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http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/23/movies/23dias.html?th&emc=th
A Universe of Black Film
By FELICIA R. LEE Published: November 23, 2007
The African Diaspora Film Festival has grown each year
since its genesis in a kitchen-table conversation
between a couple of film fanatics frustrated by the
shallow pool of black films in New York. Starting today
the 15th edition of the festival will offer something
for just about anyone interested in the global black
experience: 102 films from 43 countries in a 17-day
feast of documentaries, comedies, musicals, dramas and
romances.
Reinaldo Barroso-Spech and Diarah N'Daw-Spech, the
married couple behind the mom-and-pop venture, had also
been casting about for "something important" they could
do together, Ms. N'Daw-Spech recalled recently. After
coming to New York from Paris in the 1980s and "not
being able to see the same breadth and depth of films we
saw in Paris, we figured there was a niche, a need," she
said. The couple, who are Columbia University graduates,
chatted with a reporter in a lounge at Teachers College
in between last-minute festival preparations.
"The festival has been our kid," added Ms. N'Daw-Spech,
whose day job is as a financial director at a Teachers
College center. "The kid is an adolescent now. When we
started out, we had no experience, no connections. We
knew nobody. We got some film festival catalogs and
started calling people."
That first festival in 1993 featured 24 films at the
Cinema Village in Greenwich Village and attracted about
1,500 people over one week. This year the couple (who
also distribute some of the festival films on DVD and
video) expect some 7,000 people from tonight through
Dec. 9 at six locations throughout the city. The films
come from countries including the United States,
Jamaica, Haiti, Portugal, Angola, Germany and Britain.
Forty-five films will receive some sort of premiere at
the festival: 23 are being shown for the first time in
New York and 22 for the first time in this country.
Along with the screenings are panel discussions on
themes like "African leaders" and "slavery in cinema,"
question-and-answer sessions with the filmmakers and
even some parties.
The New York premieres include John Sayles's new film,
"Honeydripper," the tale of a rural Alabama lounge
owner's efforts to save his business, starring Danny
Glover, Charles S. Dutton, Stacy Keach and Mary
Steenburgen. "El Cimarrón" by the Puerto Rican director
Iván Dariel Ortiz tells a story of love and slavery in
Puerto Rico in the 19th century. "Youssou N'Dour: Return
to Goree," directed by Pierre Yves-Borgeaud, is a
documentary about a jazz concert on the island of Goree
in Senegal featuring Mr. N'Dour, the renowned Senegalese
singer, to commemorate all the Africans stolen from
there and brought to the New World as slaves.
The opening night features the United States premiere of
"A Winter Tale," directed by Frances-Anne Solomon (a
Trinidadian working in Canada), a drama about a group of
six black men in Toronto who form a support group in the
aftermath of the accidental shooting of a 10-year-old
boy.
Like many of the filmmakers Dr. Barroso-Spech and Ms.
N'Daw-Spech come from places where different cultures
flowed together.
Dr. Barroso-Spech was born in Cuba of Haitian and
Jamaican descent and received his doctorate from
Columbia, where he teaches a course on using film in
language education. His mother began taking him to films
when he was a child in Havana, he recalled. "With the
Castro revolution many Africans came to Cuba and with
the Africans, film," he said. "Those films were very
important in my formative years. It created in me an
understanding of the value of art and culture as a way
to uplift me - and not just me, but a whole population."
Ms. N'Daw-Spech is of French and Malian heritage.
Together, the two now comb film festivals around the
world for black images that speak about both common
human experiences and the particulars of race.
They would not disclose the festival's budget, but they
get support from sources that include the New York State
Council on the Arts and Teachers College. Ms. N'Daw-
Spech, who earned her M.B.A. from Columbia, does the
administrative work; her husband does the programming.
They have one assistant and hire temporary help for the
festival. For the last several years highlights from the
festival have been shown at the Brooklyn Academy of
Music. They also take some of the films to Chicago,
Jersey City, Washington and Curaçao for smaller versions
of the festival.
Warrington Hudlin, president of the Black Filmmaker
Foundation, estimated that there are more than 20 black
film festivals in the United States, exposing audiences
of all backgrounds to films they would otherwise miss.
The African Diaspora Film Festival, he said, is one of
the most important and is distinctive in including so
many films from outside this country.
"Cinema of color is still marginalized," Mr. Hudlin
said. "These films are our refuge. They have a critical
importance in our community as reliable venues for
access to the artistic evolution in black cinema."
As the number of small art houses continues to shrink,
it has become even harder to find independent, smaller
black films, Ms. N'Daw-Spech said.
"We want to keep doing everything we're doing, but at a
larger scale," she said. "The best part is that we know
that audiences share what we feel."
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