Wednesday, June 6, 7 pm
ICE Lawndale 10 Theaters
3330 W Roosevelt Road
Admission: $5.00

Thursday, June 7, 7pm
ICE Theaters Chatham
210 W 87th St
Admission: $5.00

UNDER AFRICAN SKIES
Director: Joe Berlinger
U.S.A., 2011, 102 min, color & b/w,
English/Afrikaans/Zulu

Paul Simon’s historic Graceland album sold millions of copies and united cultures, yet divided world opinion on the boundaries of art, politics, and commerce. On the occasion of the twenty-fifth anniversary of Graceland’s release, Simon returns to South Africa for a reunion concert that unearths the turbulent birth of the album. Despite its huge success as a popular fusion of American and African musical styles, Graceland spawned intense political crossfire. Simon was accused of breaking the United Nations’ cultural boycott of South Africa, which was designed to end apartheid.

Renowned filmmaker Joe Berlinger brilliantly intertwines both sides of a complex story as Simon revisits old ghosts and gains insights on his own musical journey. With the compelling perceptions of anti-apartheid activists and music legends such as Quincy Jones, Harry Belafonte, Paul McCartney, and David Byrne, Under African Skies is both a buoyant chronicle of unparalleled artistic achievement and a profound rumination on the role of the artist in society. - D.C. Sundance Film Festival

**In celebration of the 100th year anniversary of the African National Congress, the Chicago-Midwest ANC Centenary Committee is working with Black World Cinema and ICE Theaters to create very special movie events at their locations on the West and South Sides of Chicago. These screenings will feature live cultural performances from top artists like Muntu Dance Theater, West Indian Folk Dance Company and others, an art exhibit of Chicago anti-apartheid posters, photos, and banners, and a special post-film panel discussion will be hosted with the Chicago-Midwest ANC Centenary Committee

Black World Cinema, a showcase of seldom seen classic features and new films from around the world. Black World Cinema presents films by filmmakers that bring us story with compelling content and a human dimension seldom presented in mainstream cinema.

All screenings are followed by lively discussions moderated by program director Floyd Webb or Cecilia Horde along with local scholars, screenwriters and directors.

Screenings are the first Wednesday at
ICE Lawndale 10 Theaters
3330 W. Roosevelt Road, Chicago, IL 60624

Screenings are the first Thursday at
ICE Chatham 14 Theaters
210 W. 87th Street, Chicago, IL 60620

Wednesday, August 1, 7 pm
ICE Lawndale 10 Theaters
3330 W Roosevelt Road
Admission: $5.00

Thursday, Aug 2, 7pm
ICE Theaters Chatham
210 W 87th St
Admission: $5.00

On Thursday August 2nd Only
Film Screening & Community Forum
on Gun Possession, Stand Your Ground
& Myths About Concealed Carry
Moderated by WVON’s CLIFF KELLY

NEGROES WITH GUNS: Rob Williams and Black Power
USA, 53 minutes, 2005,
Writer/Co-Director: Sandra Dickson;
Co-Director: Churchill Roberts

NEGROES WITH GUNS tells the dramatic story of the often-forgotten civil rights leader who urged African Americans to arm themselves against violent racists. In doing so, Williams not only challenged the Klan-dominated establishment of his hometown of Monroe, North Carolina, he alienated the mainstream Civil Rights Movement, which advocated peaceful resistance.

Robert F. Williams was the forefather of the Black Power movement and broke dramatic new ground by internationalizing the African American struggle. Negroes with Guns is not only an electrifying look at an historically erased leader, but also provides a thought-provoking examination of Black radicalism and resistance and serves as a launching pad for the study of Black liberation philosophies. Insightful interviews with historian Clayborne Carson, biographer Timothy Tyson, Julian Bond, and a first person account by Mabel Williams, Robert’s wife, bring the story to life.

Shown with
NO GUNS FOR NEGROES
USA 2009, 20 min, by Aaron Zelman

The historical record provides compelling evidence that racism underlies gun control laws — and not in any subtle way. Throughout much of American history, gun control was openly stated as a method for keeping blacks and Hispanics “in their place,” and to quiet the racial fears of whites. This film provides a brief summary of this unholy alliance of gun control and racism, and to suggest that gun control laws should be regarded as “suspect ideas,” analogous to the “suspect classifications” theory of discrimination already part of the American legal system.

Presented with Chicago Firearms Safety Association

On Thursday August 2nd Only
Film Screening & Community Forum
on Gun Possession, Stand Your Ground
& Myths About Concealed Carry

Moderated by WVON’s CLIFF KELLY
Panel Discussants:
Chris Cooper, Candidate for States Attorney
David Lemieux – Retired Chicago Police Detective
Lori Meriweather – single mom and stalking victim
Gimbu Kali, Pres & Shawn Gowder, VP,
Chicago Firearms Safety Association
Radie – home invasion survivor

Organizations:
Chicago Firearms Safety Association
IllinoisCarry.com
The Illinois State Rifle Association
The Second Amendment Sisters
Effective Firearms
Personal Protection Consultants

Wednesday, July 4, 7 pm
ICE Lawndale 10 Theaters
3330 W Roosevelt Road
Admission: $5.00

Thursday, July 5, 7pm
ICE Theaters Chatham
210 W 87th St
Admission: $5.00

David is Dying
Director: Stephen Lloyd jackson
U.S.A., 2010, 80 min, color
Language: English

A young, successful hedge fund manager, David Brown, has just been told that he is HIV positive. He is informed of the possibility that his unborn child could also be infected and so too the child’s mother, his long-term fiancée, Carla. Through an intense therapy session with his psychiatrist, David takes us on a pernicious journey that starts twelve months prior – the
women, the sex and the demons.

David takes us even deeper into his troubled and disturbed life. Through the candid exchange with his psychiatrist, Amelia Holland.

David knows that he will die. He must live with that. However, he must also resolve the ghosts of the past before he can face his end. ‘ DavidIs Dying’ is a dark, disturbing psychodrama, which illustrates the ugly side of love and tragic passion.

Wed, May 2, 7 pm
ICE Theaters Lawndale
3330 W Roosevelt Road
Adm: $5.00

Thursday, May 3, 7pm
ICE Theaters Chatham
210 W 87th St
Adm: $5.00

From Harlem to Mississippi to Africa and South Central Los Angeles, Sing Your Song takes us on a journey through Harry Belafonte’s life, work and most of all, his conscience, as it inspires us all to action!

Sing Your Song is an up close look at a great American, Harry Belafonte. A patriot to the last and a champion for worldwide human rights, Belafonte is one of the truly heroic cultural and political figures of the past 60 years. Told from Harry’s point of view, the film charts his life from a boy born in New York and raised in Jamaica, who returns to Harlem in his early teens where he discovers the American Negro Theater and the magic of performing.

From there the film follows Belafonte’s rise from the jazz and folk clubs of Greenwich Village and Harlem to his emergence as a star. However, even as a superstar, the life of a black man in 1960s America was far from easy and Belafonte was confronted with the same Jim Crow laws and prejudices that every other black man, woman and child in America was facing.

Among other things, the film presents a brief look at the Civil Rights Movement through the eyes of an insider, someone who despite his high profile, wasn’t afraid to spend time in the trenches.

Black World Cinema, a showcase of seldom seen classic features and new films from around the world. Black World Cinema presents films by filmmakers that bring us story with compelling content and a human dimension seldom presented in mainstream cinema.

All screenings are followed by lively discussions moderated by program director Floyd Webb or Cecilia Horde along with local scholars, screenwriters and directors.

Screenings are the first Wednesday at
ICE Lawndale 10 Theaters
3330 W. Roosevelt Road, Chicago, IL 60624

Screenings are the first Thursday at
ICE Chatham 14 Theaters
210 W. 87th Street, Chicago, IL 60620

Wednesday, April 4th at 7pm, Adm. $5
ICE Theaters Lawndale
3330 W. Roosevelt Road, Chicago, IL 60624

Thursday, April 5th at 7pm, Adm. $5
ICE Theaters Chatham 14
210 W. 87th Street, Chicago, IL 60620

“In their dark­est hour, they turn on the video cam­era for the last time and doc­u­ment the final moments of their jour­ney home. They soon real­ize that their dreams and promises of a new life mean noth­ing in a place called War.”

Armed with dreams that extend beyond their block, Luis and Ronald, two best friends from Los Ange­les, make a movie doc­u­ment­ing their last 36 hours before ship­ping off to Afghanistan. Luis wants to be a film­maker and Ronald wants to travel the world and raise a family.

With no money for film acad­emy, and grades too low to win a schol­ar­ship at a Uni­ver­sity with a film depart­ment, Luis decides to enlist in the Marine Corps.
The Recruiter promises Luis that if he enlists, the Gov­ern­ment will pay for his film school tuition when he returns home. In doing research, I actu­ally went into an Army Recruit­ment Cen­ter as if I were Luis. I told the Recruiter my story (Luis’s story), and as I was walk­ing out, pro­mo­tional mate­ri­als in hand, the Recruiter stopped me and said, “Come by any­time and make this place your home, Luis Walker I look for­ward to say­ing I recruited the next Spike Lee.”

“Draw­ing from the Dogma 95 Move­ment and the global street art move­ment, we are cre­at­ing a new film move­ment here in the United States where the lack of resources serve the story as opposed to hin­der­ing it, blur­ring the line between real­ity and fic­tion. How­ever, our inten­tion is not to trick the audi­ence into believ­ing that what they’re watch­ing is real, but rather what they’re watch­ing is true to life.”

All screenings are followed by lively discussions moderated by program director Floyd Webb or Cecilia Horde along with local scholars, screenwriters and directors.

Screenings are the first Wednesday at
ICE Theaters Lawndale
3330 W. Roosevelt Road, Chicago, IL 60624

Screenings are the first Thursday at
ICE Theaters Chatham 14
210 W. 87th Street, Chicago, IL 60620

An academic overachiever, she studied linguistics and contemporary dance in Heidelberg, Germany, before enrolling in film school in Berlin, where she met Nigerian-born director Okpako in the nineties. After living in the United Kingdom for a short period, Auma Obama eventually moved back to Kenya to mentor a young generation of community activists, social workers and other ambitious young men and women who lacked her privileged education and training, but were nonetheless determined to make a positive contribution to their society.

Okpako has always been interested in questions of identity, affiliation and belonging. Although she frames her film as a biographical portrait of Obama, she goes much further, providing a layered historical context and discussions of postcolonial African identity from a feminist perspective. Okpako collects testimonies almost exclusively from women, echoing the African tradition of women as chroniclers of oral history. When coupled with these accounts, Okpako’s use of archival footage — filmed during colonization for an entirely different purpose — offers a new reading of history and the present. Obama is also the daughter of a charismatic man who fought for the liberation of his country and participated in the shaping of the first years of independence. She witnessed his hopefulness and rise as well as his disillusionment and demise, coming into adulthood as her country — and continent — fell prey to despotism, corruption and poverty.

The Education of Auma Obama is also a film about a generation of politically and socially engaged Africans whose aspirations are informed by their parents’ experiences, and whose ambition to forge a better future for their communities starts from the ground up. Rasha Salti, September 2011

Branwen Okpako’s  “The Education of Auma Obama” won the Festival Founder’s Award for the best documentary at PAFF 2012.

The Education of Auma Obama screens March 7 & 8th at ICE Theaters.
Photo by: Guenny Pires at  Txan Film

In this Skype interview, Branwen Okpako, director of The Education of Auma Obama talks about her journey in the making of the documentary film about President Barack Obama’s sister Auma, in “a captivating and intimate portrait of the U.S. president’s older half-sister, who embodies a post-colonial, feminist identity.”

Wednesday, March 7 at 7pm, Adm. $5
ICE Theaters Lawndale
3330 W. Roosevelt Road, Chicago, IL 60624

Thursday, March 8 at 7pm, Adm. $5
ICE Theaters Chatham 14
210 W. 87th Street, Chicago, IL 60620

The Place in Between (Notre étrangere)
France/Burkina Faso, 2010, 82 min
dir: Sarah Bouyain
prod: Sophie Salbot
scr: Sarah Bouyain, Gaëlle Macé
In French and Dioula with English subtitles.

Part of the Feb. TRUTH BE TOLD Black History Month Screenings

Exploring dilemmas of culture and race, Sarah Bouyain’s debut feature tells dovetailing stories of African women living in France. Amy is a young biracial woman whose mother is from Burkina Faso. At the age of eight, she was “reclaimed” by her father and went to live with him in France. His death 20 or so years later prompts a desire to visit her birthplace and reconnect with her other parent. In a parallel story, a middle-aged white woman is learning Dioula, a West African language spoken in Burkina Faso, from a taciturn woman named Mariam. In carefully precise scenes, Bouyain explores the displacement that both Mariam and Amy face in a country that is familiar but not quite home. In Burkina Faso, Amy tries to fit in by buying a brightly patterned dress, but locals call her “white lady” and she’s unable to converse with her aunt in order to discover her mother’s whereabouts. Meanwhile, Mariam tries to accustom herself to the bustle of Paris, where traditions and personal relationships are different from what she is used to. Through these two narratives, an affecting portrait of the African diaspora emerges. Over the course of the film, these two self-possessed women may not definitively discover the place where they belong, but what they do find is a significantly stronger sense of self.

—Rod Armstrong