The Showdown

La Nuit de la Vérité

- The Night Of Truth -

An AMALGAMATED PERSPECTIVES Film Pick

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Director: Fanta Régina Nacro; Language: French, Mooré and Dioula, with English subtitles; Running time: 100 minutes




In a fictitious country in sub-saharan Africa, the leader of the ruling "Nayak" people and the leader of the opposition "Bonandés" along with their respective retinue of armed soldiers come together to finalize and celebrate a landmark truce between the two warring tribes. ...

... A huge feast and festive ceremony are prepared to commemorate this occasion. But on the night of this event the atmosphere of fear and mistrust is palpable. A decade of atrocities and slaughter between the enemy camps is hard to lay to rest, good intentions notwithstanding.

In the end, this is the story of a flawed hero tormented by his past crimes, and a mother driven to insanity by an unmitigated desire for revenge, a scenario mimicking the classic Shakespearean tragedies.
The denouement will shock and surprise the viewer.


Read about it at Link TV

This is the award-winning feature debut by one of Africa's most talented female directors, Fanta Régina Nacro, who shaped this plot after the real and factual fate of her own uncle.

"I had long struggles with my cinematographer," Nacro says, "to get him not to look for the perfect shot, the perfect light, the beautifully composed image - because that was not what I needed. What I wanted was the reality of things, to capture the immediacy of things even if they weren't beautiful."


[Warning: This film contains extremely violent and macabre scenes]

UPDATE, MARCH 2012: The entire web seems to have been scrubbed clean of video clips from this film. Do we smell the stench of censorship...?

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HIV & My Partner - An anonymous Letter

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"...My partner and best friend of 10 years died May 19, 2006 at the age of 47. He was about 27 years old when he was diagnosed with HIV.

I want people to know how courageous he was, how he lived for almost half his life with the stigma of HIV/AIDS, with copious medications and all their complications and side-effects, sometimes with the unkind judgment of small minds, with the ever present prospect of death.

He was courageous because he refused to be defined or defeated by a diagnosis. He was courageous because he insisted on life. He was vital, honest, passionate, loving, funny, angry, opinionated, impulsive, articulate, compassionate, charming and damned good looking. It's how he lived his life. He was a wonderfully strong person, whom I was glad and proud to have in my life. ..."

Killer Virus invades all Continents

(The stats in the graphic above are outdated but serve to illustrate the geography. The current statistics are as follows:)

In the quarter century since the beginning of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, more than 65 million people worldwide have become infected, including more than 25 million who have already died.

In the U.S., there are now more than one million people currently estimated to be living with HIV/AIDS. The HIV/AIDS epidemic is on track to be one of the worst epidemics in history, with millions more estimated to become infected by the end of this decade alone, if more is not done.

Multiple needs remain to be addressed globally in the areas of prevention, care and treatment, research, and funding. As such, the HIV/AIDS epidemic presents numerous political, economic, social, and scientific challenges to the United States and nations throughout the world.

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The vocal group Ladysmith Black Mambazo from KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, tours worldwide, teaching about their homeland and its culture. Their music genre of a-cappella style singing originated from the South African Zulus. In this video they perform the popular song "(We are) Homeless", by Bhekizizwe Joseph Shabalala, a fusion of native dialect and English lyrics.

Here they deliver a fundamentally sad message in the softest and gentlest musical hues.

Emaweni webaba
Silale maweni
Webaba silale maweni ...

Strong wind destroy our home
Many dead, tonight it could be you ...

And we are homeless, homeless
Moonlight sleeping on a midnight lake ...

: World - Citizens :

We must show compassion NOW!

Kuluman
Kulumani, kulumani sizwe
Singenze njani
Baya jabula abasi thanda yo
Ho

[See also Losing a partner and best friend and "Goodbye Jim!"]

It happened in November

JIM BRIGHTWOLF

Visual Artist, Playwright, Art Activist, Writer, longtime Theater Director, Human Rights Advocate, Visionary, World-Citizen

1936 - 2006



"The arts and the Internet are the last free forms of media left for public power to express itself," - Jim Brightwolf

James Peter Brightwolf passed away in the early hours of Sunday, November 12, 2006, at St. Rose Hospital in Hayward, California. He was undergoing treatment for esophageal cancer and died of a sudden unexpected heart attack.

Jim spearheaded the theater of public controversy. His passion for reclaiming the arts, both for social justice and for uncensored artistic expression, inspired people around the globe. In Stockholm, Copenhagen, London and Aachen, Germany, he protested the Viet Nam War through theater. In Johannesburg and Nairobi he worked against apartheid and assisted black South African actors to leave the country and join a world tour. He aided California Farm Workers and the Sanctuary movement, and put his Direct Action Theater techniques to the test in Sydney, Australia, with a commitment to free art from corporate and government control. Jim was always excited by the potential of San Francisco which he considered a world hub of freedom of expression.

"Jim, in his quiet but intense and dedicated way, was one of the most compassionate persons I ever knew and one who backed up his convictions with actions," - Ana Elsner

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[See also: Remember Abu Ghraib (with related links).]

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[Another tragic loss to the artistic community: poet, artist and musician Tony Vaughan]

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(Photo Credit: Marsha Bellavance)
(Special thanks to: Mia Stageberg)