Inter/transnational “B/black” Migration Clips and Film Recommendations
(Language: English and/or Subtitled in English)
12/20/12
18 IUS SOLI (2012) by Fred Kuwornu
“18 Ius Soli (The Right of Soil) is a 2012 award-winning grassroots Italian documentary about the issue of citizenship for 1,000,000 kids born in Italy. This documentary examines the law that denies citizenship to young people born in Italy of immigrant parents because they have no Italian blood. It follows 18 stories of girls and boys born and raised in Italy whose parents are originally from African, Asian, and South American countries, but who moved to and have long lived in different areas of Italy.”
Trailer:
Abouna (Our Father) (2002) by Mahamat-Saleh Haroun
“The lives of two brothers, who live in N'djamena, are upended when they awake one Saturday morning to find that their father has left the family. They are Amine, about eight years old, playful and asthmatic, and Tahir, 15, handsome, quiet, his brother's protector. The boys go in search of their father, and find only trouble.”
Trailer:
(L’)Afrance (2001) by Alain Gomis
“El Hadj is studying in Paris. He is one of the young Senegalese men who have come to Paris since the French colony became independent to get a good education so that he can serve his fatherland on his return. Unexpectedly he is suddenly confronted by a problem with his residence papers, just because he has arranged an extension too late. His pleasant life filled with good prospects has gone in one fell swoop.”
Trailer:
African Booty Scratcher (2009) by Nikyatu Jusu
“Prom nears and things seem to be spiralling out of control for the typically composed Isatu. In this coming of age story,West African tradition conflicts with American idealism and Isatu is forced to reassess her alliances.”
Film:
African Voices/BCC
“Olivia was born in Ghana and talks about the difficulties she faced when she left the west coast of Africa to start a new life in England”.
Film:
Africa For Norway - Official Christmas video
Clip:
Afroargentines (2003) by Jorge Fortes & Diego H. Ceballos
““Most Argentines, if you ask, will tell you: ‘In Argentina there are no black people.’” So opens AFROARGENTINES, a film which unearths the hidden history of black people in Argentina and their contributions to Argentine culture and society, from the slaves who fought in the revolutionary wars against Spain, to the contemporary struggles of black Argentines against racism and marginalization. The film uses historical documents from the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries, but is mostly based on interviews with black Argentines from a variety of backgrounds: intellectuals and taxi drivers, immigrants from Africa and native Afroargentines".
Clip:
Afropean Film Seminars (2012), Alanna Lockward (Chief Curator)
“Afropean Film Seminars are based on the experimental format of BE.BOP 2012. BLACK EUROPE BODY POLITICS, which presented decolonial aesthetics for the first time at outstanding institutions in Europe, such as Goldsmiths University of London, Matadero Madrid, Dutch Art Institute and also in the African continent at Kwazulu Natal Society of Arts, The Bioscope Johannesburg and the National Arts Gallery of Namibia.”
Films:
Alles wird gut (Everything Will Be Fine) (1998) by Fatima El-Tayeb and Angelina Maccarone
“Nabou, an Afro-German slacker, desperately wants to win back her…ex-girlfriend Katja. Nabou becomes a housekeeper for Katja's neighbor, Kim, who is a workaholic[,] striving to become a partner in an advertising agency. A refreshing romantic comedy with the ingredients of a classic lesbian feature: whimsical sexiness, mistaken identity, and general madness and mayhem”.
Trailer:
Après l’Océan (2009) by Eliane de Latour
“Otho and Shad leave Abidjan for the adventure of Europe. They dream of returning home as great benefactors, heroes. In Spain, a police roundup separates them.
Otho, escorted back to the border, returns to his country. He only finds affection and understanding from his sister and a young poet. For everyone else, he becomes an outcast. He's carried away by his projects for an Africa that would believe in itself.
Shad pursues his dream of a conquest, no matter the price. He goes to England, where he meets Tango, a Frenchwoman rebelling against society. She takes him to Paris where she still has family that might be able to help them. In turn, Shad introduces Tango to the warm and welcoming milieu of African exiles; she falls in love with Olga and is reconciliated with life. But they must contend with the greed of some African 'brothers', Tango's jealous cousin, administration…”
Trailer:
Audre Lorde - The Berlin Years 1984 to 1992 (2012) by Dagmar Schultz
“Audre Lorde – The Berlin Years 1984 to 1992 focuses on Audre Lorde’s relation to the German Black Diaspora, her literary as well as political influence, and is a unique visual document about the times the author spent in Germany. The film is also for coming generations a valuable historical document of German history, which tells about the development of an Afro-German movement and the origins of the anti-racist movement before and after the German reunification. The film relates the beginnings of these political debates and therefore facilitates a historical analysis and an understanding of present debates on identity and racism in Germany. For the first time, Dagmar Schultz’s archival video- and audio recordings and footage will be made available to a wide public.”
Trailer:
Back, Africa (1959) by Lionel Rogosin
“After witnessing firsthand the terrors of fascism as a soldier in World War II, director Lionel Rogosin vowed to fight against it wherever and whenever he saw its threats reemerging. In an effort to expose “what people try to avoid seeing,” Rogosin travelled to apartheid-struck South Africa and secretly filmed Come Back, Africa, which revealed the cruelty and injustice with which black South Africans were treated…Before beginning the production of Come Back, Africa, Rogosin spent several months touring Africa, becoming accustomed to the way of life in South Africa and acquiring a sense of the apartheid government’s sensitivity to anti-government “conspiracies”–such as the very film he wished to create.”
Trailer:
Becoming a Slavery-free Business: Removing Slavery from Product Supply Chains
“There’s slavery in every shopping mall in America. From cocoa, coffee and clothing, to cars, computers and cell phones—many products sold in the U.S. are tainted by slavery. Sometimes it’s sweatshop slavery where goods are manufactured. Other times, it’s brutal child slavery at plantations and mines where commodities and raw materials come from.Consumers, investors and regulators want to remove slavery from U.S. store shelves. California has already enacted rules that will soon affect thousands of products sold in America’s most populous state.”
Film:
Blacks Britannica (1978) by David Koff
“…a relentless and engrossing indictment of racism toward black immigrants to England, told from an obvious Marxist perspective. The film argues that discrimination in England is based on economics and fueled by opportunists across the entire spectrum of British politics. Told through the eyes and words of a cross-section of blacks, David Koff's film uses interviews, stock footage, and scenes of street life and violence to show how blacks in England are trapped at the bottom of an economic and political system which shows little compassion or concern about their fate. Rapid editing, overlapping dialogue and cinema verité all build to an emotional and violent climax, whose conclusion is underscored by a reggae band's call for revolution. As Koff puts it, the film "reflects the increasingly militant response within the black community to the continuing attacks upon it, both by the fascist elements on the street and by the state itself." An official of the British Information Service in Washington called the film "dangerous" and asked for equal time. New York Times critic John O'Connor said the film not only documents the growing militancy, "but, quite clearly, the structure and tone endorse it."
“Black Russians” (2001) by Kara Lynch
“Black Russians” is a feature length documentary that investigates the lives of contemporary Afro-Russians aged 10 to 65, born and raised in Soviet Russia. Their experiences chronicle two ideological currents that have shaped major international events in the twentieth century: race and communism. Intimate interviews with a poet, a film producer, a reggae artist, a businessman and others, all Black and all Russian, guide us through this story of promise and non-discrimination. Archive images reveal rarely seen footage of Black political leaders in the Soviet Union, like Paul Robeson, Kwame Nkruma and Angela Davis. More than a decade after the 'fall of communism' a new Russia struggles to steady itself in the wave of nationalism from within and the pressures of global capitalism from without. “Black Russians” constructs a deeply personal account of the effects of political issues such as migration, identity and loss on a minority community in the vast remains of the Soviet Union.”
Trailer:
Being Garifuna (2012) by Matthew Orr, Vijai Singh
“When it comes to being counted in the census, the Garifunas, who are part African, part Caribbean and part Central American, say they don’t fit into any box.”
Trailer:
Biutiful (2010) by Alejandro González Iñárritu
“Biutiful is a love story between a father and his children. This is the journey of Uxbal, aconflicted man who struggles to reconcile fatherhood, love, spirituality, crime, guilt and mortality amidst the dangerous underworld of modern Barcelona. His livelihood is earned out of bounds, his sacrifices for his children know no bounds. Like life itself, this is a circular tale that ends where it begins. As fate encircles him and thresholds are crossed, a dim, redemptive road brightens, illuminating the inheritances bestowed from father to child, and the paternal guiding hand that navigates life’s corridors, whether bright, bad – or biutiful.”
Trailer:
Black Deutschland (2006) by Oliver Hardt
“The documentary film,Black Deutschland,is an intimate study of how a not so small minority in Germany thinks and feels. It explores how images and counter-images, life-plans and their reflection in the media mutually condition one another. How all of this becomes a social reality in which age-old clichés and prejudices continue to exist quite independent of people's good or bad intentions.”
Trailer:
Black and Latino (2012)
“What does it mean to be black and Latino in the U.S.? Featur[es] interviews with Latino actors Laz Alonso (Avatar, Jumping the Broom), Tatyana Ali (Fresh Prince of Bel Air), Gina Torres (Suits).”
Clip:
Black in Latin America (2011) by Henry Louis Gates Jr./PBS
“Latin America is often associated with music, monuments and sun, but each of the six countries featured in Black in Latin America including the Dominican Republic, Haiti, Cuba, Brazil, Mexico, and Peru, has a secret history. On his journey, Professor Gates discovers, behind a shared legacy of colonialism and slavery, vivid stories and people marked by African roots. Latin America and the Caribbean have the largest concentration of people with African ancestry outside Africa — up to 70 percent of the population in some countries. The region imported over ten times as many slaves as the United States, and kept them in bondage far longer. On this series of journeys, Professor Gates celebrates the massive influence of millions of people of African descent on the history and culture of Latin America and the Caribbean, and considers why and how their contribution is often forgotten or ignored.”
Trailer:
Black Survivors of the Holocaust (1997) by David Okuefuna and Moise Shewa
“This unique film uncovers the torture and murder of Black Germans during the Third Reich. Piecing together experiences of the survivors and the descendants of victims, together with never seen before materials, it documents a moving, if brutal tale of medical experiments. Q&A with the producer Moise Shewa. In conjunction with the Young Professional Cameroonian Network.”
Bon Voyage (2005) by Kapwani Kiwanga
"In Africa we were dreaming "Paris! Paris!" but when I came here..hhhmmmm. A short three-minute film about a woman's reflections on her immigration to France.”
Film:
Brick Lane (2007) by Sarah Gavron
“A young Bangladeshi woman, Nazneem, arrives in 1980s London, leaving behind her beloved sister and home, for an arranged marriage and a new life. Trapped within the four walls of her flat in East London, and in a loveless marriage with the middle aged Chanu, she fears her soul is quietly dying. Her sister Hasina, meanwhile, through letters to Nazneed, tells of her carefree life back in Bangladesh, stumbling from one adventure to the next. Nazneen struggles to accept her lifestyle, and keeps her head down in spite of life's blows, but she soon discovers that life cannot be avoided - and is forced to confront it the day that the hotheaded young Karim comes knocking at her door.”
Trailer:
Brixton riots/BBC
“Riots broke out on the streets of south London after a woman was shot and seriously injured in a house search.”
Film:
Brown Babies: Deutschlands verlorene kinder (Brown Babies: Germany’s lost children) (2010) by Michaela Kirst
“In 1946, the first of the babies fathered by members of the occupying forces are born in war ravaged Germany. Around 5000 of these children have an Afro-American father and a German mother. Many of these ‘Brown Babies’ grow up in Germany. What nobody realises, however, is that many more babies were given up for adoption and subsequently went to live with new, coloured parents in the USA. Both the American and German governments saw this as a convenient solution to an awkward problem, since the very existence of the ‘Brown Babies’ represented a scandal on both sides of the Atlantic.The adopted ‘Brown Babies’ grow up thousands of miles away from their real mothers and the country of their birth. Many of them don’t discover for decades that they have a German mother. Others however, can remember all too clearly the derogatory looks they were subjected to in Germany. Even in the USA, these ‘Brown Babies’ weren’t really accepted anywhere – too dark for the whites and too light for the Afro-Americans…”
Film:
Brown Babies: The Mischlingskinder Story (2011) by Regina Griffin
“Brown Babies: The Mischlingskinder Story is a powerful new documentary which tells the story of six so-called “brown babies” born in postwar occupation Germany.They were born to German women and African-American soldiers. As illegitimate, biracial, bicultural children who were unwanted by enemy nations, their lives were tragic. For the first time Brown Babies: The Mischlingskinder Story reveals this little known remarkable piece of history through the compelling life stories of the children and their birth parents.”
Trailer:
Bronx Princess (2008) by Yoni Brook and Musa Syeed
“Bronx Princess follows headstrong 17-year-old teenager Rocky's journey as she leaves behind her mother in New York City to reunite with her father, a chief in Ghana, West Africa. Filmed over the tumultuous summer between high-school and college, Bronx Princess tells Rocky's coming-of-age story. By confronting her immigrant parents' ideas of adulthood, Rocky reconciles her African heritage with her dream of independence.”
Trailer:
Building Bridges: The Untold African Story (2012) by Rose Sackeyfio
“This documentary focuses on the ties between Ghana and the African Diaspora. The film highlights modern Ghana as a place of homage forDiaspora peoples through interviews with African Americans who reside there as well as prominent Ghanaians from a cross section of society.”
Bye Bye Africa (1999) by Mahamat-Saleh Haroun
“In this autobiographical drama, a film director (Mahamet-Saleh Haroun) who was born in Chad but now lives and works in France receives a phone call late one night, with the news that his mother has died. The director goes home for the first time in a decade to discover that he barely recognizes the impoverished land of his birth. His father has little understanding of or respect for his work, so the director decides to make a film in Chad. However, the boom in pirate videotapes had decimated Chad's film industry, and it's all but impossible to secure financing. The director presses on anyway, auditioning local actors and reuniting with his former girlfriend (Aicha Yelena), who appeared in one of his early films, which had negative consequences for her.”
Caribbean manpower in WW2/BBC
“Find out how West Indians were recruited to fight in WW2 and the attitudes towards them after the war was over.”
Clip:
Coffee Colored Children (1988) by Ngozi Onwurah
“This lyrical, unsettling film conveys the experience of children of mixed racial heritage. Suffering the aggression of racial harassment, a young girl and her brother attempt to wash their skin white with scouring powder. Starkly emotional and visually compelling, this semi-autobiographical testimony to the profound internalized effects of racism and the struggle for self-definition and pride is a powerful catalyst for discussion.”