The 2015 Tribeca Film Festival is still in full swing as we present a litany of Black and Black-themed films from the festival. There are only a few opportunities left to see these, so take full advantage immediately.
Find ticket links for all the films at TribecaFilm.com/filmguide
IN MY FATHER’S HOUSE
Genre: Documentary
Screening and Venue:
Thursday April 23, 6:00pm – Bowtie Cinemas Chelsea, NYC
Semi-celebrity and Grammy-winning rapper and writer Che “Rhymefest” Smith grew up like many others in his south side of Chicago neighborhood – without a father in the home. Now as a grown man, upon deciding to build stronger roots for his growing family, he decides the buy the family home of a father he’s only met about five times. Still, emptiness resides in him, pushing Che to find his father. He surprisingly and quickly finds his father Brian and also discovers that he is homeless and an alcoholic. Soon thereafter Che and his wife decide to help his father beat his long-standing alcoholism and unemployment. Yet the road to Brian’s rehabilitation, and Che’s quest to acknowledge his own fatherhood issues, is laden with issues too familiar to both of them.
Frankly, In My Father’s House is one of the most touching and true-to-life documentaries ever released on both fatherhood and Black fatherhood. While the socio-economic issues of Black fatherhood, fraught with the traumas and burdens of living as a Black man in American society, cannot be ignored, neither can they be excused. And neither Che, his dad Brian, nor writer/directors Ricki Stern and Annie Sundberg (Joan Rivers – A Piece of Work, 2010) make those excuses. Hitting all the right beats, the focus is squarely on redemption for both of them as both these very charming men work through the issues that have held them back for so long. The pain is heavy, and does not go away easily, but it is raw and truthful on screen and the audience, whether facing their own daddy issues or not, is better for experiencing it.
website: InMyFathersHouse.com
TRAILER:
In My Father’s House trailer from Break Thru Films on Vimeo.
NECKTIE YOUTH
Genre: Narrative (Drama)
Screening and Venue:
Thursday April 23, 3:45pm – Bowtie Cinemas Chelsea, NYC
Haunted by the memory of Emily, a friend who live-streamed her suicide one year ago, Jabz and his best friend September go on a drug-fueled and self-obsessed joyride through the affluent suburbs of Johannesburg. While on this ride, they encounter other middle-class, multi-racial, and decadent friends and lovers also in self-reflection around the issues of Emily’s death, in this reimagining of director Sibs Shongwe-La Mer’s late teenage life growing up in South Africa.
Necktie Youth is a far departure from any feature film you have probably seen on South Africa – at least any one with Black protagonists. While the burdens of being a Black South African are present, and thankfully peppered throughout the film, so are the denials of those burdens as many youth a generation removed from the perils of apartheid (though not necessarily the effects of it) find this surprisingly unburdened landscape a lot easier to survive. Yet survival is what Necktie Youth is all about, though here more mental than strictly physical as Jabz struggles with the lack of empathy and communication between everyone that he knows and encounters.
While Shongwe-La Mer depicts Jabz’ discontent rather well, and plays himself as semi-antagonist September somewhat convincingly too as a young man disconnected from everyday truths, there are numerous areas in the film that come off very forced. This could be due to some of the non-actors cast in the film. But it is more due to the exposition-heavy voiceover and pretentious dialogue persistent in the film. A Jean-Luc Godard like presence looms heavily over the directorial decisions made here, a French New Wave style odd narrative trails and great camerawork.
Yet refreshingly and deliberately, there is barely a look at any poor townships like Soweto in the film. While the stories in those areas of South Africa cannot be denied or forgotten, a departure from them, and from seeing anthropological South Africa, alone makes Necktie Youth worth seeing.
Website: www.urucumedia.com/Necktie-Youth
Teaser:
DEMOCRATS
Genre: Documentary
Screening and Venue:
Thursday, April 23, 9:00pm – Regal Cinemas Battery Park 6
In the wake of longtime and controversial president Robert Mugabe’s contentious 2008 win, Zimbabwe convened a bipartisan committee in an effort to transition the country away from its corrupt authoritarian leadership and develop a new democratically crafted constitution. The two rival political parties appoint two men to the committee: Paul Mangwana and Douglas Mwonzora. If they fail at securing maximum influence for their respective political parties on the provisions in the new constitution, the costs will be high.
With unfettered access, Democrats was filmed over three years. Mangwana and Mwonzora, charming and steadfast in distinct ways, provide the audience with an intimate view of 21st century African politics. That director Camilla Nielsson (Children of Darfur, 2005) was able to get this access is as amazing as seeing the process unfold.
STRANDED IN CANTON
Genre: Narrative (Drama)
Screenings and Venues:
Wednesday April 22, 7:30pm – Regal Cinemas – Battery Park, NYC
Saturday April 25, 6:45pm – Bowtie Cinemas Chelsea, NYC
Burgeoning entrepreneur Lebrun considers himself a new player on the burgeoning Chinese-African trade route, brokering an enormous order for Congolese presidential campaign t-shirts in Canton, Guangzhou Province China. But the order takes too long to produce, completed months after the election and at this point un-sellable. Instead of returning to Kinshasa a rich man, this idealistic farmer remains in limbo in Canton, facing mounting storage debts for his useless garments and loneliness away from home. Only love interest and Cameroonian businesswoman Sylvie, Chinese friend Frank, and a few fellow African diaspora merchants in the Chocolate City business district of Guangzhou help Lebrun navigate the travails of becoming a businessman in China. Will his plan to repurpose the t-shirts and sell them to the opposition for the 2016 election work, or will Lebrun’s lackadaisical mindset hold him back too far?
Director Måns Månsson has crafted a narrative film that feels very documentary-like with characters portrayed by unprofessional actors, yet whose understanding of the people they play is indisputable. Lebrun is effectively played by his old friend from the Democratic Republic of Congo, Lebrun Iko Isibangi, who according to the director, “found comfort in playing a character that had so much in common with the man he was in daily life.” Meanwhile, Sylvie (Nana Nya Sylvie) is just as good, and you get the feeling that she is as intelligent, magnetic, sexy, and daunting as her character.
Reminiscent in tone of Keith Miller’s 2014’s award-winning Tribeca premiere Five Star, but different in international and economical scope, Stranded in Canton is a welcome if not-surprising personal favorite in this year’s Tribeca Film Festival.
(T)ERROR
Genre: Documentary
Screenings and Venue:
Thursday April 23, 6:45pm & Friday April 24, 3:15pm – Bowtie Cinemas Chelsea, NYC
Haunting in its study, (T)ERROR is the first-ever documentary to have filmmakers on the ground during an active FBI counterterrorism sting operation. Through the perspective of “Shariff” (real name Saeed), a 63-year-old former Black Panther member and Nation of Islam member turned informant, audiences get an unfettered glimpse of the government’s counterterrorism tactics and the shadowy justifications behind them. Filmmakers Lyric R. Cabral and David Felix Sutcliffe did not inform the FBI that they were interviewing the subject as they follow him as he befriends a suspected Taliban sympathizer.
Often belligerent and potentially at odds with his “work” with the FBI, Shariff is nonetheless steadfast in his opinions on suspected Muslim terrorists and what he considers anti-Muslim actions. Also profiled is Shariff’s past in the Nation of Islam, how he began working with the FBI, interviews with members of his former Muslim brothers (and the supposed fatwa against him), and his informing on notable Jazz musician Tarik Shah, who is currently imprisoned. In this post-911 world of “Minority Report” tinged pre-crime guilty-before-innocent strategies, (T)error is an impressive and addictive exploration into the mind of a man who feels wronged by society (and continues to be wronged) and infiltration techniques in the war against terrorism. It is a must see.
