Quilombo Films recently celebrated the
300th acquisition of "Quilombo Country" by cultural
institutions across the world. While universities in the
United States have accounted for the great majority of
sales, numerous copies have also gone to the United
Kingdom, Europe, Africa and Oceania. Such American
educational cornerstones as Harvard, Yale, Princeton,
Columbia, Brown, Cornell and New York University,
as well as leading universities
from Botswana to Cape Town to London
to Auckland, have made "Quilombo Country" part
of their archives.
Among the museums that have acquired
"Quilombo Country" are the British Museum, the duSable
Museum of African American History, the Iziko
Museum of Cape Town, the National Museum of Ghana, the
Catalonia Cultural Center of Barcelona and the Leipzig
Museum of Fine Arts.
Quilombo
Country "Uptown Premiere" Screening
Sells
Out
The
long-awaited "uptown premiere" of "Quilombo Country"
last February 6th was a smash success, selling out a
week ahead of time and necessitating an additional
screening on Saturday. The screenings were followed by
a Q&A
and a discussion of ethnographic filmmaking and
distribution with director/producer Leonard Abrams, and
a cachaça cocktail reception.
"Quilombo
Country" Completes Debut Theatrical Run at NY's Pioneer
Theater
-
Praised by the New York Times
"Quilombo
Country" finished its one-week run at the Pioneer
Theater in New York City on September 25th. The film
attracted enthusiastic crowds and a good deal of
attention from numerous media outlets, including the New York
Times, whose Laura Kern called it
"an
up-close-and-personal look at the state of these
villages today, featuring surprisingly articulate
accounts from residents lacking in formal education..."
(but we knew that...) and goes on to say that "The
forceful baritone of Public Enemy’s frontman Chuck D,
who narrates, makes the film’s history-telling go down
smoothly." Read the whole story here.
"Quilombo Country" Wins "Best Film/Video
Documentary" Award at Berlin
Fest
"Quilombo
Country" was the recipient of the Best Film/Video
Documentary Production award given by the 2007 Black
International Cinema Berlin festival. The award this
year was also given to three shorter films.
Two New Reviews
From
California State University’s Southern California
Quarterly:
“In
classical historical narratives [quilombos] seem lost in
the colonial Brazilian past, and more myths than
documents have survived. The new film “Quilombo Country”
provides a welcome and innovative approach to this
important Afro-American experience by focusing on
contemporary quilombo communities and the life of
today’s quilombolas.”
From Indiana
University’s Black Camera:
“This new
documentary gives a wonderfully rich picture of everyday
life and festival culture in quilombos in the north of
Brazil, based in abundant interviews with quilombo
resldents, or quilombolas, themselves. In their own
voices, quilombolas draw us into their country, and
their world...
Abrams's
grainy, intimate portrait of the difficult everyday life
of contemporary quilombo residents refuses
romanticization. It rightly places the quilombolas'
experience, understanding, and practice as evidence of
their insistent continued struggle against racism, for
land rights, for political recognition — squarely in a
complicated present.”
More
Reviews
From
African Diaspora Archaeology
Newsletter:
From the
December 2007 African Diaspora Archaeology
Newsletter:
"A visually
stunning investigation into quilombos of Brazil...a
fast-moving, yet detailed, examination of today's
quilombos, of their history, and of their ties to
African culture....It is a well-made, interesting, and
enlightening story....Strongly
recommend[ed]..."
—
Christopher Espenshade, ADAN
From
In
These
Times:
"'Quilombo
Country' brings to light the concerns of a segment of
Brazil society, which, though small, has greatly
influenced Brazilian culture. The film makes it clear
that the Quilombos” fight for land rights and legal
recognition is integral to saving a living culture from
extinction...features outstanding footage of festivals,
parties and religious ceremonies."
The
complete review is also online.
From the Southern
Quarterly:
From the review of
"Quilombo Country" by Phillip Gentile in the Spring 2007
issue of the University of Southern Mississippi's Southern
Quarterly,
one of the nation's most noteworthy cultural
journals:
"Very often
the more interesting 'story' of a documentary, in
addition to its narrative line, is how it reveals a
complexity of form or style commensurate with the
importance of its subject. 'Quilombo Country'
accomplishes this by immersing the viewer in an
ever-expanding network of relationships – alive with the
music and intermixed rhythms of doing and making, work
and worship – which encompasses the concrete details of
religious practices, public celebrations, and production
of material culture. Abrams' considerable achievement
has been to draw upon these formal resources and provide
us access to the many dimensions of quilombo experience
in a way that is persuasive, complex, and
timely."
The 24-page
piece also includes an interview with director Leonard
Abrams, which took place this March while he was at the
University to present the film.
Blogged
"Quilombo
Country" was also reviewed in
the popular blog J's Theater,
which "recommend[s] it for anyone with an interest in
this area of Brazilian, African Diasporic and South
American histories and cultures."
From
the Journal of Latin American
and Caribbean
Anthropology:
From the review of
"Quilombo Country" in the April 2007 Journal of Latin American and
Caribbean Anthropology:
"Abrams
brings us a richly textured look at the lives of
communities of escaped slaves in the Brazilian north…The
brilliance of his characters shines against the
background of breathtaking landscapes….turns a sensitive
ethnographic eye to the racial issues facing
quilombolas…in Brazil's unique system of ethnic and
color classification. But the identitarian political
issues in the film are anchored in a historical and
ethnographic examination of the quilombos' emergence and
present day culture….Provide[s] useful source material
for students of Afro-Brazilian culture and teachers who
focus on slave societies in the Americas."
— Brian
Brazeal [University of Chicago]
"Quilombo Country" Screens
in London At British Museum and Festivals in San
Francisco, Austin and
Berlin
"Quilombo
Country" screened as part of the film series
"Resistance!" at the British Museum on April 13th to
a near-sellout audience. Director Leonard Abrams was
there to present the film and take questions.
The
documentary was also included in the Cine Las Americas International Film
Festival in Austin, TX in April, the Black International Cinema
Berlin in May and the San
Francisco Black Film Festival.
AOL Interviews
Abrams
AOL Black
Voices, a website dedicated to African-American
concerns, interviewed director Leonard Abrams and other
directors whose films screened at the Pan African Film
Festival.