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15th Annual African Diaspora International Film Festival - Chicago Line Up Announced - June 9-15, 2017

Thursday, June 15 @ 6:30pm

Mama Africa: Miriam Makeba

Friday, June 9 @ 6:30pm

Afro-Latino Program

Friday, June 9 @ 8:30pm

Everything But a Man - Opening Night Film

ADIFF Chicago celebrates 15 years of great cinema with 16 new fiction and documentary films, revealing stories, great talks and special events!

As diverse and porous as the diaspora itself”
— —TimeOut Chicago
CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, USA, May 30, 2017 /EINPresswire.com/ -- FESTIVAL HIGHLIGHTS

The ongoing controversy around the love life of powerful women is addressed with great humanity in Nnegest Likké OPENING NIGHT film "Everything But a Man". This romantic comedy-drama tells the story of a sexy, strong and successful - but single – career-woman who has a life-changing romance with a mysterious, French-speaking black man from another culture. Director Nnegest Likké will attend the Opening Night reception on Friday, June 9 at 7:30pm and a Q&A after the screening.

"Paris Noir - African Americans in the City of Light". Joanne Burke’s film is an exciting, enlightening documentary on the presence of African Americans in Paris from WWI to the early 1960s. Looking back today at their astounding achievements and the beneficial cultural exchange between France and Black America stirs up lively conversation. These jazz musicians, writers, artists and intellectuals launched the appreciation of Black culture worldwide. The GALA SCREENING of "Paris Noir" on Saturday, June 10 @ 6pm will be followed by a Q&A session with Associate Producer and founder of Walking The Spirit Tours of Black Paris, Julia Browne and a reception.

From its inception, ADIFF has always showcased great films that explore the black British experience. Films like "Pressure" by Horace Ove, "Burning an Illusion" by Menelik Shabaz, and "The Stuart Hall Project" by John Akomfrah are some of the most representative works by black British filmmakers. ADIFF is now proud to introduce the next generation of black British filmmakers with the CENTERPIECE screening of "The Naked Poet" by Jason Barrett, a sharp, witty, sexy, deep and quite emotional exploration of the complexities of love presented from a black male’s perspective in contemporary London. Director Jason Barrett will travel from London for a Q&A after the screening and reception on Sunday, June 11 starting at 5:30pm.

Miriam Makeba died in 2008. Mama Africa - Miriam Makeba by Mika Kaurismäki is a powerful portrait of one of the most important performers from the continent of Africa. The SPECIAL PRESENTATION of "Mama Africa – Miriam Makeba" to be held on Thursday, June 15 at 6:30pm will be followed by a Q&A with a representative of the Chicago South African Consulate. The screening and reception that will follow are sponsored by the Chicago South African Consulate in commemoration of Youth Day – the annual South African celebration of the June 16 Soweto Youth Uprising of 1976.

In "Mary Lou Williams: The Lady Who Swings the Band" director Carol Bash tells us the story of Mary Lou Williams, a woman who overcame many obstacles in her life as a professional Jazz pianist. This revealing documentary will screen on Saturday, June 10 at 4pm.

"Gurumbé: Afro-Andalusian Memories" by M. Angel Rosales is about Flamenco, the African presence in Spain in the 16th century and the state of affairs of race relations in Spain. Well documented with a great intellectual rigor, the film goes into areas of Spanish culture seldom covered in Spanish films. "Gurumbe" will screen on Saturday, June 10 at 2pm and Tuesday, June 13 at 8:30pm.

For its CLOSING NIGHT, ADIFF is pleased to present an encore screening of "Hogtown" by Daniel Nearing, the city of Chicago’s first official filmmaker in residence. Set in Chicago during the winter of 1919, "Hogtown" is about a police hunt for a missing millionaire. Daniel Nearing will be in attendance on Thursday, June 15 at 7:30pm for the screening of his film and Closing Night reception.


THEMED PROGRAMS

EGYPT PAST AND PRESENT, two revealing films about Egypt. The life of Gamal Abdel Nasser - one of the African leaders who fought against colonialism and built a modern nation - is explored in historical documentary "Nasser’s Republic, The Making of Modern Egypt". The contemporary romantic drama "Sins of the Flesh" by Khaled el Hagar is set during the events of the Arab Spring, a series of anti-government protests, uprisings and armed rebellions that spread across the Middle East in early 2011. The film establishes a parallel narrative, in which an erotic and symbolic struggle for freedom plays out on a farm while the urban revolt serves as a backdrop.

THE AFRO-LATINO PROGRAM includes "The Valley Of Black Descendants" ("El Valle De Los Negros") by Richard Salgado about a group of descendants of enslaved men and women brought from Africa that is organizing the first African descendant census in the history of Chile and "Invisible Roots: Afro-Mexicans In Southern California" by Tiffany Walton and Lizz Mullis about Mexican African-descended peoples who have now migrated to Southern California. The screening of "Invisible Roots" will be followed by a Q&A session with co-director Lizz Mullis.

STORIES FROM GUADELOUPE PROGRAM – "The Black Mozart in Cuba" by Steve James is about Joseph Boulogne, Le Chevalier de St George, a Black classical composer and violin virtuoso born in Guadeloupe in the mid 18th century. The son of a slave and her master, he achieved enormous success as a musician, fencer, and military man. During the French Revolution, Saint-Georges was colonel of the Légion St.-Georges, the first all-black regiment in Europe. Yet, when he died in 1799, he was all but erased from history. "Torments of Love" by Caroline Jules is a short contemporary drama about the difficult encounter between two sisters and their estranged father.


THE OTHER FILMS
• "Adopted ID" by Sonia Godding is about a young woman from Haiti adopted by a White Canadian family when she was an infant. Both the director and main character of Adopted ID will be in attendance for a Q&A and reception. The reception and screening, sponsored by the Dusable Heritage Association, will start at 7pm on Saturday, June 10.
• "Montreal White City" by Bachir Bensaddek is about an Algerian taxi driver who picks up a former Algerian pop star whom he thought was dead. Their chanced encounter resurrects a past of turbulent times during the Algerian Civil War. Screening sponsored by the Quebec Government Office in Chicago.

For entire line up, visit http://nyadiff.org/category/adiff-chicago/

Diarah N'Daw-Spech
African Diaspora International Film Festival
2128641760
email us here

Gurumbe: Afro-Andalusian Memories - Saturday, June 10 @ 2PM & Tuesday, June 13 @ 8:30PM