Starting tonight, the European experience, the African-American experience, the African experience – Middle Eastern, Australian and so on – will be available on screen thanks to the 18th Annual St. Louis International Film Festival.
Year after year for nearly two decades, Cinema St. Louis has captured film from a global perspective and presented it to St. Louis audiences from nearly every perspective imaginable.
But the beauty of the festival is how these films – especially the dozen or so that showcase blackness (in all shapes, forms and locales) – is the intertwining of realities (and some fiction) that ring familiar in communities from around the world.
What Cinema St. Louis manages to do when it captures blackness for viewers is to show how just how similarly the story begins and ends for people of color.
The music, the power, the struggle, the tragedy, the losses and the victory are in tune with the other descendents of Africa and the 2009 selections that project the black experience highlight the strength and the struggle of our people.
The originator
Never mind Spike Lee and Tyler Perry as they battle the relevance and responsibility that comes with black filmmaking. When Oscar Mischeaux yells, “Action!” for the first time, black people are barely fifty years out of slavery. He is the first black filmmaker ever and one of his acclaimed film’s will be an integral element of the kick-off activities for this year’s SLIFF.
The 1920 film Within Our Gates fires back at D.W. Griffith’s Birth of A Nation by illustrating racism and refuting the fear and hatred imbedded into the heart of Griffith’s misguided and manipulative groundbreaking cinematic epic.
The film chronicles love and rivalry among two women but turns racially charged when the film’s main character and her tragic circumstances at the hands of white people. It’s a silent film, but its sophistication and finesse speaks volumes.
At a time when black people were regarded as second-class citizens, Mischeaux manages to portray them with grace and elegance and no slapstick.
At a time when blacks were most oppressed (and suppressed with respect to the arts), he manages to show a sense of responsibility that he presented to the masses – which should have remained a prerequisite for blacks in front of and behind the cameras.
Within Our Gates will screen tomorrow (Fri., Nov. 13) at 7 p.m. at the Saint Louis Art Museum.
The music
Jazz, hip-hop, reggae even choir music are central themes of films that create awareness and offer education on the musical journey for black people. From South Africa to the South Bronx, these films brilliantly display the ups, downs, highs and lows of the musical experience.
Say My Name (Nirit Peled) uses big and small names to share their experiences as female MCs in the male-dominated rap industry. From Roxanne Shante to Remy Ma in New York to Moni Love and Estelle in the UK and cities, states and countries in between, the battle is not over for the ladies to get respect and residuals despite their love and passion for hip-hop.
Rise Up (Luciano Blotta) showcases the phenomenon of raw talent often being overlooked for the sake of unsubstantiated fluff. The film chronicles three relative unknowns in Jamaica’s oversaturated reggae scene.
One is a raw talent who sings as an accompaniment to her farming chores. Another is a rare talent surrounded by the harsh realities of shanty town life, but determined to use his gift to make a difference in music. An independently wealthy and spoiled rapper/singer with invaluable connections and marginal talent rounds out trio of performers featured in this music documentary.
A happy ending for some and a reality check for others, Rise Up will remind viewers of the magic that happens when talent and grind meet opportunity.
From the neophyte experience of talented Florida high school students who get their first taste in Chops (Bruce Broder), to the global interpretation of the musical form and the attempts to define, redefine and pay tribute through Icons Among Us (Lars Larson, Michael Rivoira and Peter J. Vogt) presents jazz as the most complex of musical muses.
Mother Africa’s struggle
War and abuse are unfortunate realities for millions on the continent of Africa and by way of documentaries and features, their stories are told with precision and force that will resonate with viewers of the atrocities that many people of color are forced to endure.
From the first scene, Rough Aunties (Kim Longinotto) is heartbreaking. Sexually abused children, victims of crime and grief-stricken mothers are given counsel in South Africa by the black and white women who make up the Bobbi Bear child welfare organization.
Helpless and powerless children suffer the most unimaginable of traumas while these women – many engulfed in personal crises of their own – are relentless in fighting for their best interest and being a voice for these young people when no one else is willing to speak on their behalf.
War, death, loss and self-discovery are the central themes of Munyurangabo (Lee Isaac Chung) tells the story of a Hutu and a Tutsi who are best friends when they are supposed to be bitter enemies in Rwanda.
Meanwhile through Sleepwalking Land (Terra Sonâmbula) ravaging effects of the far less publicized civil war of Mozambique becomes personal for viewers as they watch a young boy search through the war-torn country in search of his mother.
The victory
In The Choir, violent criminals move beyond the prison walls of South Africa through participation in a disciplined music program created and led by inmates that teaches convicts to believe in themselves and the possibilities for their future. And Pressure Cooker (Jennifer Grausman & Mark Becker) shows an inner city Philadelphia high school as the most unlikely breeding ground for world class chefs and culinary arts professionals. The film festival features also remind black people of our historical legacy of using the most unlikely of resources to make a way out of no way.
Good Times
On a lighter note, Rollerskating is a pastime that has been associated with the St. Louis area for decades. Ronald “G. Whiz” Butts presents a historical firsthand account of the rise and plateau of Skating in the STL through The Rink.
The Rink will screen at 12 noon on Sat., Nov. 14th at the High Pointe.
Cinema St. Louis’ 18th Annual St. Louis International Film Festival will take place starting today (Nov. 12) through November 22nd at several theatres and locations. For screening times for all of the aforementioned films, as well as a full schedule of the activities and films included in the festival, visit http://www.cinemastlouis.org/fest.html.
