At SAM’s Plestcheeff Auditorium, 7:30 pm:

March 1
Lumumba (2000. 115 minutes. Congo, in French and Lingala with English subtitles)
Directed by Raoul Peck.
Raoul Peck previously produced a documentary on Patrice Lumumba. This is his fictionalized story of Lumumba’s life and his presidency of the newly­ independent Congo, cut short by American intervention and local rivalry.

March 8
Yellow Card (2000. 90 minutes. Zimbabwe, in English)
Directed by John Riber.
This is a comedy about a soccer star that hides a serious discussion on AIDS, teenage pregnancy and male responsibility. Winner of Jury Award, Pan-African Film Festival, Los Angeles 2001.

March 15
Maangamizi (1999. Filmed in Tanzania, in English)
Directed by Martin Mhando and Ron Mulvihill.
An African­American doctor and her African patient confront issues of belief and its intersection with Western rationality. Winner of Golden Dhow Award for Best Feature, Zanzibar International Film Festival. Official Tanzanian entry to Academy Awards.

March 22
Sya: Dream of the Python (2001. 96 minutes. Burkino, in French with English subtitles)
Directed by Dani Kouyate.
A young woman tries to escape a plot to harm her. Winner of Special Jury Prize, Fespaco 2001, Best Screenplay, Namur 2001. (Prior to the screening of Sya at 6 pm, join Rakumi for the official launch of Nigeria-Arts.net; see below for further information.)

March 29
Faraw! Mother of the Dunes (1997. 90 minutes. Mali, in Songhoi with English subtitles)
Directed by Abdoulaye Ascofare. Beautifully filmed, this drama depicts a woman’s efforts to provide for her family and keep her daughter from prostitution. Winner of Best Actress, Fespaco 1997.

Through An African Lens
A Community Film Forum at Rainier Valley Cultural Center

This festival of films not only presents the unique experience of watching U.S. and Seattle premieres of African films and video documentaries, but also provides audiences the opportunity of dialogue with African directors. We will host a Forum for Discussion with directors Sechaba Morojele (South Africa), Zeb Ejiro (Nigeria), and other participants in the film industry to talk about contemporary topics, popular culture and the media, as well as social and economic issues in Africa. Join us at RVCC in meeting new directors and celebrating African cinema in the 21st century! (See directions to RVCC after the schedule below.) Tickets: $5.00 afternoon or evening; $8.00 for the entire day.

Saturday, March 23rd, 2:30 pm
Karmen Geï (2001, 82 minutes, in French and Wolof with Engish subtitles)
Directed by Joseph Gaï Ramaka (Senegal).

Like every "Carmen", Karmen Geï is about the conflict between the infinite desire for freedom and the laws which constrain that desire. Prosper Merimée's novella, adapted in Bizet's celebrated opera, has already received 52 film interpretations, but Karmen Geï is the first African Carmen and, arguably, the first African filmed "musical." Accordingly, Gaï Ramaka has completely replaced Bizet's score and the usual staging with indigenous Senegalese music and choreography: Doudou N'Diaye Rose's sabar drummers, Julien Jouga's choir, El Hadj Ndiaye's songs and Yandé Coudou Sène's prophetic voice. Saxophonist David Murray's contemporary jazz score runs like a thread of unfulfilled desire through the film. Karmen Geï may convince viewers that this African ambience is what the Carmen legend, perhaps leading back through Andalusia to its African roots, has been waiting for all these years.

Saturday, March 23rd, 4:30 pm
Ubuntu’s Wounds. (2002, 33 minutes. South Africa, in English)
Introduced by Director, Sechaba Morojele, South Africa.
A drama about a black ex-activist who wants to seek revenge on the white ex-police officer who killed his wife during South Africa’s apartheid days. Award nominee for the Pan-African Film Festival, Los Angeles.

Sechaba Morojele (Writer/Director of Ubuntu's Wounds): Sechaba spent five years working as an actor and screenwriter in South Africa, garnering a best actor nomination for South Africa's Golden Globe equivalent. Of the two shorts he made in South Africa, one was nominated best short film and the other facilitated his entrance into the Directing program at the American Film Institute. While at AFI, Sechaba was awarded the Joseph and Olga Auerbach Scholarship and the Stan Kamen Endowed Scholarship for the most deserving student. The script for Ubuntu's Wounds was a quarter finalist in the New Century Writer's competition and it also was awarded the $10, 000 Martin Ritt award that went towards the production of the film. Followed by audience discussion.

7 pm Forum for Discussion with Directors: Challenges of African Filmmaking. Directors Sechaba Morojele, Zeb Ejiro, and Cynthia Schmidt talk about making films relevant to contemporary Africa.

Saturday, March 23rd, 7:30 pm (at conclusion of Director’s Forum)
Domitilla I. (2001, 105 minutes. Nigeria, in Pidgin and English)
Introduced by Director, Zeb Ejiro, from Nigeria.
A feature film about a woman who was forced to make a living as a prostitute and her struggle to retreat to a different life.

Sunday, March 24th, 2002 2:30 pm
T-Shirt Travels (2001, 57 minutes. In English)
Director, Shantha Bloemen.
T-Shirt Travels is the story of how secondhand clothing, given away as charity in the western world, ends up in Zambia. Through this journey and by sharing the lives of those that trade and sell these clothes, the documentary will explore the underlying reasons why so many Africans remain in poverty. Funded, in part, by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

Sunday, March 24th, 3:45 pm
The Language You Cry In (1999, 56 minutes. In English)
Introduced by Co-producer, Cynthia Schmidt.
A remarkable story that traces a song sung in an African language by a Gullah grandmother in Georgia to its origin in a Mende village in Sierra Leone. This documentary about an African American legacy has won awards including Best Documentary, International Independent Film Festival, NYC, 1999, and National Black Programmers Consortium, Prized Pieces, 1999.

Sunday, March 24th, 5:15 pm
Open discussion with Directors Sechaba Morojele, Zeb Ejiro, and Cynthia Schmidt.

Saturday, March 23rd, 7:00 pm
Disillusion (1999, 110 minutes, drama in English)
Directed by Olaniyi Areke (Nigeria).

Disillusion takes us on a journey through the gambit of the social, the psychological, and the political spectrum of Segun, an African-born man who comes to America to further his education. Segun runs into many obstacles which include: an educational system that looks down upon him, frustrating job situations, social acceptance by the African American community, and a relationship with Debbie, an African American woman. There are many moments which capture the beauty of the wide-eyed innocent traveler enraptured at the unexpected. It is through these ordeals (disillusionment) that Segun gains a sense of self consciousness. Segun's growth from the challenges he encounters is inspiring as well as entertaining.

Disillusion won the Princess Grace Statuette Award and Honorable Mention at the Black Filmmakers Hall of Fame.

The Rainier Valley Cultural Center is located at 3515 S. Alaska St., in south Seattle’s Columbia City, just West of Rainier Avenue South at Alaska Street.
From I-5 you can take the Columbian Way exit. Follow Columbian Way as it curves to the left, where it becomes South Alaska Street. Proceed past Beacon Avenue and Martin Luther King Jr. Way. After four blocks, turn right into the RVCC parking lot, 1/2 block before the Rainier Avenue intersection. The facility is also accessible by the #7, #39, and #48 Metro routes.

Scheduling note: Film programs are subject to change without notice. Please visit www.rakumi.org for current information or call Graviton at 206-322-4444.

Through An African Lens has been made possible, in part, with support from South East Seattle Arts Council (SESAC) and a grant from the Seattle Arts Commission (SAC).