April 30-May 1: Eye of the Storm: The Films of Michelle Parkerson

Posted on April 29, 2013 by Sara Zia Ebrahimi

Join Scribe Video Center Tuesday, April 30 and Wednesday, May 1 as they present a series of retrospective screenings and a Master Class to celebrate Michelle Parkerson’s groundbreaking film work. Among the first African American women filmmakers to explore the intersections between race, gender, LGBT sexual identity, and class, Michelle Parkerson’s impressive body of work contains portraits of some of the most extraordinary artists of the last half of the 20th century, including the jazz musician vocalist Betty Carter, the a cappella innovators Sweet Honey in the Rock, and the extraordinary poet/essayist Audre Lorde.

Presented in partnership with International House Philadelphia, Third World Newsreel, Women Make Movies, Department of Film & Media Arts at Temple University, Leeway Foundation, and BlackStar Film Festival.

Filadelfia Latin American Film Festival Kicks Off This Weekend!

Posted on April 25, 2013 by Sara Zia Ebrahimi

The second annual Filadelfia Latin American Film Festival bring a slate of films to the I House and Gershman Y this weekend! Check out their line up of films from Chile, Mexico, Paraguay, Colombia and the US at www.flaff.org/schedule.

Wonder Women! Online Social Screening This Wednesday

Posted on April 22, 2013 by Sara Zia Ebrahimi

WBIMG_OVEE_WW_397x225_2 Join Women and Girls Lead for a free online social screening of the Wonder Women! documentary Wednesday, April 24th, 1-2pm PT / 4-5 pm ET at bit.ly/WonderWomenScreening

Wonder Women! The Untold Story of American Superheroines traces the fascinating evolution and legacy of Wonder Woman. From the birth of the comic book superheroine in the 1940s to the blockbusters of today, Wonder Women! looks at how popular representations of powerful women often reflect society’s anxieties about women’s liberation.

Watch and chat live with the filmmakers, comic experts, everyday superheroines, and fans of Wonder Woman. Director Kristy Guevara-Flanagan and Producer Kelcey Edwards will be in conversation with a dynamic group of comic insiders, including Zoe Chevat, comic artist and contributor to The Mary Sue, Jewels Smith, author of (H)afrocentric, Grace Gipson, researcher on race/gender in film and comic books, and Mike Madrid, author of The Supergirls: Fashion, Feminism, Fantasy, and the History of Comic Book Heroines.

By the end of the discussion, your super-hero alter-ego should be ready to launch. RSVP for the screening today on Facebook and commence saving the universe!

Monday Poets Tonight At Central Library: Lamont Dixon & Mytili Jagannathan

Posted on April 1, 2013 by Sara Zia Ebrahimi

One of my creative collaborators and favorite people in the world Mytili Jagannathan (who is also a Pew Fellow, so I’m not the only one who thinks she’s really talented) is reading her poetry this evening at the Central Library along with Lamont Dixon!

Monday Poets | Lamont Dixon & Mytili Jagannathan
Monday, April 1, 2013 at 6:30PM
Central Library
1901 Vine Street, 19103
215-686-5322
Cost: FREE
No tickets required. For Info: 215-567-4341.

Lamont Dixon’s poetry has been published in African Voices, Phylaxis, New Poet’s Revolution and Essence Magazine. He has received the Phylaxis Society’s Award and the John G. Lewis Medal. He is a teaching and performing artist for the NJ & PA State Council for the Arts, Rutgers and Rowan University. He was co-executive producer for the Russell Simmon’s 2001 Def Poetry Jam Tour in Philadelphia.Mytili Jagannathan is the author of the chapbook Acts. Her poems have appeared in Sous Rature, EOAGH, Rattapallax, Combo, Interlope, and Indivisible: An Anthology of Contemporary South Asian American Poetry. She has received a Leeway Foundation Inspiration Grant and a Pew Fellowship in the Arts. She is currently dreaming up film/poetry collaborations with filmmaker Sara Zia Ebrahimi.

Monday Poets is presented in the Skyline Room on the 4th Floor of Parkway Central on the first Monday of every month and is moderated by Lamont Dixon.

Music Inspiring Art First Friday Show At IndyHall (Including Work By Me & Gralin!)

Posted on January 30, 2013 by Sara Zia Ebrahimi

IndyHallArtsMIAFlyer425x55x580-463x600 If you’re out and about at Philly’s First Friday on February First stop in at IndyHall (the co-working space I’ve been working out of the past six months) and check out the Indy Hall Arts show that is opening there called “Music Inspiring Art” (MIA).

MIA is a show dedicated to the music that inspires, motivates, and keeps artists company while they make art. The show includes works from over 25 artists and all genres of visual art including painting, illustration, fashion, textiles, photography, and more. Two of those artists are me (with an art quilt inspired by the soundtrack to The Labyrinth) and the mister, Gralin Hughes, who has three posters inspired by some of his favorite bands.

Close to 200 people have RSVPed already! You can read more about it and RSVP here!

Indie Filmmaker Haile Gerima’s “Teza” At I House Philly Tonight

Posted on January 25, 2013 by Sara Zia Ebrahimi

Haile Gerima is an Ethopian American independent filmmaker and professor at Howard University. If you’ve studied film history you’ve (hopefully!) seen if not at least read references to his acclaimed film Sankofa. Gerima’s film Teza will be screening tonight at the International House of Philadelphia as part of the incredible L.A. Rebellion Series I mentioned recently.

Teza

Friday, January 25, 2013 @ 8:00PM
International House Philadelphia
3701 Chestnut Street
$10, $8 students/seniors, $5 Scribe and Reelblack members
Free for students, faculty and staff of the University of Pennsylvania and Temple University.

Purchase your tickets today at: http://ihousephilly.org/events/teza/

Director Haile Gerima in person!

Presented in partnership with International House Philadelphia, Cinema Studies at University of Pennsylvania, History of Art Department at University of Pennsylvania, The Center for Africana Studies at University of Pennsylvania, Program in Visual Studies at University of Pennsylvania, Film and Media Arts at Temple University, and Reelblack

Teza (Ethiopia/Germany, 2008, 140 mins), set in Germany and Ethiopia, examines the displacement of African intellectuals, both at home and abroad, through the story of a young, idealistic Ethiopian doctor – Anberber (Aaron Arefe). The film chronicles Anberber’s internal struggle to stay true, both to himself and to his homeland, but above all, Teza explores the possession of memory – a right humanity mandates that each of us have – the right to own our pasts.

After spending several years in Germany studying medicine, Anberber returns to Ethiopia only to find the country of his youth replaced by turmoil. His dream of using his expertise and talent to improve the health care of Ethiopians is squashed by a military junta that use scientists for its own political ends.

Continue reading →

Original 1966 “Django” Western Screens In Philly Tomorrow Evening

Posted on January 23, 2013 by Sara Zia Ebrahimi

It’s interesting to go back to some of Tarantino’s source material and see how much he’s really just a filmic DJ–remixing old movies together into new contexts. The International House of Philadelphia is screening the original 1966 film Django on January 24th at 7pm .

The inspiration for many of Quentin Tarantino’s signature film bits (Reservoir Dogs‘ infamous ear-cutting scene was a direct reference), and now homaged in his Django Unchained, mean it’s time to revisit the original 1966 Spaghetti Western blockbuster that spawned over 30 sequels and cemented the genre as an international phenomenon. Franco Nero, stars as the title character, a horseless, dark-clad, blazingly blue-eyed stranger dragging a coffin through the mud of a desolate frontier town, Django is a red ragù of confederates, bandidos, Klansmen, dance hall gals, and a bloody trail of too-slow-on-the draw bad men.

Iranian Film “A Cube of Sugar” Screens in Philadelphia This Weekend

Posted on January 16, 2013 by Sara Zia Ebrahimi

a-cube-of-sugar Shabahang, the Philadelphia area Persian cultural group, presents:

“A Cube of Sugar” Directed by Reza Mirkarimi

Sunday January 20th, 2pm

Ibrahim Theater, International House

3701 Chestnut Street
Philadelphia, PA 19104

Throughout the two days preceding her long-awaited wedding, amid the flurry of arriving relatives and the preparation of a seemingly endless array of colorful, culinary delights, young bride-to-be Pasandide (Negar Javaherian) finds herself the center of attention…. The event also proves an occasion for extended family to reconnect, reminisce and rejoice in the pleasures of familiar company.

Entry fees are $5 for members and students and $8 for nonmembers!

This film is the 2012 Iranian cinema’s entry for the Oscar competition.

Sundance Film “Connected” Screens In Philly Tonight

Posted on January 8, 2013 by Sara Zia Ebrahimi

WATCH TRAILER HERE
With wonderful heart and an impressive sense of scale, Tiffany Shlain’s vibrant and insightful documentary, Connected, explores the visible and invisible connections linking major issues of our time—the environment, consumption, population growth, technology, human rights, the global economy—while searching for her place in the world during a transformative time in her life.

Employing a splendidly imaginative combination of animation and archival footage, plus several surprises, Shlain constructs a chronological tour of Western modernization through the work of her late father, Leonard Shlain, a surgeon and best-selling author of Art and Physics and The Alphabet Versus the Goddess. With humor and irony, the Shlain family life merges with philosophy to create both a personal portrait and a proposal for ways we can move forward as a civilization. Connected illuminates the beauty and tragedy of human endeavor while boldly championing the importance of personal connectedness for understanding and coping with today’s global conditions.

@ 1219 Vine Street, Philadelphia. The screening begins at 7:00pm. Tickets are $8 General Admission/$5 Student Admission. Purchase tickets in advance at: kinowatt.brownpapertickets.com or at the door.

L.A. Rebellion: Creating A New Black Cinema Kicks Off In Philly This Weekend

Posted on January 2, 2013 by Sara Zia Ebrahimi

I’m incredibly excited for this impressive line up of films Scribe Video Center and the International House are bringing to over the next few weeks (January 5-26th) called L.A. Rebellion: Creating A New Black Cinema.

This program includes film print screenings (a rare and beautiful thing these days) of some historic and groundbreaking films including Julie Dash’s Daughters of the Dust, Haile Gerima’s Bush Mama, and films by Charles Burnett, Larry Clark, and several others. If you’re not familiar with this slice of American cinema, this is your chance to school yourself.

For the full schedule of films check out Scribe Video Center’s website here.