AFRICAN JUBILEE FILM FESTIVAL: Cuba: An African Odyssey
Fifty years ago, 17 African countries won their independence from European colonial rule. Ever since that time, 1960 has been known as the Year of African Independence. With political independence came new struggles, like the struggles for economic justice, gender justice, cultural renewal and peace. African filmmakers and the African film industry have played a key role in representing these struggles, as well as comedy, romance and Afro-futurism.
The African Jubilee Film Festival, curated by Lynette Jackson and Floyd Webb, and co-sponsored by Portoluz, The DuSable Museum of African American History, the African American Studies and Gender and Women’s Studies departments at UIC and The Public Square, will mark this important milestone with films by African filmmakers, from founding fathers like Ousmane Sembene and Djibril Mambety of Senegal, to rising young women filmmakers like Jihan El Tahri and Wanuri Kahiu of Egypt and Kenya respectively. The African Jubilee Film Festival will hold film screenings and discussions on select Sundays, between June 27 to December 5, 2010.
August 15 – Cuba: An African Odyssey
Director: Jihan El Tahri
Cuba: An African Odyssey is a brilliantly-executed documentary on Cuban involvement in Africa from the 1960s to the early 1990s. It is divided into two parts: the first part deals mainly with Congo in the early 60s, from the assassination of Patrice Lumumba to the arrival of Che Guevara and the Cubans in an effort to save the Congolese revolution begun by Lumumba. The second part focuses on Cuba’s military and diplomatic involvement in Angola in the 70s and 80s. The director Jihan El-Tahri includes interviews with many of the power-players involved, including Fidel Castro and Pik Botha. It includes fabulous archival footage, in particular of Congo at the time of Lumumba’s assassination. El Tahri also discusses Cuba’s involvement in the anti-colonial liberation struggles in Algeria and Guinea-Bissau.
Discussant: Prexy Nesbitt, Columbia College.