Opening Session Oct. 16 will Bring Filmmaker and Scholar Zeinabu Davis to Campus

The Center for Black Diaspora at DePaul University opens a year-long film and colloquium series, “Reel Images and Cinematic Representations of the Black Diaspora” Oct. 16 with a film screening and a lecture from 6 to 9 p.m. in Munroe Hall, 2312 N. Clifton Ave., Rooms 114-116.

Zeinabu irene Davis’ feature film, “Compensation,” will be screened, followed immediately by a lecture from the filmmaker. A unique portrayal of two interrelated love stories, “Compensation” uses silent cinema to highlight the complexities of black deaf culture. Davis, an associate professor of communication at the University of California, San Diego, has written and directed several other films.

“We have organized this yearlong program of film screenings and colloquia to provide opportunities to critically examine black cinematic representation in a powerful medium that shapes attitudes and beliefs,” said Sandra Jackson, director of the Center for Black Diaspora. “We will feature films from the United States, South America and the Caribbean, as well as filmmakers, producers, directors and scholars in exploring this topic throughout the diaspora.”

The series will continue Oct. 23, from 6 to 9 p.m., with the screening of “Long Night’s Journey Into Day,” directed by Frances Reid and Deborah Hoffman. The film explores South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s “restorative justice” through a look at victims and victimizers grappling with wrongs of the past. The screening and a discussion will take place in the Student Center, 2250 N. Sheffield Ave., Room 120B. DePaul’s Fassil Demissie, professor of public policy studies, and Krista Johnson, assistant professor of international studies, will lead a discussion of housing, state and social politics in post-apartheid South Africa.

Edward Guerrero, associate professor in the Tish School of the Arts—Cinema Studies at New York University (N.Y.U.), will offer a critical analysis of Spike Lee’s film “Bamboozled” in a lecture Oct. 30, from 6 to 9 p.m., in the Student Center, Room 120B. Guerrero, who teaches film criticism, is the author of “Framing Blackness: The New African Image in Film.”

On Nov. 6, Mathia Diawara’s film “Conakry Lives,” will conclude the series of screenings for 2003. The film will be shown in the Student Center, Room 120B. A lecture by the filmmaker will follow, from 6 to 9 p.m. The film, which focuses on Guinea, is the second in a series by Diawara on Africa’s capital cities and globalization.

Diawara is a professor of Comparative Literature and Cinema Studies and director of the Africana Studies Program at N.Y.U. He is the author of “We Won’t Budge, In Search of Africa,” and “African Cinema and Culture.”

“Reel Images and Cinematic Representations of the Black Diaspora” programming continues through May 2004. Filmmakers and film scholars participating in the 2004 schedule of activities include: Haile Gerima, director of the highly acclaimed “Sankofa,” and Euzhan Palcy, director of “A Dry White Season.” The film screenings and discussions are free and open to the public. For a complete series schedule or more information, visit the Center for Black Diaspora’s Web site.