14726: Schuller: Fwd: pan african film festival in LA (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Mark Schuller <marky@umail.ucsb.edu>

The French Film and Television Department in Los Angeles
Consulate General of France

is proud to support the

PAN AFRICAN FILM AND ARTS FESTIVAL

   http://www.rfo.fr
February 5th to 17th, 2003

Magic Johnson Theatres
&
Baldwin Hills Crenshaw Plaza
4020 Marlton Avenue
Los Angeles, CA 90008

Please find below the list of the French films and coproductions that
will be shown at the festival :

Bamako Sigi Kan
Documentary - Dir: Manthia Diawara - 76 min - 2002 - France/Mali/USA
Monday, 2/10, 9:25pm - Tuesday, 2/11, 10:40pm
An examination of the clash between globalization and traditional
African values set in the ancient city of Bamako.

Betting on Love
Feature Dir: Didier Aufort - 97 min - 2002 - Cote d'Ivoire/France
Monday, 2/10, 1:00pm - Thursday, 2/13, 3:30pm - Friday, 2/14, 7:20pm
Monday, 2/17, 12:10pm Q&A
A modern African tale of a young hairdresser who leads a quiet life in
Abidjan while planning for her upcoming wedding. Her world is turned
upside down when she wins big at the horse races. Filmed in Abidjan,
Paris and Dakar.

Black Soul
Short Dir: Martine Chartrand - 9 min - 2000 - Canada
Monday, 2/10, 3:15pm - Saturday, 2/15, 2:30pm
In a mesmerizing swirl of light and color, an old lady initiates her
grandson into his past. The boy's ancestry is traced from the mighty
Pharaons to the vaillant kings whose praises are sung by a griot beneath
the baobab tree to the slave markets of the Americas and through the
civil rights struggle.

Faat Kine
Feature Dir: Ousmane Sembene - 90 min - 2000 - Senegal
Monday, 2/10, 8:20pm - Tuesday, 2/11, 2:00pm - Wednesday, 2/12, 3:35pm -
Monday, 2/17, 9:20pm
A chic, sexy "liberated" woman, forty-year-old single mother Faat Kine
was born at the same time as Senegalese independence. Refusing to
give-in to the shame of unwed motherhood and determined to succeed, she
becomes a gas-station attendant. Although at first constantly harassed
by male customers, she climbs the ladder of success normally reserved
for men. Considered one of the world's great directors and the
"Godfather of African Cinema," Ousmane Sembene crafts a beautifully told
hopeful story of the changing roles of women in Senegalese society.

Femi Kuti, What's Going On ?
L.A. PREMIERE Documentary Dir: Jacques Goldstein - 52 min - 2001 -
France/Nigeria
Sunday, 2/09, 5:20pm - Wednesday, 2/12, 6:15pm - Thursday, 2/13, 8:20pm
A portrait of the Afro-beat musician Femi Kuti, son of Fela Kuti, who
created the Afro-beat style in the 1970s. Father and son have defined an
African urban protest music that is contemporary with reggae and
hip-hop.

Free (Libre)
U.S. PREMIERE Feature - Dir: Jean-Pierre Saune - 93 min - 2002 -
France/Senegal
Thursday, 2/13, 6:05pm - Sunday, 2/16, 6:30pm
Eleven-year-old Hôr flees his war-torn land for Dakar.. He is determined
not to get mixed up in violence, drugs or prostitution, the daily lot of
street children in the big city.
Jury Special Mention: Festival International de Programmes
Audiovisuels-Biarritz

Freestyle
WEST COAST PREMIERE Feature- Dir: Caroline Chomienne - 85 min - 2002 -
France
Saturday, 2/8, 11:00am - Monday, 2/10, 3:55pm - Sunday, 2/16, 11:00am -
Monday, 2/17, 12:25pm
A look into the lives of young rappers in Belzunce, France. As they
prepare for a concert, one of them - Karim - has disappeared..

I'll Sing for You
U.S. PREMIERE Documentary - Dir: Jacques Sarasin - 76 min - 2001 -
France
Tuesday, 2/11, 4:10pm - Saturday, 2/15, 2:00pm
Singing of Independence in the 1960s, Boubacar "KarKar" Traoré was one
of Mali's most popular musicians. Because his music was only played on
the radio, he didn't earn enough money to support his family, forcing
him to give up his music to work as a tailor and a salesman.. After the
death of his beloved wife, he left Mali for France and worked in
construction. By a stroke of luck, a British producer heard one of his
old recordings and helped revive his musical career. His story is told
through beautiful black and white photographs and archival film combined
with lyrical footage of present day Mali and KarKar's current music: a
repertoire of bluesy ballads, mixing traditional, blues and Islamic
influences.

Kabala
U.S. PREMIERE Feature - Dir: Assane Kouyate - 112 min - 2002 -
Mali/France
Sunday, 2/9, 9:35pm - Monday, 2/17, 9:05pm
Kabala, a small village in Mali, has been hard hit by drought and is on
the verge of dying. The sacred Well of the Ancestors, a powerful symbol
of the village's spirituality, is not only drying up but has become a
dangerous source of cholera. To save the well and thereby the village,
the well must be redrilled but the village holy man is opposed to it. A
powerful questioning of the role of tradition.

Karmen Gei
WINNER OF THE 2002 PAFF BEST FEATURE AWARD
Feature Dir: J. Gay Ramaka - 86 min - 2001 - Mali
Sunday, 2/9, 7:20pm - Tuesday, 2/11, 3:45pm - Monday, 2/17, 9:55pm
Loosely based upon the Bizet opera, Karmen Gei is about the infinite
desire for freedom verses laws, conventions and human limitations. The
story is the same... a handsome corporal falls for a beautiful,
provocative woman... but the African ambience of this Carmen makes all
the difference. A whirlwind of color, Senegalese dance and music, this
is awesome African cinema. Contempory jazz score by saxophonist David
Murry.

L'Afrance
Feature Dir: Alain Gomis - 90 min - 2001 - Senegal/France
Saturday, 2/8, 8:30pm; Tuesday, 2/11, 6:45pm
When a problem arises with his immigration papers, a young Senegalese
student living in Paris gets caught up in a volatile situation that
causes him to question his own identity--his past, his present and his
future.
Silver Leopard of the Best First Feature Film - Locarno Intl Film
Festival 2001
Golden Bayard of the Best Film - Namur Film Festival 2001
Toronto Intl Film Festival 2001
Sundance Film Festival 2002

Mama Aloko
Feature Dir: Jean Odoutan - 90 min - 2002 - Benin
Wednesday, 2/12, 1:15pm; Sunday, 2/16, 4:00pm
In the Belleville quarter of Paris, populated by people of North and
West African descent, Mama Aloko runs a café where she sells alokos
(fried bananas), worrys about money, and kicks out the
"pains-in-the-asses" who hang around. Her refrigerator has gone bust,
and she must find 1000 francs for a new one before the health
inspector's next visit.

Mboutoukou
Short Dir: Victor Viyuoh - 14 min - 2002 - Cameroon
Monday, 2/10, 3:15pm Q&A
Twelve-year-old Napo overhears his older brother and his mother express
doubts that he will be able to take over man-of-the-house
responsibilities when his brother goes to boarding school. Hurt by their
doubts, he sets out to prove them wrong.

Of Men and Gods
Documentary - Dir: Anne Lescot & Laurence Magloire - 52 min - 2002 -
Haiti
Friday, 2/7, 6:05pm
Prevalent, yet still taboo, homosexuality and gay culture are allowed to
flourish within the context of Haiti's Vodou religion. As "children of
the gods," the men find an explanation for homosexuality as well as
divine protection. They also find an outlet for theatrical expression
through exhilarating performances in which they embody the gods.
Meanwhile, the AIDS epidemic looms as a continual threat and adds a
disquieting degree of nihilism to their relatively optimistic attitudes
toward life.
Vues d'Afrique Film Festival, Montreal: Chantal Lapaire Award

The Price of Forgiveness
L.A. PREMIERE Feature - Dir: Mansour Sora Wade - 90 min - 2001 -
Senegal/France
Saturday, 2/8, 6:05pm
Thursday, 2/13, 1:30pm Q&A
This beautifully shot, allegorical fable rooted in the West African
griot storytelling tradition recounts the mysterious events which befell
a fishing village on the south coast of Senegal. An unearthly fog sets
in motion a chain of events which lead a man driven insane by jealousy
to murder his love rival and boyhood friend.

Profit and Nothing But
Documentary - Dir: Raoul Peck - 57 min - 2001 - Haiti/France/Belgium
Friday, 2/7, 6:05pm - Sunday, 2/9, 11:00am
>From the director of "Lumumba," a pertinent and impertinent exploration
of the profit motive and its consequences on our daily lives, history
and outlook for the future.

Royal Bonbon
Feature Dir: Charles Najman - 85 min - 2002 - Haiti/Canada/France
Saturday, 2/8, 2:25pm - Sunday, 2/16, 11:05am - Monday, 2/17, 4:35pm
An intriguing madman wanders the streets of Cap-Haïtien dreaming he is
King Christophe, a liberated slave who defeated Napoleon in 1804,
creating an independent Haiti and causing Napoleon to sell the Louisiana
Purchase to the U.S. He takes refuge in the grandiose ruins of
Christophe's palace, accompanied by Timothy, a young street kid. For a
few days the past grandeur of Haiti, the world's first Black republic,
is recreated through the delusions of a madman. "This spirit-filled
tragi-comedy merges fact and fantasy, memory and myth, to unearth the
mystical roots of modern-day Haiti." - Gaylene Gould

Under Another Sky
Feature Dir: Gael Morel - 90 min - 2002 - Algeria/France
Monday, 2/10, 7:15pm; Thursday, 2/13, 9:30pm
Samy is a fast-living young Frenchman who suddenly finds himself the
perpetrator of a hit-and-run car accident. Driven by guilt, he leaves
France for his motherland Algeria, a land and a people who, like Samy,
carry dark secrets.

Waiting for Happiness
Feature Dir: Abderrahmane Sissako - 95 min - 2002 - Mauritania/France
Sunday, 2/9, 6:30pm; Friday, 2/14, 3:55pm; Monday, 2/17, 10:10am
Young Abdallah returns home to bid farewell to his mother before
embarking on a journey to Europe. Back in the bosom of his family, he is
witness to the antics of their charismatic neighbors.

West Papua
Documentary Dir: Damien Faure 52 min - 2002 - New Guinea/France
Friday, 2/7, 3:40pm - Tuesday, 2/11, 1:15pm
Saturday, 2/15, 12:00pm Q&A
An unofficial war has been raging in West Papua for over 30 years
between the West Papuans and the Indonesian army. Interviews with
members of the Movement for the Liberation of West Papua (OPM) reveal
their daily trials and bear witness to their struggle to retain their
identity.

For more information log on  http://www.paff.org

TICKETS AND PASSES NOW ON SALE !


--
'the bourgeois sets the exemple, he absorbs surplus value for ends that, taken
as a whole, have nothing to do with his own enjoyment: more utterly enslaved
than the lowest of slaves, he is the first servant of the ravenous machine, the
beast of the reproduction of capital, internalization of the infinite debt'
 Deleuze-Guattari,  ANTI-OEDIPUS, 1983

"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary
 safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."
 - Benjamin Franklin, Historical Review of Pennsylvania, 1759.


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