CU Cinema presents tribute to Third World Newsreel

Cornell Cinema's Third World Newsreel tribute includes a range of films by and about people of color, including "Birth of a Nation 4*29*92," a documentary about the Los Angeles riots. The film will be shown Oct. 20 at 7:30 p.m. in the Center for Theatre Arts Film Forum, and the screening will be introduced by Benny Sato Ambush, director of the CTA production of "Twilight Los Angeles, 1992."

This month and next, Cornell Cinema celebrates the 30th anniversary of Third World Newsreel (TWN), the oldest media arts organization in the United States devoted to questions of race, class, gender, sexuality and foreign and domestic policy issues.

The programs will be offered Tuesdays in October and November at 7:30 p.m. in the Center for Theatre Arts Film Forum unless otherwise noted. Admission to CTA screenings is $2. Admission for Willard Straight Theatre is $4.50/$4 students, seniors and children 12 and under, and Pentangle screenings in Uris Auditorium are free.

Founded in 1967 as an alternative film distribution center for documentaries on radical political and social issues, TWN has expanded over the years to include videos and films in a variety of genres, fostering the creation, appreciation and dissemination of work by and about people of color. Cornell Cinema's tribute, offered as part of the Cinema Off-Center series, includes four programs in October and three in November, sampling the range of TWN's collection.

Program two in the series, which will be shown Oct. 13 in Willard Straight Theatre at 7 p.m., examines the intersections of race and sexuality in the work of two writers. "Looking for Langston" (1989, 42 min.) is director Isaac Julien's meditation on Langston Hughes and the Harlem Renaissance, exploring gay desire and black masculinity. In "A Litany for Survival: The Life and Work of Audre Lorde" (1995, 60 min.), Ada Gay Griffin and Michelle Parkerson present a portrait of the eloquent, award-winning African-American poet, lesbian, mother, activist and teacher. It will be shown with the short "She Don't Fade" (1991, 23 min.), starring director Cheryl Dunye.

On Oct. 20, program three will be introduced by Benny Sato Ambush, director of "Twilight Los Angeles, 1992," which will be staged Oct. 28--Nov. 8 at the Center for Theatre Arts. Shot at the center of the L.A. riots, "Birth of a Nation 4*29*92" (1993, 60 min.) tells the story inside of the rebellion. "The Nation Erupts" (1992, 60 min.) also focuses on the wake of the Rodney King verdict but turns to grassroots producers across the country for their communities' reactions to the media coverage and moral issues surrounding the events in L.A.

When the Pentangle Program screens part one of "The Hour of the Furnaces," a history of imperialism in Argentina directed by Fernando Solanas and Octavio Getino, a short TWN film with an upstate New York subject also will be shown. Directed by Christine Choy and Susan Robeson, "Teach Our Children" (1972, 35 min.) focuses on the historic 1971 Attica prison rebellion.

The three films shown Oct. 27 present different facets of the social and political cataclysm of 1968. One of the original Third World Newsreels, "Black Panther '68" (1968, 15 min.), includes an interview with Black Panther Party Chairman Huey Newton. "Columbia Revolt" (1968, 50 min.) is narrated by one of the student rebels who took over five university buildings and contains footage of the campus revolt. Directed by Norman Fruchter and John Douglas, "Summer '68" (1969, 60 min.) documents the political activities surrounding the Democratic National Convention in Chicago.

On Nov. 3, the program brings together films about the experiences of emigrants from India. In "Acting Our Age" (1992, 11 min.), director Gurinder Chadha helps the residents of a South Asian home for the elderly in Britain create their own video documentary. Also directed by Chadha, "I'm British But ..." (1989, 30 min.) travels from Manchester to Belfast to the Welsh countryside to chronicle the diversity of the Asian diaspora in Britain. International actor Naseeruddin Shah stars in "Mr. Ahmed" (1994, 52 min.), a poignant drama of an Indian expatriate living in a small American town.

The films in program six, shown Nov. 10, recreate the genre of documentary. Isaac Julien's "Territories" (1984, 30 min.) draws on a kaleidoscope of sound and image to challenge the conventional documentary representation of blackness. "Reassemblage" (1982, 40 min.), directed by Trinh T. Minh-ha and Jean-Paul Bourdier, rejects the biases of traditional ethnography to look at the imagery, symbolism and culture of the peoples of Senegal, West Africa.

The series concludes Nov. 24 with "Ganja and Hess" (1970, 110 min.). Director Bill Gunn uses the vampire film genre to create a mythical vision of the forces that shape Dr. Hess Green, a wealthy recluse driven to enact a spiritual blood ritual, and Ganja, his enemy and lover. The film draws on the conflicts between Christianity and African spirituality, sanity and survival, when two cultures meet.

Cinema Off-Center is co-sponsored with the Cornell Council for the Arts.