Drexciya (2010 film)

Last updated
Drexciya
Drexciya (2010 film) poster.jpg
Film poster
Directed by Akosua Adoma Owusu
CinematographyDustin Thompson
Akosua Adoma Owusu
Edited byDustin Thompson
Production
company
Obibini Pictures LLC
Distributed by Grasshopper Film LLC
Release date
  • November 11, 2010 (2010-11-11)
Running time
12 minutes
Country Ghana

Drexciya [1] [2] is a Ghanaian 2010 short documentary film directed and produced by Akosua Adoma Owusu in association with California Institute of the Arts (CalArts). The film had its theatrical premiere at the 2011 International Film Festival Rotterdam and participated in Video Studio: Changing Same [3] at the Studio Museum in Harlem, New York.

Contents

Synopsis

Drexciya [4] [5] portrays an abandoned public swimming facility located in Accra, Ghana set on the Riviera. The Riviera at one time was an upscale development, consisting of luxury high-rises and five star hotels. Since the 1970s, the Riviera has fallen into a disheveled state. This short documentary was inspired by afro-futurist myths propagated by the underground Detroit-based band Drexciya. They suggest that Drexciya is a mythical underwater subcontinent populated by the unborn children of African women thrown overboard during the Trans-Atlantic slave trade. These children have adapted and evolved to breathe underwater.

Screenings

Awards

Related Research Articles

Malick Sidibé was a Malian photographer noted for his black-and-white studies of popular culture in the 1960s in Bamako. Sidibé had a long and fruitful career as a photographer in Bamako, Mali, and was a well-known figure in his community. In 1994 he had his first exhibition outside of Mali and received much critical praise for his carefully composed portraits. Sidibé's work has since become well known and renowned on a global scale. His work was the subject of a number of publications and exhibited throughout Europe and the United States. In 2007, he received a Golden Lion Award for Lifetime Achievement at the Venice Biennale, becoming both the first photographer and the first African so recognized. Other awards he has received include a Hasselblad Award for photography, an International Center of Photography Infinity Award for Lifetime Achievement, and a World Press Photo award.

<i>Festival Internacional Cervantino</i>

The Festival Internacional Cervantino (FIC), popularly known as El Cervantino, is a festival which takes place each fall in the city of Guanajuato, located in central Mexico. The festival originates from the mid 20th century, when short plays by Miguel de Cervantes called entremeses were performed in the city's plazas. Guanajuato is a small colonial-era city with a rich cultural history. In 1972, the festival was expanded with federal support to include more events to add a more international flavor. Since then, FIC has grown to become the most important international artistic and cultural event in Mexico and Latin America, and one of four major events of its type in the world. It is a member of the European Festivals Association and the Asian Association of Theater Festivals In addition to government support, there are also private sponsors such as Telmex, Televisa and Microsoft.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Expresión en Corto International Film Festival</span>

The Guanajuato International Film Festival or GIFF is an annual international film festival, held since 1998. It is held during the final week of July in San Miguel de Allende and Guanajuato City, Mexico. GIFF was formerly known as Expresión en Corto International Film Festival.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Harlem Cultural Festival</span> Music festival

The Harlem Cultural Festival was a series of events, mainly music concerts, held annually in Harlem, Manhattan, New York City, between 1967 and 1969 which celebrated African American music and culture and promoted Black pride. The most successful series of concerts, in 1969, became known informally as Black Woodstock, and is presented in the 2021 documentary film Summer of Soul.

Semiconductor is UK artist duo Ruth Jarman and Joe Gerhardt. They have been working together for over twenty years producing visually and intellectually engaging moving image works which explore the material nature of our world and how we experience it through the lens of science and technology, questioning how these devices mediate our experiences. Their unique approach has won them many awards, commissions and prestigious fellowships including; SónarPLANTA 2016 commission, Collide @ CERN Ars Electronica Award 2015, Jerwood Open Forest 2015 and Samsung Art + Prize 2012. Exhibitions and screenings include; The Universe and Art, Mori Art Museum, Tokyo, Japan, 2016; Infosphere, ZKM, Karlsruhe, 2016; Quantum of Disorder, Museum Haus Konstruktiv, Zurich, 2015; Da Vinci: Shaping the Future, ArtScience Museum, Singapore, 2014; Let There Be Light, House of Electronic Arts, Basel 2013 ; Field Conditions, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, 2012; International Film Festival Rotterdam, 2012; New York Film Festival: Views from the Avant Garde, 2012; European Media Art Festival, 2012; Worlds in the Making, FACT, Liverpool 2011 ; Earth; Art of a Changing World, Royal Academy of Arts, London, 2009 and Sundance Film Festival, 2009.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bahman Motamedian</span>

Bahman Motamedian is an Iranian film maker, photographer, writer and script writer. He was born in Tehran, Iran. Motamedian belongs to the so-called "new wave" of Iranian cinema. Bahman Motamedian is also has been involved in over twenty works, including shorts film, documentaries film, video art and theater.
Motamedian made his first feature film, titled "Khastegi" in 2008. "Khastegi" was shown in the official selection of 65th Venice International Film Festival as the "surprise film" in 2008.

Katerina Jebb is a British-born artist, photographer and film-maker.

<i>Soul Boy</i> 2010 Kenyan film

Soul Boy is a 2010 Kenyan drama film, written by Billy Kahora and directed by Hawa Essuman. It developed under the mentorship of German director and producer Tom Tykwer in Kibera, one of the largest slums in the African continent, in the middle of Nairobi, Kenya. The film has received five nominations at the 2011 African Movie Academy Awards.

Erik Mariñelarena Herrera is a Mexican film director, screenwriter and producer. He is the founder of E Corp Studio, a production company he established in 2001.

The Festival of African Cinema (FCAT), also known as Tarifa-Tangier African Film Festival, originally African Film Showcase of Tarifa (2004–2006) and formerly African Film Festival of Tarifa (2007–2014), the African Film Festival of Cordoba (2012–2015), is an annual festival devoted to African cinema held in the Spanish city of Tarifa and the Moroccan city of Tangier.

The Cassava Metaphor is a 2010 film.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Africadoc</span>

Africadoc is a network of documentary filmmakers and associations in Africa organized by Ardèche Images and since 2012 by Docmonde. It includes associations in Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Republic of the Congo, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Senegal and Togo. Some of the associations run workshops in documentary writing and production.

<i>Julian Bond: Reflections from the Frontlines of the Civil Rights Movement</i> 2012 American film

Julian Bond: Reflections from the Frontlines of the Civil Rights Movement is a documentary film by Eduardo Montes-Bradley for Heritage Film Project, a portrait of social activist and former Georgia legislator Julian Bond.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Akosua Adoma Owusu</span> Ghanaian-American filmmaker and producer (born 1984)

Akosua Adoma Owusu is a Ghanaian-American filmmaker and producer. Her films explore the colliding identities of black immigrants in America through multiple forms ranging from cinematic essays to experimental narratives to reconstructed Black popular media. Interpreting the notion of "double consciousness," coined by sociologist and civil rights activist W. E. B. Du Bois, Owusu aims to create a third cinematic space or consciousness. In her work, feminism, queerness, and African identities interact in African, white American, and black American cultural spaces.

<i>Drexciya</i> (2013 film) 2013 film

Drexciya is a German-Burkinabe 2013 short film. The film premiered at the 2013 Film Festival Max Ophüls Preis in Saarbrücken, Germany.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Martine Syms</span> American artist based in Los Angeles (born 1988)

Martine Syms is an American artist based in Los Angeles who works in publishing, video, installation, and performance. Her work focuses on identity and the portrayal of the self in relation to themes such as feminism and Black culture. This is often explored through humour and social commentary. Syms coined the term "conceptual entrepreneur" in 2007 to characterize her practice.

Sarah Beddington is a British artist and filmmaker based in London.

Nikyatu Jusu is an American independent writer, director, producer, editor and assistant professor in film and video at George Mason University. Jusu's works center on the complexities of Black female characters and in particular, displaced, immigrant women in the United States. Her work includes African Booty Scratcher (2007), Flowers (2015), Suicide By Sunlight (2019), and Nanny, which received the Grand Jury Prize at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Uche Okpa-Iroha</span> Nigerian multidisciplinary artist (born 1972)

Uche Okpa-Iroha is a Nigerian multidisciplinary artist who mainly adopts photography as his preferred medium of artistic expression.

Susanne Stemmer is an Austrian visual artist, director and photographer.

References

  1. Finkelstein, David. "Drexciya". Film Threat. Retrieved 2011-11-15.
  2. "Tarifa African Film Festival". Modern Ghana. Retrieved 2011-06-20.
  3. "Video Studio: Changing Same". Studio Museum in Harlem. Retrieved 2011-09-12.
  4. Rubin, Mike. "Infinite Journey to Inner Space: The Legacy of Drexciya". Red Bull Music Academy. Retrieved 2017-06-30.
  5. "2011 African Film Festival of Tarifa winners announced". Bizcommunity Africa. Retrieved 2011-06-30.
  6. "9th International Festival Signes de Nuit". International Festival Signes de Nuit. Retrieved 2011-10-25.
  7. "Drexciya - Centre Pompidou". Rencontres Internationales Paris/Berlin/Madrid, 2011. Retrieved 2011-12-12.
  8. "Drexciya, selected screenings". Haus der Kulturen der Welt (HKW). Retrieved 2012-07-19.
  9. MacArthur, Julie. "Ways of Seeing (in) African Cinema" (PDF). TIFF Higher Learning. Retrieved 2012-02-07.
  10. "The Future Weird". OkayAfrica. Retrieved 2013-08-25.
  11. "She Found a Place". Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia. Retrieved 2015-06-30.
  12. "Afrofuturist films". Metro Times. Retrieved 2016-01-20.
  13. "Guanajuato International Film Festival - Winners". GIFF. Retrieved 2011-08-03.
  14. "8th African Film Festival of Tarifa". FCAT Palmarés 2011. Retrieved 2011-09-12.
  15. Lewandowska Cummings, Basia. "Africa is a Country". Africa is a Country. Retrieved 2012-02-28.
  16. "Black Maria Film & Video Festival" (PDF). Black Maria Film and Video Festival. Retrieved 2011-03-05.
  17. "19th New York African Film Festival". Camera in the Sun. Retrieved 2012-12-10.