Free Your Mind
I went to the Anthology Film Archives tonight for a screening of four documentaries, and my heart and mind are so full so please bear with me. There are so many things I'm thinking and feeling as a result of what I saw and the people I spoke to that it may not all come out the way I would like. The important thing is that I get this out.
Film #1: An Artists' Libido
This was about Anne Brown, a black soprano opera singer, who at age 23 sang as Bess in the musical Porgy and Bess by George Gershwin.
I've never seen Porgy and Bess, but they showed bits and pieces from the musical. At the time of the filming, Ms. Brown was 92 years old. Still sharp as a tack, and so on it. She talked about the flack she received from the other black performers who were more veteran than she for being the "doctor's daughter" and of the "bourgeois". I loved how she said it didn't bother her because besides not allowing their treatment of her to affect the performance, she held some contempt for them because they acted as though they were better than her. She was younger, yet equally talented, and didn't allow things they said to get her off her game. This is a film you'd have to see for yourself to fully appreciate it. One other part that stuck w/me most was how she refused to perform at a theater in Baltimore because it was segregated and no blacks were allowed to enter. The theater management told her that she was under contract and she was going to get out there and sing. But this amazing lady stuck to her guns and refused to sing. She felt it was ridiculous for a black cast to sing for a room full of white people when her own parents, siblings, and schoolmates weren't allowed to come. *If I could have an ounce of this lady's courage, there's no telling what I could accomplish.*
Film #2: Black Sharcropping Crops Blacks
This film was about the struggles of the black farmer, particularly the sharecropper in the south. It also touched on the suit that was filed by some of these tobacco farmers against the Department of Agriculture. Funny, how they won the suit to the tune of $2.3 billion for discrimination and racially unjust lending practices, yet 80,000 did not receive the compensation they are due and are still fighting for it.
This film was especially close to my heart because the farmers were in North Carolina, near where I'd been born and had lived for a time. I could definitely relate to that struggle in a way because my great-uncle was a farmer and essentially, we lived on a farm. My mom and her sisters and brothers know that struggle much more intimately because they lived it. Both my mom and dad dropped out of school in the 11th grade to help work on the farm. My uncles went into the military to escape this life, and three of my mom's sisters went to college and grad school. But my mom stayed. One of the farmers interviewed had also dropped out of school. Farm work was the number one priority, and it had to be done, regardless. Many kids didn't get to go to school when fall came because cotton had to be picked. Millery did a great job in capturing the soul and spirit of these family's struggles to make it and make a life for themselves and their children in spite of the numerous hardships and setbacks they faced. This resilience amazes me, and what's so great about it, is that we all have it; it's just not often called upon. Yet, it's there, and we need to dig deep and excavate that in ourselves.
Film #3: Africa Unite!
This filmmaker covered the Bob Marley 60th Birthday Celebration held in Ethiopia
UNICEF sponsored the 3-day symposium held as part of the celebration, and youth from other African countries to share their concerns, speak their minds about whatever social, political or economic issues plague their countries. (There was a lot of information given in this film, and I'm trying to keep it as accurate as possible. This is my best effort from memory....) Something that one of the African leaders said that was so on point was how when an African country does not want Pepsi to open a plant, at one time officials could be bribed in an effort to have this plant built, but when all the "white" countries ban together to form the World Trade Organization (WTO) and enforce economic sanctions and trade embargos on this country if it does not accept this Pepsi plant into it's country. How sick is that?? And I have to shout the youth in this documentary because they spoke their minds outright about things they saw as injustices and were there to find a way to make things better. Kids from countries all over Africa. It was such a beautiful sight. Would have been even more awesome to have been there!
Film #4: Exploring Relationships at 35 (not exact title)
Anjanette Levert's film was defnitely a bit of a hilarious spin on what she was experiencing on her 35th birthday and finding herself still single.
She narrated some parts w/her own funny commentary, other parts showed her with a group of her close female friends who were also 35, single, and without children. Anjanette also included clips of an interview she had with the gentleman who started that Harlem Men's Club (and I had the pleasure of having him sit one person over from me. Ugh! If only ya'll could have heard some of the chauvinistic comments homeboy made. Unbelievable.) And, the parts that included those clips were some of the funniest because when he said something crazy, you'd hear her say, "WHAT did he just say?!! Let's rewind that!" It was entertaining and so real. I wish I could remember some specific things this guy said in that interview, but if any of you have heard anything about him and his club, I'm sure you can fill in the blanks. I really liked how Anjanette's film touched on such sensitive issues that so many professional, successful, independent black women face. Oh, and one of the statistics this guy sited as the reason many black women will remain single is that 12% of blacks in this country are college-educated and 62% of those blacks are female. Sure, it sounds hella bleak for women in their 30s or approaching their 40s, but my friend, "Che" had a good point he didn't get a chance to raise that night. The meat of it (and I'm paraphrasing) is that we are getting smarter and eventually this trend is going to begin reversing itself. That made me feel pretty hopeful because I was beginning to wonder, wow, are things going to continue to deteriorate for black women.
I also want to shout out Che's pub for the Black August Film Fest. I always learn something at these kinds of events and walk away more enlightened and stretched intellectually than before I got there. Let's make a concerted effort to support these events, organizations and individuals.
***************************************************************************
My celebrity sighting:
Peter Parros aka Dr. Benjamin Robert "Ben" Harris, As the World Turns
^I know I am such a loser for getting all excited about meeting this actor, but I don't care. I grew up watching this soap on CBS, so I politely expressed my appreciation. :P^
Film #1: An Artists' Libido
This was about Anne Brown, a black soprano opera singer, who at age 23 sang as Bess in the musical Porgy and Bess by George Gershwin.
I've never seen Porgy and Bess, but they showed bits and pieces from the musical. At the time of the filming, Ms. Brown was 92 years old. Still sharp as a tack, and so on it. She talked about the flack she received from the other black performers who were more veteran than she for being the "doctor's daughter" and of the "bourgeois". I loved how she said it didn't bother her because besides not allowing their treatment of her to affect the performance, she held some contempt for them because they acted as though they were better than her. She was younger, yet equally talented, and didn't allow things they said to get her off her game. This is a film you'd have to see for yourself to fully appreciate it. One other part that stuck w/me most was how she refused to perform at a theater in Baltimore because it was segregated and no blacks were allowed to enter. The theater management told her that she was under contract and she was going to get out there and sing. But this amazing lady stuck to her guns and refused to sing. She felt it was ridiculous for a black cast to sing for a room full of white people when her own parents, siblings, and schoolmates weren't allowed to come. *If I could have an ounce of this lady's courage, there's no telling what I could accomplish.*
Film #2: Black Sharcropping Crops Blacks
This film was about the struggles of the black farmer, particularly the sharecropper in the south. It also touched on the suit that was filed by some of these tobacco farmers against the Department of Agriculture. Funny, how they won the suit to the tune of $2.3 billion for discrimination and racially unjust lending practices, yet 80,000 did not receive the compensation they are due and are still fighting for it.
This film was especially close to my heart because the farmers were in North Carolina, near where I'd been born and had lived for a time. I could definitely relate to that struggle in a way because my great-uncle was a farmer and essentially, we lived on a farm. My mom and her sisters and brothers know that struggle much more intimately because they lived it. Both my mom and dad dropped out of school in the 11th grade to help work on the farm. My uncles went into the military to escape this life, and three of my mom's sisters went to college and grad school. But my mom stayed. One of the farmers interviewed had also dropped out of school. Farm work was the number one priority, and it had to be done, regardless. Many kids didn't get to go to school when fall came because cotton had to be picked. Millery did a great job in capturing the soul and spirit of these family's struggles to make it and make a life for themselves and their children in spite of the numerous hardships and setbacks they faced. This resilience amazes me, and what's so great about it, is that we all have it; it's just not often called upon. Yet, it's there, and we need to dig deep and excavate that in ourselves.
Film #3: Africa Unite!
This filmmaker covered the Bob Marley 60th Birthday Celebration held in Ethiopia
UNICEF sponsored the 3-day symposium held as part of the celebration, and youth from other African countries to share their concerns, speak their minds about whatever social, political or economic issues plague their countries. (There was a lot of information given in this film, and I'm trying to keep it as accurate as possible. This is my best effort from memory....) Something that one of the African leaders said that was so on point was how when an African country does not want Pepsi to open a plant, at one time officials could be bribed in an effort to have this plant built, but when all the "white" countries ban together to form the World Trade Organization (WTO) and enforce economic sanctions and trade embargos on this country if it does not accept this Pepsi plant into it's country. How sick is that?? And I have to shout the youth in this documentary because they spoke their minds outright about things they saw as injustices and were there to find a way to make things better. Kids from countries all over Africa. It was such a beautiful sight. Would have been even more awesome to have been there!
Film #4: Exploring Relationships at 35 (not exact title)
Anjanette Levert's film was defnitely a bit of a hilarious spin on what she was experiencing on her 35th birthday and finding herself still single.
She narrated some parts w/her own funny commentary, other parts showed her with a group of her close female friends who were also 35, single, and without children. Anjanette also included clips of an interview she had with the gentleman who started that Harlem Men's Club (and I had the pleasure of having him sit one person over from me. Ugh! If only ya'll could have heard some of the chauvinistic comments homeboy made. Unbelievable.) And, the parts that included those clips were some of the funniest because when he said something crazy, you'd hear her say, "WHAT did he just say?!! Let's rewind that!" It was entertaining and so real. I wish I could remember some specific things this guy said in that interview, but if any of you have heard anything about him and his club, I'm sure you can fill in the blanks. I really liked how Anjanette's film touched on such sensitive issues that so many professional, successful, independent black women face. Oh, and one of the statistics this guy sited as the reason many black women will remain single is that 12% of blacks in this country are college-educated and 62% of those blacks are female. Sure, it sounds hella bleak for women in their 30s or approaching their 40s, but my friend, "Che" had a good point he didn't get a chance to raise that night. The meat of it (and I'm paraphrasing) is that we are getting smarter and eventually this trend is going to begin reversing itself. That made me feel pretty hopeful because I was beginning to wonder, wow, are things going to continue to deteriorate for black women.
I also want to shout out Che's pub for the Black August Film Fest. I always learn something at these kinds of events and walk away more enlightened and stretched intellectually than before I got there. Let's make a concerted effort to support these events, organizations and individuals.
***************************************************************************
My celebrity sighting:
Peter Parros aka Dr. Benjamin Robert "Ben" Harris, As the World Turns
^I know I am such a loser for getting all excited about meeting this actor, but I don't care. I grew up watching this soap on CBS, so I politely expressed my appreciation. :P^
posted by Issiata | 11:33 PM
2 Comments:
Cool! I should have gone. They are having an ImageNation film screening in Marcus Garvey Park next week. I met Peter Parros in NC the other week. He is a very nice approachable person. Handsome too.
I don't know when the next event is at the Anthology, but when I hear something, I'll let you know. The BAFF is going on until the end of Aug, so if you can, check them out. There's some good stuff! Peter was quite nice, and yes, girl, handsome, too! :)
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