Bahamians often forget and a growing number perhaps don't even know that one of the most famous faces in black cinema had deep Bahamian roots.Indeed, Sidney Poitier, who was the first black person to win an Academy Award for Best Actor in 1963, was hardly afforded the same gestures of national pride reserved for Bahamian sportsmen who win gold medals in the Olympics.
Yet a young specialized film festival under the College of The Bahamas aims to honor his memory with an annual five-day festival of films and roundtable discussions and lectures about the kind of thought-provoking films he had starred in.
"I thought it was a way to introduce him to a younger generation of Bahamians and to honor him," said one of the festival's creators and organizer, Dr. Ian Strachan.
"To my knowledge there's no public commemoration no street or school or building named after him, his house is not a public heritage site, which I think is both foolish and sad because we're a tourist destination and we need to focus more on cultural tourism," he said, "and by the same token, Bahamians need to know more about the achievements of Bahamians, the contributions they have made to world history and well as local history."
Now entering its third year, The Sidney Poitier Film Festival is shifting its focus from films and discussions featuring Poitier to films and discussions centered around thought-provoking cinema of his caliber in his memory.
This year, said Strachan, the focus is on migration, tying into a campus-wide initiative to center many class discussions and research projects on the same subject in order to comprehensively explore the current and complex global focus.
Under themes of citizenship, migration to the U.S., to Europe or from rural to urban communities, and even spiritual journies, the variety of films spanning across decades and cultures from "Cry the Beloved Country" (1952) to our very own "Rain" (2009) by Bahamian director Maria Govan touches upon a number of thought-provoking issues surrounding migration.
"We want to try and give a global perspective hopefully to help our students and the wider community to see that this is not just something we are grappling with, but this is something that is a global phenomenon," said Strachan.
"Human beings are on the move, sometimes for opportunities, sometimes they have no choice, sometimes to avoid prosecution; people just move. There are so many levels upon which it can be discussed."
Strachan points out that even though the festival no longer directly focuses on Sidney Poitier himself, the theme is still relevant to his story and to feelings surrounding the star's decision to leave and never return to The Bahamas. Yet, as Strachan pointed out, Poitier in fact had U.S. citizenship through his birthplace of Miami, despite his Cat Island roots.
"The politics of identity are interesting in migration," said Strachan. "Sidney Poitier changed a lot about himself and won awards and became the most famous black face in cinema in his time while living and working in the U.S. The expectation is that he'd come back to'do something'in The Bahamas in film the notion of establishing a film school or something."
"But I think his contribution, his gift, is those films he made. He doesn't have to help you become a star why is that his responsibility? Just because he doesn't live here, does that negate his achievements?"
The worldwide film icon Sidney Poitier we know and love wouldn't have existed if he had lived in the 1950s Bahamas with its few performing opportunities, proving that migration isn't as black-and-white as modern-day politics and heated debates make it seem. To that end, said Strachan, the festival aims to challenge such stereotypical notions in order to stretch the Bahamian consciousness about national identity.
"If we had to boil it down, we're trying to look at films that will create a level of empathy and awareness toward the migrant to understand why people migrate, the challenges they face, the humanity of people who feel their best option is to move and the price that they pay," explained Strachan.
"I'd like to create greater sensitivity in the community, or a greater level of understanding, to combat fear or hatred or stereotyping or simplistic thinking about problems that are complex," he continued.
"So the films we chose hopefully lend themselves to just the opposite of those things so that we can become a more tolerant society and not tolerant of evils, tolerant of difference because we are more diverse than our national narrative and identities allow."
Yet the Sidney Poitier Film Festival also contributes to a small but strong and growing effort for cultural variety in the academic and creative communities who want to demand more out of their local entertainment options. Compared to cities abroad that feature specialized events like this, The Bahamas has little to offer even by way of film variety at local cinemas, yet efforts like this aim to change that by expanding the aesthetic demands of its guests.
"We're starved for that diversity in entertainment and cultural activity," said Strachan. "Choices here are driven by the commercial global capitalist agenda. We have to try to fight them and create an appreciation for films that have more depth with regards to human experience because it affects the human consciousness."
The Third Annual Sidney Poitier Film Festival will run February 29 to March 4. Established by the School of English Studies at the College of The Bahamas. All films are screened free to the public and are viewed at The Harry Moore Library, College of The Bahamas'Nassau Campus, Oakes Field. For a full schedule of events and more information, check out www.poitierfestival.yolasite.com, call 302-4381 or email poitierfestival@gmail.com.
SCHEDULE OF EVENTS
Wednesday February 29, 2012
Citizenship
2 p.m.: La Haine (1996)
Aimlessly whiling away their days in the concrete environs of their dead-end suburbia, Vinz, Hubert, and Saïd a Jew, an African, and an Arab give human faces to France's immigrant populations, their bristling resentments at their social marginalization slowly simmering until they reach a climactic boiling point. (98 mins.)
3:45 p.m.: Lakay (2009)
A powerful and engaging social issue documentary investigating the living situations and treatment of Haitian immigrants and their children in The Bahamas.(15 mins.)
4 p.m.: Roundtable: Migration and World Cinema
Dr. Keithley Woolward, Dr. Toni Francis, Dr. Mayuri Deka, Dr. Raymond Oenbring, Dr. Ian Bethel-Bennett
6 p.m.: Sugar (2008)
Sugar is the inspirational story of Miguel Santos, a gifted pitcher struggling to make it to the big leagues of American baseball. (120 mins.)
8 p.m.: Milk and Honey (1988)
A proud but penniless Jamaican woman seeks employment as a foreign domestic in Toronto, only to find it not a land of milk and honey but of compromise and diminished expectations. (89 mins.)
Thursday March 1, 2012:
U.S. migration
2 p.m.: El Norte (1983)
Brother and sister Enrique and Rosa flee persecution at home in Guatemala and journey north, through Mexico and on to the United States, with the dream of starting a new life. A work of social realism imbued with dreamlike imagery,"El Norte"is a lovingly rendered, heartbreaking story of hope and survival.(141 mins.)
4:30 p.m.: A Day Without a Mexican (2004)
California awakens one day to discover that one third of its population has vanished. A peculiar pink fog surrounds the state and communication outside its boundaries has completely shut down. As the day progresses, it becomes apparent that the sole characteristic linking the missing 14 million is their Hispanic heritage.(100 mins.)
6:30 p.m.: The Other Side of Immigration (2009)
Based on over 700 interviews in Mexican towns where about half the population has left to work in the United States,"The Other Side of Immigration"asks why so many Mexicans come to the U.S. and what happens to the families and communities they leave behind.(55 mins.)
8 p.m.: Lilies of the Field (1963)
An unemployed construction worker (Homer Smith) heading out west stops at a remote farm in the desert to get water when his car overheats. The farm is being worked by a group of East European Catholic nuns, headed by the strict mother superior(Mother Maria), who believes that Homer has been sent by God to build a much needed church in the desert. (94 mins.)
Friday March 2, 2012:
Rural to urban Migration
12 p.m.: Made in China (2007)
This documentary tells one of the millions of stories of migrants from rural China who comprise the backbone of the Chinese economic miracle. It provides a human face behind the ubiquitous label"Made in China".(52 minutes.)
2 p.m.: Sugar Cane Alley (1983)
Set in 1931, Sugar Cane Alley paints a rich image of life in Martinique, filtered through the coming-of-age of a bright, sweetly opportunistic boy learning to reconcile the value of his shanty-town roots with the educational opportunities that beckon him to the big city. (103 mins.)
4 p.m.: The Harder They Come (1972)
Reggae legend Jimmy Cliff stars as Ivanhoe"Ivan"Martin, an aspiring young singer who leaves his rural village for the city of Kingston, hoping to make a name for himself. Robbed of his money and possessions his first day in town, he finds work with a self-righteous, bullying preacher and an unscrupulous music mogul who exploits young hopefuls.(120 min.)
6 p.m.: Rain (2008)
Determined to reconcile with the mother who abandoned her when she was just a toddler, a Bahamian adolescent boards a local mail boat and sets sail for Nassau in director Maria Govan's intimate family drama.(93 mins.)
8 p.m.: Cry, the Beloved Country (1952)
Adapted from the novel by Alan Paton, this 1951 film is set in South Africa and is a commentary about apartheid. It stars Canada Lee as a native aging Christian priest, who travels to Johannesburg in search of his sister and his son. He finds that his sister is a prostitute and his son is missing.(103 mins.)
Saturday March 3, 2012
European migration
2 p.m.: Dirty Pretty Things (2002)
A riveting thriller about an illegal immigrant in London named Okwe(Chiwetal Ejiofor,"Amistad"), a doctor in his homeland who now works days as a taxi driver and nights as a hotel desk clerk. (97 mins.)
4 p.m.: The Other Europe (2006)
"The Other Europe"is a penetrating study of the economics and politics behind the immigration debate in Europe.(58 mins.)
6 p.m.: Paris Blues (1961)
Ram Bowen and Eddie Cook are two expatriate jazz musicians living in Paris where, unlike America at the time, Jazz musicians are celebrated and racism is a non-issue. (98 mins.)
8 p.m.: A Warm December (1973)
Dr. Matt Younger and his daughter arrive for a month-long visit to London for dirt-bike racing and unexpectedly, a new romance for the widowed Dr. Younger. His new love interest is the beautiful and playful Catherine who seems to enjoy eluding Dr. Younger as much as she enjoys eluding the mysterious men who are following her. (99 mins.)
Sunday March 4, 2012
Spiritual journeys
2 p.m.: Sankofa (1993)
A self-absorbed black American fashion model on a photo shoot in Africa is spiritually transported back to a plantation in the West Indies where she experiences first-hand the physical and psychic horrors of chattel slavery and eventually the redemptive power of community and rebellion. (124 mins.)
4:30 p.m. : Fanon (1996)
This innovative film biography restores Fanon to his rightful place at the center of contemporary discussions around post-colonial identity.(52 mins.)
5:30 p.m.: Belonging (2004)
Born into exile as the daughter of political émigrés, Kethiwe Ngcobo and her family returned to their longed-for homeland, South Africa in 1994. (52 mins.)
7 p.m.: The Motorcycle Diaries (2004)
The dramatization of a motorcycle road trip future revolutionary Che Guevara went on in his youth that showed him his life's calling. (126 mins.)
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