The Oakland International Film Festival (OIFF) is an opportunity for Oakland to shine – its artists the polish and vehicle. From its inception 15 years ago when the City of Oakland was one of the only cities in the nation with a film office—sadly eliminated an administration ago (Jean Quan), this festival has maintained its focus—on Oakland and its diversity of talent: directors, writers, actors, technicians—famous and up and coming. In keeping with this tradition, OIFF has scheduled a daylong series of screening of new work called: “The Pitch,” a part of the Made in Oakland programming. Directors are invited to screen an excerpt of their work, speak for 1-minute about the film and what their needs are to move forward, and third, get feedback from audience present. What a great opportunity for the director and for novices and industry professionals to get in on the ground floor to get a scoop on new work. The Pitch, April 7, 1-7 p.m., will be at The City of Oakland’s Hearing room #1. Each of the sessions is one hour and forty-five minutes long.

With 40+ films from 33 countries, OIFF is still bringing it for the people. This time for “Black Roots” in Oakland which are holding on, even as social and political structures attempt to rock its foundation.

Alex Haley’s vision was televised 40 years ago this year with a miniseries called “Roots: The Saga of an American Family” based on the historic novel (1976).  It was the bicentennial of this nation’s birth, and “Roots” ripped to shreds the idea that “all men are created equal and endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life . . .”, life at a time when the US government’s eugenics program had significantly reduced populations it deemed unsuitable for reproduction: black people, people with IQs 70 and below, the incorrigible or prisoners, immigrants, poor people and single parents.

“Roots tells the story of Haley’s and by extension black America’s ancestors which expanded the popular idea that black Americans had no history or past beyond the plantation. In the tradition of Margaret Walker’s “Jubilee,” Haley, well-known for “The Autobiography of Malcolm X,” shared the story of a family of Africans transported to this country and the brutality of the institution of slavery. Roots is also the story of survival, redemption and transcendence, which comes from the collective and personal stories Haley remembered—clues he used to trace his legacy, paternal ancestry back to Juffure.  The small town has a museum, a school and fort. We took a ferry to the island nearby where African captives from throughout the region were brought and traded. Right on the northern bank of the River Gambia, we traveled easily to Kunta Kinteh Island, formerly James Island. James Fort is there.

When I traveled to Gambia, it was during President Obama’s first term.  As we sat on a thatch covered open patio waiting for the chief to arrive and welcome us, a women came in and sat down.  We all rose. When she learned I was American, she gave me a big smile and threw up her fist and said: Obama!  There I also met Alex Haley’s cousin, a school teacher, and he showed me photos of Haley’s visit to the town. There is a mosque named after Haley and in the preschool, I saw photos of President Obama and the First Lady on multiple walls (smile).

Of all the slave dungeons I’d visited up to that point—Goree one of them, I really felt the ancestral energies on the Kunta Kinteh Island. There were huge baobab trees in blossom—the Gambian men piloting the boats, climbed the tree and got fruit for us. It was lovely. It tasted like clouds—cotton candy without the excessive sweetness.

The island is sinking into the sea, and no one was trying to save it. Soon I was told, if erosion continued at the rate it was proceeding, the island would be gone from sight. “Roots at 40” at the Masonic Center in Oakland, Saturday, April 8, 6:30 p.m., is the closing event at Oakland International Film Festival 15. Actors will be present from the first series and the more recent series in 2016. Together with directors for the series, they will discuss “Roots” and its impact on American consciousness 40 years later. How did Roots shape our perceptions of being black in America and by extension how blackness was perceived then and now? Does it matter that Haley’s research was not 100 percent accurate and that his results questionable? Joanna Mountain, Sr. Research Director of 23&Me, one of the guest moderators, will help facilitate such questions.

After playing phone tag for a day or so, David Roach, co-founder and director of the Oakland International Film Festival, agreed to speak to me at 6:30 a.m. Saturday morning, before I had to be on the road for a Black History Tour sponsored by Toyota with historian John William Templeton who was my introduction to Black California, beginning with its name, a tribute to Queen Calafia, an Amazon warrior sistah. Though, I’d heard lectures by Templeton, I’d never attended a tour—this one a caravan in cars. It was pretty cool getting up close and personal with legendary William Alexander Leidesdorff, an explorer, entrepreneur who established first public school in San Francisco, Mary Ellen Pleasant, first black millionaire, Langston Hughes’s home when he lived in San Francisco for a year; and Sargent Johnson’s murals at the Maritime Museum where he incorporate African motifs.

Wanda Sabir: Good morning David, so good of you to take a moment out of your schedule to talk to me.

David Roach: “We’re in the middle of it. We kick off April the 4th, still in the planning stages. We know the venues, films, workshops and panels.

“We are highlighting our legacy, 40 years since “Roots.” This is our 15th year so we wanted to do something a little different. We also wanted to honor, 2017, that it is also 50 years since the writing of Dr. King’s last book, “Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community.” He was actually assassinated on April 4, which is the opening [day] of the Festival. There is a section in the book: ‘getting our due,’ where [King] talks about how people who have been denied certain things or certain justices need to receive them to get them back [into the race].’”

“Interestingly enough, one of the films we are showcasing this year is called ‘Forgiveness,’ by Satie Gossett, the son of Louis Gossett Jr. who will actually be here for a part of our “Roots” theme (Sat., April 8 at the Scottish Rite Center). “’Forgiveness’ is a narrative short, about a young boy who is given an assignment. His teacher suggests he participate in an essay contest [which] is on why American hasn’t apologized for slavery.

“Our Festival has a lot of rootsy themes. For example Regina Mason’s*  “Gina’s Journey: In Search of Williams Grimes,” who wrote a narrative before Frederick Douglass about the horrors of slavery [shows how a question raised when she was a child about her ancestors and her heritage, took many years before it was resolved. Mason learns how to do genealogy research and finds out that she has an heir, and that his name is William Grimes]. 

WS: As you were speaking, I was thinking that you are a Morehouse Man, and so was Martin King, right?

DR: “Yes.”

WS: I was also really impressed as you spoke about the amount of research that goes into the programming of the OIFF. You are looking at the historical moment(s), such as April 4, the 49th anniversary of King’s killing. It is also the end of what is called, the Season of Peace. It starts in January when Mahatma Gandhi was killed, then into February when Malcolm X dies, the Kennedys and ends with Dr. King.  It is a really perfect time to be looking at roots: the roots of a tree, the roots of a people. . . . and with Sankofa, we are mining those ancestral roots.

What did our ancestors do when faced with adversity? We need to draw on all our resources. And then I was thinking about your local filmmakers like Regina Mason, who is a woman director and Donna Roberts, director of “Yemanja,” who is also a woman director.

Marriages UK are a part of the clergy viagra cipla 20mg and vows collective and articulated overtly less than the eyes of other people. It online viagra look these up can be done by intensive advertising through the newspaper, radio, etc. Eligibility criteria for participation was requirement of being 18 years of age or over, persistent impotence, involvement in steady heterosexual relationship, absence of major psychiatric or medical problems, regular internet access, and willingness for the treatment. cialis no prescription These chemist stores would say that they would get prescription from their online doctors but in reality they have a lot more in common than anyone seems to truly realize. cialis generika unica-web.com DR: “We want to tie in the Roots of Oakland, so that it also promotes the filmmakers of Oakland. We are opening the Oakland Asian Cultural Center which is a major destination in Oakland. Chinatown in Oakland is older than the Chinatown in San Francisco. [Chinatown in Oakland used to be a black community.]

“We will also be at Holy Names University Center for the Performing Arts which is where “Yemanja: Wisdom from the African Heart of Brazil” screens, Wednesday, April 5. There is a pre-film program beginning at 6:30 p.m. Reception with pop-up photography exhibit: “Goddesses of Nature,” 7:30 pm; “Masters of Rhythm” short film about Afro-Peruvian drumming at 8:05 pm; Libation offered by Iya Wanda Blake, Priestess of Yemaya Screening, “Yemanja: Wisdom from the African Heart of Brazil”; at 9:00 pm there is a panel discussion. For tickets visit:  http://oiff.org/yemanja and information on Day 2.

“We will also be at the Grand Lake theatre once again this year. We are hosting free screenings for a day there. We are having our closing party at the legendary Geoffrey’s Inner Circle on Friday night, which is also First Friday. Then [the next afternoon] we will be at the Scottish Rite Center for a Roots Celebration. Participating are original cast members: Lawrence Hilton Jacobs, Coolie High, Welcome Back Carter. He plays the character of Noah in ‘Roots’ and Louis Gossett, Jr. (Fiddler). Mario Van Peebles directed two episodes of ‘Roots’ (2016 series) and his son, Mandela who is in those episodes will be here as well.

“Two fathers and sons: Satie Gossett with Louis Gossett, Jr. and Mandela and Mario Van Peebles, Terri Vaughn from San Francisco, also Mark Wolper who is executive producer of “Roots” as well will be at the closing event. We call it a Fireside Chat hosted by Danny Glover. The Master of Ceremony that evening is:  Tony Sculfield (aka Tony Sco) from the KBLX Dream Team.”
The Oakland Film Society and Councilmember Lynette McElhaney are excited to host The 40^th Anniversary of Roots – An Evening with the Stars, in Oakland’s Black Arts Movement and Business District as part of the 15th Annual Oakland International Film Festival.  The Non-Televised 40^th Anniversary Celebration of the TV Miniseries “Roots” will take place on Saturday, April 8 at the Scottish Rite Center, 1547 Lakeside Drive, Oakland. 

 Oakland will be the only city in the country to host an evening with members from the original cast of Roots in 1977 and from the new series in 2016!  Both are coming together on one stage for an unprecedented evening of entertainment and conversation about the series. What makes this event truly unique is the fact that the producers, directors and actors of film normally only come together at big syndicated shows OIFF and the City of Oakland will be the first and potentially the only for the Roots 40^th Anniversary. Questions about the impact of “Roots” and select questions from the public will be discussed.  The fireside chat will be immediately followed by the Awards Ceremony of the Oakland International Film Festival participants.  Live musical performances will take place throughout the event from some of our prominent Bay Area entertainers like the Oakland Interfaith Gospel Choir, Oakland School for the Arts, SambaFunk! Funkquarians, Diamano Coura, John Santos and more. The program starts at 6:30 p.m.  Doors Open & Reception are at 5:45 p.m. The Welcome is at 6:45 p.m.; Fireside Chat 7:00; Film Festival Award Ceremony is at 8:30 p.m. Closing Remarks & Musical Performances are at 9 p.m.

WS: How many filmmakers are from Oakland or live in Oakland?

DR: “We are showing 40+ films and about a third of them are Oakland filmmakers. About a third are feature films. Some of them are documentaries, shorts, narratives, a couple animation films. We have submissions from 33 different countries which is more than usual. This means that folks are seeing Oakland. We hope we can connect the Oakland filmmakers to those other markets as well as we continue trying to utilize this medium as a way to connect people and cultures to create more understanding. As you see some of these films from We are so close now with film, we have an opportunity to do a lot more.

“[When a person watches films from other places like Saudi Arabia and Madrid the first thought might be: ‘Those folks remind me of my cousins.’ You’re like dang, they are going through a lot of stuff, yet they still make that movie.’ It is really inspiring for a people who have gone through a lot . . . like the whole thing of water. We can turn on the faucet here, but elsewhere, it might take all day to fill a bucket.’  Because we so close with film we have an opportunity to do more, because [film closes the distance — geographically and philosophically.]”

WS: Do you have any children’s programming?

DR: “We plan on hosting screenings in schools. We are working on something with Castlemont High School. Reaching out to School Board folks. On Monday from 3-4 at City Hall, the week of the film festival is also spring break., That’s where we are showing ‘Forgiveness’ and Mario Van Peebles’s short film, ‘Making the A Game,’ which is where he has artists and athletes talking about what the obstacles young folks go through in education. That programming time is for young folks.

“Most of the films are appropriate for kids. When compared to what is on TV today, they would pass, but I am a father and if I don’t like my kid to see some stuff, [I don’t want other kids to see it either.] I don’t like guns in films; I don’t like films where they show you how to do something [illegal or dangerous]. Why do they have to show you?

WS: Right, kids are smart. It’s like giving them a manual.

DR: “Don’t show them how to build that. We do what we see. It is a very powerful medium, film. It can become a tutorial for many wrong things as well as good things, right?”

WS: I love it that this is the 15th Annual Film Festival, just before the SFIFF which is celebrating its 60th Anniversary. I remember when OIFF was in the fall in October near the Mill Valley Film Festival. You have a great niche and I am always interested in seeing who you are partnering with each festival season.

DR: “We are trying and we see more screens coming up. It is one thing to have a theory, it is another to manifest it. Oftentimes we talk about manufacturing products but we don’t value artists who also contribute to our economy and our lifestyle. We are trying to demonstrate that we do bring value and can bring it to commerce as well. We planning on hosting a number of screenings at restaurants and different places throughout the City of Oakland, but to also leverage our website [for marketing potential for our artists]. We are getting quite a bit of attention online. “

“It’s coming together. We have a long way to go.”

WS: I am sure your background in economics comes in handy. You are a businessman and an artist and combination goes well together. (Listen to the rest of the interview online at wandaspicks.com/radio)

Erica Deeman: Silhouette explores Black female identity
March 22, 2017

by Wanda Sabir

When one thinks of Black women photographers, Carrie Mae Weems comes to mind and, regarding silhouettes, Kara Walker. Though certainly a historic revisioning of beauty and portraiture, a form reserved for the aristocracy, Erica Deeman’s first major solo exhibition at Berkeley Art Museum Pacific Film Archive celebrates the form – the Black female form. The silhouette is not all, just an angle, a perspective – it is not even a profile. The character len(d)s herself to the pose, but what’s the context? It’s what patrons bring to the discussion.

Deeman’s subjects, who get to keep their secrets, know like the mighty Sojourner Truth knew the power of the image and what it means to have 30 Black women portraits in a major art institution. What does this say about her beauty, presence, agency? It is surprising there has been no noticeable activity along fault lines as radical as such a concept is. The large-scale portraits, created over the course of nine months in 2013 while the Jamaican European artist was still a student at the Academy of Art University, is up through June 11, at the BAMPFA, 2120 Oxford St., Berkeley. Visit bampfa.org or call 510-642-0808.

In a lower gallery, the work is inviting and seductive. There is a tranquility within the space, a certain stillness that invites a chat or a visit. The portraits cover multiple walls – some alone, others paired as if in conversation, except the heads are facing away from each other. Other portraits have the subjects facing each other, yet the eyes do not meet. What are the women thinking? For once, the outside world ceases to matter. They are all there is.

Deeman’s goal is to display African Diaspora women in a dynamic way that broadens the way they perceive and are perceived. Displayed in this way – there is an intentional avoidance of the word “hung” – also contributes to interpretation of meaning as well as what kinds of conversations are possible between spectator and subject. The story of how the artist contracted with the 30 women is about as entertaining as the lovely images.

Erica Deeman: “In terms of finding the women, I was still in school so I would set up my lights, go outside where my studio was in San Francisco, just kind of like wait for people to pass by. And there was lots of foot traffic, so I would wait around for women who looked like they were from the African Diaspora, Black women. I would explain the project to them and invite them into my studio to be photographed.

“I might meet maybe three people and they would say, ‘Well, you know what? Would you like to meet more people,’ and I would say ‘Yeah.’ … So then they would invite their friends and I would make the portraits that way. In this way, I was able to [photograph] age diversity, as well as skin diversity and hair diversity.
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“It is always a collaboration when you make a photograph. I would never say that I didn’t give any direction and I would never say I gave all the direction. I would give [the women] postures and direction. We definitely did left and right poses. What is helpful are the subtle nuances of emotions that I find in the images, which helps me edit.

“When the women came to the studio, I just asked them to feel confident. I didn’t have a makeup or style artist to add to the perfection. It was really about them feeling comfortable and as confident as they felt they could be in the photograph. That was the starting point of each portrait. This is their photograph as much as it was mine. I am controlling the moment we are sharing together.”

Wanda Sabir: The idea of having these Black women in the space – what is lovely is the size of the gallery. It’s a big room. There are benches; you can sit with the women. They are all around you; it’s like a big party.

ED: I also feel very calm when I am in the space. There is an air of calmness, reflection. This is my own work, but I think that it conjures these stereotypes associated with Black women, with women of color, and offers a counter-narrative. We can have deep stories and varied stories.

WS: Yes, there is a calmness or stillness which is not always associated with Black women. Black women: The stereotype is that she is strong, independent, fierce, hard … and we are all that too.

ED: There is all of that, there are other things as well perhaps more hidden. Silhouettes links to physiognomies and is connected somehow to character and was linked to the bourgeois classes of white Europeans. Seeing these Black women in this environment challenges that norm and the legacy. This space, this environment is for them to open up that narrative. I am really excited to see the work up. It is the first time the work — all 30 have been in one space. When you make something and you see it on the wall, I am excited that I made it (she laughs).

Erica Deeman has done it again, this time with Black men. The exhibit, entitled “Brown” for the backdrop, which is close to her skin tone as well as that of the brown-skinned men, opens with a reception March 23 and is up through April 28 at Anthony Meier Fine Arts, 1969 California St., San Francisco, 415-351-1400.

 

Justice is Not Always Merciful
By Wanda Sabir

When a person dies, the living find it hard sometimes to carry on. The loss of a loved one is something one never gets over, and when the death is violent and the victim young, the bitterness is that much harder to swallow. In Patricia Milton’s new play, “Without Mercy,” closing this weekend, Thursday-Saturday, March 23 and 25, 8 p.m., at the Off Broadway West Theatre Company, we meet a grieving mother and daughter, Joanna Parks and Bethany Matthews.

Death is personal, yet the grieving family’s sorrows become ours in the intimate space on the sixth floor, 414 Mason Street at San Francisco’s The Phoenix Theatre. While Bethany walks to the kitchen past the seated audience to get water for tea, I almost reach out and ask for a cup, my tea of choice, Celestial Seasonings.

Sylvia Kratin’s Joanna Parks hasn’t handled her baby’s death and disappearance well. It has been six years when we meet the family and finally they have a killer and a confession. The wait has taken its toll on everyone. Tempers are short and the tension between the survivors is thick.  Actor Niki Yapo-Held’s Bethany, is brisk and harsh toward her mother.  We wonder at her unstated sympathy. The women do not hug or show any affection towards one another. It is as if they are strangers. Mom’s been drinking steadily trying to cope with the emptiness, which gives Bethany another reason to dismiss her.

When we meet Sylvia Kratins’s Joanna Parks, she has escaped from rehab. Bethany (actress Niki Yapo-Held) comes home to find her there with a suitcase and questions. It seems the immediately combative Bethany hasn’t kept mom up on the latest around Mercy’s case, so Joanna shows up to find out for herself.  It seems a new roommate saw something on the news and told her.

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Mr. Sam Sibley (Ian Walker) is the court appointed mediator. He arrives just when the women, especially Joanna, whom Kratins’s portrays with compassion is about to collapse.  Her body, limp with exhaustion is the kind of tired that comes from sleepless nights.  Mercy’s memory haunts her.

Sam helps the women listen to each other.  His presence and advocacy for Joanna allows Bethany room to consider her mother’s plea. His task is to present the prosecutor’s recommendation and return to the court with their decision—it is obvious who he works for. Ian Walker, veteran actor is stunning in this role. The range of emotions he allows his character to experience reflects the pain in the room. There are no winners here.

The playwright says, though the work is from her imagination, the Sierra LaMar (14) from Morgan Hill case which is on trial now has uncanny familiarity.  Add to this California’s passage of the Prop. 66 – which speeds up the death penalty for those convicted of capital crimes, and well, “Without Mercy has a face”— 728 men and 21 women as of Dec. 2016.

When Mr. Sibley knocks on the door and steps into a literal ring, the bell seems to have went off and the two women are swinging. How do Bethany and her mom find within their rage a place to forgive? Is forgiveness necessary? Bethany tells her mother “no.” She means the killer, that to spare his life with an indeterminate sentence does not require the victims’ forgiveness, yet what does a parent or a big sister do with the guilt that comes with such loss?

There are no right answers to the questions the women raise and with Richard Harder’s excellent direction, the characters are allowed to trust one another enough to unpeel the multiple layers that separate their weeping hearts. It is quite moving, the conclusion both unexpected and heartrending.

For tickets and information call: 510-835-4205 or offbroadwaywest.org

‘Port Chicago 50’ at Black Rep this weekend

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