For Immediate Release

Contact: Anthony Twyman
Public Relations Coordinator
Community College of Philadelphia
Office: (215) 751-8082
atwyman@ccp.edu

Second Annual Diaspora Film Series Screens at Community College of Philadelphia

Philadelphia, PA, September 2, 2003 - Community College of Philadelphia is hosting an African Diaspora Film Series from September 2003 through April 2004. The series was organized to raise awareness of the contributions African Americans have made to film. Each film is produced and directed by African Americans and features African American actors. All films will screen at 2:00 p.m. in BG-11 in the small auditorium of Community College of Philadelphia's Bonnell Building on 17th Street, between Spring Garden and Callowhill Streets. The series is free and open to the public.

September 11
Quilombo (1984) Director: Carlos Diegues; 114 minutes
Based on the true story of one of rebellious runaway slaves in 17th Century Brazil, Quilombo illustrates how Africans combined their various cultural beliefs to create a society based on that shared vision.

October 9
The Learning Tree (1969) Director: Gordon Parks; 107 minutes
This film depicts a young African American teenager's experience living in Kansas during the 1920's, and is based on an autobiographical novel written and directed by Gordon Parks, Parks also became the first-ever mainstream black director.

November 13
Little Senegal (2002) Director: Unknown: 100 minutes
Alloune, a man living in Senegal who moves to the United States to research his family tree, finds a romance in a cousin many times removed living in New York, but the distance between Africa and New York, can never be escaped nor forgotten.

January 15
Flame (1996) Director: Ingrid Sinclair; 85 minutes
Flame is a tribute to women fighters in the Zimbabwean liberation struggle in 1975. The movie portrays the true story of how officers sometimes used female recruits as "comfort women."

February 12
The Language You Cry In (1998) Director: Alvaro Toepke, Angel Serrano; 52 minutes
This scholarly detective story reaches across hundreds of years and thousands of miles from 18th century Sierre Leone to the Gullah people of present day Georgia.

March 11
Eve's Bayou (1997) Director: Kasi Lemmons; 110 minutes
This movie focuses on a black Louisiana family narrated by a ten-year old girl. Trimmed in mysticism, Eve's Bayou is framed by glorious photography of the primitive-looking Louisiana swamps.

April 8
Le bouillon d'awara (Awara Soup) (1995) Director: Cesar Paes; 71 minutes
The movie introduces us to the town of Mana, where 1500 people speak 13 different languages. The town is what must be one of the world's most multi-cultural communities, a global village in the backcountry of French Guyana.