SUS, arrested on suspicion

Thursday, SEPTEMBER 2, 2010
7:00pm
General Admission: $5.00

ICE Theaters Chatham 14
210 West 87th Street
Chicago, Illinois 60620
773-892-3204 • icetheaters.com

“Highly-charged, socially conscious drama like this is not just welcome but necessary. SUS has powerful and important things to tell us about how we live – and how we ought to live.”
– New York Times

“It was writers like Barrie Keefe that opened up the world for me. For the first time there was a purpose in this goddamn work other than just strutting around and spouting.”
– Daniel Day Lewis

SUS – UK, 2010, 91 min
Directed by Robert Heath.
With Ralph Brown, Clint Dyer, Anjela Lauren Smith.

1979: Election Night – A police interview room. Delroy’s pregnant wife has been found dead in a pool of blood and he is brought in as the chief suspect. He is interrogated by D.S. Karn, a witty, psychotic racist and his violent sidekick D.C. Wilby. Both high on the prospect of a Conservative landslide victory they try to lure him into a quick confession. Callous humiliation gives way to a barrage of sinister violence, leading to a devastating conclusion.

WHAT IS SUS?
In Britain, the Sus law was the informal name for a stop-and-search law that permitted a police officer to act on suspicion, or ‘sus’, alone. It was based upon Sections 4 and 6 of the Vagrancy Act 1824 which made it “illegal for a suspected person or reputed thief to frequent or loiter in a public place with intent to commit an arrestable offence” and effectively permitted the police to stop and search and even arrest anyone they chose, purely on the basis of suspicion as a crime-prevention tactic. The law caused much discontent among certain sections of the population, particularly black and ethnic minority communities, against whom the police use of the law was particularly targeted. The sus law was abolished following race riots in St Pauls, Bristol, in 1980, and in Brixton, London, and Toxteth, Liverpool, in 1981, because it’s alleged abuse was believed to be a contributory factor to these events.

All screenings are followed by lively discussions moderated by program director Floyd Webb or local schalars, screenwriters and directors.

Screenings occur the first Thursday of every month at
ICE Theaters Chatham 14
210 87th Street
Chicago, IL

Thursday, SEPTEMBER 2, 2010
7:00pm
General Admission: $5.00

ICE Theaters Chatham 14
210 West 87th Street
Chicago, Illinois 60620
773-892-3204 • icetheaters.com

Motherland looks unflinchingly toward a positive Pan-African future.
With breathtaking cinematography and a fluid soundtrack sculpted by Sona Jobarteh. Motherland is a beautiful vision of global African diversity and unity. From the multi-award winning producers of the acclaimed documentary 500 Years Later, Motherland is directed by Owen ‘Alik Shahadah and produced by M.K. Asante, Jr.

Screenings occur the first Thursday of every month at
ICE Theaters Chatham 14
210 87th Street
Chicago, IL

ICE Theaters Chatham 14
210 West 87th Street
Chicago, Illinois 60620
773-892-3204 • icetheaters.com

BESOURO
Brazil (2004) 95 min, English Subtitle
Director: Joao Daniel Tikhomiroff
Screenwriter: Patricia Andrade
Cast: Ailton Carmo, Jessica Barbosa, Anderson Santos de Jesus, Flavio Rocha, Irandhir Santos, Macale.
Set in the jungles of Bahia in the 1920s, the tale is firmly grounded in its historical time and place, when rich white landowners exploited black workers like slaves, even after the nominal abolition of slavery. The action begins when Master Alipio (Macale), who has taught the art of Capoeira to Besouro, Dinora and Quero-Quero since they were children, is brutally murdered on the orders of Col. Venancio, the young plantation owner. The Colonel’s attempt to nip rebellion in the bud has just the opposite effect, and from beyond the grave, Master Alipio urges his young student Besouro (played by the athletic Ailton Carmo, a professional Capoeira player) to fight for his people.

Escaping to the jungle to prepare himself for heroic deeds to come, Besouro receives magical powers that allow him to fly and make his body virtually impenetrable. Some of the films finest sequences involve his initiation into the forces of nature by the wind and water goddess Orixa. As his consciousness enters the bodies of a flying beetle and then a frog, the camera assumes the animals’ point of view as they fly through the air and dive underwater.

All screenings are followed by lively discussions moderated by program director Floyd Webb or local schalars, screenwriters and directors.

Screenings occur the first Thursday of every month at
ICE Theaters Chatham 14
210 87th Street
Chicago, IL

AUGUST 5, 7:00pm
General Admission: $5.00

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.

35 Shot of Rum with Mati Diop and Alex Dascas

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.

May 6 at ICE Theaters, 7pm, $5 general admission

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).

Shown with Thomas Sankara

• BLACK
• France
• Year: 2008
• Running time: 110 Minutes
• Genres: Action/Adventure, Detective/Mystery, Drama, Gangster, Thriller
• Language: French
• Sub-Titles:English Sub-Titles

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.

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.