African films tangle with race
The seeds of the historic 1976 Soweto uprising, a protest by thousands of black schoolchildren against being taught in the white language of Afrikaans, began in 1969 when South Africa’s black students formed the South African Student Organization (SASO).
The organization’s symbol was a clenched fist, perhaps inspired by the Black Power salute made famous by San Jose State Olympians Tommie Smith and John Carlos at the 1968 Mexico City Games. Steve Biko was its first president.
As Sifiso Khanyile points out in her new documentary “Uprize!” SASO launched its own version of Black Power, called the Black Consciousness Movement.
“The major aim in developing Black Consciousness ideology was to try to make people proud of themselves, of their color,” said Harry Nengwekhulu, a key figure in the anti-apartheid movement who helped found SASO. “For quite a number of years, the main aim of blacks was to try to become whites, which was physically impossible and psychologically frustrating.”
Race relations are at another flashpoint in the United States, where Black Lives Matter is clashing with a new, vocal wave of white supremacists. Europe also has a problem — major soccer games have been played to empty stadiums as punishment for fans’ racist chants against opposing players of color.
Africa is not immune. The Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive’s 2018 edition of the African Film Festival very much has race relations on its mind, both in a historical context and as a current state of affairs.
“Uprize!” opens the eight-program festival at 7 p.m. Thursday, March 8. For contrast, see a revival screening of 1988’s “Mapantsula” (4:30 p.m. March 18), South Africa’s first anti-apartheid film (endorsed by the African National Congress, banned by the white government of P.W. Botha), shot by filmmakers Oliver Schmitz and Thomas Mogotlane on the streets of Soweto.
Not everyone is angry. In Samantha Biffot’s genial documentary “The African Who Wanted to Fly” (7 p.m. March 11), we come to admire the quiet, Buddha-like persistence of Gambon-born Luc Bendza, said to be the first black man in China’s famed Shaolin Temple. He became a competitive martial arts master in China, speaks fluent Mandarin and even becomes a regular supporting actor in Hong Kong and Chinese martial arts films. Of course, in a country where diversity is severely limited, Bendza faces challenges every step — and punch and kick — along the way.
Other highlights of the festival include a collection of short films, mostly from the 1960s and ’70s, by Nigerian master Moustapha Alassane (7 p.m. March 25); edgy youth-oriented films from Trinidad (“Play the Devil,” 7 p.m. March 22), and Nigeria (“Green White Green,” 7 p.m. April 19); and “Vaya” (7 p.m. May 6), a South African noir that has drawn comparisons to Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu’s “Amores Perros.”
The film festival runs through May 6.