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PCC’s 14th annual African film festival honors Black, Women’s history months
Photos and story by James Hill
PORTLAND, Ore. – Seventeen films means an endless number of good times. More than 4,000 film-goers will experience Portland Community College’s 14th Annual Cascade Festival of African Films, which is set to bring Portland award-winning films from every region of the African continent.
The festival will run every Thursday through Saturday, Feb. 6 through March 6. The event will honor Black History Month and pay tribute to Women’s History Month with Women’s Filmmaker’s Week March 4-6. The month-long free festival will feature 17 films, and special events like Family Film Day and Thursday evening documentary series at the Cascade Campus’ Terrell Hall, Hollywood Theater and at PSU’s Hoffman Hall. All film screenings are free and open to the public.”They show us pictures of Africa through the eyes of Africans, rather than a vision of Africa that is packaged primarily for western viewers,”said Michael Dembrow, PCC English instructor and long-time film committee organizer. “This year’s films cover a wide range of themes and topics.”The film festival will open its run at the Kennedy School, 5736 N.E. 33rd Ave., on Friday, Feb. 6 with “Amandla!,”a film that features the role that freedom songs and musicians played in the long struggle against Apartheid in South Africa. There will be two screenings of the film, at 7:00 p.m. and 9:30 p.m. The opening night celebration will also include an African marketplace where art and merchandise will be offered for sale in the hallway outside the theater.Other notable events during the festival include screenings of “The Man by the Shore,”at Portland State University and PCC in commemoration of Haiti’s bicentennial. The evening showing will be at 7:30 p.m., Feb. 27 in PSU’s Hoffmann Hall Auditorium, 724 S.W. Harrison, with the matinee screening in PCC’s Terrell Hall, 705 N. Killingsworth, at noon on Feb. 26. The evening screenings during the festival will be followed by discussion sessions led by individuals from the regions shown in that evening’s film or individuals with expert knowledge of the region. “These films were chosen on the basis of their quality as film and their ability to captivate and move audiences,”said Dembrow. “We also chose them because they represent different countries and cultures and a range of lifestyles from-pre-colonial to modern times, including both rural and urban settings.”The Hollywood Theater, 4122 N.E. Sandy Blvd., and the French Embassy will host the film “Little Senegal,”at 7:30 p.m. on Friday, Feb. 20. The film is about the complex and often difficult relationship between Africans and African-Americans in a neighborhood of Harlem. This year’s Family Film Day will be on Saturday, Feb. 21, at McMenamins Kennedy School, featuring two screenings of “Nightjohn,”a painful but ultimately uplifting film set during slavery times. Show times are 11:30 a.m. and 2:30 p.m.The popular Thursday evening series will consist of documentaries from the Sudan, Ethiopia, Haiti, and Western Sahara. The festival concludes with Women Filmmakers Week, in commemoration of Women’s History Month. There will be films from Burkina Faso, Zimbabwe, Tunisia, and Western Sahara.Film festival sponsors include McMenamins Kennedy School, Hollywood Theater, PSU Black Studies, the French Embassy, Disney Films and PCC. PCC graphic design student Vanessa Benn of southwest Portland designed this year’s poster and program. The complete listing and descriptions of films can be found on the Festival Web Site.To receive a brochure, call 503-244-6111, ext. 3630.
About James Hill
James G. Hill, an award-winning journalist and public relations writer, is the Director of Public Relations at Portland Community College. A graduate of Portland State University, James has worked as a section editor for the Newberg Graphic... more »