another great event happening in Seattle
---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Sat, 24 Mar 2001 12:42:10 -0800
From: Kathy Fowells <[log in to unmask]>
Reply-To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: [wa-afr] Ethiopian film maker to attend Seattle premier of ADWA:
AN AFRICAN VICTORY
Press Release
CONTACT: Sultan Mohamed (206) 723-3384
NEW FILM BY HAILE GERIMA DOCUMENTS PIVOTAL MILITARY WAR IN AFRICA'S
ANTI-COLONIAL STRUGGLE
The Seattle Premiere of ADWA: AN AFRICAN VICTORY is scheduled for March
30, 2001, at the Langston Hughes Cultural Art Center (104 17th Avenue
South). Haile Gerima, the Ethiopian-born director widely acknowledged as
one of the most important black independent filmmakers working today,
will be present for the premiere on Friday only. Show times are as
follows:
Friday, March 30: 6 and 9. Admission $15.
Saturday, March 31: 3, 6, and 9 pm. Admission $12.
Sunday, April 1: 2, 5, and 8 pm. Admission $12.
For more information, call (206) 371-1088.
Gerima is both world renowned and awarded for other cinematic
innovations in storytelling such as SANKOFA, HARVEST 3,000 YEARS, and
BUSH MAMA. Gerima who teaches filmmaking in the School of Communications
at Howard University in Washington DC, has released seven award winning
feature films at a host of international film festivals. ADWA: AN
AFRICAN VICTORY is a ninety-minute tour-de-force that is both personal
and global in its focus and reach, documenting how the filmmaker himself
was deeply affected as a youth by the oral history of ADWA, but also
demonstrating how that oral history is still very much a part of the
psyche of Ethiopia, Africa and the African diaspora today. Haile joins
the voices of Ethiopian historians, elders, priests, poets and singers,
capturing on film the education and experience that shaped his
consciousness. In a collage of Ethiopian landscapes, paintings,
photographs and faces, the film illuminates one of the hidden sources of
African empowerment.
ADWA: AN AFRICAN VICTORY captures the independence and determination of
the Ethiopian people. In response to the "Scramble for Africa," or
carving up of the African continent by European colonizers following the
famed Berlin Conference, Ethiopians from all provinces and ethnic groups
unified to defend their homeland from an Italian takeover. No one
expected the Ethiopian army to successfully fight the well-trained and
armed Italian army. But no one could have imagined that the Ethiopian
love for country and independence was so great that literally every
citizen mobilized to take action. As a result estimates are that
anywhere from 70,000 to 90,000 Ethiopians of every walk of life and in
every possible attire united on the battlefield to confront roughly
18,000 Italians and draftees. The battle began at dawn on March 1, 1896
and by nightfall, according to one press account; the Italian army "no
longer existed."
The significance of ADWA was felt around the world. The victory helped
inspire the Garvey movement in the Americas and Pan-Africanism around
the world as demonstrated by the convening of the first Pan-African
Congress in London and formation of early African nationalism and
independence movements in Sierra Leone, Liberia, South Africa and
elsewhere. Ethiopia's emperor Menelik was recognized at the first
Pan-African Congress for his military strategy and diplomacy and was
made an honorary member of the Pan African Association, along with the
Presidents of Haiti and Liberia.
As one writer stated it, "The victory...put pride into the breasts of
Africans everywhere," and trepidation in other quarters. Reportedly
subsequent to ADWA, Italian, British, French and American cavalry and
infantry studied the war in an effort to explain the blunders that made
the one-sided victory possible. Despite the headline news of the victory
over 100 years ago, few history books, even in Africa make mention of
this, one of the most dramatic military defeats of the 19th century that
reverberated well into the 1900's. The film can thus serve as an
important educational resource around the world. With creative use of
visuals and interviews with many Ethiopian elders, historians and other
sources, a full-rounded picture is provided by Gerima's film of the will
to be free. ADWA: AN AFRICAN VICTORY was narrated by the director
himself and filmed in Amharic, Ethiopia's indigenous language, with
English subtitles.
Filmmaker Haile Gerima is available for interviews in person or by phone
on Friday, March 31, 2001 only. Call (206) 723-3384 to schedule an
interview.
###
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