The Sudan Trilogy

PLEASE PASS ON THIS INFORMATION TO PEOPLE IN YOUR ADDRESS BOOK (especially
those who live in London - UK)

THE SUDAN TRILOGY.

There is a screening of THE SUDAN TRILOGY (Films) on Sunday 11th May, 2003.

THE RITZY CINEMA
COLDHARBOUR LANE
BRIXTON LONDON
Tel: 020 7733 2229

Kafi 'Story (1989)
Nuba Conversations (2000) and
Benjamin and His Brother (2002).
Then on Tuesday 13th & Thursday 15th May 2003, there will be a screening of
Benjamin & His Brother.
The ticket price for the triple-bill on Sunday will be £4 (£4 for 3 films):
Sunday 11th May, 2003 - Triple Bill

Film 1: KAFI'S STORY 1.30pm - 2.28pm
Film 2: NUBA CONVERSATIONS 2.30pm - 3.28pm
Film 3: BENJAMIN AND HIS BROTHER 3.30pm - 4.57pm

TUESDAY & THURSDAY ; BENJAMIN ANFD HIS BROTHER @ 7pm.

A Sudan Trilogy.

Benjamin and His Brother
* (Sudan,Kenya, U.S.A, 2002)
by Arthur Howes (UK). 88mins -colour
"The Lost Boys" is the near-mythical name for thousands of young men from
Sudan who fled civil war and ethnic repression by travelling, on foot,
through southern Sudan to Ethiopia. After an almost three-year journey
across deserts and war-torn lands, where hundreds died from exhaustion,
exposure, or bullets, they arrived in Ethiopia, only to be expelled and
forced again to walk to refugee camps in Kenya. Benjamin and His Brother
follows two brothers, "Lost Boys" from the camps who now prepare to be
resettled in the United States in search of the "Gold" that America
promises. While one remains in the camp, the younger brother relocates to
Texas, and discovers an entirely new set of problems and challenges. An
intimate fascinating look at immigrant life, and at the dilemmas facing
young men who dream of American education but are instead greeted with
minimum-wage American jobs, Benjamin and His Brother also helps personalize
one of recent times' most infamous examples of forced exile. - Jason
Sanders-(Pacific Film Archive) .
Prix Nanook. Bilan Paris. 03.
Mencao Honrosa. Forumdoc. Brazil.


"An extraordinary piece of film-making: a story which is both "true" in the
ordinary sense that it actually happened (and continues to develop), but
also true in the deep sense, with the force and weight of myth. - THE
INDEPENDENT.

Nuba Conversations
- (Sudan, Kenya. 2000)
by Arthur Howes. (UK). 55mins - colour
Ten Years ago Arthur Howes made a series of films with a group of Nuba
people from the mountain village of Torogi in Sudan. He promised he would
return to show these films to them. Because of the civil war and a denial
of a visa, his return has been delayed until now. 'Nuba Conversations' is
initially narrated by the filmmaker returning to Sudan to make contact with
his Nuba friends. Through a series of clandestine encounters in Khartoum the
film commences to unravel a labyrinth of racial and religious persecution.
From this point onwards it is the Nuba in Khartoum, in the Mountains and in
Exile who tell their own story.

"A powerful and compassionate film." - NEW INTERNATIONALIST.
"It is a horrifying film, very simply made, a testament of a grevious and
under-reported war." - TIME OUT.
"An important film, the unique and intimate access to the people makes this
documentary inescapable." - DOX DOCUMENTARY MAGAZINE.
"A powerful and beautifully constructed film that lifts the veil of silence
covering the acute persecution of the past decade in Sudan.It is a testament
to the courage, dignity and strength of the Nuba, and to the suffering they
continue to endure." - NAFFIR "Des images terribles qu'on n'a jamais montres
ici." - LE MONDE.

"This film works as both searing journalism and a passionate first -person
account of the unacountable, a document of what has to many Western eyes
remained an invisible cataclysm." -THE VILLAGE VOICE/NEW YORK.

"The enchanting and quietly moving story of Kafi's journey to buy a dress
for his young bride . Ten years later, in Nuba Conversations, the filmmaker
returns to Sudan to a scene of fratricidal war and systematic genocide.
Screened together, these films form a deeply troubling diptych.."-
POSSESSING VISION /THE INSTITUTE OF CONTEMPORARY ARTS.
"Thank you for a painful evening. It forced me the nomad from the desert,to
reflect on the words of the Ancient Mariner: Sadder and Wiser. Nuba
Conversations is Nuba dilemmas and a Sudanese shame. This shame, I am sure
will express itself in condemning the Western distortion. But by now you
must have known that we are very good in shooting elephants, fellow
countrymen and messengers. Listening to the two songs addressed to Basheer
(one towards the beginning of the film and one at the end) helped me to
understand why the usually joyful songs of celebration turned into wails of
lamentation." -Dr. Ahmed Elhag.

Kafi's Story
- (Sudan. 1989)
by Arthur Howes & Amy Hardie (UK). 53 mins - colour
Kafi,a young man from the Nuba Mountains in Sudan, travels north to Khartoum
with the intention of finding a job so he can buy a wedding dress for his
second wife Tete. For the length of time away from home, he confides his
feelings and impressions to a small tape-recorder which he carries with him.
This monologue which provides the soundtrack for the film allows the
spectator to come very close to the world of this young Sudanese man, to
share with him his worries and preoccuoations and to hear "from within" the
story of this double marriage. The backdrop for this monologue are the
mountains and villages of the Sudan during the time of the impending civil
war.
* Awarded Amsterdam International Documentary Film Festival 89
* BBC BP Expo Documentary Award 90
* Mencion Especial Del Jurado, Mexico 90
* Commended by the Jury. R.A.I. Festival of Ethnographic Film 90
* American Visual Anthropology Award 00


" Engrossing and hypnotically Absorbing are just some of the rapturous
adjectives used to describe this 'miniature' of life in present day
Sudan" -THE GUARDIAN.
"A lively alternative to the drier aspects of the ethnographic documentary
tradition. An engrossing view of Africa from the inside." -TIME OUT.
" A refreshing and original film, full of warmth, humour and insight." -
JURY AMSTERDAM DOCUMENTARY FILM FESTIVAL.
"A film about an ordinary person in the so called "third world" seen mainly
through his eyes...unlike television, which treats Asian and Africans as
victims of disasters." -BP EXPO JURY, DOCUMENTARY AWARD.
" Filmed with a remarkable intimacy, charm and self-awareness, Kafi's Story
is that rare film which provides an intricate sense of how an African man
and his family experience the dramas of everyday life."-SOCIETY FOR VISUAL
ANTHROPOLOGY.