Following our recent meeting with Sylviane Rano, co-founder of IBW, where she talked passionately of her mission, I was pleased to see that the three-day long festival kept its promises.
Friday evening saw a committed audience (95% of whom, expectedly, were black women) bring support to IBW’s positive action, and watch Talk To Me, directed by Kasi Lemmons, and starring Don Cheadle and Chiwetel Ejiofor. The film tells the true story of African-American radio DJ and Washington DC’s local spokesperson, Ralph Waldo “Petey” Greene, at the peak of the Civil Rights Movement. The film captivated its audience. During the Q&A, members of the public expressed their admiration for the strong black female character, Vernell Watson, Greene’s partner (portrayed by American actress Taraji P. Henson).
On Saturday afternoon were screened the three winners of the Short Film Competition for the Emerging Filmmaker Award. All three films were of very high standard and touched on issues ranging from how to handle our kinky hair to the more serious subject of child neglect. The first prize went rightfully to Asylum by Rumbi Katedza, which depicts the psychological trauma of Sudanese women seeking refuge in London. This was followed by a preview snippet of the upcoming documentary, Afro-Saxons, which follows five hairstylists in competition for the Black Beauty and Hair Award.
The evening was probably regarded as the highlight of the festival by many a female attendee: “eye-candy” Jimmy Jean-Louis, Haitian star of the TV series Heroes, introduced Phat Girlz, in which he plays the love interest to plus size African-American comedian Mo’nique, giving us all ladies an ounce of hope!… More seriously, the film itself was very enjoyable. Mo’nique is Jazmin, an unaccomplished fashion designer, depressed because she does not conform to the western concept of beauty but who nonetheless finds love with down-to-earth Nigerian man (Jimmy Jean-Louis)who appreciates her for who she is. Questions of African/Caribbean relationships, identity, self-esteem, social and sexual self- emancipation, were much debated in the Q&A that followed.
Sunday’s programme was an ode to black women’s strength and determination. Two compelling documentaries on the subject were screened in two separate venues: The ICA showed Beah: A Black Woman Speaks, directed by LisaGay Hamilton, who followed Beah Richards (aka Beulah Richardson) in the last year of her amazing life. While the Tricycle Cinema showed Al’leessi… An African Actress, a documentary by Niger-born director Rahmatou Keita, which retraces the birth of African cinema through the life of Zalika Souley, the first professional African actress, who operated from the late 1960s through to the mid-1980s.
Both documentaries make account of two actresses dedicated to their art. Beah Richards used her acting and poetry to denounce the injustice suffered by her peers, and Zalika Souley was a Muslim actress from Niger, misunderstood by her own people who saw her art as an offence to their culture and religion. On that point, Senegalese Women and Islam also brought to light contemporary feminism in Senegal.
The closing screening was Cousines, a Haitian film which depicts the tribulations of a young woman, following the death of her father, and raises awareness of teenage prostitution, which Jimmy Jean-Louis said was “unfortunately still accepted in today’s Haitian society”.
If Rahmatou Keita’s forecast that “the future of cinema is in Africa” is right, I believe we’re in for many more excellent programmes and screenings to be brought to us by the ever-so ballsy Images of Black Women Festival. One reason to wish it was next year already!
By Solange Moffi
http://sayitloud.org.uk/data/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=514&Itemid=57
