- In Haiti, color issues tend to either be sensationalized for political manipulation or otherwise ignored. To illustrate the latter, a recent panel on Marie Chauvet's work made no mention of her main heroine Claire's tormenting color dilemma. Upcoming film Cafe au Lait however makes cross-color dating in the Haitian community the center of the plot. Race and color issues are best resolved when actually acknowledged so the premise is promising. Let's hope the film is any good. It'll be touring New York in July so I'll update you then. The rest of the touring schedule should be here. The film's director is Georges Jiha and it stars haitian actors Milca Volny and Pasha Brandt.
- Party, a film by Francis Hsueh and Steve Hahn is yet another onscreen slice of the hyphenated american experience. It is a documentary about the Asian-American party scene in New York City and a look at issues of second generation immigrant identity and assimilation. Hip Hop (the music) is inevitably a protagonist in the film and, as usual, makes both friends and enemies. Friends of the kids who dance to it at these parties and enemies of those who protested the "Tsunami Song" (a hot 97 blunder if there ever was one). And yes, I'm sure there was some overlap between the groups.
- According to Caribbean Beat, a Grenadian film is going to have a starring role in next week's New York Independent Film Festival (May 4-11). It's called Blinded and is nominated for Best Director and Best Feature.
- An article by Edwidge Danticat about diri blan [white rice] and its emotional significance to her dying father appeared in the May issue of Oprah magazine. It's not online so whether or not you're an Oprah fan, you'll have to give her your $3.95 worth --and possibly more if you don't live in the US.
- Did you know that Nollywood (i.e. the Nigerian equivalent of Holly-and-Bolly) is the third largest film industry in the world? I didn't and I have Jen Brea to thank for this bit of science.
- To find out what West Indian literary works are available on the blogosphere, check out Nicholas Laughlin's latest Global Voices post.
Cafe au Lait - Literature - Pasha Brandt - Milca Volny - Party - Francis Hsueh - Steve Hahn - Blinded - Grenada - Edwidge Danticat - caribbean - Haiti - Georges Jiha- Haitian American - Haitian Diaspora
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