Change is Gonna Come: Obama Inauguration

Kenyatta Hill (son of the late great lead singer for Culture, Joseph Hill) rocks the mic real hard in Georgetown after the Inauguration.

January 20, 2009
I had just come back from a government sanctioned trip to Havana on a professional researcher visa to finish photography for Havana Habibi. It was was snowing in New York, I was beat, but I knew I had to go to DC and follow up to the Brooklyn Obama little mini doc I did. I drove down with my sista Regine Romain and her daughter Ngozi and dropped them off in Silver Springs where I connected with my bredren Tikher Teferra, who was my assistant director/sound man for The Seed, the feature film I shot in Ethiopia. He'd moved from Addis Abeba to the states in 2008 and now works for a video production house in Silver Springs. We ate bomb Ethiopian food and went tried to go to bed early, knowing we'd have to wake up at 4am to get an early start on Obama's Inauguration. There was such hype over the whole thing, traffic alerts, folks making it seem like it would be impossible to get there from new york... We got up well before dawn and hopped on the train, which was packed to capacity and rode in. The vibe was jubulant, somewhat quiet, but electric on the train. I was struck by how many children were coming out, as well as how strong the turnout was considering how freezing it was... it was hurt you cold... mean to you kind of cold. We were unable to get to the train stop we wanted to because of the crowds, so we walked a little farther to the festivities. Volunteers were out in mass to help direct folks, but I think some were from other cities, because they we got some opposing dirctions. Our press passes came from an on-line hip hop magazine, and turned out to be disfunctional when it came to getting to the press area, so we did plan B, and just talked to folks about why they made the journey and what kind of expectations they had for the future. That night was full of celebration, the hustlers came out and sold everything from Obama hot sauce, condoms, watches to Obama air fresheners, cups, plates, and thongs. We breezed through a party that i was very underdressed for and ended up going to Georgetown to see Kenyatta Hill perform in a little Reggae club.
Enjoy the video!

FESPACO: African Cannes 2009

Burkina Faso Roots!
I landed in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, I was struck by the heat, and the overwhelming feeling that I had just stepped into another chapter of the life journeys. It was my first time on continental West Africa, before that I had shot a documentary in Cape Verde. There were sistas in dresses that had "FESPACO" written on them, holding signs and I met up with them and they pointed me in the direction of a van to the hotel. I was so hyped to finally be in the land that was once home to one of the world's greatest leaders, Thomas Sankara. FESPACO had taken care of everything, plane ticket, meals, and room at Hotel L'Indipendance, which is really the epicenter of the networking at the festival. We arrived at the hotel and I started struggling with French. There was no filmmaker reception really, it was pretty much find your own way through the bussle. The room was nice, took a shower, then went out to the National Plaza with Walter Powell, director of "After School," to see some local music and then to a spot called Kingston to peep some roots reggae. The next day i spent hours getting my filmmaker badge done, which was a mission... much waiting in line, being told i needed to bring get a photo taken downtown if i hadn't brought a passport photo...etc... finally a brotha took a photo of my on his laptop camera and it was done. The whole process took about five hours. When i wasn't in line, i sat and asked folks words in Moore, because it just felt strange to speak French in Thomas Sankara's country... he was so much a liberator and burned fire on the colonial mindset. The next day i hooked up with Leslie To, a Burkinabe filmmaker i had met in New York, at a screening of her short film. Afterwards i met her father and uncle as she took me to "Ouagadougou's 42nd street, Kwame Nkrumah Boulevard. The following days were really a blur. I was not really prepared, didn't have flyers or images to make a real flyer with. My film, "The Seed," had been nominated for the Paul Robeson Award in the Diaspora Film Competition, so i was really trying to get folks to come out, writing the information of the screening on the back of little business cards and handing them out. It seemed like a lot of the filmmakers bond link up on language, it was hard to reach out to a lot of the French speaking African Filmmakers, who seemed deeply engrossed in conversations most of the time in French. I did build with some Brasilian Filmmakers who where brought out for a Brasilian cinema show, like Carmen Luz. American Filmmakers Patrick Coleman and Kirk Shannon-Butts showed their films, "Patterns of Passion," and "Blue Print."
My film didn't win, but our screening was a success. Folks came out and enjoyed it. Some of the hightlights for me were seeing Magic System rock the house in the national plaza, all the great food, rolling around on scooters with my brotha Alli and seeing his family and community garden, taking photos in a red millet beer bar, and meeting all the characters that came out. I did a few interviews and hopefully will get some buzz out for the film and have more opportunities to screen. I also met some folks who know Ben Okri, one of my all time favorite writers and the man responsible for the Famished Road trilogy, which i hope to someday adapt to film.
Ethiopia represented hard with Haile Gerima's Teza winning the festival. His sister was there to accept the award on his behalf and in her accpetance speech, she said that she hopes to see a united Africa with one flag and one language... the exact response i had dreamed a few nights earlier when i dreamed i had won the Paul Robeson award. I guess it would have been too much Ethiopian invasion if i took the diaspora with The Seed being shot in Addis Abeba... there's always next time.