African-Americans in Chicago: DuSable to Obama
The Panafrican Film and Television Festival of Ouagadougou (Festival panafricain du cinéma et de la télévision de Ouagadougou or FESPACO) will feature the highly awaited documentory from the USA that focuses on the history of Black people in home-town of the first African-American US president Barack Obama.
FESPACO is the largest African film festival, held biennially in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso. The festival is the biggest regular cultural event on the African continent and it mostly focuses on the African film and African filmmakers. FESPACO starts two weeks after the last Saturday of February with the opening night in the Stade du 4-Août, which is the national stadium. It is hugely successful.
The festival is for African film industry professionals offering them the chance to establish working relationships, exchange ideas and to promote their work. FESPACO’s stated aim is to “contribute to the expansion and development of African cinema as means of expression, education and awareness-raising”. Since FESPACO’s founding, the festival has attracted visitors from across the continent and beyond.
Producers of African-Americans in Chicago DuSable to Obama Barbara E. Allen and Dan Andries along with writer Gail F. Baker tell stories of men and women whose extraordinary lives changed history. Beginning with Jean Baptiste Point DuSable, who established a trading outpost in the area during the 1780s and is considered the “Father of Chicago,” African Americans have had a long history in Chicago. The documentary covers four distinct periods: from DuSable to the World Columbian Exposition; Post Reconstruction to the Eve of WWII; WWII to the Civil Rights Movement; and Post Civil Rights Movement to the election of President Obama. Within these sections, this compelling documentary reveals the lives of the celebrated and the unsung—from the establishment of the first black community in the 1840s by freedmen and fugitive slaves to the election of the nation’s first black president.
Stories from contemporary Chicagoans will be used to provide a context for examining the city’s rich history and explore the role African Americans played in building this great metropolis. Historians, writers, politicians, entertainers, and entrepreneurs are among those interviewed. Through their unique perspectives, these individuals provide a multi‐faceted view of the contemporary African American community while simultaneously demonstrating its vital influence in shaping a great American city and the entire nation.
Full of colorful personalities and poignant stories, WTTW’s production of DuSable to Obama: Chicago’s Black Metropolis celebrates the past, present, and future of the region’s African American community. By supporting DuSable to Obama: Chicago’s Black Metropolis, you support the enrichment of our beloved city and its people.
FESPACO
http://www.fespaco-bf.net/
