African Films and The African Diaspora
Waiting for Happiness
Saturday, 7:15 pm, Regal Downtown #3
Director Abdellatif Kechiche’s story of a North African immigrant family in the French fishing port of Sete follows unemployed Slimane, the family’s patriarch, who attempts to provide for his two families (including his ex-wife, current girlfriend, and their daughters) by building a couscous restaurant in a derelict boat.
with director Sean Baker, producer Darren Dean, and cast members Prince Adu and Karren Karragulian
Thursday, 7:00 pm, Regal Downtown #3
Shot on location with amazing performances by a mostly non-professional cast, Sean Baker’s film delves into the world of a young Ghanaian immigrant working as a hustler peddling knock-off goods on the streets of New York. The film presents a portrait that never caves to the saccharine expectations of Hollywood.
with director Abderrahmane Sissako
Thursday, 10:00 pm, Regal Downtown #4
This beautiful semi-autobiographical film evokes both alienation and longing primarily through the play of color, décor, and shades of light. Director Sissako describes his work as ” a portrait of people in departure, who have to a certain extent already left, without having actually yet moved.”
with director Abderrahmane Sissako
Saturday, 10:00 am, Regal Downtown #4
Originally made for the French television series 2000 Seen By, Abderrahmane Sissako’s docudrama presents a lyrical portrait of life in a small African village on the cusp of the new millennium. Sissako stars as a fictionalized version of himself, on a journey from his home in France to his father’s land.
with directors Kevin Everson, Lydia Moyer, and William Wylie
Saturday, 4:15 pm, Regal Downtown #3
The Golden Age of Fish is an experimental feature film that interweaves various fragmentary narratives about the landscape of Cleveland, Ohio, from its prehistoric past to the present. An African American woman geologist is the excavator of Cleveland’s past, and our protagonist. The title references the geologist’s specimens, Devonian age Cleveland shale; it was the Devonian period (417 to 354 million years ago), when Cleveland had a golden age, and many new kinds of fish appeared. The film is a collage of fragments—scripted scenes and historic news footage, black and white and color—interwoven suggestively and poetically. “Everson tells without frills, but you can’t call it minimal. The images, occasionally no more than fragments, are too poetic and atmospheric for that. He also has a theme all of his own. To put it simply: the life and survival of the black population of America” (Rotterdam Film Festival). The Golden Age of Fish will be followed by Hyacinth, directed by Lydia Moyer, and Secret, directed by William Wylie.
