Starting November 23rd, the 20th Annual New York African Diaspora International Film Festival (ADIFF) will showcase 54 films from 30 countries, including gala screenings of Philippe Niang’s historical drama Toussaint L’Ouverture.
Among the films set to premiere are The Pirogue by Moussa Touré (US Premiere, Senegal) and La Playa D.C. by Juan Andres Arango (NY Premiere, Colombia) — two films coming directly from the Un Certain Regard selection of the 2012 Cannes Film Festival — as well as the NY Premiere of long awaited epic drama Toussaint Louverture by Philippe Niang (NY Premiere, Haiti/Martinique) which received multiple awards at the Pan African Film Festival in LA.
Chief in the selection is the work of filmmakers who have focused their attention on the African-American experience. Tango MacBeth by Nadine M. Patterson offers an original and imaginative way of bringing a classic to contemporary times. Moving back and forth, the drama of the play intertwines with the drama of making the film; The Next Day by New York born and trained independent African-American director/producer/lead actor Al Robbins is an interesting character study that explores what happens the day after two seemingly well-adjusted, responsible adults act irresponsibly during a one-night stand; Times Like Deese – You can’t keep a man down always by Marten Schmidt and Thomas Doebele takes us on a journey through contemporary America by way of the Blues and its performers. Starting with current events, the economic crisis and the election of the first Black president, we go back to the origins of the Blues, to the cotton fields, to poverty, discrimination and the fight for equal rights.
TV personality, writer, journalist and actress Rolonda Watts gives an outstanding performance in A Mother’s Love by Tim Alexander, the story of three generations of broken women that explores how family love helps to heal the pain. Actor/director Brook Bello, whose film was featured in Essence and Ebony Magazines, has written and directed a powerful visual testimony about life after sex-slavery and abuse in Survivor. A talented cast, including Tory Kittles (Get Rich or Die Tryin’, Miracle at St. Anna), Billy Zane (Sniper, Titanic) and up-and-coming actor Chadwick Boseman forcefully carries the action drama The Kill Hole by Mischa S. Webley and New York based filmmaker Samein Priester offers a moving film diary that looks at fatherhood in the lives of men in Harlem with 1st&4ever.
International narratives of note to have their US and NY premiere in the festival — in addition to The Pirogue, La Playa D.C. andToussaint Louverture — include Dignity by Olivier Langlois, a riveting fiction following the 1947 five months strike of the rail workers of the French Colonies…
Read more: Indie Wire
