Cinefest to feature civil rights, spoken word
Movies can be life-changing. When done well, they challenge our values, give a forum to the voiceless, allow us to experience other cultures, reveal our common humanity and create hope.
For the past six years, the films presented by the University of Wisconsin–Madison’s Cinefest have done just that: The festival is known as one of the premier Latino film festivals in the United States.
This year, the four-day extravaganza of documentary and politically charged filmmaking will be held Thursday–Sunday, Nov. 16–19. It will include an expanded offering of multicultural films from diverse communities from across the United States and the globe. The theme of this year’s festival is “Civil Rights, Spoken Word and Hip Hop: From Old School to New School“. Cinefest events will be held at the Memorial Union’s Play Circle and the Orpheum Theater’s Stage Door. All events are free.
Different topics will be covered each day. On Thursday, Nov. 16, a short film series, “Hip Hop Goes Global” and “A Tribute to Cuba” will be presented. On Friday, Nov. 17, the issue is “The Prison-Industrial Complex.” The films for Saturday, Nov. 18, will explore “From Civil Rights to Hip Hop: Same Struggle, New Leaders”. On Sunday, Nov. 19, all the films presented will be shown again.
This year’s Cinefest is held in honor of internationally renowned filmmaker, political commentator and UW–Madison alumnus Saul Landau, who recently donated his film archives to the Wisconsin Center for Film and Theater Research housed in the Wisconsin Historical Society. Landau will attend Cinefest and introduce some films.
The breadth of his donation is immense. It includes full-length films, documentaries and original interviews with legendary cultural, social and political leaders, including Fidel Castro, Chile’s Salvador Allende, Trinidad’s CLR James and Jamaica’s Michael Manley, among others.
Acclaimed filmmaker and producer Jack Willis, a long-time collaborating partner of Landau, will present two films on the civil rights movement he made in the 1960s. Willis is currently vice president for programming for Link TV, a progressive satellite television network, and is the former CEO of Minnesota Public Television.
Always forward-thinking, Cinefest organizers have partnered with the New York-based Hip Hop Association, which organizes the world’s largest hip-hop film festival. The international hip-hop films shown during Cinefest will showcase the impact hip hop has had around the world including in Cuba, Palestine, Kenya and Brazil. Martha Diaz, president and founder of the Hip-Hop Association will present the series.
Cinefest will also feature live spoken-word performances. A showcase featuring Paul Flores is planned for Thursday evening. One of the premier spoken-word artists in the United States, he is a veteran of HBO’s “Def Poetry”. Flores was raised on the Tijuana/San Diego border, and issues of immigration, border experience and Latino identity are central to his work.
On Friday, Flores will be joined by Milwaukee spoken-word stars Kwabena Nixon and Muhibb Dyer, who represent the grassroots organization Campaign Against Violence.
Cinefest is presented by the UW–Madison Office of Multicultural Arts Initiatives and is held in conjunction with the Wisconsin Union Directorate Film Committee.
Other sponsoring units include the Wisconsin Arts Board, the Wisconsin Center for Film and Theater Research, the Department of Communication Arts, the UW Havens Center, the Latin American, Caribbean and Iberian Studies Program, Chican@ and Latin@ Studies Program, WORT 89.9 FM, Elements of Change and the Diversity Education Program.
For more information on Cinefest, contact Willie Ney at (608) 890-1055 or at wney@wisc.edu.
