Join master chefs and chefs-in-training for an immersive culinary and cinema treat! Chefs will be on hand providing cooking demonstrations, tasty bites and insight on what it takes to make it in the competitive world of the culinary arts and, we will screen a powerful, poignant documentary that follows the paths of three students in Philly’s Frankford High.

There’s a force-of-nature behind the door to Room 325 at Frankford High School in Philadelphia. Her name is Wilma Stephenson and she teaches Culinary Arts. Infamously blunt, Mrs. Stephenson runs a “boot camp” at Frankford, disciplining her students into capable chefs and responsible students. Behind her tough-talking exterior is a teacher, who cares passionately about getting the best out of her students and making sure they receive the opportunities – including scholarships to top programs – that will help them escape the meager minimum-wage job opportunities of Northeast Philly.

Wilma Stephenson has taught at Frankford for 40 years, long before Culinary Arts became part of the school’s curriculum. She can be cantankerous, and she knows it, but she will do anything for the students who get with the program and show true promise and the hunger to succeed. Those who fall short of her discipline will not be missed; many will drop out before the first week is over.

documents Mrs. Stephenson and those students committed enough to surrender themselves to her enlightened despotism through both semesters in Culinary Arts. By the end of the school year, 13 of her students will have made it through the gauntlet. These seniors aspire to scholarships that can enable them to escape the status  quo of Northeast Philly and move on to a future of more opportunities. Mrs. Stephenson
spells it out on the first day of school by telling the newcomers that 11 members of last year’s class earned over $750,000 in scholarships, a staggering amount. At a school where over 40% of students don’t even make it to their senior year, Ms. Stephenson’s class stands in stark contrast. She offers these kids her version of the American Dream: You choose a realistic goal. You work hard. You work the system. You get out of Northeast Philly.

At the end of their school year, there is a one-day scholarship competition, where top Philadelphia chefs judge the students’ skills and talent. But, in the end, the scholarships are even more dependent on the kids’ capacity for sustained drive throughout their senior year. Can they endure the stressful challenges wrought by their home lives – having to hold minimum-wage jobs after school, and acting as surrogate parents to their siblings –
while still finding the motivation to wake up at 6AM to get to Mrs. Stephenson’s class early enough to master their crepes and tournee potatoes…

Seating is limited, so rsvp early to reserve your spot! Click here to reserve a seat.

PRESSURE COOKER

DIR. Jennifer Grausman, Mark Becker

Date: Tuesday, September 21
Time: 6:30 PM
Location: Le Cordon Bleu College of Culinary Arts
360 Corporate Drive, Tukwila WA
Suggested Donation $5

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Photo courtesy of Indiana University

This ambitious and hard-hitting documentary looks at the popularity of hip-hop among America’s white youth. It asks whether white identification is rooted in admiration and a desire to transcend race or if it is merely a new chapter in the long continuum of stereotyping, mimicry and cultural appropriation?

A much needed anecdote to much of the unsophisticated analysis of youth culture that floods our airways and our newspapers. ‘Blacking Up’ wrestles with the ambiguity and the consequence of cultural borrowing.

Lonnie Bunch , National Museum of African American History & Culture

The film presents a diverse group of white rap fans (often referred to by derogatory terms such as “wannabe” or “wigger”) and performers with very different ways of expressing their relationship to Hip-Hop music and culture. Against the unique backdrop of American popular music, Blacking Up  explores racial identity in U.S. society – how do white youth define and express themselves culturally? Why would creating an alternative persona be attractive to white suburban youth? What does “authenticity” mean in reference to Hip-Hop, an art form often based on “sampling” music from other performers? How does this type of performance affect the communities being emulated? How do white performers impact interracial dialogue and the cultural landscape? These questions are examined in fascinating vignettes featuring:
* A tense Hip-Hop battle between white and black students at Indiana University-Bloomington
* A backlash against “wiggers” in a Midwestern white community
* A revealing analysis of how rapper Vanilla Ice was marketed to mainstream audiences
* Performers whose use of racially-charged symbols beg comparison to minstrelsy

* A black-owned New York bus tour that specializes in bringing outsiders into the neighborhoods where Hip-Hop was first invented – replete with complimentary “bling”

The documentary places the issues of cross-cultural appropriation and desire in historical context, drawing parallels between the figure of the white Hip-Hop fan and previous incarnations of white identification with black culture. Blacking Up addresses the legacy of blackface performers such as Al Jolson (introducing us to the contemporary Al Jolson Fan Club). In addition, jazz figures like the “hipster” and rock and roll icons like Elvis Presley and the Rolling Stones are considered within a broader context of white appropriation of black cultural expression. The film posits that identifying with black culture has offered white performers and consumers a means to lift inhibitions, and in the case of Hip-Hop has given white men license to act aggressively masculine.

Throughout the documentary there is insightful commentary by African American cultural critics such as Amiri Baraka (who draws parallels to the beatnik era), Nelson George, Greg Tate, comedian Paul Mooney and Hip-Hop figures Chuck D, Russell Simmons, M1 of Dead Prez, and DJ Kool Herc. Blacking Up will be a useful resource for courses in Media Studies, Cultural Studies, Sociology, African American Studies, Anthropology and Cross-Cultural Dialogue as well as for Student Services programs.

Blacking Up: Hip-Hop’s Remix of Race and Identity

(USA 2010) 57 min

Directed by: Robert A. Clift

Screening Date: TBD

Location: TBD

A much needed anecdote to much of the unsophisticated analysis of youth culture that floods our airways and our newspapers. ‘Blacking Up’ wrestles with the ambiguity and the consequence of cultural borrowing.
		Lonnie Bunch , National Museum of African American History & Culture

Behind the luxurious extravaganza of the famous Mardi Gras in New Orleans on the desolate back streets, devastated by Katrina, survives one of the most ancestral and hidden celebrations of the African-American population: “The Mardi Gras Indian”.

The Mardi Gras Indians date back to the time of slavery as a tribute to the Native American tribes in Lousiana sho helped slaves runaway from the plantations seeking their freedom.

Dressed in splendorous costumes of bright feathers, the Indian Chiefs reenact with rituals and songs the roots and historical struggles of their community.

These rituals and songs are one of the main sources of contemporary jazz music of New Orleans.

Nevertheless, this tradition, a cultural heritage of United States, is running the risk of disappearing due to racism and the displacement created by Hurricane Katrina.

The Festival congratulates Director Pablo Palacios and Producer Julie Belafonte!

BURN is a documentary based on the 1921 race riot in the Greenwood neighborhood of Tulsa, Oklahoma. During the 16 hours of rioting, over 800 people were admitted to local hospitals with injuries, 35 city blocks were destroyed by fire, an estimated 10,000 people were left homeless and according to a Red Cross report close to 300 people were killed; making the Tulsa race riot the worst in US History. In this documentary writer, director and co-producer Harold Jackson III explores the effects of this horrific riot and how to this day the 16 hour event still has a huge impact on the city.

We congratulate Director Harold Jackson III

]]> http://www.langstonarts.org/?feed=rss2&p=1545 0 http://www.langstonarts.org/?p=1537 http://www.langstonarts.org/?p=1537#comments Thu, 06 May 2010 20:29:20 +0000 filmsistah http://www.langstonarts.org/?p=1537
Anomaly – Barack Obama’s presidency has brought conversations on racial identity to the forefront. ANOMALY is a groundbreaking documentary film that takes an insider’s look at the experiences of multiracial Americans. Through personal narratives, ANOMALY stimulates viewers to think about identity, family and community in a changing world.

The film features interviews and performances with singer/songwriter Gabriella Callender of Mahina Movement, spoken word artist Michelle Myers of Yellow Rage, poet/musician Pete Shungu, author/poet Thaddeus Rutkowski, along with community leaders and academic experts.

Marlam struggles to provide for her two children back home and through a series of twisted circumstances ends up as a surrogate mother for a wealthy Ethiopian couple, Tiru and Fre. Their fate is tied to that of Biru’s, the shady middle man who is only interested in money.

As this unique African story unfolds, the true cost of dreams is revealed and each life is changed forever. Adera is a story of love, hope, deception and the human will to survive.

Adera raises questions about old traditions and how they affect the lives of modern Ethiopians. One of the critical issues Adera confronts is adoption in Ethiopia. The culture in Ethiopia, as in most of Africa, is not to adopt children. With so many orphans left behind and the numbers always growing, it is high time to take fresh look at these conventions.

ADERA

ETHIOPIA 2008 97min

Director: Nega Tariku

Screening Date: SaturdayApril 22, 2010

Screening Time: 3PM

Screening Location: Central Cinema – 21st @ Union St.

Buy Tickets Online – Click here to purchase ticket

Buy Tickets in Person: Central Cinema| 1411 21st Avenue | Seattle, WA 98122| (206) 686-6684

Open daily @ 6pm. Beer, Wine, and Food are available at all evening shows.

In 2004, a multi-racial coalition of Neshoba County citizens got together for the first time in 40 years to erase the stain from their town by publicly pressuring the State to bring murder charges against the so-called “Mississippi Burning” murderers. Meeting with opposition and even hostility from some of their neighbors, members of the Philadelphia Coalition were resolute in their call for justice, healing and racial reconciliation. Finally, on January 6, 2005, the State of Mississippi indicted the alleged mastermind of the killings, Edgar Ray Killen, an 80-year-old Baptist preacher and notorious racist.

The filmmakers gained unprecedented access to Killen, following him for five months, from shortly after his indictment through his trial. For the first time ever, the film captures the outspoken views of a Klan member charged with a civil rights murder and takes viewers on a journey into the mindset of a man who, to this day, feels the murders of two Jews and an African-American were justified as “self-defense” of a way of life. Through exclusive, first-time interviews with Killen, intimate interviews with the families of the victims, and candid interviews with black and white Neshoba County citizens with diverse points of view, the film exposes the social and political forces that perpetuated state-sanctioned terrorism and created an atmosphere of hate and fear, allowing murderers to walk free.

Screens with short film: EMPTY SPACE, produced and directed by Rob Underhill. Every morning Mike wakes like this. Soon after, the voices in his mind wake too. Vivid recollections, situations, and each scene he acts out on a bare stage: an act of filling empty space with meaning.

NESHOBA

USA 2008 91 mins

Director: Micki Dickoff

Screening Date: Wednesday April 21, 2010

Screening Time: 7PM

Screening Location: Central Cinema – 21st @ Union St.

Buy Tickets Online - Click here to purchase ticket

Buy Tickets in Person: Central Cinema| 1411 21st Avenue | Seattle, WA 98122| (206) 686-6684

Open daily @ 6pm. Beer, Wine, and Food are available at all evening shows.

Astoundingly beautiful and epic in scope, That’s My Face (é minha cara) is a personal documentary offering an entire generation of African Americans a groundbreaking perspective on the maddening diasporic search for a mythic motherland. In healing his own cultural yearnings, director Thomas Allen Harris journeys beyond the political movements of his day and into a spiritual realm where he finds much more then he expects.

His grandparents’ African Methodist-Episcopal church taught Thomas as a child that Africa was a place that could only be saved by Christian missionaries. But his rebellious mother was part of the 1970s’ movement that regarded Africa as home “because we knew America didn’t want us” and migrated the family to Tanzania, East Africa. When they arrived in the modern city of Dar-es-Saalam, Africa seemed more like Miami than the motherland they imagined.

Thomas learned to love Africa for what it was, but when he returned to the Bronx, he was unable to express his newfound identity. Even his African Methodist-Episcopalian faith failed to provide him comfort until he learned from an Afro-Brazilian friend that beneath the patina of conventional Christian iconography is a rich double life of African ancestral spirit worship. Like his mother, Thomas embarks on a migration across the ocean, this time to Brazil, in an effort to find a sense of home and belonging.

Writer/Director Thomas Allen Harris in attendance.

“Shot entirely on Super-8 film and employing an innovative sound design that uses rap and hip-hop multivoice sampling, That’s My Face is as much an artistic gem as a spiritual gift.”
- Shari Frilot, Programmer, 2002 Sundance Film Festival

E MINHA CARA/THAT’S MY FACE

USA/BRAZIL 2001 56 min

Director: THOMAS ALLEN HARRIS

Screening Date: THURSDAY, APRIL 22, 2010

Screening Time: 5PM

Screening Location: Central Cinema – 21st @ Union St.

Buy Tickets Online – Click here to purchase ticket

Buy Tickets in Person: Central Cinema| 1411 21st Avenue | Seattle, WA 98122| (206) 686-6684

Open daily @ 6pm. Beer, Wine, and Food are available at all evening shows.

“Harris pays tribute to Benjamin Pule Leinaeng, the stepfather who raised him, by traveling to South Africa and excavating the late Leinaeng¹s life as a political activist [in] the ANC and whose real-life exploits play like a James Bond film. Harris¹ trademark elegant visual style (owing much to both high-end fashion magazines and experimental film and photography) is put into the service of dramatic re-creations that flesh out documentary commentary from old friends and political allies, while family photos and home video become potent artifacts in the transformation of grief into celebration” – LA Weekly.  Director Thomas Allen Harris in attendance.

“An important documentary” – The New York Times

“Intensely personal yet historically expansive” – Time Out New York

12 DISCIPLES OF NELSON MANDELA

USA 2005  73min

Director: Thomas Allen Harris

Screening Date: Thursday, April 22, 2010

Screening Time: 7PM

Screening Location: Central Cinema – 21st @ Union St.

Buy Tickets Online – Click here to purchase ticket

Buy Tickets in Person: Central Cinema| 1411 21st Avenue | Seattle, WA 98122| (206) 686-6684

Open daily @ 6pm. Beer, Wine, and Food are available at all evening shows.