PortalVision: Outdoor Screening of Haile Gerima’s Sankofa + New Rhythm Arts Center Drum Ensemble

We know the pandemic is a portal. But what’s on the other side?

Join AfroSoc, PO Box Collective, Solidarity Cinema, and local organizations for a night of Afrofuturist films and conversation. What does our collective future look like? Let’s dream it up together.

This will be the first screening of a series. We will be watching Haile Gerima’s “Sankofa.”

The evening will open with a Djembe Drum Performance by Victoria Boeteng and the New Rhythm Arts Center Drum Ensemble.

Description:
In this 1993 film by Ethiopian-born filmmaker Haile Gerima, a modern-day, fashion model is transported to the past to experience the traumas of American chattel slavery. It is only through her return to the past that she can move forward, hence the name of the film, Sankofa, an Akan word meaning “go back and take” or “go back to move forward.”

The film opens with a photo shoot on the coast of Ghana on the grounds of a fortification (read: castle/dungeon) used to house African captives prior to being forcibly transported to new world plantations. Zola, the main character, is forced back in time to an isolated sugar plantation. There, she learns the power of family, community, and even rebellion as she and other members of the enslaved community seek their freedom through solidarity and decisive action. This is the closest film rendition of slavery since the 1977 television mini-series “Roots.” Gerima, a Howard University professor, did much to ensure that his portrayal of the institution of slavery and the presentation of African cultural traditions were as close to reality as possible. (https://notevenpast.org/sankofa-1993/)