Africa's Love of Cinema pt 4

FESPACO opens with great fanfare. Fireworks, dancers and a stadium full of people. This is a big deal. It's Sundance and Cannes but for Black cinema. Amazing at how much they love film. In the center of the city is a huge sculpture of film reels and statues of different great African filmmakers like Ousmane Sembene and Gaston Kabore. Nice.

The most prestigious award at FESPACO is the "Étalon de Yennenga" (Stallion of Yennenga) named after a woman!

In one of the poorest countries in the world the people are celebrating film. It's interesting and inspiring that Africans love their cinema so much. The key word is their cinema and there's lots of it and much of it great. It's both interesting and inspiring. This really puts the

African-American cinema into perspective. We love Tyler Perry and that's fine, but that's like the Nollywood films, they make the most money but there is another level of filmmaking. By promoting TP and Nollywood you don't encourage people to grow. It sticks with the same formula over and over again. There is room for many other images and stories.

The Africans love to tell, hear and see stories about themselves in a way that is totally different from the African-American. The griot spirit is alive and well in their films. People line up for films like

it's super lottery. Everyone is very orderly and pleasant, no pushing, no arguments. Here's another thing these young Black men are not gang banging, killing each other but are challenging each other's film skills. There are cine-clubs that distribute film all over the country. Many of these clubs have film teams (gangs) of young people that are learning to and making films. When they shoot at each other or have drive-by shootings, it has a totally different meaning.

Here's something else different about the cinema experience here. After the films they discuss the film and it's theme. Audiences participate in discussions after the films, not just at the festival but at their neighborhood outdoor theatres. One young man told me if you want to prove to a girl that you are a proper young man and respectable, the first place you take her is to the cinema, the second date you can go to the restaurant, but the cinema is first, to prove you're worthy.

Flight to Ouaga Part 2

Sitting in Charles deGaulle Airport in Paris I realize just how much diversity there is in the world that we miss at home. We often call the US a melting pot and now I get it. We melt all the individuality and uniqueness of people into the same white bread American. People are basically told, verbally or otherwise, to be American. Anglosize your culture and we'll add some of your recipes or spices to our melting pot. I love colour and all these beautiful colours had me at hello. Even the adverts are beautiful and diverse.

In this airport I see REAL Buddist monks, Sri Lankans, Indians, all types of African and Asians proudly wearing their native dress. It's all so colourful, with a little French flare thrown in, but not enough to loose their own identity. At O'Hare Airport all I saw was a nun in a short veil, and yes, I of course spoke to her. "Hello Sister" in my most Catholic girl voice. She was pleasantly surprised and smiled, "Why hello Dear" She knew I'd gone to Catholic school by the way I addressed her, and she was proud!

Three of my friends met me at the airport and we had a great time, We drank,laughed, exchanged stories and looked at pics of our families, icluding all the new editions. The four of us were having so much fun we forgot about time and the flight. Oops!I get to the gate just as they were boarding... But wait IS this the right flight? I'm suppose to go to Africa. Where are the Africans? The flight is full but it's 95% white! Going to Ouagadougou? Are they all going to FESPACO? Hmm.. one of the reasons I'm so confused is that there are categories at FESPACO that can only be won if the director is Black. This should be interesting.

This is definitely the party plane. Two hours into the five hour flight people are standing up talking and pouring their own drinks! I love the sound of French, it sounds like swearing only cooler. We're not in Kansas anymore. I'm partying too, listening to Kanye, Nina Simone and Frank Sinatra...

Landing in Ouaga was not so smooth as the ride. We hit the ground so hard my butt still hurts. The stewardesses had a frightened look on their faces, but when it was clear that we were safe, the whole plane broke in to spontaneous cheers and applause. TIA

Relax, don't do it! Part 3

Get to the hotel? Wait, this is not the fabulous Hotel Independence online, this the, what? RELAX Hotel? Really? Like, "Relax, don't do it?" Oh boy. Okay whatever. I've hooked Michael & Calvin up, thru friends with a place to stay. They end up at a fabulous private home complete with their own apartment, maids, cooks, guards and driver....and I end up RELAX-ed.

Since the official opening of FESPACO is not until Saturday night we hang out around town. Michael & Calvin did stand in line for 4 hours to pick up my badge. (Hey, they have a driver!)

That's another thing, there is no transportation to and from FESPACO as promised. Good Luck.

The lineup for the festival is still being decided so some of the competitions (like ours-Diaspora) are kind of pasted in the book. At least we're there... What!? This can't be right. DuSable to Obama is in competition against one of my favourite filmmakers? RAOUL PECK! Wow. Are you kidding? I'm speechless.

I love Raoul Peck. Both his documentary and later his film on Lumumba are absolute MUST sees. His Sometimes in April makes Hotel Rwanda look like, well, Disney.

I need a drink, but not at the Relax. This hotel makes Hotel Rwanda look like a Disney resort. But I dont want to seem like the ugly American and complain about accommodations being sub par. Plus the guy in charge of travel & accommodations doesn't like me because of all the changes and questions I had.

When I was first notified about the film being accepted they only provided for 1 producer and I informed them that both of us were coming. That caused some scrambling, but it was okay, for a while. Later I had to tell them that the other producer would NOT be coming afterall. It was at this point that things got a little strained and it went downhill from there, with all the

ticket business etc. So this Guy was not feeling me and I end up at the lowest end hotel in the festival. If this were the States you'd rent this room by the hour. Oh yeah and those infamous 'meal tickets' I haven't seen them yet.

We go out partying at this great club. The music is hot! Oooh there goes that diversity thing

again. Music is a mixture of American, African and Arabic. The two DJ's working together, an African and Arab (North African), have the place rocking! I'm loving this and feel at home, especially when I'm slightly hung the next morning.

I meet a really cool European mother/daughter duo at RELAX 'there's lizards in my room'

Hotel and it's 4:20. The mother writes about film etc and lives in/works for Oxford in England. The daughter is a magazine/book editor in Amsterdam. (I'm hungry. Are you guys hungry?) They are a riot, they're best friends and travel together a lot. This is the mother's 7th FESPACO and they both LOVE Chicago! (Ooh I'd love a donut right now) They ask me if it's true or just insane rumour that professors and students will be allowed to carry guns on the university campus? And asks if it wouldn't be safer if no one on campus carried a gun at all. I have no answers.

They were very please to find out I was the filmmaker of one of the films that's on their 'to see' list. Cool, here, have a poster.

They start telling me about 'Doctors Without Trace'. A termed used for white workers (not just doctors) who come to work in Africa and have a relationship and children with an African woman and when the job is done they leave the women and children there, never to be heard from again. So they are referred to as 'Doctors Without Trace'. Hmm, there's a great story in there: When the 'first world' comes to help the 'third world' what is really left behind...

'Morning Due,' the next edition.

Colonize your mind--PLEASE! part 1

First let me apologize to "the MAN." I have been blaming you for all that was wrong with my peeps and the under-development of Africa. You do, of course, deserve some blame. After all you did pillage and plunder the continent for centuries, then leaving the people in disarray, confused, fighting and severely psychologically damaged. But that was then...

This is now... A continent ravaged in war, run by cruel leaders and dictators who pillage their own countries and share none of the wealth with their people (hmm sounds like today's USA), still living in a time long gone by and unable to get even the simplest of tasks done.

I had, what I thought, was the great fortune of being accepted in competition at the FESPACO Film Festival. FESPACO is 'Festival Pan African du Cinema et de Television de Ouagadougou' at 42 years it is one of the world's oldest film festivals. Often referred to as 'the African Oscars' or the Cannes (as in film fest) of Africa, 'AfriCannes', it is the biggest festival on the continent. It takes place in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso (the former French colony, Upper Volta) in WestAfrica.

The festival only happens every other year so you would think they'd have it down to a science, 'you would think.' Well, as they say, "TIA" or This IS Africa, & organization is the one thing that does not exist.

Unfortunately, of all the habits left over from colonization, this was not one of them, neither was an awareness of time. I know, I know, you're saying but people of colour are always on 'CP time.' Africa time is something else. My business partner, Michael, put it best, "CP time is an improvement of Africa time" and he's Jamaican! "Soon come."

For several years I have been trying to get into Fespaco. I tried with my documentary, Paper Trail: 100 years of the Chicago Defender. I sent in the necessary paper work but was told, too late, that it had to come thru the American arm.

I tried two years later with my short film, Morning Due, sending it to the American arm, but was told, too late, that they had a new sheriff in charge of Fespaco and were not using the American arm anymore. Alrighty then.

So out of habit, (honestly, I don't even remember filling out the paper work) I submitted my latest documentary DuSable to Obama: Chicago's Black Metropolis. And voila, it's accepted! (Must have been the French name 'DuSable'.) You can imagine my joy when receiving a letter that said not only was the film accepted in competition, but that they would provide airfare, food and lodging. Hooray, hooray!

Naturally, I send in everything they tell me to: PAL copies of film, posters, pictures, etc. etc., in a timely manner. Oh, they are asking for it again? But I already... hmm, I'll just remind them that they have it, and I'll take extra copies with me, just in case.

Okay so there I am singing, "I'm going to Africa! I'm going to Africa!" Whoa, not so fast Missy. You have to get your ticket first. Not a problem, they're sending it;-) But when? I send email after email, then I start calling, then I start calling with a French interpreter. It's getting closer to the time I am to leave. Now several friends call on other friends in Ouagadougou to go to the Fespaco offices. 'It's coming, it's coming right away" they tell them. Now it's the week before I am to leave and still no ticket.

We all begin to worry. Three sleepless days of calling, writing, disappointment and it's two days before I should leave. Michael and Calvin have left already, but I'm sure I'll meet them there, I think... And bam! my itinerary arrives. (It's scheduled on the wrong day and my name is backwards, but that can be easily corrected). For joy, for joy, that is, until I call Air France and find out my ticket has been booked but not paid for. WTF!!

Back to the phone calls, emails, fears and tears. It's now 4 hours before I'm suppose to leave, I'm packed but I have no ticket. My friend, Rakina, who has been helping thru her contacts in Burkina, now also leaves for Fespaco. She wishes me luck and tells me everything will work out. I keep checking for that email and finally 2.5 hours before my flight the email comes. (no more 'for joy', I've lost all excitement and confidence in the process)

I call Air France and miraculously just minutes ago the ticket was re-booked and PAID for, now with an 8 hour lay over at Charles de Gaulle in Paris, and if I get there within the next hour I can

make the flight. Zak whisks me off to the airport. (He never needs an excuse to drive like a madman) I make my flight and I'm on my way to Paris, more from Paris later...

Now back to "the MAN." If you had to leave all your colonial baggage for the African people to sort through, why couldn't you at least leave a few of your more positive things. (Yes, I hate to

admit it but, sigh, you do have some positive qualities--there I said it.) Like organization, efficiency and punctuality and... um, hmm --clears throat-- well I'm sure there are others, I just can't think of any more right now. Anyway I would settle for those three!

I've got it! Since they are all French anyway, maybe the Cannes Film Festival could colonize Fespaco.

Frank Sinatra's Black History Month

I kept thinking I should blog for Black History Month. After spending the past year and a half on Black History as I produced and promoted the documentary 'DuSable to Obama; Chicago's Black Metropolis" I have become enamored with the history I never knew.
So tonight I woke up from a strange dream and couldn't sleep, so I naturally picked up a book about Frank Sinatra. Everyone knows I love him, ever since I was a kid playing my mother's old records. She was always amazed when she'd come home from work to see that I have found those old records she'd put away. Maybe she was amazed that I was a Sinatra fan too!

What a generous person he was. Yeah, yeah I know he was somewhat of a thug, but who wasn't back then. We all know about that, but you never hear about all the things he did for civil rights and racial equality. In the 1940’s Sinatra was branded a ‘Red’, cause he was one of the first major stars to speak for the poor and the oppressed. He risked his popularity in 1945 to challenge the status quo and campaign against racial intolerance, intervening in a series of racist strikes at schools where parents opposed integration.

He did a 12 min documentary film in 1946 called 'The House I Live' where he gathers Whites who are fighting Blacks and sings the tune, 'The House I Live In, A Part of Earth, The Street.' (Yes I've seen it.) The movie showcased Sinatra's position on peace among races, social tolerance and family values. Duke Ellington called him 'a primo non-conformist'.

He opened up doors of opportunity for his Black friends in show business; Sammy Davis Jr., Nat King Cole, Lena Home, Ella Fitzgerald (his favorite singer),Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong and Diahann Carroll. He wouldn't go in a hotel where Blacks couldn't stay or  entertain. He would never perform before a segregated audience, ever.

Sinatra was heavily influenced by Black performers, and unlike other White performers, he always gave credit to them. He said, "Billie Holiday, whom I first heard in 52nd Street clubs (in New York City) in the early 1930s, was and still remains, the greatest single musical influence on me."

He once took Lena Horne to the Stork Club and they didn't allow Blacks. So the manager fumbled around, pretended to look at the reservation book, and obviously, they weren't going to seat her. The manager said to him, `Mr. Sinatra, who made your reservation? We don't seem to have it.' And Sinatra said, `President Abraham Lincoln.' Bee-yatch!
(I added the bee-yatch part;-)



He also integrated Las Vegas, for real! No more back door entrances for Lena, Ella, Sammy etc. Sinatra would not play in a hotel there unless Black entertainers could have the same
facilities and go through the same entrances. In his personally written article in 1958 for Ebony Magazine, "The Way I Look At Race" (July 1958), Sinatra protested the use of racial slurs and called bigotry a disease. He said , "My friendships were formed out of affection, mutual respect and a feeling of having something strong in common. These are eternal values that cannot be racially classified. This is the way I look at race."

He also gave generously of his time and money to help Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s Civil Rights Movement in the '50s and '60s. Jesse Jackson Sr. has said "In the '60s at the height of our rebellion against apartheid in the South, when we were facing beatings, murders, abuse and governors blocking school doors, Dr. King reached for voices of the culture that would speak out and stand with us." Jackson remembers, "Frank Sinatra came South, along with Sammy Davis Jr. and Harry Belafonte. His presence was a huge international statement. It allowed the best of people to stand up and change the worst of people..


He an even did a Rat Pack benefit for Dr. MLK in 1961!

In 1960 Wilberforce University gave him an honorary Doctorate in Humanities degree for his practice of true democracy.
Sinatra said 'Professionally and musically I cannot begin to evaluate the tremendous importance of Negro singers and musicians to my development as a singer. The debt I owe them is too immense ever to be repaid. It has been much more than a long association. I have been on the receiving end of inspiration from a succesion of great Negro singers and jazz artist..."

So....

Happy Black History Month from Ol' Blue Eyes
The Chairman of the Board;-)