Film & BooksIssue: Aries 07
The 14th New York African Film Festival
The 14th New York African Film Festival is being held at the Film Society of Lincoln Center in New York City April 4 - 12. This year the festival celebrates the 50th anniversary of the independence of Ghana. Located in sub-Saharan West Africa, Ghana was the first country in that region to gain independence from colonial rule.
At the Water / Pamvura
Women Filmmakers of the Zimbabwe Production Skills Workshop, Zimbabwe, 2005; 14m. In Shona.The festival includes 47 features, documentaries, and shorts from 20 African countries including a special selection of films focused on the women of Zimbabwe. In addition, the Film Society will show a unique selection of rarely seen archival footage, ranging from colonial propaganda films to newsreels made at the very moment of independence that display remarkable if at times unsettling images of Africa and Africans that remind us of the immeasurable importance of self-representation.
Filmmakers and other guest speakers will be on hand to present their work during the festival. On Monday, April 9, the African Film Festival will present its annual roundtable discussion at the Furman Gallery, a chance for audiences and filmmakers to explore and discuss in further detail the guiding themes of the 2007 festival, as well as the complex and multifaceted role of cinema in postcolonial, national, and pan-African liberation. The festival continues at the Bronx Museum of the Arts on April 20 and 21 and at the Brooklyn Academy of Music’s BAMcinematek, May 25 through 28.
For more information on the African Film Festival, see the Film Society of Lincoln Center's Filmlinc website. 
Film & Books Archives (total entries: 29)
Capricorn 08 - The Career Issue
Sagittarius 08 & Honest Self Expression
Like real life-families who have a member struggling with drug or alcohol addiction, the focus of “Rachel Getting Married” isn’t on Rachel, even though it should be. It is on her narcissistic sister, Kym, who is out of rehab for the weekend to attend Rachel’s wedding.
Scorpio 08 - The Money Issue
At a time when our nation’s security is in question and our economy is in shambles “The Good Society: The Humane Agenda” by John Kenneth Galbraith has much to teach the abiding liberal as well as the dutiful conservative.
Honestly, I have never been one for self-help books, but what I liked most about "How We Choose to Be Happy" is that it celebrates the wisdom of a variety of literary greats balanced by the stories of ordinary people.
This book won the 2008 PEN/Faulkner Award for fiction for good reason. I started the “The Great Man” on Saturday morning and had to finish it by lunch the next day. When it started to rain I traded my lawn chair for the couch and kept on reading. This novel is fabulously funny, mischievous, and easy to read.
A quirky look at boyhood and film-making in the 1980s, “Son of Rambow” is a welcome diversion from the current deluge of blockbuster remakes and super hero epics in theaters this summer. Written and directed by Garth Jennings and produced by Nick Goldsmith, I like the way this film spins a standard, winning movie formula at a slightly awkward angle.
Although “The Maytrees” by Annie Dillard is marketed as a novel, it reads from beginning to end as a poem. Like body surfing, the poetry will move emotions in directions that the mind may not understand. When this wave brought me to shore, I needed air and I wasn’t quite certain where I had been or where I had landed, but I was, in the truest sense of the word, in awe of the experience I just had.
April and May are notoriously bad months to go to the movies. The Academy Award hopefuls of 2008 won't be released until the fall, and the summer blockbusters won't be out for a few months. So what is a film reviewer to do when all the movies in the theaters are lame? This reviewer is going to suggest that you catch up on the best movies of 2007!
After an unsuccessful attempt to climb K2, Greg Mortenson stumbled into the village of Korphe in Pakistan’s Karakoram Himalaya region. The generosity and hospitality of the Korphe villagers inspired Mortenson to establish the Central Asia Institute (CAI). Since the establishment of CAI ten years ago, the organization has built 55 schools serving Pakistan and Afghanistan’s poorest children, especially girls.
Based on Marjane Satrapi's books, the film “Persepolis” tells the poignant story of a young girl coming of age in Iran in the midst of revolution and war.
