HAILE GERIMA
FILMMAKER SPEAKING TOPICS

Haile Gerima Writer, Producer, Director, Editor sankofa.com

Below are a list of topics and film works-in-progress by veteran independent filmmaker, Haile Gerima. For more information or purchases of Gerima's works go to www.sankofa.com.

I. FILM WORKS IN PROGRESS

1. The MAROONS Project.

"Maroons" is one of the many names given to people who, during the period of chattel slavery in the Americas, ran away from slavery, and managed to forge free territories outside the slave system. Gerima has been embarking on a project that is documenting the fascinating dimensions of this recurring phenomenon in the new world. This project is divided into two phases.

1. Fund-raising: international and national co-producing search is in progress.

2. Interviewing prominent scholars who address the issue of maroon history and culture, specifically in the United States. Due to a demand by educators and community organizers, Gerima has been giving lectures and workshops that include the following:

a. The creative process of producing a seven-hour documentary film on this subject;
b. Screening of his 45-minute work-sample of the maroon research. This material spans from the Great Dismal Swamp that spans through North Carolina, Florida, South Carolina and Mexico. Some of the scholars interviewed include the late Herbert Apetheker, Asa Hilliard, and Angela Davis.

2. THE CHILDREN OF ADWA - 40 YEARS LATER

Coming on the heels of his successful film ADWA-AN AFRICAN VICTORY, which premiered at the Venice Film Festival, Gerima is now involved in producing THE CHILDREN OF ADWA - 40 YEARS LATER. This documentary tackles the Ethiopian patriots that repelled the Italians second coming to invade Ethiopia. Gerima has been interviewing and cataloging countless aging Ethiopian patriots that were participants in the battle that ushered in the 2nd World War. His public presentations address:

a. The making of the documentary film and a sample of the work in progress.
b. "History of the Ethiopian Italian War/colonialism/ its implication to pan-Africanism,"
c. "Documentary Film and the Creative Process"

3. TEZA.

Gerima's most recent co-production film with European film producers will be released in 2007. Shot in Ethiopia and Germany, TEZA is about Ethiopian intellectuals, who have lived for many years in Ethiopian during the time of the military junta. Fundamentally the film is about the struggle of intellectuals under the political circumstances that uniquely ravage Africa. Gerima lectures include clips from the work in progress.

II. WORKSHOPS AND LECTURES

1. The state of black cinema,
2. Independent filmmaking
3. Countering stereotypical images in film;
4. Presentations revolving around a specific film in progress as mentioned above
5. Presentations designed around one of Gerima's completed films.
6. The politics of cinema
7. The politics of African cinema
8. The aesthetics of film producing
9. International co -production

III. FILMMAKING LABS.

Gerima has given workshops across the U.S., Canada, Ghana and South Africa. On the basis of each circumstance, he custom designs labs on the creative and technical process of filmmaking for a single day, three days, one week or two week. These labs focus on:

a. Screenplay writing
b. Directing
c. Acting.