Events: Ethiopian Night at the African Diaspora Film Festival

ETHIOPIAN NIGHT
Sun. Nov 26 @ 6:45pm

MENGED
NY PREMIERE
Ethiopia, 2006 min, 21 min, comedy, Amharic with English subtitles, Daniel Taye Workou, dir. A lot can happen on the long way to the market in the Ethiopian countryside. A father and his son follow all the people's good advice... and come back to their senses. Official Selection, Cannes Film Festival.

SISAI
US PREMIERE
Israel, 2005, 57 min, documentary, Hebrew, Amharic with English subtitles, David Gavro, dir.
20-year-old Sisai, Ethiopian immigrant in Israel, lives with his adoptive family - the Gavros. Father Gavro returns from Ethiopia with news of Sisai's biological father's whereabouts. Confused by the news and the fresh confrontation with his past, Sisai does not share his family's excitement. He is too busy with his own news; Sivan, his girlfriend, is pregnant. The director, who is also Sisai's brother, joins him and their father on a journey to Ethiopia on their search for identity, blood connection, love and longing. Q&A After the screening followed by Party @ Bowery Bar - $25

Location:
ANTHOLOGY FILM ARCHIVES
32 Second Avenue (corner of Second Ave. and 2nd Street)
(212) 864-1760

SUBWAY INFORMATION:
train F to 2nd Ave. or trains B,D,Q to Broadway-Lafayette St. or 6 to Bleecker

***

BLACK GOLD
Thu. Dec. 7 @ 4:00 pm

UK/Ethiopia, 2006, 77min, documentary, English, Ethiopian, and Italian with English subtitles, Marc Francis & Nick Francis, dir.
For many people coffee is an enjoyable part of a daily routine; for Ethiopian coffee farmers it represents the corrupt side of a global economy that engages the labor of more than 15 million Ethiopians. Exposing the far-reaching consequences of the worldwide coffee business, Black Gold stops at the International Cupping Competition of Taste Testers before leading us to Ethiopia, the birthplace of coffee. There we meet Tadesse Meskela of the Oromo Coffee Farmers Co-op Union, which represents more than 70,000 impoverished Ethiopian coffee farmers. Meskela offers a compelling insider's look at the sub-standard labor conditions of the workers responsible for some of the best beans in the world. These scenes are juxtaposed with those of the marketplace, where exchanges set coffee prices to benefit Western corporations, whose consumers then get their two-buck cup. Marc and Nick Francis' intricate, elegant film will forever change the way you think about your double latte. - Peterson

Location:
THE SCHOMBURG CENTER
515 Malcom X Boulevard
(212) 864-1760 or (212) 491-2200

SUBWAY INFORMATION:
train 2 or 3 to 135th Street

***

LIVE AND BECOME

Thu. Nov. 30 at 9:00 pm
at C62 Q&A After the Screening

Sat. Dec. 2 at 9:30 pm
at AFA Q&A After the Screening

Live and Become tells the magnificent, epic story of an Ethiopian boy who is airlifted from a Sudanese refugee camp to Israel in 1984 during Operation Moses. Shlomo is plagued by two big secrets: He is neither a Jew nor an orphan, just a Christian Ethiopian boy who survived and wants, somehow, to fulfill his mother's parting request that he "go, live, and become." The child is raised as an adoptive son in a loving family, and embraces Judaism. But the pressure of keeping his secret, the tension between the truth and reality, and the pernicious racism he must confront as he strives to integrate Israeli society will be the key elements that will define his personality as he becomes a man. Winner of the Audience Award at the 2005 Berlin International Film Festival; Recipient of the Golden Swan for Best Screenplay at the Copenhagen International Film Festival; and Jury Prize at the Valenciennes Film Festival.

Location:
CLEARVIEW 62ND STREET
1871 Broadway - 62nd Street and Broadway
(212) 864-1760

SUBWAY INFORMATION:
train 1, 9, A, B, C, or D to 59th street

Go to www.nyadff.org/order.html to get tickets.