Our Archive Since 2006
John Akomfrah
John Akomfrah was born in Ghana, He is an award winning director whose list of credits include the mesmerising biography THE WONDERFUL WORLD OF LOUIS ARMSTRONG and a celebratory portrait MARTIN LUTHER KING – DAYS OF HOPE. His first film HANDSWORTH SONGS was awarded the prestigious British Film Institute Grierson Award for Best Documentary Film in 1987. He has produced a wide range of innovative work which is considered to be some of the most distinctive and exciting to be produced in British film culture over the last 20 years. John’s feature film work includes the critically acclaimed TESTAMENT, a film about African exile set in Ghana. This was followed by WHO NEEDS A HEART, a film set during London’s swinging 1960s. In 1998 John made SPEAK LIKE A CHILD, a story of three old friends with a shared secret of a murderous past. John Akomfrah is a Governor of the British Film Institute.
HANSWORTH SONGS
(60 min., 1986) John Akomfrah (Ghana/UK)
A film essay on 'race' and 'civil disorder’ - 1980s Britain and the riots of 1985.
Awarded: Grand Prize, Kaleidoscope International Film Festival, Stockholm; Prix Paul Robeson Prize for Cinema, FESPACO Film Festival, Burkina Faso, 1987; Social Issues Prize, Barbara Myerhoff Film Festival (Anthropos) - Los Angeles, 1987; Pascoe McFarlane Memorial Award, London, 1987; British Film Institute John Grierson Award for Social Documentary, 1987; The Documentary Award, National Black Programming Consortium, Ohio, 1987; The Kodak International Newcomers Award, 1987. Screening
Saturday 2nd at the openning evening, at 6.00 pm.
And Tuesday 5th at the Goethe Institute at 9.00pm.
RIOTS
(50 min., 1999) John Akomfrah (Ghana/UK)
Untold Season history documentary on the Toxteth riots of 1981, the most violent civil disturbance in Britain in the 20th century. Awarded: Dazzling Digital Award, Seoul International Film Festival, 2000 Screening, Monday 4th at Gama Executive Theater, at 7.30 pm
SEVEN SONGS FOR MALCOLM X
(52 min., 1993) John Akomfrah (UK)
The collective's seventh film envisioned the death and life of the African American revolutionary as a study in iconography as narrated by novelist Toni Cade Bambara and actor Giancarlo Espesito. The seven stylized tableaux that memorialise Malcolm's life referenced the early 20th-century funeral photography of James Van der Zee's The Harlem Book of the Dead and the elemental, static cinematography of Sergei Paradjanov's The Colour of Pomegranates.
Screening at the High School Program.
St. Clair Bourne:
Producer | Director | Writer
As head of his production company Chamba Mediaworks, Inc., producer/ director/writer St.Clair Bourne has made more than 45 films concentrating on cultural and political themes, a focus he continues to explore. He has produced a feature-length documentary HALF PAST AUTUMN: THE LIFE AND WORKS OF GORDON PARKS about the photo-journalist and filmmaker for HBO. The film has been nominated for three EMMYS (Best Picture, Best Editing and Best Cinematography). With actor Wesley Snipes as executive producer, Bourne directed JOHN HENRIK CLARKE: A GREAT AND MIGHTY WALK, a feature length documentary about the respected historian and Pan-African activist. Bourne then directed PAUL ROBESON: HERE I STAND!, a 2- hour documentary for the "American Masters" PBS series.
Bourne is shooting a documentary series on the rise, fall and legacy of the Black Panther Party for the PBS network and most recently started shooting a doc about Memphis-based veteran photographer ERNEST WITHERS whose work includes the assassination photos of Martin Luther King.
Other past productions include MAKING "DO THE RIGHT THING. Bourne produced and directed IN MOTION: AMIRI BARAKA, a portrait of the activist writer; LANGSTON HUGHES: THE DREAM KEEPER, a narrative performance documentary for the PBS Voices And Visions series and films for the National Geographic Society's "Explorer" TV series.
St.Clair Bourne began his career in American public television and was the youngest staff producer for the public affairs series BLACK JOURNAL during the year it won the EMMY. He received the John Russworm Citation for "excellence in broadcasting". Bourne's break with traditional television journalism and his move toward more narrative films started with LET THE CHURCH SAY AMEN!, which chronicled the maiden voyage into the secular world by a young minister. He made his entrance into theatrical feature films as the co-producer of THE LONG NIGHT which premiered at New York's Museum Of Modern Art's "New Directors, New Films" series.
In addition to his own projects, St.Clair Bourne has been the Executive Producer for four documentary films. He has designed and taught film courses at Cornell University and CCNY-Queens College, served as Guest Lecturer at UCLA's Film Department and Yale University. He has given film-making seminars at various universities and media art centers.
Bourne is the founder of the LA-based Black Association of Documentary Filmmakers-West as well as the Black Documentary Collective, a New York-based documentary service organization. Bourne has received Lifetime Achievement awards from the National Black Program Consortium and, along with Sidney Lumet, from the Director’s View Film Festival. He has been the subject of retrospectives at the Whitney Museum of Art in New York City, the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. and at the Cineclube Estacao in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil.
ST.CLAIR BOURNE’S PROGRAM
NEW ORLEANS BRASS (25 minutes)
A documentary about the New Orleans music scene and in particular the street brass band. The development of this music is intricately connected to the social, political and racial changes in the most fascinating city in the United States.
Screenings: Sunday 3rd at Gama Executive Theater, at 6.30 pm
THE BLACK WEST (25 min.)
The Old West of the U.S. remains one of the most “romanticized” periods of American history. Few periods of American history have suffered from a more inaccurate portrayal, and African-American participation in that history is almost always ignored. This film will help viewers discover a more realistic Old West, learn some of the contributions of African-American men and women to that history and witness some traditions that live on.
Screening: Monday 4th at NAFTI, during the workshop
MAKING "DO THE RIGHT THING"
(60-min.)
The film captures the people, places and incidents, during the making of the controversial feature film by Spike Lee. This entertaining film provides answers to political and cultural questions raised in the feature film, explains the artistic decisions made by Spike Lee and overall, tells an entertain-ing and informative story of the making of a major motion picture.
