The Elmore Family Presents Their Black History Month 2008 Schedule

Anthony Elmore
Bogalech Elmore


Civil unrest has overtaken Kenya as tribalism destroys the country.  We African/Africans have little or no history of a tribe, we just call each other Black or African/American.  For us in America we have the challenge of Racism while Africa is faced with Tribalism.  We will deal with this issue.

Dr. Carter G. Woodson

Anthon & Bogalech Ethiopis 2005

Filmmaker Haile Gerima's 1993 film Sankofa follows a modern African woman as she is transported back in time to become a slave. The word sankofa means to go back to the past in order to move forward. It is an apt summation of the filmmaker's life. When he began making films, Gerima went back to mine the richness of his Ethiopian culture as well as the horrors of African slavery. In doing so he created a new form of African cinema with blacks as heroes and the Diaspora (the dispersion via slavery of African peoples throughout the New World) as the landscape. He weaves together history and traditional storytelling to create a provocative filmmaking style. Along the way he has become one of the most highly regarded independent filmmakers in the world.

However Gerima takes little pleasure in his renown. "My name is more known than my work," he told www.addistewlid.com, a website about Ethiopia. "In Africa, you just make four, five, or six films and you are renowned. That is like a mockery [of] our talent." Throughout his career Gerima has struggled for funding and been ignored by Hollywood, yet he has not stopped filming. When he found he could not get his films distributed, he founded a distribution company. When video rental chains refused to stock his films, he opened a video shop. When no theaters would carry his films, he rented out theaters across the country and presented the films himself. "We feel we are making our last stand in the cultural struggle--that is the struggle to make our own image," he told www.seeingblack.com. By reclaiming his past with film, Gerima is doing just that and creating a future for African and African American cinema in the process.

1. Satuday February 9, 2008 from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. African Dinner and Discussion
2. Satuday February 16, 2008 arrive at 6:00 p.m. 6:30 the two  hour Movie Sankofor and a Brief discussion.
3. Satuday February 23, 2008 from 5:00 to 7:00 p.m. Black History Month African Dinner. Our special Guest will be our Congressman Steve Cohen.
4. Sunday February 24, 2008 from 2:00 to 5:00 p.m. Black History month Tours of our home at 1035 Semmes.  The Tours are Free!!!!
New Bethel Baptist Church tour and African Lunch for Youth 13 to 18 average age 2:00  to 3:30 p.m.

Those who have no record of what their forebears have accomplished lose the inspiration which comes from the teaching of biography and history

Dr. Carter G. Woodson

Description/Synopsis:
ADWA
On March 2, 1896, the Italians embarked on the final European conquest of an African nation, Ethiopia. With brilliant military intelligence and gallant generals at the helm, united and willed, the Ethiopian people rose their way to triumph over the Italians at the Battle of Adwa. The event ignited a lasting flame of hope, of freedom and independence in the hearts of African throughout the world.

Haile Gerima, the director and producer of this important historic landmark, joins the voices of Ethiopian historians, elders, priests, poets and singers, capturing on film the powerful education and experience that shaped his consciousness. In a collage of Ethiopian landscapes, paintings, photographs and faces, the film illuminates one of the hidden sources of African empowerment.

Adwa: An African Victory takes you through a transforming rite of passage linking contemporary Africans in Africa and the Diaspora with the early founders of the Pan-African movement.

2. Sunday February 25, 2008 arrive at 5:30 p.m. One  hour 1/2 Movie Adwa an African Victory.