Tue 1/31 @ 6PM
In this country, we’re all familiar with African-Americans. Italian film director Fred Kudjo Kuwornu is an Afro-Italian, a black man born and raised in Italy whose father was from Ghana. So he has a distinctive viewpoint that imbues his recent films as he explores the meaning of that identity.
His 2016 documentary BlaxploItalian — 100 Years of Blackness in Italian Cinema — deals specifically with black Italian-speaking actors from the post WW II era through today and the issues they face finding work in the Italian film industry.
“The fight for diversity and increased inclusion in the media, specifically film and television, is not limited to the United States or the United Kingdom, but is a global concern. Much like how #OscarsSoWhite exposed this problem to a new generation of filmgoers, what we are doing with our BlaxploItalian documentary is introducing to audiences precisely how global this issue is, starting with one of the last places you expect to find the African diaspora — Italy. Modern-day Italy is racially diverse, yet if you find it difficult to find noteworthy Black characters in American cinema, not just tokens for a feel-good diversity quotient, it is ten times worse in Italy and throughout Europe.”
The Department of Modern Languages and Literatures at Case Western Reserve University and the CWRU Film Society are presenting a screening of the film at CWRU’s Strosacker Auditorium. Kuwornu will be present and will host a discussion with Q&A following the film. The event is free and open to the public.