From New York Carib News

NEW YORK (CMC) | The African Diaspora International Film Festival (ADIFF) celebrates its 25th anniversary with a total of 64 films from 31 countries including 31 World, US and NY Premieres. Screenings will be held in three venues in Manhattan: Teachers College, Columbia University, Cinema Village and MIST Harlem.

The films in ADIFF 2017 – some coming directly from important national and international film festivals such as Sundance, Toronto or Berlinale – illustrate the diversification of the global film industry, from portraits of trailblazers of yesterday and today (Winnie, Sammy Davis Jr., Mama Africa: Miriam Makeba) to intimate stories that will touch the audience in many ways (The Citizen, Foreign Body, Rosa Chumbe). National and international award-winning actors and filmmakers are celebrated in ADIFF this year including Bill Duke, Mika Kaurismaki, Hiam Abbass, Raja Amari, Roland Vranik, and Sam Pollard.

The Caribbean region shines in ADIFF 2017 film selection!

BARBADOS
ADIFF will celebrate Barbados Independence Day under the Patronage of Dr. the Hon. Donna E. Hunte-Cox, Consul General – Consulate General of Barbados at New York – with the RED CARPET GALA SCREENING of BARROW: FREEDOM FIGHTER by Marcia Weekes on November 30, 2017. Narrated by former United States Attorney General Eric Holder whose father is from Barbados, the Errol Barrow docudrama, BARROW: FREEDOM FIGHTER tells the story of The Right Excellent Errol Walton Barrow who successfully led Barbados to independence on November 30th, 1966 after more than 300 years as a British colony. SWEET BOTTOM by professor Gladstone Yearwood – featured in the ADIFF’s Caribbean Program – is a drama about Roy Ashby who immigrated to Brooklyn from Barbados with his mother as a child and is deported for a minor offence back to Barbados as an adult – a land he does not know.

JAMAICA
THE FIRST RASTA by Helene Lee is an important historical documentary that relates and celebrates the life Leonard Percival Howell (1893- 1981) – the Gong – the creator of the Rasta Movement. KINGSTON CROSSROAD by Oliver Becker and Jonas Schaulgs is a snapshot of the country’s current social and political situation, told through the personal perspectives of several fascinating Jamaicans.

TRINIDAD & TOBAGO
EVERY COOK CAN GOVERN: DOCUMENTING THE LIFE, IMPACT & WORKS OF CLR JAMES by Ceri Dingle and Rob Harris is a historical tour-de-force that interweaves never-before-seen footage of C.L.R. James with personal contributions from those who knew him. This documentary presents an astute historical and political analysis from leading scholars of his work. PANOMUNDO PART 1 byCharysse Harper is a revealing documentary that explores the history of the steelpan from its origins in the ghettos of Trinidad & Tobago until its international recognition.

GUADELOUPE
Mariette Monpierre is a filmmaker who was born in Guadeloupe, grew up in Paris and lives in New York. Her work will be celebrated with the premiere presentation of two of her films on Saturday, Dec. 9 during a GALA Screening at MIST Harlem sponsored by theGuadeloupe Islands Tourist Board and the Harlem Community Development Corporation. Pilot of an upcoming TV Series, CARIBBEAN GIRL NYC tells an immigrant story, in a millennial way, set in the heart of New York City–the ultimate destination. BETWEEN 2 SHORES – FROM SANTO DOMINGO TO POINTE-A-PITRE is a sensitive look at the struggle of two women who immigrated illegally from Santo Domingo to live in Guadeloupe leaving their children behind.

THE LATINO EXPERIENCE
ANGÉLICA by Marisol Gomez is a film from Puerto Rico about racial identity, a theme seldom discussed frontally in latino dramas. Angelica has spent her whole life escaping from her mixed racial identity, but a family crisis forces her to return to Puerto Rico and rethink her life. TRANSIT HAVANA – NEW HEROES OF THE CUBAN REVOLUTION gives us a unique insight into the paradoxes of Cuba, showing a surprising side of an island in transition as it follows in Havana, transsexuals Odette, Juani and Malú who are waiting for sex reassignment surgery – performed by European top surgeons and organized by the president’s daughter, Mariela Castro. KAFOU by Bruno Mourral is a dark comedy and a thriller intended to be a satire of Haitian society. The film is inspired by the wave of kidnappings that plagued Haiti during the 2000s.

For more information about the 25th Annual African Diaspora International Film Festival, to receive the complete line up, screeners and high resolution images please contact Diarah N’Daw-Spech at (212) 864-1760/ fax (212) 316-6020 or e-mail [email protected]. Festival web site: www.nyadiff.org.

For more on this story go to: http://www.nycaribnews.com/Caribbean-Films.html

IMAGE: logo African Diaspora International Film Festival