Last Tuesday at 7P.M., the International Film Series IFS) brought the hard-hitting Ghanaian/German slave epic Sankofa to a good-sized audience in Frost Commons. Dr. Gisela Estes, Dr. Horst Freyhofer, and Dr. Peter Drexel are the chief organizers of this tri-yearly event, which has been going on for approximately ten years. Originally conceived to showcase German films, it evolved to include films from the wide international spectrum of motion pictures.
Planning what films to show in May (requiring a least a 3 out of 5 star rating), the organizers choose films based on the time of year they’ll be shown. The first film must coincide with Plymouth State’s cultural theme–this year being the Middle East. The second film in February honors Black History Month, and the third, in March, honors Women’s History Month.
The upcoming March 27 film will honor both women’s history and the Middle East with the Iranian film Dayereh (The Circle), about three Iranian women contending with a repressive political regime.
This past film Sankofa, written and directed by Haile Gerima, shows the journey of an African American super model that gets transported back to the Slave days. She witnesses first hand the various brutal injustices Africans suffered by the hands of their white overlords. A word from the Akan language, Sankofa means “going to the past, remembering it, and with it, turning to the future.” By the end of the film, the main character, Mona, acquires an entirely different standpoint after personally experiencing the rape and persecution of her people. Truly a most powerful picture, Sankofa is a no-holds-barred portrayal of our collective history when the word “Man” did not apply to all homosapiens.
Dr. Freyhofer explains why Sankofa was chosen for Black History Month “To show people the reality of the past, the way we should think of it instead of the way we’d like to think of it. The past was not a jolly place but a sad place for many people. It’s nice to visit, but you don’t want to live there.” Surprisingly, this writer was the only student who attended Sankofa, while there was a large group of townspeople (Hebronites made up the majority with 10 viewers). IFS would love to see a greater student representation at this culturally eye opening event.