In Search of My Identity
In Search of My Identity, is a 77-minute documentary feature. This film is Director Pires’ own personal journey of discovery into the history and relationship between the West Coast of Africa and the East Coast of the Americas particularly Brazil, Aruba, Cuba, Saint Vincent, Jamaica and the United States. Cape Verde, and its diverse multi-cultural peoples were situated within the context of a slave society and the slave trade.
In Search of My Identity
• Explores questions related to the Cape Verdean identity, race, religion, ethnicity, art, music, language and contemporaneous social issues.
• Refers back to the Portuguese colonial days of slavery and the Post-colonial African liberation movement in the Republic of Cape Verde, Guine Bissau, Senegal, and Ghana.
• Narrating stories while tracing the roots and presents a culture, as it has never been seen before. The film shows how life experiences and struggles create encounters between generations, cultures, and histories.
• Providing the audience with an understanding of this overlooked Creole cultures and how the Cape Verdean people for centuries have left their country to find a better life around the world.
• What was lost in the trans-Atlantic slave trade?
• How has Western Society been using economical power to recreate a new African identity?
• What is affecting the Black Community in US today?
• The birth of the Creole Language. How, where and when?
• Jews in Cape Verde and West African Coast.
Portuguese Kings Joao II and especially Manuel I in 1496, determined to exile thousands of Jews to Sao Tome, Principe, and Cape Verde. Up until the end of the 15th century Lisbon, Portugal was the place where the Spanish businessmen purchased their slaves.
Guenny Pires’s personal quest to discover his true identity takes him on a journey across the Atlantic, building a cultural relationship from the West Coast of Africa to Western societies. What is my real identity?
In Search of My Identity is a Txan Film production that has been filming in 15 different countries.
Executive Producer: Jeremy C. Gredone, Guenny K. Pires & Txan Film Productions & Visual Arts, Inc.;
Writer, producer and director: Guenny K. Pires;
Editors: Txan Film and Jeremy C. Gredone;
Original music: Djim Job;
Mix (Color & BW);
Format: 16/9 HDV.
CONTRACT Docudrama Official Trailer
CONTRACT Docudrama Official Trailer
Trailer: Marina meeting w Valdemiro
CONTRACT, a 79 minutes docudrama film explore aspects of African Diaspora history and culture that are not widely known or are normally overlooked in mainstream popular and scholarly discourse. » Read the rest
CONTRACT
CONTRACT, a 79-minute docudrama film explores aspects of the African Diaspora, history and culture that are not widely known or are normally overlooked in mainstream, popular and scholarly discourse.
CONTRACT tells the compelling story of two African countries (Cape Verde and São Tome and Príncipe) forever linked by a history of poverty and slavery, and two people forever linked by the unbreakable bonds of family and love.
It tells the story of Cape Verdean indentured servants who left their homes for a better life only to be bound by “contracts” that won’t ever be paid off. The film, at its heart, also documents the filmmaker’s journey to reunite his uncle, an indentured servant as well, with his family, 44 years after leaving home on a contract. This film is not only a powerful emotional experience, it is an in-depth look into the past and the legacy of slavery.
It’s an intense journey not only for the contract workers, receiving 10 cents per day and a $10 life retirement from the São Tomé and Príncipe government, but also for the filmmaker who returns to his roots in the making of this film.
CONTRACT, was filmed in the Cape Verde Islands, São Tomé & Príncipe, Portugal, and the United States.
With archival materials and discussion from Professor Dr. Noam Chomsky, Dr. Richard Jr. Lobban, Dr. Peter Mendy, Filmmaker and Writer Ike Karnick and others, footage includes interviews with artists, historians, and contract workers providing reflections on the history, people, culture, and music of Cape Verde and São Tomé and Príncipe.
CONTRACT was nominated for the Audience Award for Favorite Documentary during the 18th edition of the Pan African Film & Arts Festival (PAFF.)
CONTRACT became the first Cape Verdean and São Tomé & Príncipe film ever to be the recipient of an “Award For Best Documentary Filmmaking.” www.riff.org
Everyone should see this film. Narrated in English. The languages: Creole (Cape Verdean and São Tomé and Príncipe,) English, and Portuguese with English, French, Portuguese, and Spanish subtitles.
» Check 2010 Pan African Film Festival to learn more about this film.
Credits
Executive Producers: Txan Film Productions & Visual Arts, Inc.,
Jeremy C. Gredone, Guenny K. Pires
Written, Directed & Produced by Guenny K. Pires
Edited by: TFPVA, Cedric Obanoon & Jeremy C. Gredone
Producer Manager: Barbara Andrade
Camera & Sound: Jorge Baluka, Napoleon Tavares & Vasco A.R. Pires
Producer Consultant: Chris Cuben, Ike Karnick, Kurt Jones, Michael Lange &
Steve Pina
Musical Director: Djim Job
Assistant Producer 1: Adriana Santos, Jorge Timas, Carlinhos Brito
Assistant Producer 2: Fernando Delgado, Henrietta K. da Costa &
Marcos R. Velhinho
Format: HDV | The film is available in both of color and black and white
Countries: Cape Verde, Portugal, United States, São Tomé, and Príncipe.
Genre: Docudrama
Duration: 79 minutes
ROAD OF THE SEA
Synopsis
Road of the Sea, is a feature documentary film from Txan Film Productions & Visual Arts, Inc. Created, Produced, and Directed by Guenny K. Pires.
Being Cape Verdean, our identity is constantly challenged.
This film connects you to the history of the Cape Verde Islands – where Africa ends and the New World begins.
Also includes discussion of Cape Verdean captains and their transatlantic voyages.
Connects with both African American and Hispanic history.
Why exist a large Jewish community?
Over the centuries Cape Verde Islands, became a harbor of Jews fleeing European persecution or in search of economic opportunities. The Portuguese king granted a Royal Charter in 1466 to have the right” to trade in slaves for Portuguese residing in Cape Verde.
Why did the Cape Verde Islands become the First Slavery Port?
How do people in our society currently view the Slave Trade?
Cape Verde Islands became the first slave port of West Africa, whose many mixed race inhabitants have migrated and formed communities in the Unite States, Caribbean, Africa, and Europe.
Cape Verde Islands is not very well known to the world. A former Portuguese colony independent since 1975 however the Cape Verdean society existed for more than five centuries.
Formed by mixed population of European and African slaves provides a unique story of the complexities of migration, political, race, and ethnic identity.
Everyone should see this film. Narrated in English. The languages: Creole (Cape Verdean) English, and Portuguese with English, French, Portuguese, and Spanish subtitles.
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