GWU hosts African Diaspora Film Festival, shattering Olympic glass ceilings and diversifying jury duty
The African Diaspora International Film Festival has been going strong for over three decades in New York City.
It’s also celebrating nearly two decades in D.C. with this year’s festival running Friday, Saturday and Sunday at George Washington University as part of its Africana Studies program.
“The African Diaspora International Film Festival is a festival that appeals to film lovers of all colors, age and sexual orientation and those who are interested in the richness and diversity of the human experience of people of color all over the world,” co-founder Diarah N’Daw-Spech told WTOP. “It was born in New York in 1993 and we now have editions in Chicago, Washington D.C. and Paris, France, so in Washington, D.C. it’s the 17th edition.”
The festival kicks off Friday with “Breaking Boundaries,” perfectly timed with the Paris Olympics.
“It’s the story of Nastasya Generalova, the daughter of a Russian mother and an African-American father who is part of Team U.S.A. for rhythmic gymnastics,” N’Daw-Spech said. “The filmmaker takes us by the hand for us to discover her life as she prepares to compete for the 2020 Olympics. We see the difficulties, the challenges and what it means for her to be the first Black athlete in her sport to compete for the Olympics — and she’ll be there.”
Saturday brings the documentary “Judging Juries” by acclaimed filmmaker Abby Ginzberg, who previously directed the Oscar-nominated short documentary “The Barber of Birmingham” (2011) and later won a Peabody for her film “Soft Vengeance: Albie Sachs and the New South Africa” (2014).
“There has been a noticeable lack of African American and Latino jurors,” Ginzberg said. “The film reveals the problem with juror pay. In California, a potential juror gets paid $15 a day, so right there you see the financial hardship. … It costs more than $15 to park, it costs more than $15 to commute, it’s insane, so that led me to look at the questions of what are the issues keeping people from serving on juries and what can we do about it?”
Sunday wraps with the timely closing-night film “One Person, One Vote?”
“It talks about the Electoral College,” N’Daw-Spech said. “We have the director there to explore what the Electoral College is and its roots in the history of slavery in this country. … Some people want it gone, others don’t.”
See the full festival lineup here.