA)
Women drumming group 'Amazones' visit Montreal in summer 2006. With their's performance and workshops they introduce the Canadians with African music and dance.
Elephant People: An African secret Society and Globalization
Lyombe Eko (27m, Cameroon)
The filmmaker made a pilgrimage into the inner core of the Bakweri “Mahlé” secret society in Cameroon, which he describes as ‘the most enduring aspect of the Whakpe culture’ which survived 125 years of colonial and missionary effort to stamp it out. The film focuses on role of the secret society as a symbol of how the Bakweri strive a balance between their culture, religion (Christianity) and the influence of modernity.
Movement (R)evolution Africa
Joan Frosch, Alla Kovgan (65m, USA)
In an astonishing exposition of choreographic creations, nine African choreographers tell stories of an emergent art form of Contemporary African Dance. Stunning choreography and riveting critiques challenge stale stereotypes of 'traditional Africa' to unveil soul-shaking responses to the beauty and tragedy of 21st century Africa.
SATURDAY OCTOBER 13TH
10:00 AM – 4:00 PM
Brotherly Jazz
Jesse Block (70m, USA)
The story of three Philadelphia brothers in jazz: Percy, Jimmy and Albert “Tootie” Heath. They have played or recorded with every great jazz musician from the 1950’s to present. They have survived drugs, jail and discrimination to thrive as jazz musicians and educators.
Irma's Journey
Robbie Leppzer (9m, USA)
A chronicle of a unique Spiritual and cultural pilgrimage to Senegal by Irma Gardner-Hammond, an African American Storyteller, who makes an emotional re-connection with her African roots.
No Capitulation
Richard Dailey (28m, Cameroon, France)
Barthélémy Toguo is an internationally renowned artist who lives and works in Paris, France, and in Bandjoun, Cameroon. He is creating an art institute, Bandjoun Station, on family land in his ancestral village in Western Cameroon. Bandjoun Station is an artistically ambitious and politically audacious project that the artist has funded himself. On a high plateau in equatorial Cameroon, art history meets ancestor worship.
Reconstructing Creole
Jennifer John Block (57m, U S A)
A burned out plantation home is restored while the memoir of its former mistress reveals a world of slavery and society balls, of race-mixing and family bonds, of cruelty, love and joie de vivre
The power of Art/Women's Voice in Africa
Claudine Pommier (52m, Canada)
The film shows how contemporary women who choose to be professional artists claim their position, deal with stereotypes associated with being African (when seen from outside the continent) and stereotypes associated with being a woman (when seen from within the continent). The film will also focus on the role women professional artists may play to address the numerous challenges facing the continent.
The Return of the Obelisk
Samson Giorgis (64m, Ethiopia)
Almost 70 years after the Italian invasion of Ethiopia, The Axum Obelisk – A stele 23 meters high and one of the most important historical monument of Ethiopia - finally returned to its home country in April 2005. The film focused on the incredible history of this monument, which is considered as a world heritage by UNESCO since 1980, and the struggle for the handover of this priceless Piece of Art.
This Is Nollywood
Franco Sacchi (54m, Nigeria, U S A)
The film is about the Nigerian film industry, a completely homegrown industry that produces over 1,000 movies a year enabling Africans filmmakers with few resources to tell their stories to African audiences. Until recently little known outside its own country, the film explains why it is becoming recognized as a phenomenon with broad implications for the cultural and economic development of Africa.
