People’s Cinema Club is a weekly film series curated by Philadelphia's independent film community.
This week’s screening: Sankofa
SANKOFA follows Mona (Oyafunmike Ogunlano), a Black American fashion model on a photo shoot in Cape Coast, Ghana. Through Mr. Gerima’s imaginative storytelling, she undergoes a journey back in time to a plantation in North America. There she becomes Shola, an enslaved African woman who labors in the master’s house and experiences the horrors of slavery firsthand. In becoming Shola, Mona recovers and confronts her ancestral identity and experience. While enduring monstrous trauma at the hands of white men who owned people for profit, Shola’s interactions with her fellow enslaved Africans are rich with humanity, respect and dignity for one another. Most notably, she connects with Shango (Mutabaruka), a rebellious African man who toils in the fields, and Nunu (Alexandra Duah), one of the few of the enslaved to remember her life in Africa before being stolen and terrorized by European traders.
Narrative Feature (1993)
Runtime: 125 min
Language: English, Akan
Dir. Haile Gerima
Note: The film has English subtitles for the Akan language parts.
About People’s Cinema Club
People’s Cinema Club is a microcinema powered by BlackStar at the Village of Industry and Art. The cinema club hosts intimate screenings for local audiences right in the heart of Center City Philadelphia. People’s Cinema Club is a collaboration between BlackStar Projects, cinéSPEAK, Philadelphia Latino Arts & Film Festival, and Philadelphia Asian American Film Foundation. Catch a new movie each week, curated by some of your favorite organizations at the helm of film culture in Philadelphia.
Join us every Tuesday at 6:30pm for classics, Philadelphia premieres, local films, and deep cuts right in the center of the city. Hosted in the screening room at the newly repurposed Village of Industry and Art, with free and accessible admission for all, People’s Cinema Club brings the magic of cinema to the Avenue of the Arts.
Grab a seat. Bring your friends. This is cinema for the people.
The People’s Cinema Club is made possible through support from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. The Village of Industry & Art is a center for creativity, craft, and community in the heart of Philadelphia, where makers and thinkers within historic buildings bring bold projects to life through process and practice.
Location
Village of Industry & Art (320 S. Broad) , Screening Room
Click here for more info on visiting the Village of Industry & Art
