MUSEUM OF THE AFRICAN DIASPORA, BLACK PUBLIC MEDIA and the ETHNICITY, RACE AND INDIGENOUS PEOPLES SECTION OF LASA PRESENT —

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African Diaspora Film Club at MoAD | The Diaspora in Latin America: Three Short Films by Sheila Walker

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Join us today at 12pm (PDT) for today's program on Zoom:

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Please click the link below to join the webinar:

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https://moadsf-org.zoom.us/j/81369227467?pwd=MThhZitlNDgvaFE3cmc2UVlIeGZJdz09
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Passcode: 982091

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Join us for our monthly series, The African Diaspora Film Club. Modeled after our African Book Club, we will meet once a month to discuss a film that we have all viewed in advance of the discussion. The conversation will be moderated by Cornelius Moore, co-director of California Newsreel and film series curator at MoAD. We will be choosing a selection of films, some previously screened at MoAD. You may have already seen it, or this may be your first introduction. In either case, join us for a lively discussion of the film.

This month we will be discussing three short films about the African Diaspora in Latin America: SCATTERED AFRICA: FACES AND VOICES OF THE AFRICAN DIASPORA (2017, 29 minutes); FAMILIAR FACES/UNEXPECTED PLACES: A GLOBAL AFRICAN DIASPORA (2018, 31 minutes); and DRUMMING FOR OUR RIGHTS (2018, 11 minutes). You will receive instructions to join via zoom after you sign up here. Look for an email from MoAD after you sign up, if you don’t receive it in your inbox, look in your spam or junk mail.

We will not be screening the films. You will receive links to watch the films on Vimeo after you register for the program. Look for an email from MoAD after you sign up, if you don’t receive it in your inbox, look in your spam or junk mail. Email me at egessel@moadsf.org if you don't receive the links to the films.

Filmmaker Dr. Sheila Walker will join us for the discussion.

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ABOUT THE FILMS

SCATTERED AFRICA: FACES AND VOICES OF THE AFRICAN DIASPORA (2017, 29 minutes).  The film focuses on the enormous – though largely unknown and unacknowledged -- contributions of Africans and their descendants to the wealth and power of the Americas.  A historic gathering of Afro-descendent activists, scholars and cultural practitioners (from Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Peru, South Carolina, Suriname, Uruguay) is a backdrop to exciting commentaries that reveal enduring connections and the sometimes surprising similarities in experiences.

FAMILIAR FACES/UNEXPECTED PLACES: A GLOBAL AFRICAN DIASPORA (2018, 31 minutes).  Torn from the world they knew, Africans and Afro-descendants forged new identities and created new cultural forms that have enriched global civilization.   They preserved ancestral worldviews to which they adapted the cultures of others to create dynamic new fusions. This documentary highlights African knowledge and technologies that helped develop the Americas (Antigua, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Cuba, Ecuador, Haiti, Jamaica, Mexico, Panama, Paraguay), visits unsuspected African Diasporan societies (India, Mauritius, New Caledonia, Reunion Island, Turkey, Vanuatu), and reveals cultural commonalities in distant lands.

DRUMMING FOR OUR RIGHTS (2018, 11 minutes).  In a beach community near the Caribbean Colombian coastal city of Cartagena, Afro-Colombian cultural activists organize the Cabildo Drum School as an act of resistance to displacement, to pass on traditions, and as a path to social development for young people.

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ABOUT THE FILMMAKER

Sheila S Walker, PhD is a cultural anthropologist, writer, and documentary filmmaker. She was a professor of Anthropology and directed the Center for African and African American Studies at the University of Texas at Austin and the African Diaspora and the World Program at Spelman College. She is the principal of Afrodiaspora Global that creates and shares with the public information about the Global African Diaspora. She has done fieldwork, lectured, consulted, and participated in and organized cultural events in most of Africa and its Diaspora. Relevant works include edited volumes African Roots/American Cultures: Africa in the Creation of the Americas and Conocimiento desde adentro: Los afrosudamericanos hablan de sus pueblos y sus historias (Spanish and Portuguese); and documentaries “Scattered Africa: Faces and Voices of the African Diaspora” and “Familiar Faces/Unexpected Places: A Global African Diaspora,” which was shown at the United Nations in the context of the International Decade for People of African Descent for Black History Month 2018, and sent to United Nations Information Centers in Africa, the Americas, Asia and the Pacific, and Europe

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The African Diaspora Film Club is presented in partnership with Black Public Media

Black Public Media (BPM), formerly known as National Black Programming Consortium develops, produces, funds, and distributes media content about the African American and global Black experience. Our mission is to commit to a fully realized expression of democracy and we accomplish this by supporting diverse voices through training, education, and investment in visionary content makers.

For 40 years, BPM has addressed the needs of unserved and underserved audiences. BPM continues to address historical, contemporary, and systemic challenges that traditionally impede the development and distribution of black stories.

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This program is also co-presented by the Ethnicity, Race, and Indigenous Peoples Section of the Latin America Studies Association

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