RIIFF 2007 Screenings at the Providence Black Repertory Company

Location:

Providence Black Repertory Company

276 Westminster Street, Providence, RI 02903

401.421.3300

110 capacity,www.blackrep.org

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Date: Wednesday, August 8th at 6:00 p.m.

SOUNDS OF A MIRACLE
Todd Robinson, director
24 min. USA, 2007
Have you ever heard what a miracle sounds like? Step into the world of Earnestine Rodgers Robinson. Despite no formal music training, with her faith and family, she rises from humble southern roots to become an unlikely composer of classical music that takes her all the way to Carnegie Hall and to a world premiere in Europe. Come experience her journey, listen to her music and hear the sounds of a miracle.

BEEN DOWN THAT MUDDY ROAD: THE LEGEND OF JOE BARRY
Carol Carimi Acutt, director
70 min. USA, 2006
Joe Barry. The name is synonymous with legendary rock and roll. And bad behavior. Few know the tortured man behind the music, who struggled with personal and professional demons, giving up on music several times to pursue careers as diverse as pimp, preacher and mercenary. He threw punches and received them, shot others and got shot, was bitten by the snake and then spread the Word of God. But he always returned to his roots - the bayou country of Southern Louisiana. This documentary weaves the stories of his songs into the colorful tapestry of a remarkable life. It transports you back in time to a place that is gone forever - the richly-colorful 1950's and 60’s music scene of South Louisiana and Southeast Texas.

Date: Thursday, August 9th at 6:00 p.m.

REVOLUTION '67
Marylou Tibaldo-Bongiorno, director
90 min. USA, 2007
Featuring Tom Hayden and Amiri Baraka
The American struggle with race, inequality, idealism, and power in the 1960s is explored through the story of the riots that erupted in Newark, New Jersey, in 1967. What really happened is told in archival footage, bold animation, and from the mouths of the people who lived it. The filmmakers interview the Activists (Tom Hayden, Amiri Baraka, Carol Glassman, Sharpe James) and the Power Structure (Brendan Byrne and representatives from the police and the National Guard). The film's coda measures the vital signs of Newark today.

MR. DIAL HAS SOMETHING TO SAY
Celia Carey, director
60 min. USA, 2007
http://www.aptv.org/as/mrdial
Southern African-American visual art is the lesser-known 'sibling' of jazz and the blues. Like the music, this improvisational form has influenced many now-famous white American artists. But unlike the musicians, the visual artists have not received recognition for their historical impact on American culture. Why? This one-hour high-definition documentary film explores the topic of racism and classism in the elite world of the American art museums, schools and galleries, focusing on the experiences of Thornton Dial--79-year-old 'self-taught' artist from Alabama.

Friday, August 10th at 6:00 p.m.

POP FOUL
Moon Molson, director
20 min. USA, 2007
Cast: Sekou Laidlow, Keith Bullard and Danielle K. Thomas
When a young boy heading home from Little League game sees his father take a “beat down” from a local thug, the pair enters into a secretive pact designed to hide the disturbing incident from the boy's mother.

NINA BABY
Clyde Mason, director
14 min. USA, 2006
Inspired by turning thirteen, Nina Wright, an aspiring jazz musician, decides to take a journey. She walks through the streets of Los Angeles giving her take on what's wrong with Hip-Hop music, people's prejudices, her loves, her dreams for the future, and peppers her soliloquy with beautiful interludes on her trumpet. No one listens to her or her trumpet playing, so she uses the camera as her sole audience. She talks to the camera, gets angry with the camera, and laughs with the camera. On her journey we see flashes of her dead brother, her chess obsessed father with whom she shares a tent in downtown Los Angeles, and, most importantly, we see her decide to take the biggest gamble of her life.

LIFTED
Randall Dottin, director
29 min. USA, 2006
A young mother/dancer meets her spiritual guardian on a subway station platform after she abandons her child.

THE GOLDEN VOICE
Greg Cahill, director
25 min. USA, 2006
A vibrant rock n' roll scene flourished in Cambodia during the 1960s. Ros Sereysothea was dubbed 'the golden voice of the royal capital' by King Sihanouk. As the Vietnam War raged next door, the Khmer Rouge communists gained power in the Cambodian countryside. In 1975, Phnom Penh fell to the Khmer Rouge. Thus began Pol Pot's horrific revolution in which 2 million perished in the so-called 'killing fields.' Artists and musicians were targetted for execution, compelling Ros Sereysothea to conceal her identity as best she could. Despite the tragedy, her music lives on.

THE KNIFE GRINDER'S TALE
R.L. Hooker, director
18 min. USA, 2006
http://www.TheKnifeGrindersTale.com
Ogwang, a knife grinder, has lost his son to an angry mob. Not knowing the place his son lost his life; Ogwang sets out on a journey to understand why. Along the way, Ogwang’s memories take us back to how it was his son went to work in the biggest slum in Kenya, Kibera. Entering Kibera’s boulevards Ogwang finds the place where his son once worked, Mama Lucy’s Fish Shop. There, Mama Lucy show’s Ogwang the exact spot of his son’s death. D.J. was murdered for his cell phone by mistake. They thought he was a thief. Leaving without real answers, Ogwang is mistaken for a thief for his bicycle and is also murdered.

Saturday, August 11th at 6:00 p.m.

BULLET PROOF VEST
May Lin Au Yong, director
5 min. USA, 2006
Welcome to Richmond California where children neither walk to school, nor go to the park; not if they want to live past the age of 18. Fed up with the gun violence decimating the city's young male population, residents took over the four most dangerous parks; camping in 'Tent Cities' in a desperate stand for peace. Let 9 year old twins Mustapha and Jyeshria explain why kids are killing kids in Richmond.

QUINCY AND ALTHEA
Doug Lenox, director
10 min. USA, 2006
Quincy and Althea, two 60 year-old bickering married Hurricane Katrina evacuees, have just returned to their flood ravaged New Orleans home. Despite the seemingly overwhelming task of reconstruction that lies ahead for the couple, the last thing on either of their minds is rebuilding. All Quincy and Althea want is a divorce.

TRANSFORMATIONS
Javier Molina, director
100 min. USA, 2006
Cast: Kenneth Browning, James Clark and Joe Bartolotta
A fateful encounter between three friends and a suburban teen leads to a revenge-fueled scheme to oust a menacing local drug dealer. But as the scheme unfolds, their plans go awry, and things grow more intense and violent with every murder the friends leave in their wake. They must choose whether to embrace the world of sex, drugs, and violence that surrounds them, or to rise above it. With its gritty, documentary feel, Transformations offers an honest, non-judgmental look at the true nature of crime and violence in the inner city.