Breaking The Chains Film Festival is a programme of screenings to observe the annual African Holocaust Remembrance Day held on 23 August. This date commemorates an uprising of enslaved Africans on the island of Saint Domingue (modern day Haiti) in 1791.
The screenings will highlight the hidden history and legacy of the enslavement of African people through our Maangamizi and the legacy of the enslavement period on Africa and the Diaspora. The word “Maangamizi” is a Swahili term which speaks to the intentionality of the African holocaust of chattel, colonial and neo-colonial enslavement.
The film festival will feature a mixture of feature films and documentaries. We will incorporate presentations and facilitate engaging post film discussions with audience members.
The programme of events are below:
Friday 5th August 2016 – Besouro
Friday 12th August 2016 – North London Premiere: Nanny: Legendary Maroon Chieftainess (U)
Friday 19th August 2016 – YURUMEIN (Homeland): Resistance, Rupture and Repair; the Caribs of St. Vincent in the Caribbean and The Garifuna Journey
Friday 26th August 2016 – They Are We
Friday 2nd September 2016 – TULA: The Revolt
BESOURO (15)
Friday 5th August 201
Based on the life of a legendary capoeira fighter and social leader from Bahia,Brazil, the film tells the mystical tale of this young Afro-Brazilian man and his connection to the Orixás, African deities with mystical powers. Set in the early 1920s, just forty years after the abolition of slavery, Besouro is riddled with fantastic capoeira fighting scenes (choreographed by the Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon team) and is set to the traditional rhythm of the “berimbau” capoeira instrument. With Ailton Carmo in the title role and Jessica Barbosa as his lover, the film was nominated for the 2010 Cinema Brazil Grand Prize and winner of Best Art Direction, Best Makeup and Best Visual Effects!
This event will take place on FRIDAY 5TH AUGUST 2016 from 7pm to 10pm.
Doors open at 7.00pm and the film will start at 7.30pm.
The event will be held at the Bernie Grant Arts Centre, Town Hall Approach Road, Tottenham Green, London, N15 4RX.
For location details go to http://www.berniegrantcentre.co.uk/index.php/your-visit
North London Premiere: Nanny: Legendary Maroon Chieftainess (U)
Friday 12th August 2016
Conceived by Jamaican-born, New Jersey-based filmmaker, Roy T. Anderson, and history professor, Harcourt T. Fuller, PhD, Queen Nanny: Legendary Maroon Chieftainess, a documentary-film, unearths and examine the mysterious figure that is Nanny of the Maroons; Jamaica’s sole female National Hero, and one of the most celebrated, but least recognized heroines in the resistance history of the New World.Queen Nanny documents the struggle for freedom by the Jamaican Maroons, led by the indomitable 18th century military genius, Nanny of the Maroons. A spiritual leader, skilled in the use of herbs and guerilla warfare tactics, from her mountain stronghold at the source of the Stony River in the majestic Blue Mountains, she directed the warfare that effectively neutralized the vaunted British firepower.
Following on the heels of Akwantu: the Journey (Action 4 Reel Flimworks, 2012), Anderson’s award-winning film on the history of the Jamaican Maroons, Queen Nanny expands on the story of the New World’s first successful freedom fighters by shedding light on to one of the leading figures in that struggle.
This event will take place on FRIDAY 12TH AUGUST 2016 from 7pm to 9.30pm.
Doors open at 7.00pm and the film will start at 7.30pm.
The event will be held at the Bernie Grant Arts Centre, Town Hall Approach Road, Tottenham Green, London, N15 4RX.
YURUMEIN (Homeland): Resistance, Rupture and Repair; the Caribs of St. Vincent in the Caribbean
Friday 19th August 2016
YURUMEIN (Homeland) is a documentary film which recounts the painful past of the Caribs on the island of St. Vincent in the Caribbean, their extermination at the hands of the British 200+ years ago, the decimation of their culture on the island, and their exile to Central America where much of that culture survived, even thrived. YURUMEIN (your -o- main) also explores what few cultural remnants of the Caribs, also known as Garifuna, still exist on St. Vincent and the beginnings of a movement to teach and revitalize Garifuna language, music and dance, and ritual to younger generations of Garifuna/ Caribs on St. Vincent
The Garifuna Journey
A first voice testimony celebrating the resiliency of the Garifuna people and their traditions. Shot entirely in Belize, the filmmakers worked closely with Garifuna tradition bearers, anthropologists and cultural activists during the research, scripting, production and editing phases of this project. The documentary resulting from this “outsider and insider” collaboration is the first of its kind, one that captures the triumph of spirit of the Garifuna people.
Descendants of African and Carib-Indian ancestors, the Garifuna fought to maintain their homeland and resisted slavery. For this love of freedom, they were exiled by the British in 1797. Despite exile and subsequent Diaspora, their traditional culture survives today. It is a little known story that deserves its place in the annals of the African Diaspora. In authentic Garifuna voices, this documentary presents the history, the language, food, music, dance and spirituality of the Garifuna culture. It is a celebratory documentary, with engaging scenes of fishing, cooking, dancing, cassava preparation, thatching a temple, spiritual ritual, ritual music and dance all demonstrating the Garifuna link to the Carib-African past.
In May of 2001, the United Nations awarded the Garifuna community the title: Proclamation of Masterpieces of Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity.
This event will take place on FRIDAY 19TH AUGUST 2016 from 7pm to 10pm.
Doors open at 7.00pm and the film will start at 7.30pm.
The event will be held at the Bernie Grant Arts Centre, Town Hall Approach Road, Tottenham Green, London, N15 4RX.
For location details go to http://www.berniegrantcentre.co.uk/index.php/your-visit
