Portland Community College | Portland, Oregon

PCC African Festival to Showcase 19 Films

Photos and Story by James Hill

NORTH PORTLAND – Four thousand film enthusiasts can’t be wrong.Portland Community College will host the popular and diverse 13th Annual Cascade Festival of African Films, in honor of Black History Month, through the month of February at the Cascade Campus, 705 N. Killingsworth. All screenings will be in Terrell Hall 122, unless noted otherwise.All of the festival films are free and open to the public. The festival, which features 19 films this year, has grown into a big favorite among film buffs. Last year the festival featured an appearance by actor Danny Glover and attracted a record 4,000 people."This year’s films are all outstanding,"said Mary Holmstrom, an organizer of the festival. "They all have extraordinary stories to tell and images to reveal. They have very important things to tell us about African history, the urban African woman, religion and spirituality, civil war, and HIV/AIDS. They also celebrate music and dance, love and freedom, and the indomitable human spirit."The festival will open with the Senegalese film, "Karmen Ge’"directed by Joseph Ga’ Ramaka, on Saturday, Feb. 1 at McMenamins Kennedy School, 5736 N.E. 33rd Ave. There will be screenings of the film at 7 and 9:30 p.m. The film is loosely based on Georges Bizet’s opera "Carmen,"and is believed to be the first African-produced movie musical ever made. The opening night gala will also include a Silent Auction with live music in the Kennedy School gymnasium as a benefit for the Cascade Festival of African Films.Ethiopian film director Haile Gerima will present his documentary film, "Adwa: An African Victory,"at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday, Feb. 6 at the Hollywood Theatre, 4122 N.E. Sandy Blvd. The film chronicles the epic Battle of Adwa of 1896, in which an army of Ethiopian men and women defeated an invading Italian army against impossible odds.In addition to "Adwa"and "Bilalian,"the Thursday Evening Documentary Series will include "Scenarios from the Sahel"and "It’s My Life"on the subject of AIDS in West and South Africa on Feb. 13. Films about the lives of two of Egypt’s great artistic and literary giants, the singer Umm Kulthum and the writer Naguib Mahfouz, will be presented on Feb. 20: "Umm Kulthum: A Voice Like Egypt"and "Naguib Mahfouz: The Passage of the Century.""Kirikou and the Sorceress,"the popular animated children’s film based on a Congolese folk tale, is the featured film for Family Film Day at 2 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 22 at McMenamins Kennedy School. Two of Cilia Sawadogo’s short animations will also be shown: "The Cora Player"and "Christopher Changes His Name."The festival concludes with Women Filmmakers Week. "Mama Africa: Growing Up Urban,"three short films by women directors from Namibia, Nigeria, and South Africa, will be shown on Feb. 27 and 28, and "Satin Rouge,"the new Tunisian film by Raja Amari about female sensuality, will show on Feb. 27 and March 1. The festival will also host the young African American filmmaker Aminah Bakeer Abdul-Jabbaar to Portland. She will present her film "Bilalian"at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday, Feb. 27, at PCC’s Terrell Hall 122 on the Cascade Campus. "Bilalian"traces the history of the transformation of the Black Muslim movement from the Nation of Islam of Elijah Muhammed into the orthodox Islam of the Muslim Society of America.The 13th Annual Cascade Festival of African Films is made possible in part by grants from the Oregon Council for the Humanities, an independent affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities, and from the Oregon Arts Commission. The festival organizers also thank McMenamins Kennedy School and Hollywood Theatre for the use of their theaters.The complete listing and descriptions of films are on the festival Web site at www.cfaf.net.