The Jersey City Independent "

The African Diaspora International Film Festival (ADIFF) will once again be held in Jersey City this year, despite having to change venues. The festival will celebrate its seventh year in Jersey City at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church instead of the Jersey City Museum thanks to help from the nonprofit group Uptown Crew, which is helping to put the three-day event together.

The festival this year features seven films from directors around the world, including Ghana, Brazil and the U.S. Most are Jersey City premieres, and several feature Q&As with the directors. In addition, there will be an opening and a DVD launch party at this year’s festival.

Teaming up with the festival was a no-brainer for Uptown Crew founder and executive director Trish Szymanski.

“When the museum was unavailable this year, the festival producers contacted Neva Wartell, a Jersey City-based ethnomusicologist and world music DJ with whom they have worked in the past and who is a key cultural partner of Uptown Crew. Neva approached me about whether we could make it happen,” she says. “There was no question that Uptown Crew and ADIFF were a good fit, so we got to work.”

Szymanski says the venue change will allow “for the festival to have a home in and near the neighborhoods where most of Jersey City’s African and African-American residents live,” and that the festival, which celebrates diversity, is a natural fit for St. Paul’s Episcopal, since its “congregation reflects much of the diversity of Jersey City as a whole. … [It] opens the possibility of a more community centered experience.”

Keeping the festival in Jersey City was important for Szymanski, and it dovetails with her organization’s mission to cultivate the arts here.

“Jersey City’s reputation as an arts destination continues to add value to its residents’ quality of life. This is part of Uptown Crew’s interpretation of what that can mean,” she says. “The festival speaks to much of our mission, which is to cross boundaries of geography, heritage and lifestyle through programming engaging community and commerce, history and culture, and arts and entertainment.”

The festival kicks off with a 6 pm reception on Friday, January 14 and will be capped with a DVD launch party on the evening of Sunday, January 16. Tickets are $9 per screening ($7 for seniors and students), and $15 for the opening night screening and reception. A weekend pass costs $35, a Saturday pass will set you back $20 and a Sunday pass is $12.

“The intercultural nature of life in Jersey City is a snapshot of the future of the planet,” Szymanski says. “Showing these films speaks to that process in our time, right here. We could not be more proud to host the ADIFF, and we look forward to continuing our relationship with them in the future.”

Here’s the full schedule of films; for more information, click here. All screenings and events are at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church (38 Duncan Ave.).

Friday, January 14

6 pm: Reception

7 pm: White Boy Brown (2009; USA; 88 minutes). Followed by Q&A with director Sean Sawyer.

Armed with only a very important letter, Curtis Brown, a young black man embarks on the most difficult journey of his life, a journey that will force him to confront his own demons of hatred and prejudice, while rediscovering a love, long lost for his adopted white brother Johnny. Through a series of flashbacks and stories, Curtis learns of the life of a brother he once knew, a life of a brother who, although being white, experienced the same racism he himself experienced, ultimately binding the two together.

Saturday, January 15

3 pm: No Time to Die (2006; Ghana, West Germany; 95 minutes)

A hearse driver meets and falls in love with a young, beautiful dancer who is planning an elaborate homegoing celebration for her mother. This love and comedy feature length film follows David as he does everything to win her affection. Directed by King Ampaw.

5 pm: Shadows Of The Lynching Tree (2009; USA; 60 minutes). Followed by Q&A with director Carvin Eison.

The shrouded history of lynching in America is the subject of a powerful new documentary from producer/director Carvin Eison. During the late 19th and much of the 20th century, countless numbers of African-Americans were murdered at the end of a rope. In the age of Obama, have we reconciled this misshapen history or does its legacy live on? “Let sleeping dogs lie…” is a way of saying leave that certain thing alone, it could hurt you. Shadows of the Lynching Tree kicks the sleeping dog and awakens a troublesome past. The dog is awake, will we finally confront the beast or does it return to an uneasy slumber?

7 pm: Youssou N’Dour: Return to Gorée (2006; Senegal, France, Switzerland; 108 minutes)

A musical road movie, Youssou N’Dour: Return to Gorée follows Senegalese singer Youssou N’Dour’s historical journey tracing the trail left by slaves and the jazz music they created. Youssou N’Dour’s challenge is to bring back to Africa a jazz repertoire of his own songs to perform a concert in Gorée, the island that today symbolizes the slave trade and stands to honor its victims. Directed by Pierre-Yves Borgeaud.

Sunday, January 16

3 pm: African Leaders Program

Frantz Fanon: His Life, His Struggle, His Work (2001; France, Algeria, Martinique; 52 minutes)

Frantz Fanon was a psychiatrist, originally from Martinique, who became a spokesman for the Algerian revolution against French colonialism. Embittered by his experience with racism in the French Army, he gravitated to radical politics, Sartrean existentialism and the philosophy of black consciousness known as negritude. His 1952 book, Black Skin, White Masks, offers a penetrating analysis of racism and of the ways in which it is internalized by its victims. While secretly aiding the rebels of the Algerian anti-colonial war as a doctor in Algeria, Fanon cared for victims and perpetrators alike, producing case notes that shed invaluable light on the psychic traumas of colonial war. Expelled from Algeria in 1956, Fanon moved to Tunis where he wrote for El Moudjahid, the rebel newspaper, founded Africa’s first psychiatric clinic, and wrote several influential books on decolonization. The film traces the short and intense life of one of the great thinkers of the 20th century. Directed by Cheikh Djemai.

Followed by Amilcar Cabral (2001; Cape Verde, Portugal; 52 minutes)

Amilcar Cabral was the leader of the Liberation Movement of Cape Verde and Guinea Bissau and the founder of the African Party for the Independence of Guinea Bissau and Cape Verde (PAIGC). He was born in Guinea in 1924 and assassinated in Conakry in 1973. Regarded as a true icon of African history, this documentary provides considerable background to this revolutionary giant and reveals Cabral in several dimensions: as a man, a father, politician, humanist and poet. The documentary is skillfully produced and uses a wealth of rare archive footage, balanced inclusion of varied testimonies of important African personalities and the credible recreation of notable episodes of Cabral’s life. Directed by Ana Ramos Lisboa.

5:30 pm: Aleijadinho: Passion, Torment and Glory (2001; Brazil; 100 minutes)

Set in 19th century Brazil at a time when slavery was still at the foundation of the Latin American economy, this fascinating historical drama is loosely based on the life of sculptor Antonio Francisco Lisboa (“Aleijadinho”), one of Latin America’s greatest sculptors. Directed by Geraldo Santos Pereira.

Followed by reception for launching of the 2-DVD set: Race and History in Brazil, sponsored by ArtMattan Films (copies will be available for sale).

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