Friends Of Africa - Rutgers University "African Film Showcase" Thursday, April 19, Busch Campus Center's Center Hall
09/04/07 08:39
This
event went well!
Center for Afrian Studies, Anthropology, and Rutgers College Student
Development and College Affairs present an
African Film Showcase! Musical Extravaganza!
Two filmmakers, Jyoti Mistry and Jesse Weaver Shipley, will present
their films and lead a discussion after the screenings.
I Mike What I Like (DV/50" 2006 South Africa) by Jyoti Mistry
Living the Hiplife (DV/58" 2007 Ghana) by Jesse Weaver Shipley
DATE: Thursday, April 19, 2007
TIME: 5pm-7pm Pizza and Screenings; 7pm-8pm Discussion with Filmmakers
PLACE: Center Hall, Busch Campus Center, Rutgers University NJ, USA
For directions and a copy of the flyer please visit the Center for
African Studies website:
(Filmmaker biographies and film synopses are below.)
••• I Mike What I Like (DV/50" 2006) by Jyoti Mistry.
Kgafela oa Magogodi's 'I Mike What I Like'; the world's first spoken word
film, is a riveting tour de force of visual poetry directed by Jyoti
Mistry.
It offers a visceral connection with language and a fluid, narrative,
cinematic experience that is a kaleidoscopic visual interpretation of
Kgafela oa Magogodi's powerful words. The film is a roving conversation of
words, images, text, music, graphics and performance set to jazz
improvisation and action painting. I mike what I like navigates a roller
coaster ride via the birth pains of a young society through its premature
initiation on the seething streets of the city of Johannesburg to the
deepest moments of internal intimacy. Kgafela speaks the unspeakable and
mikes what he likes in the tradition of Steve Bhiko, Ayi Kwei Armah and
Dambudzo Marechera. I mike what I like is based on the stage play of the
same title that was part of the 52 Seasons at the South African State
Theatre, Pretoria.
Jyoti Mistry is Associate Professor at the University of Witwatersrand's
Film and Television department in the Wits School of Arts and a co-founder
of Shadowy Meadows Productions. She has worked as a filmmaker
internationally. Her short films "we remember differently" and "yoni" were
acquired for M-Net's African Film Library initiative. "I mike what I like"
is collaboration with spoken word warrior Kgafela oa Magogodi that has
received critical acclaim.
••• Living the Hiplife (DV/58" 2007) by Jesse Weaver Shipley.
Starring
Reggie Rockstone Ossei
Featuring
The Mobile Boys and Motia
Reggie Rockstone Ossei returned to his native Ghana in 1994 and sparked a
musical revolution. This film paints a musical portrait of urban African
life by showing how hip hop and highlife popular music came together in the
streets of Accra creating a new musical culture called hiplife. Rockstone
left a successful rap career in London to rap in the Twi language and
record
and perform in his home city of Accra. Combining the visual languages of
remixing, portraiture, and historical footage, this film follows urban
youth culture through performances and the neighborhoods in Accra. It traces
Rockstone, known as the Godfather of Hiplife, in his quest to develop rap
music in Ghana. The film weaves together the story of a young group of
aspiring rappers called The Mobile Boys as they try to make it in the music
industry. African American influences emerge in rap styles and
beatmaking as artists combine older proverbial speech, urban popular styles, and
electronica. The film ties political history together with vibrant musical
life to look at the economic hopes and musical dreams of young urban
Ghanaians as they confront the realities of sponsorship, political change,
the music industry, and international imaginations.
Jesse Weaver Shipley is Assistant Professor of Africana Studies and
Anthropology and Director of the Africana Studies Program at Bard College,
Annandale-on-Hudson, New York. This is his first full-length documentary
film. Publications include "Visuality to Postcolonial African Politics: A
Conversation with Mohamed Saidou N'Daou" and "'The Best Tradition Goes On':
Popular Theater and Televised Soap in Neoliberal Ghana."He is currently
completing two book manuscripts on performance in Ghana entitled National
Audiences and Consuming Subjects: A Political Genealogy of Performance in
Ghana and another called Living and Preaching the Hiplife. His awards
include a Fulbright-IIE Grant, Accra, Ghana; Wenner-Gren Foundation Grant a
Residential Fellowship at the Carter G. Woodson Institute for African
American and African Studies, University of Virginia; and a Postdoctoral
Fellowship at the Center for Cultural Analysis, Rutgers University.
Center for Afrian Studies, Anthropology, and Rutgers College Student
Development and College Affairs present an
African Film Showcase! Musical Extravaganza!
Two filmmakers, Jyoti Mistry and Jesse Weaver Shipley, will present
their films and lead a discussion after the screenings.
I Mike What I Like (DV/50" 2006 South Africa) by Jyoti Mistry
Living the Hiplife (DV/58" 2007 Ghana) by Jesse Weaver Shipley
DATE: Thursday, April 19, 2007
TIME: 5pm-7pm Pizza and Screenings; 7pm-8pm Discussion with Filmmakers
PLACE: Center Hall, Busch Campus Center, Rutgers University NJ, USA
For directions and a copy of the flyer please visit the Center for
African Studies website:
(Filmmaker biographies and film synopses are below.)
••• I Mike What I Like (DV/50" 2006) by Jyoti Mistry.
Kgafela oa Magogodi's 'I Mike What I Like'; the world's first spoken word
film, is a riveting tour de force of visual poetry directed by Jyoti
Mistry.
It offers a visceral connection with language and a fluid, narrative,
cinematic experience that is a kaleidoscopic visual interpretation of
Kgafela oa Magogodi's powerful words. The film is a roving conversation of
words, images, text, music, graphics and performance set to jazz
improvisation and action painting. I mike what I like navigates a roller
coaster ride via the birth pains of a young society through its premature
initiation on the seething streets of the city of Johannesburg to the
deepest moments of internal intimacy. Kgafela speaks the unspeakable and
mikes what he likes in the tradition of Steve Bhiko, Ayi Kwei Armah and
Dambudzo Marechera. I mike what I like is based on the stage play of the
same title that was part of the 52 Seasons at the South African State
Theatre, Pretoria.
Jyoti Mistry is Associate Professor at the University of Witwatersrand's
Film and Television department in the Wits School of Arts and a co-founder
of Shadowy Meadows Productions. She has worked as a filmmaker
internationally. Her short films "we remember differently" and "yoni" were
acquired for M-Net's African Film Library initiative. "I mike what I like"
is collaboration with spoken word warrior Kgafela oa Magogodi that has
received critical acclaim.
••• Living the Hiplife (DV/58" 2007) by Jesse Weaver Shipley.
Starring
Reggie Rockstone Ossei
Featuring
The Mobile Boys and Motia
Reggie Rockstone Ossei returned to his native Ghana in 1994 and sparked a
musical revolution. This film paints a musical portrait of urban African
life by showing how hip hop and highlife popular music came together in the
streets of Accra creating a new musical culture called hiplife. Rockstone
left a successful rap career in London to rap in the Twi language and
record
and perform in his home city of Accra. Combining the visual languages of
remixing, portraiture, and historical footage, this film follows urban
youth culture through performances and the neighborhoods in Accra. It traces
Rockstone, known as the Godfather of Hiplife, in his quest to develop rap
music in Ghana. The film weaves together the story of a young group of
aspiring rappers called The Mobile Boys as they try to make it in the music
industry. African American influences emerge in rap styles and
beatmaking as artists combine older proverbial speech, urban popular styles, and
electronica. The film ties political history together with vibrant musical
life to look at the economic hopes and musical dreams of young urban
Ghanaians as they confront the realities of sponsorship, political change,
the music industry, and international imaginations.
Jesse Weaver Shipley is Assistant Professor of Africana Studies and
Anthropology and Director of the Africana Studies Program at Bard College,
Annandale-on-Hudson, New York. This is his first full-length documentary
film. Publications include "Visuality to Postcolonial African Politics: A
Conversation with Mohamed Saidou N'Daou" and "'The Best Tradition Goes On':
Popular Theater and Televised Soap in Neoliberal Ghana."He is currently
completing two book manuscripts on performance in Ghana entitled National
Audiences and Consuming Subjects: A Political Genealogy of Performance in
Ghana and another called Living and Preaching the Hiplife. His awards
include a Fulbright-IIE Grant, Accra, Ghana; Wenner-Gren Foundation Grant a
Residential Fellowship at the Carter G. Woodson Institute for African
American and African Studies, University of Virginia; and a Postdoctoral
Fellowship at the Center for Cultural Analysis, Rutgers University.