{"id":1097,"date":"2014-09-23T12:47:16","date_gmt":"2014-09-23T17:47:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blackworldcinema.net\/blog\/?p=1097"},"modified":"2025-06-03T00:32:35","modified_gmt":"2025-06-03T05:32:35","slug":"thurs-nov-6-7pm-as-an-act-of-protest-dennis-leroy-kangalees-cult-classic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blackworldcinema.net\/blog\/2014\/09\/23\/thurs-nov-6-7pm-as-an-act-of-protest-dennis-leroy-kangalees-cult-classic\/","title":{"rendered":"Thurs, Nov 6, 7pm, As an Act of Protest – Dennis Leroy Kangalee\u2019s cult classic!"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"ActNov\"<\/a>Thurs, Nov 6, 7pm, Adm. $6.00
\n<\/b>Black World Cinema @
\nStudio Movie Grill Chatham Theater
\n210 W 87th Street<\/p>\n

Act of Protest (2001)<\/b>
\nDirector: Dennis Leroy Kangalee
\nhttp:\/\/dennisleroykangalee.wordpress.com\/<\/p>\n

Made in 2001 in NYC,\u00a0As an Act of Protest<\/b>\u00a0has not been screened publicly in the USA since 2005 shortly, \u00a0before Kangalee destroyed the master tapes while living in Europe.<\/p>\n

Renewed interest in the film came as a\u00a0 result of the publication of his poetry in 2010 and the more recent police brutality incidences and egregious\u00a0 examples of racism that only continue to prove that America is “walking in terrible darkness.”<\/p>\n

As an Act of Protest is a “clear line in the sand” that demands the eradication of racism &\u00a0 police brutality and seems all the more, creepily relevant somehow in the aftermath of the murder\u00a0 of Trayvon Martin and Michael Brown. Shot on the first Canon XL-1 on the cusp of the so-called\u00a0 “digital revolution”, this feature film was not only representative of a new “urban-guerilla cinema”,\u00a0 but a personal one as well, setting a bar for the new wave of protest art and ‘concrete basement’\u00a0 filmmaking that took the ethos of early Rap and Punk and mixed it with a freewheeling desire to\u00a0 express the darker corners of our society and allow rage back into the frame of American cinema.<\/p>\n

AS AN ACT OF PROTEST was an artistic response to the rampant police brutality under the\u00a0 Giuliani administration in the 1990’s, which culminated in the murder of Amadou Diallo in a hail of\u00a0 41 bullets by four white NYPD officers. It was deemed the best black film of 2002 by East Coast\u00a0 cultural critic Kam Williams and though it garnered some positive critical attention, it was silenced\u00a0 and banned by several independent theaters immediately following 9\/11, when Mayor Rudolph\u00a0 Giuliani was considered a “hero”. Misunderstood, deemed too long, too shrill, too angry, and not\u00a0 “hopeful” enough — the movie died before it was born but later found a life outside of America\u00a0 and within avant-garde and more progressive circles.<\/p>\n

Trailer:\u00a0http:\/\/youtu.be\/Wu4iQuL4Cic<\/p>\n

\n

Preceded by a new short film: ONLY LIGHT\u00a0
\n\"onlylightbanner\"<\/a><\/p>\n

ONLY LIGHT (2014) 13 min.
\nDirector: Evita Castine
\nWritten by Thembi Banks
\nWhen a young girl is kidnapped from the Democratic Republic of\u00a0the Congo and sold as a sex worker to the U.S., she finds an escape\u00a0from reality by watching a teenage girl next door.