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Special: Anti-Racism Movements – Screening of Marches for Freedom & The Marchers
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Event information
| Info | Eintritt: 7,50€; ermäßigt: Berlinpass, 5er & 10er Karte, Gildepass, Heavy User Card |
| Address | Hackesche Höfe Kino | Rosenthaler Straße 40/41 10178 Berlin |
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Inspired and influenced by the nonviolent protests led by Gandhi and Martin Luther King, French activists held the March for Equality and Against Racism in 1983, mobilizing more than 100,000 people upon their arrival in Paris and taking a visible stand against racism.
Thirty years later, AfricAvenir and the Initiative of Black People in Germany (called ISD) are now co-hosting a film night on 15 October in Berlin around the theme of anti-racism movements in France and the United States. The evening will begin with the documentary Marches for Freedom by the French romanticism activist Rokhaya Diallo, followed by the feature film The Marchers by Nabil Ben Yadir, a critically acclaimed cinematic reconstruction of the March for Equality and Against Racism that filled the streets with droves of demonstrators in opposition to explicit and implicit racism in France.
The screenings will be followed by a question-and-answer session with Toumi Djaïdja, initiator of the 1983 march and Rokhaya Diallo, prominent anti-racism activist (moderated by Jamie Schearer of IBPG) as well as a small reception in the cinema lobby.
The following day, 16 October 2014, a one-time screening of The Marchers will be shown for school groups beginning at 10 am.
The events are sponsored by Bread for the World – Protestant Development Service, RLS, the Heinrich Böll Foundation, and the German Foreign Office’s Action Africa program.
Media Partners are: Africiné, SEV magazine, the Zentrum Moderner Orient, Club der Freunde von RFI, Berlin Poche, rendez-vous-cine.de, Exberliner, multicult.fm, Art Labour Archives, Planète Métis, Contemporary &, Afro Heat and Yedd.
The Marches for Freedom
Inspired and influenced by the nonviolent protests led by Martin Luther King, French activists held the March for Equality and Against Racism on 15 October 1983. The documentary by Rokhaya Diallo compares the American and French civil rights movements and interrogates France’s identity and self-image from the perspective of young activist leaders in the United States. Their insights and discussions allow us to engage critically with the circumstances of French youth today and examine urgent questions such as recognition and identity.
Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iZG5fNP73eU
The Marchers
It’s October 1983. In a France where intolerance and racial hate crimes were par for the course, three young people and the priest of the working-class Lyon neighborhood of Les Minguettes organized an ambitious, nonviolent March for Equality and Against Racism that took them over 1,000 kilometers from Marseille to Paris. Despite numerous setbacks and shows of resistance, their movement brought a sudden rush of hope along the lines of the peaceful rallies of Gandhi and Martin Luther King. More and more people joined the young marchers until they were finally greeted in Paris by a crowd numbering over 100,000.
Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=306KcI5hXpQ
Awards
Award from the European Network Against Racism
Nominated for best picture, best direction and the jury prize at the 2013 Marrakech International Film Festival
Nominated for the best script and the best male newcomer, 2014 Lumières de la Presse Étrangère
Members of the discussion panel
Born in 1962 in southeast Algeria, Toumi Djaïdja immigrated to France with his family in 1967. The oil crisis and the ensuing economic hardship deepened social inequality in France in the late 1970s. The resulting unrest grew more and more violent in the early ’80s. After a violent clash with the police on 21 March 1983 in Vénissieux, Djaïdja was among around 400 young people who camped peacefully outside the town hall in protest against racism and police brutality. The success of the sit-in made Djaïdja realize the power of nonviolent resistance in the spirit of Gandhi and Martin Luther King. One night, when Djaïdja tried to assist a man who had been attacked by a police dog, he himself was shot by a policeman. In response he organized the first March for Equality and Against Racism in winter 1983.
Rokhaya Diallo is a writer and film director. Growing up in Paris, she was active in local politics from a young age, for example as chair of the Youth Council in the Paris suburb of La Courneuve and as a member of the anti-sexism organization Mix-Cité. In 2007, she co-founded the group INDIVISIBLES, which seeks to counter prejudice and racial discrimination with humor and irony in actions such as their Y A BON AWARDS, which “honor” the “best racist remarks.” After various positions in radio and television and degrees in law, audio-visual marketing, and sales, she was hired in 2009 by Canal+ as a commentator on the TV show La Matinale. Later she became a co-writer and host of the documentary TV series Equal but Not Too Much on LCP-AN and contributed to the magazine Les Inrockubtiles. But being a journalist did not keep Rokhaya from pursuing her political activities. Among other things, she joined the European Network against Racism.
Rokhaya is the author or co-author of a many highly regarded books including Call for a Multicultural and Post-Racial Republic (2010), Racism: The Guide (Larousse, 2011), France Belongs to Us (Michel Lafon, 2012), and France: One and Multicultural (Fayard, 2012), and How to Talk to Kids About Racism (le Baron Perché). In 2013 she hosted the show Steps to Liberty for the French network France Ô, which turned into the film The Marches for Freedom. After being the target of a sexual assault threat on Twitter, Rokhaya produced a documentary entitled Networks of Hate, examining the controversy of defamation and hate speech on the Internet in the context of the right to free speech.
In 2012, for her work combating racism, Rokhaya was honored with the prestigious Anti-Racism and Anti-Discrimination Award from the NGO COJEP. In 2013, Slate Magazine ranked her number 36 among the 100 most influential French women and the British organization Powerful Media named her one of the 30 most influential black people in Europe. In 2014 she was included on the Purpose Economy 100 list as one of the hundred most innovative economic players in Europe. Today Rokhaya lives in Paris and is a frequent guest to conferences in France and abroad. She is working on a variety of new books and films.
The Marches for Freedom (Les marches de la liberté)
Documentary, France, 2012, 75 min, French with English subtitles
Directed by Rokhaya Diallo
The Marchers (La Marche)
Directed by Nabil Ben Yadir, drama, France/Belgium, 2013, French and Arabic with English subtitles
Featuring Olivier Gourmet, Tewfik Jallab, Vincent Rottiers, M'Barek Belkouk, Nader Boussandel, Lubna Azabal, Hafsia Herzi, Charlotte Le Bon
Wednesday, 15 October 2014
8:00 pm
Hackesche Höfe Kino
Rosenthaler Str. 40/41
10178 Berlin, Germany
S-Bahn station Hackescher Markt
U-Bahn station Weinmeisterstrasse
More information at:
www.africavenir.org