Detroit Women of Color International Film Festival!
I am really working on making the text more
reader friendly. Please remember that this is a very rough draft. I want to talk about the film festival having
multiple venues.
Detroit Women of Color Film Festival will share the global stories of women
of color, expand tourism in Detroit with an exceptional culturally diverse venue and build a bridge between the African American,
Continental African, Caribbean, Latino, Native American, Middle Eastern, and Asian communities by highlighting
our shared experiences and expanding our cultural awareness through art.We
strive to entertain,
educate, and mobilize our community to make positive changes locally and globally.We will present exciting high quality film screenings in the Johanson Charles Gallery, one of the top art
galleries in the city of Detroit.
Johanson Charles Gallery
Friday, April 13, 2007
5:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m.
This amazing film festival begins
with a reception from 5:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. at the gallery next to the Johanson Charles Gallery 1345 Division Street, in
the historical Eastern Market District, Detroit, MI 48207. The reception will feature several of the film makers and
producers of the films that will be showcased and live entertainmnent.
This text wil describe some of the films
that I chose for the night and the question and answer period with the filmmakers.
Saturday, April 14, 2007
12:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m.
or
3:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m.
Text in process....
There will be a diverse line up of films,
live entertainment, and a film festival marketplace featuring unique vendors.
Abi Tokan-Adeshina,
Ade Adewoyin, Adetoro Makinde, Monique Desiree, Ray Campbell
Crew:
Producer
& Screenwriter: Adetoro Makinde - Co Producer: K. Marie Walters - Executive Producers: Adetoro Makinde, Janel C. Scarborough,
Eddie Steeples - Editor: Chris A. Peterson - Cinematographer: Greg Williams - Original Score: Ariel A. Blumenthal - Traditional
Music: Francis Awe - Sound Design: Geoff Green
Sales:
Adetoro
Makinde - Backdoor Films - www.BackdoorFilms.com
synopsis As a Nigerian-American, Bisi has lived her life balancing between the freedom of an American lifestyle and the
beliefs of her Yoruba ancestors. On the eve of her wedding tradition takes over, but it could cost her the man she loves.
Biography
Maurice Dwyer: Originally, from Mt. Vernon, NY,
Maurice received his B.A. from TempleUniversity
in filmmaking. As an actor, he's appeared in many stage plays, independent films and guest starred in the CBS drama "Now and
Again", for which he was submitted for Emmy consideration. His directing credits include For Charity's Sake, the award-winning
WHOA (Sundance 2002), Cop Block produced as a semi-finalist for the Chrysler Million Dollar Film Festival at the Cannes Film
Festival 2002, 3 Minutes, under the Fox Searchlight: Searchlab Program.
Adetoro Makinde:
A first generation Nigerian-American, Adetoro is a graduate of Georgetown University and the Duke Ellington School of the
Arts in Washington, D.C. Along with several Off-Broadway and regional stage performances, her credits include "Homicide",
"100 Center Street", "Little Senegal" and "Only In America". She's also produced the short films For Charity's Sake, the
TAHARA a film by SARA RASHAD
Discover the controversy, horror, and cultural
struggle surrounding female genital mutilation in the 35mm dramatic narrative film TAHARA, with an approximate running time of 17 minutes and 30 seconds, this powerful story offers a candid look
at the reality of this problem, and empowers women in practicing cultures to understand an important choice in their life.
TAHARA is the story of Amina, an Egyptian housewife living in Los Angeles,
who must decide if she will follow tradition and circumcise her daughter, Suha, or if she will abandon this age old practice
and save Suha from circumcision. Despite it's illegality, Amina feels strongly that she must continue this tradition because
of pressure she receives from her mother, Zeinab, when her husband is away on a business trip.
Amina solicits the services
of a surgeon who informs her of the serious health consequences of the procedure. He refuses. When Amina returns home Zeinab
argues with her and insists they will take Suha to the local daya (an illegal circumciser). Amina tosses and turns all night.
The
next day at the daya's house Amina sits amongst the women with Suha beside her. As Amina takes Suha through the customary
rites-of-passage, she recalls the rich, colorful pageantry of her own circumcision, which provides her with strength. However,
Amina is also assaulted by repressed memories of her own brutal operation. She is confronted with the horrendous pain she
endured and the abandonment she felt by her mother.
Will Amina find the necessary courage to confront her mother, Zeinab,
to defy tradition and save her daughter from the brutal psychological and physical effects of circumcision? Or, will she submit
Suha to the same horrifying fate?
Amina's dilemma represents the dilemma of many women who live in denial of their
own oppression and cultural abuse. They will see Amina's struggles as their own. The film will hopefully encourage them to
find the courage to embrace truth in order to heal from their cultural wounds. TAHARA represents the voices of women
and girls who are suffering silently. TAHARA breaks the silence. Women must know they are not suffering alone.
TAHARA is a universal story that will appeal to a broad audience.
It's an archetypal story about generational conflict and the immense power mothers and daughters, fathers and sons exert on
each other. It's a story of a family struggling to stay connected to their roots. It's a story about growing multiculturalism
and what it means in the United States
and abroad. It's a story about the tyranny of culture and family. TAHARA takes creative risks on issues not usually
seen and will connect with a worldwide audience.
A Girl Like Me
7:08 minutes Youth Documentary Kiri Davis, Director, Reel Works
Teen Filmmaking, Producer
More
About A Girl Like Me from Director Kiri Davis
For my high-school literature
class I was constructing an anthology with a wide range of different stories that I believed reflected the black girl’s
experience. For the different chapters, I conducted interviews with a variety of black girls in my high school, and a number
of issues surfaced concerning the standards of beauty imposed on today’s black girls and how this affects their self-image.
I thought this topic would make an interesting film and so when I was accepted into the Reel Works Teen Filmmaking program, I set out to explore these issues. I also decided to would reconduct the “doll test” initially conducted
by Dr. Kenneth Clark, which was used in the historic desegregation case, Brown vs. Board
of Education. I thought that by including this experiment in my film, I would shed new light on how society affects
black children today and how little has actually changed.
With help from my mentor,
Shola Lynch, and thanks to the honesty and openness of the girls I interviewed, I was able to complete my first documentary
in the fall of 2005. I learned that giving the girls an opportunity to talk about these issues and their experiences helped
us all to look deeper and examine the many things in society that affect us and shape who we are.
Please click play to view the video.
Kiri
Davis, Director know from an early ago that film was a medium I wanted to work in. Through my films I’ve found a way
of expressing myself as well as telling the stories that are important to me. At sixteen, I directed my first documentary,
A Girl Like Me. Before that, I created numerous short films and attended
the New
YorkFilmAcademy.
I would love to pursue a career in filmmaking as well as to explore my passions for acting and writing. I have a love of traveling,
which affords me the opportunity to meet new people and explore other cultures. My goal is to develop more projects that will
help my community and give a much needed voice to issues that pertain to people of color. I am currently attending UrbanAcademy, a NYC public high school, and I live with
my mother in Manhattan’s Upper West Side.
A Cidade das Mulheres City of Women
Lázaro Faria Brazil,
Documentary, 2005 72 minutes Portuguese with English Subtitles
A Cidade das Mulheres proudly presents Stella of Oxóssi, lyalorisha
of llê Axé Opô Afonjá (a Candomblé temple founded in 1910), who tells the story of Candomblé, the cult of Shango, syncretism,
and the future of Candomblé. It is also a tribute to Ruth Landes, the American anthropologist who studied the role of gender
in Afro-Brazilian culture in the 1930s and was amazed at the power that religious women held in the city of Salvador. “I
think the women help make Brazil great. Will Americans believe that there is a country where women like men,
feel secure and at ease with them, and do not fear them?"
