Movies

African Diaspora Film Festival

The sixth annual Chicago African Diaspora Film Festival runs Friday through Thursday, June 13 through 19, at Facets Cinematheque. Tickets are $9, $5 for Facets members; for more information call 773-281-9075. Following are selected screenings; for a full schedule see facets.org.

Ezra Newton I. Aduaka directed this fictional chronicle, about the making of a child soldier (the title character, played by Mamoudu Turay Kamara). Set in an unnamed African country, the film follows Ezra from his school-yard abduction and political indoctrination by a militia group through his brutal actions in a civil war, and beyond. The tale is told through flashbacks and from multiple perspectives, as various witnesses to Ezra’s acts testify before a truth and reconciliation committee in an effort to help assimilate the boy into the postwar community. Not especially convincing as drama, thanks to its ham-handed narrative—the movie sometimes seems like a random compilation of acts of terror—Ezra is pretty effective at conveying the complicated societal dilemmas and grim psychological toll caused by the exploitation of children for political and military gain. 110 min. (Reece Pendleton)  Sun 6/15, 7:30 PM, and Thu 6/19, 6:30 PM.

Hip-Hop: Beyond Beats and Rhymes This 2006 video documentary by first-time director Byron Hurt, who bills himself as an “anti-sexist activist,” examines the exaggerated masculinity of commercial hip-hop—the homophobia, degradation of women, and extreme violence that are all but expected in the music. Lucid talking-head interviews with a host of rappers, impresarios, and academics offer no true revelations, but the intransigence of those invested in the industry illuminates a depressing systemic denial, especially when white men in suits ultimately control the business. As rappers like Busta Rhymes and Jadakiss freely admit that their hardness is just a pose for the sake of entertainment, they blanch at taking responsibility for the misguided models they propagate. Hurt’s argument is hardly fresh, but his presentation is engaging and clear-minded. 62 min. (Peter Margasak)  Sat 6/14, 10 PM, and Tue 6/17, 9 PM.

The President Has AIDS? Low-budget melodrama from Haiti about a womanizing pop superstar (Jimmy Jean-Louis) who conceals his HIV-positive status while continuing to have unprotected sex. The singer luxuriates in his hedonistic lifestyle until he falls for a virginal beauty (Jessica Geneus) who refuses his advances, demanding that he renounce his caddish ways. What’s more, his attempted courtship runs him afoul of a local crime boss who’s wooing the same woman. But the rivalry is little more than a narrative fig leaf across the film’s ostensible agenda, which is to disseminate accurate information about HIV transmission and treatment to the Haitian public. That’s a worthy goal, but it creates a pretty histrionic and preachy film. Directed by Arnold Antonin. 115 min. In French with subtitles. (Reece Pendleton)  Sat 6/14, 7:30 PM, and Wed 6/18, 9 PM.

Wild Women Don’t Have the Blues and Josephine Baker: White Diva in a Black Man’s World Two short documentaries on African-American singers. Christine Dall’s Wild Women Don’t Have the Blues (1989, 58 min.) considers the blues divas of the 1920s, beginning with Ma Rainey, whose extravagant theatricality at the turn of the 20th century influenced all those who came after her (Alberta Hunter, Mamie Smith, Ida Cox, Bessie Smith, Ethel Waters). Dall surveys so many performers that few of them register individually, despite their often outsize personalities; the film is more notable for its interviews with old-timers who still remember the low-rent origins of the black entertainment business. Annette von Wangenheim’s Josephine Baker: Black Diva in a White Man’s World (2006, 45 min.) benefits from a larger trove of performance footage to profile Baker, an American showgirl who became a star in France with degrading jungle-bunny song and dance but ultimately established herself as an icon of black elegance and sophistication. (JJ)  Sat 6/14, 5:30 PM, and Wed 6/18, 6:30 PM.

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