January 11, 2017
Scott Whelden
Tel: 808-532-8719
Email: swhelden@honolulumuseum.org
WHAT:
Honolulu African American Film Festival
WHEN: Feb. 4-17, 2016
TICKETS:
Regular screenings: $10, $8 museum members. Free for kids 17 and under.
INFO: 532-6097, mailto:ddt@honolulumuseum.org, www.honolulumuseum.org (publishable)
High-res
images available on request
HONOLULU, HAWAI‘I—The sixth annual Honolulu African American Film Festival kicks off Feb. 4 and features a series of award winning documentaries and Julie Dash’s critically acclaimed 1991 film Daughters of the Dust. This year, in addition to a stellar lineup of films, the festival aligns with live concerts, a hip-hop education workshop, the museum’s textile exhibition Karen Hampton: The Journey North, and a discussion led by Patrisse Cullors and Alicia Garza, two of the three co-founders of the national movement #BlackLivesMatter.
Artist, organizer, and Fulbright scholar, Cullors was named “Civil Rights Leader for the 21st Century” by the Los Angeles Times. An organizer and writer, Garza was included in the Root 100 list of African American achievers and influencers between the ages of 25 and 45. The two women, with Opal Tometi, co-founded the global movement Black Lives Matter in response to the acquittal of George Zimmerman in 2013. On Saturday, Feb. 11, Cullors and Garza speak at Doris Duke Theatre about art and racial justice, and their experience in using art for social change, and how art enhanced #BlackLivesMatter.
“As one of the most significant movements of our times, #BlackLivesMatter has inspired widespread dialogue on racial equality that cannot be ignored, particularly in the arts,” says theater director Taylour Chang. “The museum and the Honolulu African American Film Festival committee are excited to welcome Patrisse and Alicia to facilitate conversation about the role art plays in racial justice and social change. We are proud to provide a space for conversations about art and racial justice in order to bridge understanding and cultivate healthy dialogue within the community.”
“We are pleased to have the founders of #BlackLivesMatter—a movement that has brought to light the killings of Black men and women by police under questionable circumstances—present at the Honolulu African American film festival to discuss social change, protests, and activism in art,” says festival committee member and attorney Daphne Barbee-Wooten. “Art—through books, spoken words, music, paintings, murals and films—has the ability to reach a wide, diverse audience, and it can be used to educate the public on issues like social justice reform. By pairing the film I Am Not Your Negro with the discussion by Ms. Cullors and Ms. Garza, we open the discussion about the need for social change in our justice system."
On screen is a selection of films that have no shortage of critical acclaim. Entertainment Weekly calls 13th “a titanic statement by a major American voice. Viewing—right now—should be mandatory. While the New York Times’ Manohla Dargis proclaimed Raoul Peck’s I Am Not Your Negro “one of the best films you’re likely to see” in 2016.
When Julie Dash’s Daughters of the Dust was released in 1991, it was met with critical acclaim, and it is still having an impact today, most recently on Beyonce’s video album Lemonade. The success of the film, which was the first wide release by a black female filmmaker, should have been the start of a storied career for Dash, but, not for lack of trying, she still struggled to get her foot in the door of any major Hollywood studios. Now Daughters of the Dust has been restored for the first time with proper color grading, and audiences can finally see the film as Dash intended.
Closing out the festival is the one-woman play Harriet Returns: Based on the Legendary Life of Harriet Tubman, starring Karen Jones Meadows. Audiences can see the life of the Underground Railroad conductor chronicled on stage, from Tubman’s childhood spent in slavery to heartbroken pragmatist.
Another program affiliated with the festival is Soundshop, the museum's hip hop beat making and lyric writing workshop. On Feb. 23 curator of textiles Sara Oka introduces students from Farrington High School to the exhibition Karen Hampton: The Journey North, which students will use as their creative inspiration.
The festival is made possible by the support of the ACLU of Hawai‘i Foundation, Hawai‘i Chapter Links Incorporated, and the African-American Lawyers Association, the National Association of the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) Hawai‘i Chapter, Sisters Empowering Hawai‘i, Hawai'i Council for the Humanities, Blacks in Government, Dwight Witlarge, Sandra and Hank Simms, Pacific Tongues, and Hawai‘i Women in Filmmaking.
Rounding out the month is the series Women in Film screening Feb. 18 to 22. The program includes two New York Times Critics' Picks and a critically acclaimed documentary that all feature women in front of and behind the camera.
Full Schedule
Opening-night reception: Saturday, Feb. 4 at 6 p.m.
$35 general admission, $30 museum members
Guests can enjoy good music, good wine, good food and good
company in celebration of the legendary singer,
dancer, activist, poet, and writer Maya Angelou. During the reception, Karen Hampton: The Journey North will be
open for view. At 6:30 p.m. and 7 p.m., take a gallery tour and see youth poets
perform spoken word pieces in. reaction to the exhibition. Maya Angelou: And Still I Rise
screens at 7:30 p.m.
Special thanks to Pacific Tongues.
Read the New York Times review.
Maya Angelou: And
Still I Rise
Directed by Bob
Hercules and Rita Coburn Whack. USA. 2016. 114 min.
Saturday, Feb. 4 at
7:30 p.m.
Sunday, Feb. 5 at 4
p.m.
This film—the first documentary
about the incomparable Maya Angelou—is an intimate, moving tribute. Referred to
as “a redwood tree, with deep roots in American culture,” Angelou gave people
the freedom to think about their history in a way they never had before. She
was a singer, dancer, activist, poet, and writer who inspired generations with
lyrical, modern African-American thought that pushed boundaries. This
unprecedented film weaves her words with rare archival photographs and videos,
which paint hidden moments of her exuberant life during some of America’s most
defining moments. From her upbringing in the Depression-era South to her work
with Malcolm X in Ghana to her inaugural poem for President Bill Clinton, the
film depicts the life of an American icon. Friends and family interviewed in
the film include President Bill Clinton, Oprah Winfrey, Common, Alfre Woodard,
Cicely Tyson, Quincy Jones, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, John Singleton
and Dr. Angelou’s son, Guy Johnson.
Miss Sharon Jones!
Directed by Barbara
Kopple. USA. 2016. 93 min.
Sunday, Feb. 5 at 1
p.m. + 7:30 p.m.
Sharon Jones says she was told she was “too short, too fat,
too black and too old” to be a performer. The powerhouse soul singer finally
began to find her place in the spotlight when she was in her 40s, after joining
the Brooklyn band the Dap-Kings. The group enjoyed success with rousing hits
such as “100 Days, 100 Nights.” Then, on the eve of the release of her last
album, Jones was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. Tour dates were cancelled,
the album pushed back and she began a fight for her life and career. Miss Sharon Jones! intimately follows a
courageous year in the singer’s life. Tragically, the shimmying firecracker was
extinguished in November.
Daughters of the Dust
Directed by Julie
Dash. USA. 1991. 113 min.
Friday, Feb. 10 at 1
p.m. + 7:30 p.m.
At the dawn of the 20th century, a multigenerational Gullah family—part
of the community on the Sea Islands off the Southeastern United States—struggles
to maintain its cultural heritage and folklore while contemplating heading
north as part of the Great Migration. Gullah are descended from former slaves
who adopted many of their West African ancestors’ Yoruba traditions.
The first wide release by a black female filmmaker, Daughters of the Dust was met with wild critical acclaim and rapturous audience response when it initially opened in 1991. Casting a long legacy, Daughters of the Dust still resonates today, most recently as a major influence on Beyonce’s video album Lemonade. Restored (in conjunction with UCLA) for the first time with proper color grading overseen by cinematographer AJ Jafa, audiences will finally see the film as Julie Dash intended.
Read the New Yorker review.
Art & Racial
Justice: Conversation with Patrisse Cullors and Alicia Garza,
Co-founders of Black Lives Matter
Saturday, Feb. 11 at 1 p.m.
$20 general admission, $15 museum members and
students
Black Lives Matter co-founder
Patrisse Cullors shares her experience in using art for social change,
addressing how art enhanced the national movement of Black Lives Matter. The
talk will beis followed by the Hawai‘i premiere of the James Baldwin
documentary I Am Not Your Negro. At 5
p.m., continue the conversation and join us for a welcome reception for
Patrisse Cullors. Tickets include pūpū. Drinks will be available for purchase.
Patrisse Cullors is an artist, organizer, and freedom fighter from Los Angeles. Co-founder of Black Lives Matter, she is also a performance artist, Fulbright scholar, popular public speaker, and a 2015 NAACP History Maker. She’s received many awards for activism and movement building, including being named by the Los Angeles Times as a Civil Rights Leader for the 21st Century. In the summer of 2013, fueled by the acquittal granted to George Zimmerman after his murder of Trayvon Martin, Patrisse co-founded a global movement with a hashtag. Black Lives Matter is now an international organization with dozens of chapters and thousands of determined activists fighting anti-Black racism worldwide. Google awarded Patrisse with their Racial Justice Grant to support her ongoing Ella Baker Center project developing a rapid response network that will mobilize communities to respond radically to law enforcement violence, the Justice Teams for Truth and Reinvestment.
Alicia Garza is an organizer, writer, and freedom dreamer living and working in Oakland, CA. She is the Special Projects Director for the National Domestic Workers Alliance, the nation’s leading voice for dignity and fairness for the millions of domestic workers in the United States, most of whom are women. She is also the co-creator of #BlackLivesMatter, a national organizing project focused on combatting anti-Black state sanctioned violence. Alicia's work challenges us to celebrate the contributions of Black queer women's work within popular narratives of Black movements, and reminds us that the Black radical tradition is long, complex and international. Her activism reflects organizational strategies and visions that connect emerging social movements without diminishing the specificity of the structural violence facing Black lives. She has been the recipient of numerous awards for her organizing work, including the Root 100 2015 list of African American achievers and influencers between the ages of 25 and 45, and was featured in the Politico 50 guide to the thinkers, doers and visionaries transforming American politics in 2015.
I Am Not Your Negro
Directed by Raoul
Peck. USA. 2016. 95 min.
In 1979, James Baldwin wrote a letter to his literary agent
describing his next project, Remember
This House. The book was to be a revolutionary, personal account of the
lives and successive assassinations of three of his close friends—Medgar Evers,
Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, Jr. Baldwin died in 1987, leaving behind only
30 completed pages of his manuscript. Now, in his incendiary new documentary,
master filmmaker Raoul Peck envisions the book James Baldwin never finished.
13th
Directed by Ava
Duvernay, USA. 2016. 100 min.
Sunday, Feb. 12 at 7
p.m.
Free
The new documentary from Ava Duvernay (Selma) takes its title from the Thirteenth Amendment to the United
States Constitution, which outlawed slavery. Duvernay gives us an in-depth look
at the prison system in the United States and how it reveals the nation's
history of racial inequality.
Audiences can join a post-screening discussion with Patrisse Cullors, co-founder of #BlackLivesMatter and executive director of Dignity & Empower Now. The panel will focus on issues of incarceration in United States and Hawaiʻi. Full list of panelists to be announced.
Read the New York Times review.
Harriet Returns: Based on the Legendary Life of Harriet Tubman
Friday, Feb. 17 at
7:30 p.m.
$35 general admission,
$30 museum members
This joyous, heart-stopping one-woman play chronicles the
life of Harriet Tubman, revealing why the famed Underground Railroad conductor
continues to influence people 103 years after her death. In a tour-de-force
performance, Karen Jones Meadows plays 31 characters re-creating the world of
this spiritual icon, revolutionary, and entrepreneur, from her childhood spent
in slavery to heartbroken pragmatist.
Also in February
Women in Film
Feb. 18-28
Audiences can see great films by and about women as the
museum kicks off a year-long partnership with Hawai‘i Women in Filmmaking. The
program includes films that feature women in front of and behind the screen
that showcase a common perspective from around the globe.
Special thanks to community partner Hawai‘i Women in Filmmaking.
The Fits
Directed by Anna Rose
Holmer. USA. 2015. 82 min.
Saturday, Feb. 18 at
1 p.m.
Tuesday, Feb. 21 at
7:30 p.m.
Wednesday, Feb. 22 at
1 p.m.
This New York Times
Critics’ Pick is an artful psychological portrait of 11-year-old Toni, a tomboy
assimilating to a tight-knit dance team in Cincinnati’s West End. The title
role is played by Royalty Hightower, the buzzed-about breakout star whom
director Anna Rose Holmer discovered through YouTube videos of Hightower’s
real-life dance team Q-Kidz. Enamored by the power and confidence of this
strong community of girls, Toni eagerly absorbs routines, masters drills, and
even pierces her own ears to fit in. When a mysterious outbreak of fainting
spells plagues the team, Toni’s desire for acceptance is twisted.
Read the New York Times review.
Sonita
Directed by Rokhsareh
Ghaem Maghami. Germany/Switzerland/Iran. 2015. 91 min.
Saturday, Feb. 18 at
4 p.m.
Sunday, Feb. 19 at
7:30 p.m.
In this inspirational documentary, an undocumented teenage
Afghan refugee in Iran goes from timid rapper to empowered activist. If 18-year-old
Sonita had a say in things, Michael Jackson would be her father and Rihanna her
mother. Living in a Tehran shelter, she superimposes her face on magazine
cutouts of Rihanna in a scrapbook and raps about life as a teen in a sexist society.
Her family has a different plans for her: as a bride Sonita is worth $9,000.
What's more, women aren't allowed to sing in Iran. Director Rokhsareh Ghaem
Maghami ends up personally involved in her subject’s life, reigniting the
discussion of the always evolving role of a documentary filmmaker. At the
film's core is Sonita artistically arguing against the disastrous forced
marriage practices that obstruct her freedom in an impressive, dramatic rap
video.
Read the Guardian review.
The Eagle Huntress
Directed by Otto Bell.
USA. 2016. 101 min.
Saturday, Feb. 18 at
7:30 p.m.
Sunday, Feb. 19 at 4
p.m.
Tuesday, Feb. 21 at 1 p.m.
Wednesday, Feb. 22 at 7:30 p.m.
Living on the Mongolian steppe in Kazakhstan, 13-year-old Aisholpan trains to become her family’s
first female eagle hunter in this New
York Times Critics’ Pick. And she rises to the pinnacle of a tradition that
has been handed down from father to son for 12 generations. Featuring some of
the most awe-inspiring cinematography ever captured in a documentary, this
intimate tale of a young girl’s quest has the dramatic force of an epic
narrative film.
Read the New York Times review.
Ron Artis II
Friday, Feb. 3 at
7:30 p.m.
$25 general admission,
$20 museum members
Raised on the North Shore in a musical family, Ron Artis II is
one a performer that makes one think “Why isn’t he world famous?” after seeing
him on the stage. He has recorded almost every genre of music—from rock and
blues to jazz and flamenco. Ron has enjoyed music since before he could walk,
crawling across his father’s piano at age one. Today he loves to create new
songs on the spot during his concerts—part of his belief that “music is meant
to be lived, as life is meant to be lived." Ron has never been signed to a
music label, preferring to be able to create and share the most pure music
possible. His music can be found at his homepage
or at any of his concerts.
Joining him at this special show will be Forseeable Futures
The Salesman
Directed by Asghar
Farhadi. Iran/France. 2017. 125 min. Persian with English subtitles.
Wednesday, Feb. 1 at
1 p.m. + 7:30 p.m.
Thursday, Feb. 2 at 1
p.m. + 7:30 p.m.
Oscar-winning director Asghar Farhadi’s latest was one of
the most highly anticipated films at the Cannes Film Festival, where it won
Best Actor and Best Screenplay awards. It tells the story of a young Tehran
couple who are amateur actors in a production of Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman. When their Tehran flat is
damaged, Emad (Shahab Hosseini) and Rana (Taraneh Alidoosti) are forced to move
into a new apartment. An incident linked to the previous tenant of their new
home dramatically changes the couple’s life.
See the trailer
2017 Oscar® Nominated Short Films
Audiences can see the best in shorts from around the world before the 89th Academy Awards.
2017 Oscar® Nominated Short Films: Documentary
Monday, Feb. 13 at 7 p.m.
Monday, Feb. 20 at 7 p.m.
Thursday, Feb. 23 at 1 p.m.
Friday, Feb 24 at 1 p.m.
2017 Oscar® Nominated Short Films: Live Action
Tuesday, Feb. 14 at 1 p.m.
Wednesday, Feb. 15 at 7:30 p.m.
Thursday, Feb. 16 at 1 p.m.
Saturday, Feb. 25 at 4 p.m.
2017 Oscar® Nominated Short Films: Animation
Tuesday, Feb. 14 at 7:30 p.m.
Wednesday, Feb. 15 at 1 p.m.
Thursday, Feb. 16 at 7:30 p.m.
Saturday, Feb. 25 at 1 p.m. + 7:30 p.m.
Samson in Stone:
New Discoveries in the Ancient Synagogue at Huqoq in Israel's Galilee
Thursday, Feb. 23 at 7:30 p.m.
Free
Since 2011,
Professor Jodi Magness has been directing excavations in the ancient
village of Huqoq in Israel's Galilee. The excavations have brought to
light the remains of a monumental Late Roman (fifth century) synagogue building
that is paved with stunning mosaics, including depictions of the biblical hero
Samson, and the first non-biblical story ever discovered decorating an ancient
synagogue. In this slide-illustrated lecture, Professor Magness describes
these exciting finds, including the discoveries made in last summer.
Sponsored by Archaeological Institute of
America, LLEA University of Hawaii
Chamber Music Hawaii: Maligned Master: Setting the Record Straight on Salieri
Sunday, Feb. 12 at 4 p.m.
$35 general admission, $45 premium seating; tickets available from
chambermusichawaii.org or by calling (808) 489-5038
Hosted by KHON2 news anchorman and Mozart aficionado
Joe Moore, this concert features an octet of Chamber Music Hawaii musicians
performing the music of Salieri, including the U.S. premiere of Johann Wendt’s
arrangements from Salieri’s opera La
Grotta di Trofonio. Between the musical numbers, Moore will offer
commentary on the true relationship between Salieri and Mozart.
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One of the world’s premier art museums, the Honolulu Museum of Art presents international caliber special exhibitions and features a collection that includes Hokusai, van Gogh, Gauguin, Monet, Picasso and Warhol, as well as traditional Asian and Hawaiian art.
Located in two of Honolulu’s most beautiful buildings, visitors enjoy two cafés, gardens, and films and concerts at the theater. The museum is dedicated to bringing together great art and people to create a more harmonious, adaptable, and enjoyable society in Hawai’i.
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