ICE Theaters Chatham 14
210 West 87th Street
Chicago, Illinois 60620
773-892-3204 • icetheaters.com
Can’t get to New York for the stage play? Come on out to ICE Theaters Chatham to view and discuss the amazing life of Fela Anikulapo Kuti.
Fela was born Olufela Olusegun Oludotun Ransome-Kuti in Abeokuta, Ogun State, Nigeria into a middle-class family. His mother, Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti was a feminist activist in the anti-colonial movement and his father, Reverend Israel Oludotun Ransome-Kuti, a Protestant minister and school principal, was the first president of the Nigerian Union of Teachers.Fela was a first cousin to the African writer and Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka, the first African to win a Nobel Prize for Literature.
Music Is the Weapon is essential viewing for Fela fans. Filmed in 1982, the 53-minute documentary captures the late Nigerian musician/activist at his peak. For the uninitiated, it’s hard to explain–in mere words–how one man could so successfully mate the sexuality of James Brown with the righteous politics of Bob Marley and sinuous sounds of Miles Davis. Fela drew as much inspiration for his “Afro-beat” from Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X as funk, reggae, and jazz. Music Is the Weapon features interviews with Fela and a few of his many wives, along with performances of “ITT,” “Army Arrangement,” and other anthems. A controversial figure throughout his life, Fela is described as both “superstar” and “man of the people.” This short, but potent document ably explores that dichotomy.
Thanks to all who attended the 35 Shots of Rum Screening at ICE Theaters this past Thursday. NIna Cartier told me about the lively discussion
afterwards. Our ICE audiences always repond to the call for creative engagement over cinema art, y’all.
35 Shots of Rhum
director: Claire Denis
Starring Mati Diop, Alex Descas, Grégoire Colin, Nicole Dogue
@ ICE Theaters, Thursday, July 1, 7pm | General Adm: $5.00
210 West 87th Street | 773-892-3204 |http://icetheaters.com
102 minutes / 35mm / 1.85 / Dolby Digital / France / French with English Subtitles
Lionel, a widower who drives RER trains for a living, has raised his daughter Josephine alone for many years. They have always shared a special bond and live a secure and contented life somewhat isolated from others, in an apartment building in a suburb of Paris. Josephine an anthropology student, is now grown and become a young woman but remains deeply devoted to her father. Noé is a moody young man living alone with his cat in the same apartment building. He leads a disorganized life and goes abroad often. His sole reason for remaining in the building is Josephine, whom he has feelings for but he is temperamentally unable to commit to. Gabrielle, a cab driver and another neighbor, who once had a love affair with Lionel appears to still harbor feelings for him and motherly feelings towards Josephine, but both father and daughter are ambivalent toward anything more than a casual friendship outside their special relationship.
35 Shots of Rhum on YouTube
As their lives are pulled in different directions,father and daughter realize they must finally confront an aspect of their past in order to embrace their own destinies.
A GOOD DAY TO BE BLACK AND SEXY
- USA, 2008, 92 min, director: Dennis Dortch
@ ICE Theaters, Thursday, June 3, 7pm | General Adm: $5.00
210 West 87th Street | 773-892-3204 |icetheaters.com
Press play on A GOOD DAY TO BE BLACK AND SEXY. A mixed tape of deftly arranged vignettes on Black Love, Sex, and Reciprocity. What you hear may be unrecognizable at first… Neo-realistic intimacy between black people found in rare grooves previously drowned out by the sounds of modern hook-ups and bougie preoccupations, a cacophony of mass-produced beats created with drum machine loops and software. A Good Day to be Black and Sexy is that dusty LP you find in the crates. But as soon as you put the needle to wax, all the forgotten lyrics return to your lips in this dreamy love sonnet to the beautiful and chocolate coated. The intro track is a prelude into the heavily sensual world of expectations – the rhythm that drives the film. Erotic moments are lullabies that turn into syncopated groves without notice. This record skips, and jumps to the hook of a Millie Jackson remix. An anthem belted out by a minx who knows her limits, but can’t resist testing the boundaries. It’s a song a sistah can roll her neck and snap her fingers to, exuding, at least for the moment, the confidence that every Black woman wished they had underneath the facade. When the bridge is over, a slow jam slides in- the one from prom night when curfews were extended and hotel rooms were reserved. Back when wistful notions of love were only true when written in diaries and carved on school desks. A sticky interlude eases in and out of the song, and you move a little closer and wrap your arms around to dance tighter, until growing up too fast and maturing too late, causes innocence to be lost too soon. Needle getting closer to the middles leaving the last cut a re-imagined version of masculinity, basketball, and the inability to freely love who you want to love, at the ease that non-Negroes take for granted. Time runs out and so does the tape. EJECT
Thomas Sankara: the Upright Man
52 minutes, 2006, France
Director: Robin Shuffield
In French with English subtitles
Thursday, May 6, 7pm, $5 general admission
ICE Theaters Chatham 14
210 87th Street
Chicago, IL
Sankara, a charismatic army captain, came to power in Burkina Faso, in 1983, in a popularly supported coup. He immediately launched the most ambitious program for social and economic change ever attempted on the African continent. To symbolize this rebirth, he even renamed his country from the French colonial Upper Volta to Burkina Faso, ‘Land of Upright Men.’ As soon as he took office, he reduced the salaries of all public servants, including his own, and forbade the use of chauffeur-driven Mercedes and 1st class airline tickets. Like many revolutionary leaders, he banned unions, a free press, anything which might stand in the way of his plans for the immediate and radical transformation of society.
Thomas Sankara was stalwart in his uphill fight against neo-colonialism and white supremacy from his post as leader of the small West African nation of Burkina Faso. Yet in a story with Shakespearean overtones of intrigue and betrayal, he is overthrown–and murdered–at the behest of one of his closest comrades. Mixing extensive research in archival footage with a taut and gripping narrative, this documentary is an instant classic-in short: a masterpiece.”
Gerald Horne, University of Houston
“Thomas Sankara was more than the “Ché of Africa”; he was a promise to the poorest peasant and a ray of hope for Burkina women.”
Nehanda Imara, Merritt College
The Little Girl Who Sold the Sun, 44 Min., 1999
Director: Djibril Diop Mambety
Country: France, Switzerland, Senegal
Thursday, May 6, 7pm, $5 general admission
ICE Theaters Chatham 14
210 87th Street
Chicago, IL
La petite vendeuse de Soleil (The Little Girl who Sold the Sun), Mambety brings us the feisty Sili Lam, a twelve year old paraplegic who becomes the first girl to sell a daily newspaper in the competitive world of young male newspaper vendors. She takes on a policeman whom she accuses of shaking her down as well as the boys who taunt her. When some boys take her newspapers and crutches, and her friend asks her “What next?” she triumphantly responds, “We continue”. The scenes – moving, satiric and comic, are expertly played by non-professional actors to a score by acclaimed musician Wasis Diop (Mambety”s brother).
A funky riff on the theme music from 2001: A Space Odyssey opens Black, a new crime thriller from France. The catchy redux leads to a bank robbery that goes quickly awry, a maniacal, island-dwelling millionaire who’s slowly turning into a snake, a volatile and crazy Russian general, witches, witch doctors, gunfire, machete-wielding wrestlers, and two antiheroes imbued with cat powers who dress up like the members of an African Kiss tribute band.
The initial robbery attempt in France ends in a shootout with police, and three of the four thieves end up dead. Black (MC Jean Gab’1 – the villain in District 13), the only survivor, escapes with his life but without the money. He soon gets an offer for a job in Senegal involving millions of dollars in diamonds and is immediately on a plane for the dark continent.
Black was born in Africa before moving to France, and he sees the Senegalese bankers and police as easy targets. His assumption is essentially correct except that he fails to consider that others might be after the diamonds too. And these others are crazy don’t mess-with-me-dudes. His team of robbers is assembled, introduced, and dispatched fairly quickly, and once again Black is on his own.
On March 4, we will be screening ENDGAME, a movie on the end of Apartheid March 4th, 2010 @ ICE Theaters.
Vantage Point director Pete Travis turns his attention from high-profile political assassinations to the high-risk talks that ushered in the end of apartheid while securing the release of Nelson Mandela in this historical drama. Starring William Hurt, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Mark Strong, and Johnny Lee Miller.
The time is the late 1980s, a crucial period in the history of South Africa. President P.W. Botha is hanging onto power by a thread as the African (ANC) takes up arms against apartheid and the country tumbles towards insurrection.
A British mining concern called Consolidated Gold is convinced that their interests would be better served in a stable South Africa, and quietly dispatches Michael Young, their head of public affairs, to open an unofficial dialogue between the bitter rivals. Assembling a reluctant yet brilliant team to pave the way to reconciliation by confronting obstacles that initially seem insurmountable, Young places his trust in ANC leader Thabo Mbeki and Afrikaner philosophy professor Willie Esterhuyse.
It is their empathy that will ultimately serve as the catalyst for change by proving more powerful than the terrorist bombs that threaten to disrupt the peaceful dialogue. As the story shifts between Mandela’s jail cell, Botha’s chambers, ANC headquarters, and a rented car occupied by a British bureaucrat, the prospect for peace becomes more than just a distant hope.
After the release of BLACK Dynamite, I think it is appropriate to see how others are re-approaching the Blaxploitation Film Genre. It will make for a great discussion as do all of our films at BWC. Peep the trailer and let us know, “what it look like to yah!” All comments are welcome, good bad and mildly indifferent.
TRUTH BE TOLD – A CELEBRATION OF BLACK HERITAGE
@ ICE THEATERS Every Thursday in February.
Thursday, February 4, 2010
SKIN
South Africa/2009/107 min/Drama/Rated PG-13/Directed by Anthony Fabian
“SKIN” is one of the most moving stories to emerge from apartheid South Africa: Sandra Laing (Sophie Okonedo) is a black child born in the 1950s to white Afrikaners, unaware of their black ancestry. Her parents are rural shopkeepers serving the local black community, who lovingly bring her up as their ‘white’ little girl. But at the age of ten, Sandra is driven out of white society. The film follows Sandra’s thirty-year journey from rejection to acceptance, betrayal to reconciliation, as she struggles to define her place in a changing world – and triumphs against all odds.
Post-Film Panel Discussion – Moderator: Santita Jackson, WVON; Panelists: Ambassador Nomvume Magaqa, Consul General, South African Consulate General in Chicago; Rev. Calvin Morris, PhD, Executive Director of the Community Renewal society of Chicago; and Dana Starks, Commissioner, Chicago Commission on Human Relations.
Thursday, February 11, 2010 INVICTUS
USA/2009/134 minutes/Drama/Rated PG-13/Directed by Clint Eastwood
“Invictus” tells the inspiring true story of how Nelson Mandela (Morgan Freeman) joined forces with the captain of South Africa’s rugby team, Francois Pienaar (Matt Damon), to help unite their country. Newly elected President Mandela knows his nation remains racially and economically divided in the wake of apartheid. Believing he can bring his people together through the universal language of sport, Mandela rallies South Africa’s underdog rugby team as they make an unlikely run to the 1995 World Cup Championship match.
Post-Film Audience Q&A – Moderators: Matt McGill and Perri Small, WVON
Thursday, February 18, 2010 THE PROVIDENCE EFFECT
USA/2009/92 minutes/Documentary/Rated PG/Directed by Rollin Binzer
Providence-St. Mel, a private school in Chicago, is celebrated nationwide for its remarkable success rate: for nearly 30 years, 100 percent of its students have gone on to attend college. As the nation faces an ongoing crisis in public education, many administrators and activists have begun turning to the Providence model to boost test scores and student confidence. This documentary chronicles the school’s unique history, and offers testimonies from generations of Providence-St. Mel teachers and alumni, most importantly the man who has led the school during all those years, Paul J. Adams III.
WITHIN OUR GATES
USA/1920/90 minutes/Drama/Unrated/Written, Directed and Produced by Oscar Micheaux
Recognized as the oldest known surviving film by an African-American director, “Within Our Gates” is a silent race film that dramatically depicts the racial situation in America during the violent years of Jim Crow, the Ku Klux Klan, the Great Migration, and the emergence of the “New Negro”. The story focuses on an African-American woman who goes North in an effort to help a minister in the Deep South raise money to keep a school open for poor Black children. Her romance with a black doctor eventually leads to revelations about her family’s past that expose the racial skeletons in America’s closet, most famously through the film’s depiction of the injustice of lynching.
Post-Film Panel Discussion – Moderator: Salim Muwakki, WVON; Panelists: Timuel Black, Professor Emeritus of Social Science at the City Colleges of Chicago; Nina Cartier, Doctoral Candidate at Northwestern University; and Floyd Webb, filmmaker/producer
All screenings will be held at the ICE Chatham Theaters, 210 West 87th Street, Chicago. Showtime is 7:00PM and admission is $5.00 for all screenings listed above. A post-film discussion will follow each screening. For program information or private group screenings, contact Venisha White Johnson at 773-892-3204 ext. 2 or venishajohnson@icetheaters.com.
Please let us know about your short films produced in Chicago for a short film program we are planning for this year. Please email me at floyd@blackworldcinema.net
Thursday, January 7, 7pm,
FREE ADMISSION Martin Luther King Jr.: The Man and the Dream Ice Theaters Chatham
210 West 87th Street
Chicago, IL 60620
Directed by black British director John Akomfrah, Martin Luther King Jr.: The Man and the Dream presents a remarkable portrait of courage in the face of hatred, of a man who forced change through the sheer strength of his indomitable spirit. Rarely has one man done so much to change the politics and conscience of the nation. Like too many others, he paid the ultimate price for his beliefs. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was one of the most loved, respected, feared and influential leaders in American history. In life, he helped transform the nation’s outlook. In death, he became a martyr to the cause for which he labored. In this one-of-a-kind look at his life and work, writer/director Tom Friedman explores how Dr. King’s ideas, thoughts and causes evolved in the face of the rapidly changing climate of the Civil Rights Movement. Rare footage and photographs illustrate the defining moments of his crusade, from the first stirrings of his activism in Alabama to his time as the pre-eminent voice for racial justice in America.
Originally made for the BBC series “Reputations.” documentary profiles examining well-known personalities around the world, the film is a revealing portrait of the private life and inner struggles of Martin Luther King Jr. Champion of non-violent protest and martyr of the Civil Rights Movement. The film tells the story of Dr. King?s childhood and formative years, his early triumphs for Civil Rights and his personal sacrifices, his wilderness years and his rise to international prominence.
In the 42 years since his assassination, the image of the champion of non-violent protest has been tarnished by FBI-inspired rumours of womanising and adultery. This film reveals how, though riven with self-doubt and under threat of death, Dr King nevertheless challenged America to live up to its own ideals. The film examines King’s evolving radicalization through his moral opposition to the Vietnam War, delving into areas of American foreign policy that few black civil right leaders dared to challenge
Awards: Best Archive, Best Documentary, The Peoples.Award Delhi International Film Festival 1998.
