Ijaba Films Presents...

Shades of Love: Black Homosexuality

Where to Buy... • Buy Volume One • Buy Volume Two • Buy Volume Three Our partners: Amazon.com ZawadiBooks.com createspace.com africansupermarket.com 6colourclique.com ukblackout.com curvemag.com redbonepress.com zami.org ijabafilms.com

Shades of Love: Black Homosexuality is a trilogy of documentaries that express the experiences and problems of black homosexuals. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Volume One Volume one dispels the myth about the origin of homosexuality among those of African descent. It exposes the many misconceptions that there was no homosexuality in pre-colonial Africa and that homosexuality was introduced to Africans by Europeans. This volume also brings into the open the rampant racism within the LGBT communities. It exposes the hypocrisy among those invoking the spirit of the civil rights movement in an effort to obtain gay rights, who, while doing so, are ferociously practicing the same racism that sparked the civil rights movement of days past. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Volume Two This is Volume 2 of the three volume documentary, "Shades Of love: Black Homosexuality". This volume covers HIV in the black community and each participant discusses what it's like to be black and gay. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Volume Three This is the final volume of the trilogy of documentaries "Shades Of Love: Black Homosexuality". This volume features the life stories of a wonderful group of proud, black, gay and lesbian sistahs and brothas and one heterosexual sistah who speaks about what life was like being raised by a lesbian mother.

You can see the complete piece at our collective's website. http://www.causecollective.com/ look under projects then select ALONG THE WAY.

While this article doesn't mention Along the Way it's related:

http://www.sundance.org/festival/insider/2008-01-25-FOF-race.asp

Beyond Black and White

Direct and Indirect Approaches to Race Speak Volumes

By Claiborne Smith | January 25, 2008

OPEN CALL

OPEN CALL FOR SHORT FILMS, VIDEOS, AND NEW MEDIA SCREEN-BASED WORKS
Under 10 minutes in length.
Deadline: February 28, 2008 (postmark)
No fee, no pay
Curators: Bill Basquin & Nomi Talisman

Thematic considerations:
We are looking for submissions under 10 minutes in length that relate to the theme
of INTERVENTION. This film program will be screened as a part of the Interrupt,
Intervene! Art as Social Change Festival hosted by UC Santa Cruz. There will be
a conference at UCSC and exhibitions and screenings in the cities of San Francisco,
Santa Cruz and San Jose and on campus at UC Santa Cruz throughout May 2008. (See
conference description and links below.)

Art as intervention is an emerging field of contemporary art practice, and artists
frequently use humour, surprise, or unusual associations to overturn assumptions
about the world, invite political engagement, create collaborations and relationships,
examine the everyday or map hidden systems, allowing the audience to think in new
ways.

We are seeking work that A) either documents public intervention or B) is an intervention
in itself.
Screenings will take place in outdoor locations in public places in all three cities.
We are seeking work that considers relational aesthetics, interventions, Situationist
practices, Fluxus style events and which explores the followings concepts:

Intervention: An action undertaken in order to change what is happening or might
happen in another’s affairs, especially in order to prevent something undesirable
In·ter·rupt (v) 1.To halt the flow of a speaker or of a speaker’s utterance with
a question or remark. 2. To disturb somebody who is busy doing something, causing
him or her to stop. 3. To cause a break in the flow of something or put a temporary
stop to something. 4. To discontinue doing something temporarily. 5. To obstruct
or block a view In·ter·fer·ence (n) 1. Involvement in something without any invitation
or justification. 2. Hindrance or obstruction that prevents a natural or desired
outcome. 3. An unwanted signal that disrupts radio, telephone, or television reception.
In·tru·sion (n)1. A disturbing of somebody’s peace or privacy by an unwelcome arrival
or presence. 2. An unwelcome presence or effect that disturbs or upsets something.
In·volv·ing (adj) Holding the attention. Alternatively, you can Bring Your Own Definition!

Technical details:
Preview format: DVD. One DVD for each entry, no complicated menus
Exhibition format: DVD. The DVD must play from a DVD player.
Please attach a short description, contact information, and a one paragraph short
bio, and SASE if you want your DVD back.
Please mark as Intervention/Sidewalk program

Send to:
Nomi Talisman/ Sidewalk screening
C/O CRI
1499 Potrero Ave. Soap Building Unit #2
San Francisco, CA 94110

Deadline: February 28, 2008 (postmark)

About the conference
UC Santa Cruz art department presents a festival and conference entitled: Interrupt!
Intervene! Art as Social Change

In May 2008 UC Santa Cruz will host “Interrupt, Intervene: Art as Social Change”.
This event includes a three day conference at UC Santa Cruz, May 15, 16th 17th 2008
alongside a month long series of artists interventions linked to gallery exhibitions
at the LAB (San Francisco), the ICA (San Jose) and the Sesnon gallery at UC Santa
Cruz. Funded by Porter College Festival grant, ARI grants and COR grants.

The conference and exhibitions will serve as a venue for artists, theorists and
the public to explore art that re-examines set ideas, engenders discussion and forges
relationships. The conference will allow theorists and artists to locate contemporary
practice within this art historical framework in order to understand and discuss
innovative contemporary art interventions and art as social practice.

These artworks can be performances, sculptures, web sites, documentations, publications,
or public installations. The work is often subtle in manifestation, frequently a
gesture, a gift, or an act of detournement.

For more information about the conference and events visit the website:

http://may2008.artintervention.org

The Souls of Black Girls

From the site:

The Souls of Black Girls is a provocative news documentary that takes a critical look at media
images--how they are instituted, established and controlled. The documentary also examines the relationship between the historical and existing media images of women of color and raises the question of whether they may be suffering from a self-image disorder as a result of trying to attain the standards of beauty that are celebrated in media images.

The documentary features candid interviews with young women discussing their self-image and social commentary from Actresses Regina King and Jada Pinkett Smith, PBS Washington Week Moderator Gwen Ifill, Rapper/Political Activist Chuck D, and Cultural Critic Michaela Angela Davis, among others. The Souls of Black Girls is a piece that attempts to provoke honest dialogue and critical thinking among women of color about media images and our present condition—internally and externally.

(thanks, Deb!)

TOMORROW! IF YOU BREAK THE SKIN SCREENING! WORLD PREMIERE!

Wednesday, November 7th, 7PM
$10 at www.firstpersonarts.org or 800.838.3006
The First Person Stage at 2111 Sansom Street
For more information, call 267.402.2059


The documentary If You Break the Skin, You Must Come In does more than just
scratch the surface of the lives it examines. When a group of adolescents in
foster care were chosen to help make a film about maverick photographer Zoe
Strauss, the process was turned inside out by having them turn the camera on
themselves. The result is a sobering, but ultimately uplifting, look at
using art to find joy and magic in the world that surrounds us. The
screening will be followed by a discussion with Strauss, the director David
Kessler, and the young filmmakers; one of whom, Charday Laverty, also
curated the show of Strauss's photographs that will be on exhibit throughout
the festival.


A Harmelin Media Series Event.


Wednesday, November 7th, 7PM
$10 at www.firstpersonarts.org or 800.838.3006
The First Person Stage at 2111 Sansom Street
For more information, call 267.402.2059

Don't miss this.

-----

WWW.ZOESTRAUSS.BLOGSPOT.COM

The Department of African American Studies at Syracuse University is
seeking artists to participate in a film festival and exhibition that
explores and interprets the AIDS pandemic and its impact on African
American life and culture.

The film festival and exhibition will open on December 1st, 2007, World
Aids Day. The exhibition will continue through December 22, 2007

Selected artists will have the opportunity to exhibit at the Community
Folk Art Center which houses one of Syracuse University's premiere
exhibition spaces.

Proposal /Submission Deadline: September 1, 2007

Please send the following materials:
* ten images of your work on CD or a film short on DVD
* 5 copies of your resume and exhibition history
* your photo and an artist statement
* a SASE ;
to: CFAC Curatorial Committee, 805 East Genesee Street Syracuse, New York13210
attention: Asha Best

An electronic application may be sent to: asha.best@gmail.com
(please indicate in the subject line that the email is in regards to World AIDS Day at SU)


The Community Folk Art Center is a unit of the Department of African
American Studies, College of Arts and Sciences, Syracuse University.

well alright now!

take action hollywood film contest winner!

CosmoGIRL! announces the winner of our first annual Take Action Hollywood film contest! Kiri Davis is an 18-year-old from Brooklyn whose movie "A Girl Like Me" explores the effect that the lack of racial diversity in media images has on young girls. Kiri wins a $10,000 grant from Take Action Hollywood, a Windows Vista Ultimate laptop, an iPod Shuffle, and a Target gift card.

hated it

I don't generally review things here, but we went to see this documentary, Black, White & Gray: A Portrait of Sam Wagstaff and Robert Mapplethorpe last week as part of Frameline, and I was moved to, um, speak on it.

We hemmed and hawed, as we always do at the prospect of actually leaving the house, but decided to go because it held some promise, given its fascinating subjects, and because I vaguely knew the director, James Crump, an impeccably-dressed fellow UNM grad who used to run Arena Editions, a small publishing house in Santa Fe that was just about to publish a book I really wanted (I don't remember the photographer but which included a portrait of Grace Jones) when it went under back around 2002. But I digress.

Now, imagine my delight when, almost immediately, two of my favorite talking-head blasts-from-my-past appeared onscreen: former curator Gordon Baldwin, with whom I used to work at the Getty; and Nia Parry, a brilliant historian with whom I studied at UNM. Rather like a child, I'm always excessively delighted when some place or someone familiar to me appears on screen, and this was no exception. But while Nia and Gordon were distinct highlights, because of my fondness for them but also because of the thoughtful perspectives they brought, I thought the documentary overall was so crammed full of random images and poorly edited that whatever they had to say got lost in the mix, to the degree that, during the Q & A, an audience member had to ask who Nia was and why her bitter-sounding tone differed so significantly from the other speakers in the film. Knowing Nia and knowing something about Mapplethorpe's history, I didn't hear her dissenting tone regarding Mapplethorpe as bitter but rather as justly critical of a complicated and by many accounts difficult figure within the history of photography. However, given the lack of context for her comments, I could also easily see how any viewer not familiar with her blunt and unapologetic style or her status within the field could read her as bitter and caustic, a fault which I'd entirely blame on the filmmaker.

The film focuses far more on Wagstaff than on Mapplethorpe, perhaps attempting to right the wrong of history canonizing Mapplethorpe while all but forgetting Wagstaff's contributions as curator and collector, but if Wagstaff were the real focus with Mapplethorpe (like Patti Smith, who appears in the film) as a supporting character, then it should have been billed as such (especially since most of the audience would be coming, I suspect, for Mapplethorpe). In order to give a sense of Wagstaff's collecting eye, Crump liberally used images from Wagstaff's collection (which in 1984 was famously sold to form the basis of the Getty's photography collection) throughout, although several people I spoke with afterward who weren't familiar with the images found them boring (ie., they fell asleep) without more contextualization. Early on when, during a sequence of images of the young Wagstaff over which the narrator is speaking about his mother using him as her escort, even teaching him to smoke, the filmmaker cuts to August Sander's photograph of a young man smoking (what--mother teaches him to smoke so he eventually collects a photo of another man smoking?), he completely lost me.

Most unsettling, though, was the way in which the film awkwardly cut from discussing Wagstaff's early curatorial career at the Wadsworth Atheneum to his alleged drug use and sexual appetites then back to a brief mention of the end of his tenure in Detroit (what else did he do in Detroit?) without anything tying these aspects of his life and career together. And Joan Juliet Buck, about whom I know little, was such a pretentious-sounding narrator that she was almost a parody of hauteur run amok. The only thing that made it even remotely worthwhile was briefly getting to see Gordon, who'd come up for the screening, as the theatre emptied.

these sound really interesting

Two films by William Greaves to be showcased at The Afro-Punk Festival/BAMcinématek

Still a Brother:
Inside the Negro Middle Class (1968)
Sunday, July 1 at 4:30pm (85min)

In this work, producers William Greaves and William Branch focus on emerging black professionals, contrasting white suburban values with issues of identity and what it means to be black and middle class. The film reveals the mental revolution that economically successful blacks underwent during the turbulent race-conscious sixties.

Directed by William Greaves
Co–produced by William Branch
Narrated by Ossie Davis

Symbiopsychotaxiplasm: Take One (1968)
Monday, July 2 at 6:50pm (75min)
Q&A with William Greaves

In this one-of-a-kind fiction/documentary hybrid, filmmaker William Greaves presides over a beleaguered film crew in New York's Central Park, leaving them to try to figure out what kind of movie he is making. This wildly innovative sixties counterculture landmark remains one of the most tightly focused and insightful movies ever made about making movies.

Directed by William Greaves

The Afro-Punk Festival (June 28-July 7) returns to BAM for the third year for six days of film, music, visual art, and more, all united under the banner of black activism.

General admission tickets to BAM Rose Cinemas are $11. Tickets are $7.50 for students 25 and under (with valid I.D. Monday–Thursday, except holidays), seniors, children under twelve, and $7 for BAM Cinema Club members. Tickets are available at the BAM Rose Cinemas box office, by phone at 718.777.FILM (order by “name of movie” option), or online at BAM.org.

For more information about the screenings, call the BAMcinématek hotline at 718.636.4100
or visit BAM.org. For more information about William Greaves, go to williamgreaves.com