Sunday, October 23rd
3:00PM
(In)Visible Cities
work-in-progress
+ Q&A w/ filmmakers
preceded by:
Beauty for Congo
Special book reading
(In)Visible Cities
(work-in-progress)
Dir. Angelo Gianpaolo Bucci & Beatrice Ngalula Kabutakapua
Documentary, DR Congo/Italy/UK/US, 2014, 55 min.
French & English, w/ English subtitles
This story doesn’t end. It starts with a young woman, a guide named Beatrice who was born in Italy, but whose skin color always raised questions of her African origins. This is the story of her journey, the search for her roots. To do that, she is not going back to the continent where her parents came from, she goes looking for others “like her” -- those of the second generation and migrants. Her journey starts in the Welsh neighborhood of Butetown in Cardiff, where the first Somali sailor arrived in 1880. Today the Somali community is one of the largest of this “Afri-Town” and despite Cardiff's population being skeptical, it’s a welcoming and diverse place. Beatrice, with her travel partner, Gianpaolo, manages to engage with people who don’t know that “the whole world is our home,” impressing on them the idea that we are all migrants to a certain degree. But the journey doesn’t end in Cardiff. Beatrice and Gianpaolo travel overseas and visit the African communities in Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, and Houston. The people they meet are all different from each other: some had to go through hell to arrive where they are while many enjoy expensive lofts with a view of the Statue of Liberty or a job on national television. Last stop for Beatrice and Gianpaolo is Istanbul, a city so similar to others for its efficiency and yet so blinded by Beatrice’s skin color. But this journey is not ending anytime soon, it still has far to go...
Post-screening discussion with the filmmakers
preceded by book reading:
Beauty for Congo
by Pauline Etim-Ubah
UK, 15 min.
Beauty for Congo is the story of 20 Congolese artists working in visual arts, film, music, dance and spoken word, interviewed over five years in the Democratic Republic of Congo, North America and the United Kingdom. The first impression of the Democratic Republic of Congo is often formed by a narrow view of the media which focuses on war, conflict and sexual violence. Author Pauline Etim-Ubah will discuss her forthcoming book, which challenges those dominant narratives by giving space for Congolese artists, in their own words, to reflect on identity, family and a diaspora longing for home.
FILMMAKERS:
Beatrice Ngalula Kabutakapua is a freelance journalist, producer and researcher in the field of migration with a focus on the African Diaspora and its integration in urban spaces (The Guardian, L’Espresso, Radio France International). She is currently working with migrants in Italy with Tam Tam D’Afrique, Oltre Lo Sguardo and AMU (Azione Mondo Unito) on trainings, intercultural dialogue workshops, research and media production on migration. She was awarded the Melograno Award for Female Intercultural Project in December 2013, the IJNET Journalist of the Month Award and the Intercultural-Multicultural Award of Rome Municipality in September 2014. Beatrice is also co-producer of the documentary film (IN)VISIBLE CITIES.
Angelo Gianpaolo Bucci is an Italian social issues-focused filmmaker active worldwide, whose films have screened in Rome, Clermont-Ferrand, Los Angeles, Washington, Seoul, Cardiff, Milan, Turin, Ancona, and Perugia. Over the last decade he has not only worked for RAI Radiotelevisione Italiana, but also developed a broad range of independent projects and theatrical releases. Recently he moved first to London to work with a VII photographer and a BBC journalist on social reportages and documentaries; then to Los Angeles, where he was invited for an artist residency at the 18th Street Arts Center to work on the documentary series (IN)VISIBLE CITIES; and finally to Rome for a collaboration with the Italian NGO Azione per un Mondo Unito, whose development projects all over the world are the subject of his last documentaries.
